Protecting Athletes in the Digital Era
Arkive Venture Consulting sits at the intersection of sports performance, business strategy, and digital rights. We help athletes, parents, and teams navigate the chaos of NIL, brand deals, and digital likeness without getting buried in predatory contracts or industry jargon.
Our Mission
Give athletes and creators the tools, language, and systems to protect their rights in a digital world.
Why Arkive Exists
As a sports performance specialist having worked in college and pro football for the Alliance of American Football, I've lived the reality that athletes are now valued as assets. The business side of sport moves faster than the support systems built to protect them.
Too often, the people with the least power are signing the most dangerous contracts. I watched athletes handed "opportunities" that came with hidden strings: liens on future earnings, perpetual rights to their likeness, vague language that quietly handed over control.
Arkive was born as a response to that. Not as a law firm. Not as another agency selling dreams. But as an infrastructure layer for athlete rights, education, and representation.
Our Principles
- Performance-Informed
- Arkive comes out of sports performance, human factors, and data, not just boardrooms. We understand the load athletes are under—on the field, online, and in their personal lives—and build systems that respect that.
- Education Before Extraction
- We're not here to skim a percentage off every deal in the dark. Our priority is transparency, consent, and comprehension—athletes knowing what they're giving and what they're getting.
- Guardrails by Design
- Our tools are built so the default is protection, not exploitation. There are some clauses we simply don't believe belong in deals with young athletes—and we don't template them in.
- Future-Oriented
- NIL, digital likeness, AI-generated content, and biometrics are converging fast. Arkive is built with the next decade in mind, not just the next season.
What We Build
Product suite + advisory platform for athlete rights
Arkive is designed to make NIL and digital rights understandable, manageable, and fair.
Arkive Rights
Contract & Rights Management (without the traps). Guided license builders that use plain language, not legal riddles. Standardized NIL contract templates that avoid exploitative terms by design. Tools to track where, how, and for how long your name, image, likeness, and data can be used.
Arkive Brand
Build the brand without losing the person. AI-powered content tools to help athletes share their story on their terms. Rate cards and brand guidelines so you're not guessing your value or winging every negotiation. Media kit tools that turn your performance, personality, and values into a coherent, professional presence.
Arkive Likeness
3D & digital likeness, handled with respect. A framework for digital avatars, motion capture, and synthetic likeness that doesn't treat your body or data as a free-for-all. Clear provisions for where your likeness can show up—games, ads, social, metaverse-style experiences—and what's off-limits.
Athlete Education Hub
Knowledge first. Contracts second. Every athlete or parent who signs up gets access to an education hub covering the basics of NIL and intellectual property, how licensing works in practical terms, red flags to watch for in agreements, and questions to ask before signing anything.
Who We Serve
- •Athletes who don't want to be taken advantage of just because they're focused on their sport.
- •Parents & families who know something feels off in a contract but don't have the language for it yet.
- •Advisors, coaches, and athletic departments who want to point their athletes to a trusted, neutral, education-first resource.
- •Agencies who are serious about ethical representation and want clean infrastructure instead of duct-taped documents.
About the Founder
Kate Engard is a sports performance coach turned advisor, strategist, and builder of human systems for the AI era.
I've spent years in strength & conditioning and applied sports science, helping athletes manage physical and cognitive load on the field. I've worked in data, analytics, and digital strategy, watching how technology reshapes power, opportunity, and risk.
And I've had a front-row seat, including as a coach in the Alliance of American Football, to how often athletes are expected to trust systems that weren't designed to protect them.
ARKIVE isn't just a consulting practice. It's a strategic partner for developing the people, purpose and processes of the future.
A Note on Legal Stuff
Arkive does not replace legal counsel
We don't act as your attorney, and we don't offer legal advice.
What we do offer is:
- •Clear language that makes contracts understandable
- •Smarter questions to ask before you sign
- •Better structures that protect your interests
- • A platform that assumes your rights, time, and future matter.