She tore her ACL from tennis and built a $25,000 a month business

Sammi Ekmark, 29, co-founded personalized greeting and gift card company Ink’d Greetings in 2023 alongside her husband Andrew — a major pivot from her previous career as a star tennis player.

Ekmark picked up the sport when she was 10 years old, and by the time she was in college, she was playing on a Division I team where she was individually ranked among the top 50 tennis players in singles in the United States.

“I really focused on tennis. I was 92-0 in high school, so I never lost a match,” said Ekmark. “I played every single day for two and a half hours after school,” she said, adding that this was on top of her matches and tournaments on weekends.

Her goal was to become a professional tennis player, so she said she would often prioritize the sport over her academics and social life.

It didn’t take long for university recruiters to notice. As high school graduation approached, she received many offers from colleges around the nation. Ultimately, she decided to go with Arizona State University (ASU), which gave her a full-ride scholarship to attend the school and play for their Division I team.

Unfortunately, one night while playing a late tennis tournament in college, Ekmark planted her feet wrong and tore her ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), one of the main ligaments in the knee. This is known to be a major injury in sports.

“A lot of the times people do consider ACL [tears] a massive career ender,” she said. “When I got my injury … It made me take a year off, and it was very tough. Tennis was still my life, but it was hard to get back into it as good as before.”

Ekmark recovered from the tear and got back to playing tennis, but along the way, she also developed an interest for business after taking an entrepreneurship class at her university. Although she had dedicated much of her life to the sport, she ultimately decided to pivot and focus on building Ink’d Greetings.

Today, her business brings in over $25,000 in revenue a month, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Ekmark’s story is like many others in the sports industry. Athletes — particularly those who dream of going pro one day — dedicate years of blood, sweat and tears to train, and often backed by families who help bear the time and financial commitment.

In the U.S., parents spend on average $3,000 annually on their children’s sports, with 64% reporting rising costs in recent years, according to a 2025 report by insurance company New York Life.

However, less than 2% of more than 500,000 athletes in National Collegiate Athletic Association schools are drafted into a professional sport, according to NCAA data.

“I unfortunately wasn’t as serious about academics as I would have liked to [have been] … I was there for tennis, and I know probably a lot of athletes are like that,” said Ekmark. “So sports, if you want to [play on] a high level, are an extreme sacrifice …. The room for error is so small.”

Those who want to play professionally often have to prioritize their sport over everything else. So, what happens to the 98% of NCAA student-athletes who don’t go pro? Well for some, life after sports can be very challenging.

“After they graduate, there’s a lot of mental health [issues] and [some face an] identity crisis,” Kate Fitzgerald, former student athlete and co-founder of SPORTx, a student athlete venture studio at Arizona State University, told CNBC Make It.

“A lot of athletes graduate with these incredible skill sets, but they have no true, quote, unquote, corporate resume experience to get them a job … they’re in a sense, behind,” said Fitzgerald.

While many student athletes are forced to play catch-up after university, Ekmark says that the qualities that make a great athlete are the same qualities that make a great entrepreneur.

“I think the best entrepreneurs are going to be people who were former athletes,” she said.

In June 2024, the House v. NCAA settlement was approved which ushered in a new era for the college sports industry, specifically in compensating athletes.

Following this landmark ruling, Division I college athletes who played from 2016 to 2025, are set to be given $2.75 billion in back pay. Previously, the athletes couldn’t legally collect on their name, image and likeness (NIL) from their schools.

Colleges can now also “spend up to $20.5 million per year, escalating most years by at least 4%, to directly pay athletes. While many star athletes have been paid on the side by NIL collectives for the past four years, this officially ends the era of amateurism,” according to previous reporting by CNBC.

The NCAA historically operated under this amateurism model, which limited student-athletes in what compensation they could receive. Today, some agree that the new NIL landscape will be great for student-athletes who want to become entrepreneurs or capitalize on their own brands.

“The opportunity is bigger than ever now, because they can start that [entrepreneurship journey] while they’re an athlete,” said Ekmark.

“So the NIL [landscape] has created the opportunity for athletes to actually set themselves up for success in life after sport,” said Fitzgerald. In practice, student athletes today can be compensated for endorsements, commercials or other deals that utilize their name, image or likeness.

Colleges have also stepped in to support their athletes with their entrepreneurial endeavors, such as Arizona State University’s SPORTx program, which aims to mentor the school’s athletes, help them navigate the new NIL landscape, and launch, build, expand and grow their businesses.

“I think that we need to start giving athletes another route … and we need to start instilling it in their minds earlier than when they fail and when they can’t go pro,” said Ekmark. “I think it does need to be in college like what [some schools] are doing now. And I think that entrepreneurship is probably the best route.”

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