Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Antoine Esber. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Antoine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

After working in Wallstreet for a few years, I decided I wanted to start a business on my own. I had the experience of working in a busy corporate sales environment, and wanted to see how that would translate to the hustle of a startup. The missing piece? An idea…

So I set off traveling the world. Backpacked down the west coast of South America, visited family in Europe, and I finally ended up in Australia. Although I contemplated several different ideas, I settled on the field I was most passionate in – Soccer. I worked in a Youth Soccer Academy in Sydney for the first time, and quickly rose the ranks from a coach to the program director. It was through this experience that I got my idea.

A modernized player development program run by young coaches. Sounds simple enough? Contrarily to how I was taught in America, the Australian club system is run by a lot of young coaches that used to play at the club (or continue to do so). This provides a role-model approach, very similar to the Teach For America program in the US. Players can see a tangible outcome for themselves and their career outside of becoming a pro player. Either playing at the University level, becoming a youth coach, or just working to be the best they can be. Why not bring the Teach For America model to US Youth Soccer?

That’s what led to the creation of the Oasis Futsal Academy. A program exclusively run by young college student-athletes in Miami with the upmost focus on the individual. We ensure at least one coach for every five players, have an IOS/Android training app for outside of practice modules, and many more features to modernize the landscape. We are now opening our second location in Miami after 2.5 months of starting our first season, and will not stop until we spread our curriculum across the US!

Antoine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I come from a background in finance. I studied economics/math at Duke University, and worked at JP Morgan’s investment bank in NYC after university. However, I have been an avid soccer player and fan my whole life. This business was my way to combine my skillset with my passion, and work on something that I am really proud of.

Oasis is a youth futsal academy working on modernizing the youth soccer training environment in America.

One thing that sets us apart is our “club-neutral” mindset. We work with players from all clubs, schools, futsal organizations. Our goal? To focus on the technical development of each individual. We are the guys that focus on each players individual skillset, so they can play better when they train on their teams or compete with us in tournaments!

How do we do this effectively? We provide small training groups at practice. We ensure at least one coach for every five players, to give everyone the attention they need. Additionally our player success program pairs every individual with a mentor to provide them monthly feedback as they look to achieve their goals. We also have our own IOS/Android app with modules created by our coaches catered to our players needs each month.

In a rapidly changing world, we are working hard to modernize the training environment on the youth side. It doesn’t matter how big we get, as we grow we have found ways to focus more on each player. We have a growing social media following that we consider our family. Players and parents that love everything “Oasis” and continue to cheer us on as we develop new tools for them to succeed.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding is the single hardest thing when it comes to running your own business vs working at a company. Our business so far has been completely bootstrapped. Despite having some money saved from my time at JP Morgan and my work with Peak Football in Australia, I started Oasis with one client.

I marketed myself through friends and family to get my first private training client. Then through a referral system I was able to grow to 10, and built a social media platform to provide more exposure across my community. After having some cash built up, we launched a free week of summer camp at our first prospective facility, only to have the week washed away with a classic Miami summer storm. Next week at camp we only had 6 players, and a lot of overhead to deal with (insurance, coaches, field rentals)… However we never have doubted our dedication towards the mission. We know our product is distinct, so we have weathered the toughest moments knowing that word would eventually spread of what we were doing. And it did.

We now have close to 70 players consistently training at our first location, and are opening up a second location only 2.5 months into our first season. We are still putting every penny we receive back into the program to continue to grow and provide the best possible experience for our clients. When the time comes to raise money, I am sure we will make it work. In the end I have found its not about how much money you start with, but how far you are willing to go to make it work.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

The main trait that continues to build our reputation is our honesty. In a very saturated Youth Sports market, you have many organizations promising different things. Scholarships, playing time, superior mentorship, a chance to play pro… Although many deliver, my experience is that businesses in general tend to overpromise. They spread themselves too thin by trying to reach a wide variety of users. This makes it difficult for them to deliver the results each user expected.

At Oasis we keep things simple. We promise parents/players only one thing – that we will focus on the development of each individual. It is not a easy task, but it is a simple promise. The way deliver on this is by focusing all aspects of our product to accomplish this goal. We keep groups very small to give everyone the attention they need. We developed an in-house training app, so that players can stay engaged with our coaches on and off the field. We added our “player success program” a mentorship initiative to have a coach counseling each player on their monthly progress and constantly changing goals. Due all of the work going into this one promise, we are able to deliver on it consistently. We don’t say we have scouting connections in Europe, or a formula to play in a Division 1 College program in the US. We just ensure that each player will progress consistently no matter their age or skill level.

That’s what people love about us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://oasisfutsal.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oasisfutsal/?igsh=MThpdnBuNzBkODFpag%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oasisfutsal
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/oasis-futsal-academy/?viewAsMember=true
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/oasis-futsal-academy-kendall
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@oasisfutsalacademy