Career
Impact
"I chose to chase a professional hockey career after college because I wanted to test my abilities at the next level. The professional level is defined by a high level of play and a lack of mistakes. When my two-year AHL contract ended in 2022, I decided it was the right time to transition into the business world."
Liam Folkes, Co-Founder and Chief People Officer, Task Flow Pro
Liam Folkes's path to professional hockey did not go in a straight line. He decommitted from Clarkson in his second year, spent time in Brockville, and eventually landed at Penn State, where he played four years, served as team captain, and studied labor and employment relations. His proudest team moment came senior year, winning the regular season championship in the Big Ten.
From there he turned pro, playing in the American Hockey League and East Coast Hockey League with the Bakersfield Condors, Indy Fuel, and Maine Mariners. When his two-year AHL contract ended in 2022, he made the call that so many athletes eventually face. It was time for the next chapter.
What makes his story worth telling is not just that he transitioned. It is what he tried first, what did not work, and what actually did.
The First Attempt Nobody Talks About
Most career transition stories skip the part where the first thing did not work out. Liam's did not.
Following the end of his hockey career, he initially pursued mortgage brokering, a natural first move given his family's background in real estate. It made sense on paper. It did not work in practice. He found it unenjoyable, and rather than sticking with something that looked reasonable from the outside but felt wrong from the inside, he moved on.
He applied for corporate roles in technology and eventually joined Task Flow Pro, an AI-driven enterprise resource planning company managing work orders, quotations, employees, subcontractors, and purchase orders for businesses ranging from small operations to enterprise-level companies. That was almost four years ago.
Why the Corporate Interview Process Was Harder Than the Startup One
Liam makes a distinction that most transition advice never mentions. He did not just struggle with corporate culture in general. He struggled specifically with the interview process at large firms, because he lacked experience with the specific nuances those companies expected from candidates.
The startup environment was different. It offered a growth trajectory that felt familiar, closer to the arc of an athletic career, where you start somewhere modest and climb through demonstrated performance rather than credentials alone. That familiarity is likely part of why he ended up staying and building something rather than just taking a job.
"I preferred building something from the ground up."
Liam Folkes
He started as a field representative. Today he is co-founder and Chief People Officer. That is not a title handed out on day one at most companies. It is the kind of progression that happens when someone treats a growth-stage company the way they treated a growth-stage athletic career, show up, perform, and let the results do the talking.
Public Failure Is Not New to Athletes
Ask Liam what actually transfers from sport to business and he does not point to something abstract.
"Athletes are accustomed to public failure, making mistakes in front of thousands of people. Sports teach discipline and self-confidence, specifically the ability to get back up and try again. That is a transferable skill that helps you navigate business setbacks."
Liam Folkes
That specific framing, public failure, is worth sitting with. Most professionals have never made a mistake in front of a stadium. Athletes have, repeatedly, for years, and they developed a relationship with that experience that most business professionals never had to build. When a startup pivot fails or a sales strategy does not land, that same emotional muscle activates.
The Real Lesson: Patience Over Aggression
The most concrete business lesson in Liam's story is one every founder should hear directly.
When Task Flow Pro reached the second version of its product, the company hired several commission-based sales reps before the product was mature enough to support that kind of push. It did not go the way anyone hoped.
"We learned to prioritize product development over hiring. Patience matters."
Liam Folkes
This is a mistake plenty of startups make, and Liam's willingness to name it directly, not as a vague lesson learned but as a specific hiring decision that happened too early, is genuinely useful for anyone building a company right now. Aggressive sales hiring does not fix an immature product. It just puts more people in the position of trying to sell something that is not ready yet.
Staying Connected to the Game
Liam did not fully leave hockey behind. He maintains a side role coaching at a hockey academy, which keeps him involved in the sport in a capacity he genuinely enjoys while continuing to build the startup.
He also draws a direct parallel between the financial reality of professional sport and startup life.
"There is shared instability regarding income and contract security between professional sports and startup life."
Liam Folkes
That comparison matters. Most people entering the corporate world for the first time expect stability. Liam expected exactly what he got, because he had already lived through years of contract uncertainty as a professional athlete. The unpredictability of startup life was not a shock. It was familiar terrain.
His Advice for Athletes Still Deciding When to Make the Jump
Asked what he would tell current professional athletes worried about the transition, Liam's answer was direct.
"Leverage your network and talk to peers who have already made the jump. There is no set age for retirement. When you feel it is the right time to move to the next chapter, take that step."
Liam Folkes
That advice, talk to peers who have already made the jump, is exactly the gap Free Agent exists to close. Liam figured this out through his own network, his family's real estate background, his own persistence after mortgage brokering did not work. Not every athlete has that same access or that same runway to try something, find it does not fit, and pivot again.
Four years in, Liam expresses real pride in the growth he has experienced and real commitment to where Task Flow Pro is headed next. His path from Big Ten champion to Chief People Officer was not direct, and he is the first to say so. It just worked, eventually, because he kept adjusting until something fit.
If you are an athlete figuring out your own version of this path, Free Agent connects you with people who have already made the jump and are willing to talk about what actually happened, including the parts that did not work the first time.