Co-Founder & CEO @ Ruley, the E-Referee | Start Up Business Expert | Entrepreneur

After 25 years building successful companies I found myself at a crossroads. I had built companies that helped people and families. I was proud of that legacy, I knew it was time for a new chapter.

In my early 50s, I sold my third company just a year behind schedule from a personal goal I set at 34. 

During COVID, I had the space to explore ideas that truly energized me. I enrolled in a six-month coding bootcamp to learn Python and deepen my understanding of the technologies shaping our future.

Now I’m the Co-Founder of Ruley, an AI powered smart sports E-Referee API  designed to help federations, sports media and consumer brands gain fans, players and spectators by being the go to venues for sports rules and insights.

My personal mission is to fuse decades of my experience and strategic thinking with modern tech to bring people together through playing sports and watching sports.  By working with these existing sports entities we can grow sports and all the good that comes with them.

At the heart of my work is this belief: we all deserve unbiased, instant information, and we all deserve to enjoy life like we did as kids. 

These ideas aren’t mutually exclusive. With the right tools, we can help provide knowledge in unique ways and inject more joy into everyday life.

Explore Ruley and our API rollout (and more) for sports:
🌐 ruley.ai

📸 Instagram: @ruley_ereferee
🎥 YouTube: @ruleythee-referee
📘 Facebook: @ruleytheereferee

🎾 Just Ruley it!

Cassandra Toroian

Luxury fashion solved resale a long time ago.

Platforms like Vinted proved that worn items can still hold value,
as long as there’s trust, authentication, and a clear marketplace.

What’s odd is how little of that exists in sport.

Sports gear is expensive. Often lightly used.
Sometimes used at elite level. And often tied to real performance history.

And yet once it’s outgrown or replaced, it usually
disappears into general resale platforms
or gets written off entirely.

There are places to sell second-hand gear,
but none that treat it as a category in its own right.

That includes high-value items. Match-worn kits.
Celebrity-used equipment. Limited runs with real demand behind them.

And it also includes everyday players too.
People upgrading clubs. Parents replacing boots.
Athletes moving on.

Fashion resale works because it’s specialised.
Sport resale hasn’t done the same.

Which is strange, given how much value is sitting
unused in garages, lockers, and kit bags.

That looks less like a behaviour problem
and more like an unbuilt market.

Does anyone out there know of a sport-gear focused resale upsale platform?

A conference company offered me the opportunity to meet with potential partners they viewed as very important to the racket sport industry.

But here's the catch:
And they wanted me to pay them a $10,000 fee.
For arranging those 20-minute meeting.

This isn't just bad form. It's bad business.

Alex Hormozi puts it best: "Give information away for free. Sell the implementation."

Business requires graciousness to be highly successful.
A willingness to help others succeed.
Because a rising tide raises all ships.

Short-sighted greed closes doors, whereas graciousness and generosity opens them.

Talking sustainability helps everyone.
How can you demand a price tag on that?
The company requesting that fee has lost my respect forever.

What do you think?

#BusinessStrategy #Leadership #Networking #Graciousness #Entrepreneurship

With the FIFA World Cup 2026™ - Canada, Mexico and the United States coming to the U.S., soccer is entering a very different phase here.

Interest is rising.
International ticket sales are strong.
The reception has been broadly positive.

But amongst many Americans there's a whisper under their breaths…

Only around 12% of Americans say they know the rules of soccer well,
despite the scale of the audience now being built around it.

Soccer is already one of the most nuanced sports to officiate and interpret.
Add a newer audience, unfamiliar terminology, and high-stakes moments,
and confusion scales quickly.

You see it reflected in viewing habits too.
Globally, women’s World Cup viewership exceeds 60%.
In the U.S., it’s closer to 16%.

That gap isn’t about accessibility. It’s about interest.
How can you be interested in something you don’t know much about?

If soccer is to grow in the U.S., rule of the sport
must become part of the infrastructure,
not an afterthought.

Ruley’s API is trained on soccer rules and edge cases with that in mind.
Not as a front-facing product, but as something leagues,
platforms, and media can rely on behind the scenes.

When interest grows faster than understanding,
That gap is where friction appears.

If you work in U.S. soccer leagues or soccer media
and want to explore how Ruley could fit into that
ecosystem, message me.

#FIFA #soccer #USSoccerLeague #USSoccerTeam

Trying a new sport usually doesn’t fail because of interest.
It fails because of uncertainty.

What equipment do you actually need?
Is it worth buying everything upfront?
Will you even use it long enough to justify the spend?

Subscription models can remove that hesitation.

They let people explore new sports without committing to full sets of gear immediately.

That’s the thinking behind Volleybird Athletic Lifestyle’s “mystery box” concept.

Not a novelty purchase, but as a structured introduction.
A way to discover equipment, apparel, and smaller essentials
without overcommitting on day one.

Alongside that, the products themselves are being designed with responsibility in mind.

Materials, fabrics, and suppliers are being chosen with longevity and
environmental impact considered from the start.

The goal is that every item included moves toward
sustainable production as the range grows.

When people can try something new without a large financial
or material commitment, participation becomes easier
and decisions become more intentional.

Discovery works best when responsibility is built into the box.

We went to the PGA Golf Shows expecting to cover a lot of turf. 
And we sure did.

But we also found a massive surprise.

There’s a new wave of golf tech.

My Co-Founder Tracy Thomas and I made incredible contacts with young companies iterating on this historic game.

The "established" sport of gold is actually the very hungry for innovation.

The entrepreneurs understand that to modernize the playing experience, you need modern infrastructure.

Players want real integration between the player, the club, and the rules of the game.

So how do you manage that? How do you merge the tradition of Golf with the speed of innovation?

You need new foundations.
And that includes the Ruley proprietary API.

Ruley is now a new layer of the golf tech stack.

Imagine a golfer getting clarity right there on the course!
About penalty strokes or options to move their ball legally.
No searching through your golf bag for a handbook.
Just playing.

The "old" sports are moving faster than we thought.

The industry is ready.

Whether it's a tech training aid, golf course reservation app, or on course tech, there's something more you can do to help your customer shave points off their game.

DM me if your golf product is interested in learning more. 


#PGAShow2026 #SportsTech #GolfInnovation #RuleyAPI #FutureOfSport #golf

Volleybird Athletic Lifestyle was featured in the New York Post last week.
 
The piece focuses on something tennis rarely questions:
how often balls are replaced,
and how little attention is paid
to their full lifecycle.
 
Renewaball approaches that problem differently.
 
Used balls are collected, broken down, and remade into balls that meet performance standards again.
 
Same role in the game. A more responsible production loop.
 
This approach was built to work within the sport, not around it.
It fits into the sport as it already operates.
The experience stays familiar.
Performance stays consistent.
 
Progress in sport often comes from revisiting everyday equipment,
rather than launching something entirely new.
 
If you’re curious how this works in practice
and why it’s gaining attention now,
The full piece is worth a read here:
 
👉 https://lnkd.in/gT39qKX5

A broken tooth shined a light on what sports (and life) is all about.

Think about it. 

The U.S. Olympic ice hockey team showed unbelievable grit and determination….and sportsmanship.

The young player who had his tooth broken wasn’t upset.

He didn’t blame anyone. 

He was not upset.

It was part of the game. It is just a battle scar.

That’s the different between champions and everyone else.

Broken ribs, torn ligaments. It’s all part of the game. 

Scars show you are battle tested. You are fearless. You can’t be scared into submission.

The Olympians’ scars are a lesson for us all.

Get up everyday. Put on your big girl pants. And fight with no fear for your win.🥇

It's official! Ruley.ai is heading to PEAK 2026 in Las Vegas. 🎉 If you’re working in SportsTech, innovation, or sport operations, this is where the industry comes together. Let’s connect. April 20–22, 2026 | Fontainebleau Las Vegas. See you there. 🏔️

Ranked #1 Global Creator (Branding) | Forbes-Featured Founder | Authority, Media & Influence on LinkedIn +AI | Ex-US Congress & News | Check your Digital Visibility Score ↓

Ranked the #1 global LinkedIn creator in branding and positioning by Favikon in March 2025, Iza Montalvo built an audience across social media of 125,000 and surpassed 50 million impressions in under a year. 

Her expertise has been featured in Forbes, her brand has been showcased on Times Square, and she has been formally recognized twice on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and entered into the Congressional Record.

Her approach is rooted in a career that spans newsrooms, Capitol Hill, and the creator economy. 

She began in print journalism, television production, radio, and public affairs before serving as Communications Director for two U.S. Congressmen from Florida, leading high-stakes communications at the intersection of media and policy. 

That rare combination of editorial instinct and platform fluency is what she brings to every stage and every client.

Today, she helps founders, executives, and organizations leverage LinkedIn and other platforms to become the most quoted, referenced, and sought-after voices in their industries and is at the forefront of an emerging field: how AI is reshaping PR, visibility, and reputation.

Check your digital visibility score in under 5 minutes: 
https://form.jotform.com/260343879542060Ways to work with me: 

📅 April open for keynotes, workshops, and corporate trainings
📩 iza@izamontalvo.com

Join a growing community of public CEOs

🔗 Newsletter: https://iza-montalvo.kit.com/3e80e7f68d

IZA MONTALVO

Everyone wants to be a visionary.
Few want to ship.

There's an old idea from Steve Jobs:
the difference between dreamers and doers.

He said it best in a 1995 interview:

"The difference between the dreamers and the people that build stuff is the dreamers talk about what they're going to build. The people that build stuff actually ship."

I've watched this pattern play out for years:

→ Founders perfecting pitch decks while competitors take market share
→ Teams spending 6 months on strategy while missing whole product cycles
→ Leaders talking big changes but scared to ship anything

I get it. I've done this more times than I can count.

Shipping something unfinished feels vulnerable.
What if it's not good enough?
What if people don't get it?

But here's what separates builders from talkers:

Dreamers talk about what they're going to build.

Doers build it.
Then they improve it.
Then they ship again.

Vision without execution is entertainment.
Execution without vision is labor.

But when both combine, that's when companies are built.
Right now, this gap is growing wider.

It's easier than ever to look like you're building:

Announcing ideas.
Branding ideas.
Explaining ideas.

But builders? They move different.

Artists ship.
Operators execute.
Builders move forward.

If you have something in your head, build it.

Messy is fine.
Imperfect is fine.
As long as you're moving forward.

Because you can't improve what you haven't shipped.

Every day you spend perfecting alone, your competitors are learning from real users.

PS: What are you shipping this quarter?
♻️ Share this message with your network

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