Christian Ponder — NFL 1st Round Pick QB on Building a Community for "Forever Athletes"

In terms of football, Christian Ponder is probably best known for his three years as the starting quarterback at Florida State under head coach Bobby Bowden. What most people don’t know, however, is that Ponder also won the 2010 Bobby Bowden Award, presented to the top student-athlete among FBS schools, and graduated from Florida State in just two and a half years with a degree in finance and a 3.73 GPA.

Today, Ponder is seeking to develop a community of other like-minded former athletes who have taken their drive from sport and converted it into business pursuits and other passions. Ponder is co-founder of The Post, a professional membership community launching early in 2022 that will help athletes apply their unique skill set to achieve their professional goals.

In our conversation . . .

• Ponder talks about his decision to retire early from the NFL, “When I left it was actually much more difficult than I anticipated. Although I tried to distance myself from it, that probably made it more difficult because it’s so hard for so many of us when it’s such a deep-seeded part of our identity and who we are, and overnight it’s gone.”
• Ponder describes the natural crossover between being an athlete and an entrepreneur; ”You have to have the work ethic. It takes a tremendous amount of work to go from just an idea to actually starting a business. Teamwork and communication are tremendously important in the startup experience.”
• Ponder on why athletes have a common bond that sets them up for success beyond sports, “It really comes down to the soft skills of the work ethic and the leadership and the grittiness and being goal-oriented and always striving to get better and dealing with failure and dealing with success… these soft skills that sport teaches you. For those that achieve the highest level of sport, those qualities will make you successful at anything in life. You just have to take it from the scope of athletic ability and apply it to the scope of business and professional potential.”
• You can follow Christian Ponder on Twitter (@cponder7)  and Instagram (@cpseven).

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The Game Plan is a weekly podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show features professional athletes and their business interests beyond sports.

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