Month: July 2026

Founder Focus: Shella Sylla Is Helping Families Protect What They’ve Worked For

Posted on July 31, 2026

Founder Focus: Shella Sylla and Prismm Are Helping Families Protect What They’ve Worked For

There are some conversations most people put off.

Where are the important documents? Who has access to the accounts? What happens if something unexpected happens tomorrow?

For Shella Sylla, COO of Prismm, and the Prismm team, those questions are not abstract. They are the reason Prismm exists.

Prismm is a platform that helps banks get connected to beneficiaries early and helps account holders store critical information in one secure place so assets can be transferred to their heirs more quickly when they pass away. The goal is simple, but deeply important: make one of life’s hardest moments a little less difficult for families.

As Shella puts it, “Later doesn’t belong to us.”

Solving a Problem Families Often Discover Too Late

Today, when an account holder passes away, the process of transferring assets to a beneficiary can be slow, manual, and frustrating.

A family member may have to walk into a bank branch, provide a death certificate, wait for that certificate to be validated, and then navigate a process that can take weeks, months, or sometimes even years before funds are released. When they do walk into the bank, they aren’t known which makes the process challenging.

Those funds already belong to the beneficiary. But when they haven’t been authenticated and then add the fact that the information is not organized ahead of time, families can hit a wall at the exact moment they are grieving and emotionally overwhelmed.

Prismm is designed to streamline that process.

The platform helps account holders and beneficiaries provide information and consent on the front end. Then, when a death occurs, Prismm can help authenticate the beneficiary, verify the event, validate the death certificate, and transfer funds to the beneficiary more quickly, either into an existing account at the financial institution or into a newly originated account.

That means what once took months could happen in days.

For families, that can remove a major burden during an already painful season.

Protecting Assets Before They Disappear

Prismm also helps solve another problem many families do not realize exists: unclaimed assets.

When beneficiaries do not know an account exists, cannot prove they are the beneficiary, or cannot move through a bank’s manual process, those funds can sit untouched for years. Over time, fees may chip away at the balance. Eventually, through a process called escheatment, the funds may be turned over to the state.

If they are never claimed, families may never recover the money their loved one worked hard to build.

For Shella and the Prismm team, that matters.

Prismm is built to stop that leakage by helping families organize the information, documents, and access needed before it is too late.

At minimum, Shella says people should think about storing key documents like a will, life insurance policy, Social Security card, driver’s license, birth certificate, and other critical records. For business owners, that may also include operating agreements, partnership agreements, key person life insurance, and other important business documents.

And in today’s world, it also includes digital life.

Most people have dozens, if not hundreds, of passwords and digital accounts. Without a plan, even something as simple as closing or memorializing a social media account can become difficult after someone passes away.

Prismm gives families a central place to prepare for those moments before they become emergencies.

A Win for Families and Financial Institutions

While the family impact is clear, Prismm also creates value for financial institutions.

For banks and credit unions, the first point of contact with a beneficiary often happens after a loss. That is a difficult moment to begin a relationship. Prismm gives financial institutions a way to connect with beneficiaries earlier, provide meaningful value to account holders, and create a smoother experience when the time comes.

It also helps institutions keep deposits in-house and build relationships with the next generation. And because the institution covers the cost of the platform, account holders get the benefit of the Prismm vault at no separate charge. It is simply there as a convenience built into their banking relationship.

For Shella, it is a win-win-win: better for families, better for beneficiaries, and better for financial institutions ready to modernize an old, cumbersome process.

“The ones that get that and move quickly on it first are the ones that are going to win,” she said.

Momentum, Integration, and the Next Stage of Growth

Prismm has continued to build momentum on multiple fronts.

One of the most significant recent milestones: Prismm completed its integration with Jack Henry, one of the largest core banking platforms in the country. That integration means Prismm can now operate inside the existing environment of any Jack Henry financial institution, with minimal lift on the institution’s side. For banks and credit unions evaluating the platform, it turns an abstract conversation into a concrete one.

Earlier this year, the team attended one of the largest annual bank conferences in the country, getting directly in front of their target customers: CEOs, chief innovation officers, heads of deposits, CFOs, and retail banking leaders. They walked away with around 40 solid leads and have been actively working those opportunities through the pipeline since.

Enterprise sales takes time. There are approvals, conversations, and long decision cycles. But Prismm is building momentum in the right rooms, with the right people.

How Innovation Depot Helped Prismm Level Up

Prismm also used support through Innovation Depot to bring in outside technical assistance.

Through grant funding and The Network, Prismm worked with Lunar Labs to update and revamp the platform’s user interface. The product was already working, and clients were already using it, but the updated UI changed how Prismm showed up in the market.

“It was a game changer,” Shella said. “It made us look like a grown-up company.”

That kind of support helped Prismm present itself more confidently to financial institutions, clients, and the broader business community.

For Shella, it was also a reminder of what makes the Innovation Depot ecosystem valuable.

“Everyone really cares about the success of the founders,” she said.

The Founder Journey Requires Resilience

Like many founders, Shella is honest about the difficulty of entrepreneurship.

It is hard. It is challenging. And it requires a level of resilience most people do not see from the outside.

The founder path means hearing “no” often and still waking up the next day ready to keep going. It means continuing to build through uncertainty, rejection, and long timelines. It means believing in the problem enough to keep showing up.

But the reward is real, too.

For Shella, the most meaningful moments come when the work makes a difference for someone else. When someone sees the value of what Prismm is building. When a hard process becomes easier. When a family is helped at a time when they need it most.

That is what keeps the team moving.

Prismm is building technology for a moment no family wants to think about, but every family should prepare for.

And by helping people protect what they have worked for, Shella and the Prismm team are creating something that could change the way families, banks, and beneficiaries navigate one of life’s most difficult transitions.

Founder Focus: Jim Cavale Is Building the Players Association College Athletes Have Never Had

Posted on July 17, 2026

College athletics is changing faster than ever, and Jim Cavale believes athletes deserve a voice in shaping what comes next.

For Jim Cavale, Founder of Athletes.org, that conversation goes far beyond the pitch.

Athletes.org is building something college sports has never truly had before: a players association for college athletes. In professional sports, players associations help athletes have a voice in the rules, standards, and business structures that define their leagues. Jim believes college athletes need the same thing now more than ever.

“Athletes.org is the players association for college athletes,” Jim said. “We’re building it to represent athletes in setting the rules for college athletics.”

Today, Athletes.org has signed up more than 5,000 active college athletes as members. Membership is currently free, with the long-term vision of creating an organization that can represent athletes collectively while also opening the door to group licensing opportunities around things like video games, trading cards, and other uses of athletes’ name, image, and likeness.

At a time when college sports is changing quickly, Jim sees Athletes.org as a way to bring structure, representation, and clarity to a system that has become increasingly complicated.

Seeing the Game Change Before Everyone Else

Jim’s path to Athletes.org started with a front-row seat to one of the biggest shifts in college athletics: NIL.

Through his previous company, INFLCR, which was acquired by Teamworks, Jim helped build software for college athletics departments. Part of that work involved NIL technology that processed transactions between athletes, donor collectives, and brands.

What he saw in the data told a bigger story.

Jim realized that much of what was being called NIL was functioning more like pay-for-play. The system was moving fast, but without enough structure around it. Schools were competing to outspend one another. Athletes were navigating deals, expectations, and compensation without the same kind of collective voice professional athletes have had for decades.

Jim saw the writing on the wall.

College sports needed transfer rules. It needed academic standards. It needed health and safety standards. It needed eligibility rules. It needed structure around compensation.

Most importantly, Jim believed athletes needed a seat at the table before those rules were written.

That belief became the foundation for Athletes.org.

The Founder Behind the Mission

Athletes.org is not Jim’s first company. He has built across industries, from NextSpex to Iron Tribe Fitness to INFLCR, and each experience taught him something that still shapes the way he builds today.

The biggest lesson?

“You can’t build anything great without great people.”

Jim says the more a founder tries to do alone, the less scalable the company becomes. Great founders have to understand their own weaknesses, bring in people who complement them, and build teams that make the entire company stronger.

Each company also gave him a different kind of lesson.

At NextSpex, Jim learned the value of recurring revenue the hard way. After building a strong subscription model, the company shifted toward an advertising and freemium model. Looking back, he says that was a mistake.

“Don’t ever give up recurring revenue,” he said.

At Iron Tribe Fitness, Jim learned the power of community and the importance of clearly defining your audience. The company grew into nearly 50 gyms across the Southeast and became what many people considered a “third place” — not home, not work, but a place where people belonged.

But Jim also saw how important focused marketing can be. Trying to reach everyone can water down the message. Building for a specific audience can create deeper traction.

At INFLCR, Jim learned what it takes to lead inside a growing company. After the acquisition by Teamworks, he stayed on board and learned that as companies grow, founders have to become internal salespeople. Even as a CEO, it is not enough to have the idea. You have to bring people along, help them understand the vision, and make them feel ownership in what comes next.

Building in a Market That Changes in Real Time

College athletics is changing quickly. NIL, transfer rules, employment conversations, media rights, and the role of athletes are all shifting at once.

For founders building in industries like that, Jim’s advice is simple: become a student of the game.

That means staying curious, doing daily research, reading what is happening in the market, paying attention to regulatory changes, watching the competitive landscape, and surrounding yourself with advisors who can help you see around corners.

Jim also sees AI as a tool that can help founders keep up. By feeding AI the right information from inside a business and pairing it with outside market intel, founders can build daily briefs that help them understand what is changing and where things may be headed.

“You should wake up not just thinking about the present, but thinking about where this is going,” Jim said.

For Jim, the danger is getting stuck in the past. He points to examples like Blockbuster, Kodak, and the record labels that fought disruption instead of building what came next.

The lesson for founders is clear: the market is going to move. The rules are going to change. The companies that win are the ones paying attention before the shift becomes obvious.

Why It Matters

Athletes.org is tackling a massive challenge: helping college athletes organize, understand their value, and have a voice in the future of college sports.

It is a mission built for a changing market, but it is also a founder story about timing, pattern recognition, and conviction.

Jim saw a system changing in real time. He understood where the pressure points were. And instead of waiting for someone else to build the solution, he stepped in.

That is the kind of founder story we love at Innovation Depot.

Because whether you are building in sports, software, healthcare, finance, or any other fast-moving industry, the work is the same: study the market, build the right team, listen closely, and create the thing the future is going to need.

As Jim put it, founders have to stay in front of what is coming.

For any entrepreneur building in a fast-changing market, that may be the real lesson: study the shifts, surround yourself with the right people, and build toward the future before the rest of the market catches up.