Story & Team

AthleteFi traces its origins to 2009 with RateTheCoach, a pioneering platform that collected over 10,000 coach reviews across the United States, followed by PremierSports in 2014 — early ventures that laid the foundation for a user-centered coaching marketplace. Although these platforms were limited by the technology of their time, the insights gained from building them now power AthleteFi’s evolution into a decentralized, ownable, and incentivized sports ecosystem where training fuels opportunity and community drives ownership.

Leadership & Cofounders

• Matthew T. Barrett (CEO) Matthew Barrett, a former Division I athlete, began his career at Morgan Stanley as a licensed financial advisor. From 2016 to 2021, he led Tesla’s Energy Pilot Program and later spearheaded PosiGen’s market expansion, generating between $17 and $25 million in annual revenue while managing teams of 18–20. At Stably, he forged B2B partnerships that drove product adoption and user growth. He also contributed to Harmony’s $100 million Recovery Initiatives, helping recover millions in digital assets for the Harmony blockchain community. With proven leadership across finance, energy, and blockchain, Matthew now leads AthleteFi in its mission to transform the sports ecosystem by empowering athletes and coaches to unlock their highest potential through an inspiring, purpose-driven journey.

• Peter J. Calderon (COO) Peter, a Princeton University and Columbia Law School graduate, has built a distinguished career in corporate and project finance, corporate governance and anti-corruption protocols. His roles span legal practice at an international law firm, the US Treasury Department, the World Bank Group and the Finance Ministry of France. He lawyered the US departure from the gold standard as an attorney in the Treasury Department, advised the governments of Eastern and Central Europe during the post-Soviet transition to market economies, lead the funding work of the International Finance Corporation in the international capital markets by handling the first $2 billion of debt financing and structured IFC's first LIBOR based loan transactions and ISDA-based derivative transactions. Currently, Peter heads the corporate practice at the Washington, DC law firm, Pennington & Oliak.

• Malkhaz Jakelli (CTO) Malkhaz Jakelli is a technology leader and senior software engineer with over a decade of experience building scalable digital platforms and data-driven systems. A self-starter, he began programming at age 11 and was working on professional projects by 15. He has held both senior engineering and executive technology roles, including Lead Developer and CTO at BlindData and Daily Bracket, where he led platform architecture and backend infrastructure. He later served as a Full Stack Developer at Orbis Systems, building high-performance applications and data systems. At AthleteFi, Malkhaz leads platform architecture and engineering, developing the scalable infrastructure powering the marketplace.

Core Team & Advisors

The AthleteFi Core Team comprises experienced professionals in blockchain, design, finance, and operations, dedicated to driving platform growth and innovation. Supported by a diverse Advisory Board, the team integrates strategic expertise in tokenomics, technical development and creative storytelling to shape AthleteFi's mission and vision.