A win compilation: a video of a person’s most insane and awe-inspiring feats of physical excellence. Anyone who has ever seen a win compilation, regardless of it being in sports, or dance, or some other physical activity knows that at the end of the video, they will automatically sit back in their chair, smile, and think: “Wow, this is why humans are amazing; this is why we are awesome.”
Fans were wowed when Michael Jordan dunked from the free throw line, when Tony Hawk landed the first 900 on his skateboard, and will continue to be wowed at whoever we feel is worthy enough to represent us as the most superior showcase of human athleticism.
The bottom line is this: people love it when other people do amazing things, because it reminds ourselves of how powerful we truly are. And with that, comes nivo., a company that has developed a platform dedicated to broadcasting young, unrecognized talent with the goal of wowing people on a daily basis.
What is nivo.?
Based in New York City, nivo. is a community-based sports app dedicated to broadcasting young, raw talent in sports. nivo. provides a platform where all users, regardless of age, sex, gender, can upload a video of their skills, stand in the spotlight, and obtain praise for their skills that would otherwise go unnoticed.
“We believe that any kid down the street deserves a stage where his dream of being a legend can become a reality” said a nivo. spokesperson. “We set the stage, they perform, and the community judges,” nivo. Co-founder and CEO, Julien Gervaz, told us in an email interview.
Founded just a year ago, nivo.’s userbase has already consisted of thousands of people all over the world that have passions for various of sports. Anyone can enter nivo.’s competition at any time, and will be judged based on the community alone, with no other factors. Users are encouraged to not only show off their sports skills, but also grade others, making it a two way app that brings in a lot of spirit and passion for true talent.
nivo. believes that there is a lot of talent out there that isn’t recognized, and they’re here to change that based on the premise that any kid, rich or poor, could use nivo. as a platform to show off their athletic prowess, and reap the benefits they deserve.
“Our users come from all over the world and have passions for various sports. We’re opening the doors to the largest competition in the world, where anyone can compete, and the judges are made up of the nivo. community,” said Gervaz.
nivo.’s Features and Grading System
Available for both iPhone and Android, the app has a beautiful user interface colored in orange and white. The videos are all up to date with the highest pixel resolution, while the clear and crisp presentation makes it simple for navigation.
The most differentiating feature about the nivo. app is its ranking system: According to Gervaz, nivo. is giving its users “a social network that encourages them to do better by climbing the nivo. ranks from rookie to stud to beast to legend.” In order to uphold nivo.’s vision of having the largest sports competition in the world, they needed a system that would consistently motivate users to reach their fullest potential, and that ranking system does just that.
“Our core concept is based on performance and judgement, which we make happen thanks to our proprietary grading system,” Gervaz explained. “We provide exposure and entertainment, but more importantly we provoke a reaction. As our metrics show, grading creates much more engagement compared to giving a simple “like”; our users receive a status and as their skills evolve, their ranking evolves.”
Competition and bragging rights are what make up the cornerstone of sports, and nivo. has taken a unique path by bringing these two aspects together.
App Overview
1st tab: Playground interface
The playground is where users can find both new and hot videos, similar to facebook’s newsfeed. Users can view, and rate other members on nivo., acting as one of the many judges that makes up the nivo. community. There are also options to invite friends, choose specific sports to view, and search for specific users. Additional features found in other social media websites are also present (like, comment, share. Etc).
2nd tab: Profile Settings
This is where users can edit and customize their own personal profile. It shows a user’s current amount of points, ratings, followers, and more.
3rd tab: Video recording
Users can upload videos quickly without hassle with nivo.’s video uploading system, which provides filters and both a front and back camera.
4th tab: My community
This tab contains all of the user’s notifications; in addition, videos made by their friends will also show up here.
Videos
Through an email-interview, nivo. Co-founder and CEO, Julien Gervaz, revealed to SportTechie its most exciting and challenging stages of building the app, and what plans the company is looking forward to in the future.
What was the biggest inspiration behind the creation of nivo.? Any personal stories worth sharing?
It all started one afternoon when I went on a run along the Hudson. I came across these skaters showing a huge amount of love and passion for their sport and constantly arguing about who was the best.
Fast-forward to May 2014 when nivo. was founded here in NYC. We are two cofounders with a big vision. We both worked in the tech and digital space, and have a passion for sports. We created a place where everyone, from every sport can interact with each other by showing off their skills and getting recognition through universal grading.
How does nivo. work and what does it provide?
nivo. is dedicated to the young talent in sports, it’s “Competition 2.0”. We’re breaking the physical boundaries of a contest – anyone in the world can enter or judge at any time.
Here’s how it works: are you a Rookie, Stud, Beast or Legend? Upload your sports videos and members of the community will grant you a status. The power is in their hands – one man, one vote.
Competition and bragging rights are what makes sports so appealing. We’re taking those two aspects and bringing them to the table like no other social media platform has done before.
nivo., like Instagram or Youtube, is based on the premise of video uploading and media sharing. Can you talk more about nivo.’s most unique aspects in regards to software or features that differentiates it from other social media programs?
We provide similar features as other social networks in the market and we are video based. We differentiate ourselves through our propriety grading system, which is the cornerstone of our user experience.
We felt ‘likes’ lacked meaning and we wanted to offer a real qualitative assessment.
nivo. offers exposure and entertainment, but more importantly it provokes and triggers a response. As our metrics show, grading creates a much higher level of engagement compared to giving a ‘like’.
What type of competition are you facing?
There are a lot of great platforms dedicated to sports, most of which our team uses daily. Some are cool sport-specific outlets, some are really fun fitness tracking apps, and others are amazing information relays.
nivo. is different. We are an arena with judges who have a say, where young champions are made everyday. Most importantly, we are a community with a soul, an identity, and a voice. We care about our users and we are the first ones to applaud their efforts. Because of that we have obsessed fans across the globe showcasing their nivo status with pride.
Will nivo. ever include physical activity outside the sports realm? For example, clips of awesome dance moves or a person solving a Rubik’s cube really fast are all great feats of physical/athletic prowess.
We are focused on urban sports for now, as we know them well and video is already very present. This includes sports such as skateboarding, basketball, freestyle soccer, freestyle scooter, BMX, etc.
That being said, any demonstrative performance is welcome. For instance, parkour and tumbling were not an initial focus, but they are gaining significant traction. In fact, we already have a few legends in the category!
Where is nivo. currently looking for its funding and what are nivo.’s plans for the future?
We have managed to achieve a lot already with minimal investment and we are currently accelerating. Plans for the future are big and we are in talks with investors and strategic partners who share our vision and want to be part of our journey.
For now we are constantly optimizing our UX/UI, learning every day from our users, and getting active on social media. We’re also preparing a rad campaign for the summer with prizes, interviews and even a few surprises…