New technology from startup ventures is transforming the sports industry. The mission of this series is to introduce startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience and allow Founders of promising new ventures to tell their story. Feel free to submit your startup’s answers to the below questions or contact us if you know of a startup that should be considered for this series.
Company name: Hegemony Technologies, LLC
Founder(s): Paul Crawford, Seth Weil, Esther Lofgren
Headquarters: Davis, CA
1. What is your elevator pitch?
The Rowing App fills notable training gaps by measuring and evaluating oar and boat motions with a smartphone in a way that helps every rower objectively track and understand how to row better.
2. Problem & Solution
Rowing well involves managing numerous biomechanical complexities – most importantly the motions of the oars. Traditionally, rowers improve their biomechanics by relying on subjective feedback from a coach (if they have or can afford one). Rowing instrumentation systems are sold that measure specific oar parameters, but they are expensive, involve nontrivial setup and management, and typically demand the services of an expert to translate the data into meaningful coaching instructions. The vast majority of rowers work with stopwatch results as their only objective measure of how well they are rowing.
The Rowing App, in concert with a system that attaches the phone to the oar, analyzes and builds insights into the relationships between the motions of the oars and the resulting response of the boat. And since the relationships are characterized with data as opposed to subjective opinions, The Rowing App makes it possible to objectively track and trend improvements over time, compete in new forms of challenges and leaderboards, and share new insights into rowing with the community. The value of The Rowing App is further bolstered by integrating into one place an electronic, searchable, easy-to-use logbook that integrates land and water-based training data; a scheduling and training calendar that integrates with your other calendars; and a social network feed for sharing and tracking rowing-relevant information.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
The Rowing App is initially focused on rowers and coaches with an “early adopter” technology mentality, rowers intensely focused on gaining a competitive edge, and rowers that seek more coaching feedback. With an aggressive roadmap of additional high-value functionality, we plan to grow our target market ultimately to the entire rowing community – an estimated 1 million worldwide.
4. Business Model – how do you make money?
We operate a freemium business model. The app and basic functionality are free. Those desiring the data, insights, and services from more advanced analytics can subscribe to a Premium account for a monthly or yearly fee.
5. Management Team – with titles
Paul Crawford, Chief Executive Officer
Seth Weil, Chief Rowing Officer
Esther Lofgren, Chief Marketing Officer
6. What else do you want the audience to know about your venture?
We are securing funding through a Kickstarter campaign to take the app development from the beta version to 1.0. Perks for the non-rowing community of supporters include Hegemony Technologies branded tech shirts. Perks for the rowing community include offers of early access to the beta version of the app, phone-to-oar attachment systems, and 3 free months of premium analytics when 1.0 is released.