The Learning Lever: How RISE Sports Collective Turned a Mission into a Movement

The Moment Learning Became a Lever

Every great company begins with a question. For RISE Sports Collective, it was simple but persistent: why doesn’t learning in sports look like learning everywhere else?

Our co-founder, Moon Javaid, spent a decade with the San Francisco 49ers, operating at the intersection of performance, operations, and people. What he noticed was clear… brilliant individuals were solving problems on a daily basis, but their lessons weren’t being captured, shared, or scaled.

At the same time, our president, Ryan Richardson, was helping global organizations like LinkedIn, Yahoo, and Walmart turn learning into business performance. Both saw the same gap from different sides: sports business teams needed learning that worked like operations: measurable, practical, and designed to drive results.

That shared question became the foundation for RISE Sports Collective. Years later, it also became the inspiration for our podcast, The Learning Lever: a space to keep exploring how learning drives real change across the sports industry.

From Frustration to Foundation

Moon’s story starts long before RISE. Raised in Cleveland, the grandson of a high-school principal and son of a history lover, he grew up with education in his DNA. After studying psychology and economics at Northwestern, his first corporate role at LEK Consulting gave him a revelation:

“That first week of training changed everything. It was practical, hands-on, and directly applicable. I realized how powerful good learning could be.”

Years later, working in professional sports, he saw how rare that experience was. Training was inconsistent, knowledge disappeared when employees left, and no system existed to capture what worked.

Those late-night notes and ideas eventually turned into a business plan; one built around a single belief: learning should be a performance driver, not a checkbox.

When Two Worlds Collided

The origin of RISE wasn’t a pitch meeting. It was a tailgate conversation.

Moon and Ryan met years earlier at Levi’s Stadium’s Michael Mina Tailgate.

Ryan, a lifelong fan and learning strategist, often shared feedback about the fan experience; Moon, working behind the scenes, listened closely. What started as casual game-day conversations evolved into a trusted dialogue.

When Moon shared his vision for a sports-focused learning company, Ryan immediately recognized it:

“I’d seen this gap for years. Sports teams are packed with talent and passion but short on scalable learning systems. This was the solution.”

Together, they combined operational insight with learning design expertise and RISE Sports Collective was born.

Building a New Kind of Learning Culture in Sports

RISE isn’t about compliance courses or one-off workshops. It’s about embedding learning directly into the way teams operate.

Our programs connect knowledge to measurable outcomes with better onboarding, higher retention, improved sales, and stronger leadership. We help sports organizations turn learning into a strategic advantage.

Because when learning is done right, it changes behavior, improves systems, and moves the metrics that matter most.

Why The Learning Lever  Exists

The Learning Lever is a new podcast from RISE Sports Collective, created to extend the conversations we’ve been having since day one about how learning becomes leverage.

Each episode explores the intersection of real operational challenges and practical learning: the repeatable, measurable moves that help teams perform better.

The first episode revisits RISE’s beginnings: the ideas that sparked it, the persistence that sustained it, and the people who turned late-night notes into an industry-changing company.

As Ryan puts it,

“Too many smart ideas evaporate when someone walks away. RISE was built to make sure they don’t.”

Looking Ahead: Scaling What Works

The mission hasn’t changed since those first conversations: bridge the gap between talent and opportunity. What’s changed is how we share that mission, through curriculum, partnerships, and now, through storytelling that moves the industry forward.

We’re building systems that capture experience, turn it into training, and use it to elevate the entire sports business ecosystem.

The work is ongoing. The lever is moving.

Tune in to Episode 1 Part 1 of The Learning Lever: “The Origin of RISE Sports Collective.” Available wherever you get your podcasts.

Learn more about RISE: www.risesportscollective.com