Arm the Coaches
What YCombinator does for early stage entrepreneurs, and what Twilio does for growing businesses, we want to do for coaches
Every other week I write an email discussing what I learn launching and growing Reboot Motion. If you would like to receive it directly in your inbox, subscribe below.
MIKE McFERRAN POWERED BY REBOOT MOTION
Reboot Motion was formed to serve coaches. Now, we are taking that a step further by piloting our new “Powered by Reboot Motion” product with Wake Forest’s Pitching Lab Coordinator, Mike McFerran.
Our thesis is simple: great coaches are irreplaceable. Technology should be used as leverage to empower them, not as a poor substitute for the bond that forms between coaches and athletes, nor as a stand-in for the years of knowledge a coach has accumulated.
So that is Reboot’s goal: provide world class biomechanical analysis (and much more) from anywhere, including your backyard, so coaches can do what they do best.
And what does Mike do best? He develops pitchers. It’s why he so quickly obtained a leading role with college baseball’s most advanced pitching program. It’s why, at the same time, he is a trusted private coach for so many. And it’s why multiple MLB teams have reached out to him for expert insights.
As Mike builds out his private training business- targeting pro athletes looking to gain an edge before their next contract- we want to be there to help.
Reboot Motion as Investors
I talk about investing more than most sports tech founders.
Previously, I:
Wrote about the Dodgers as Baseball’s Best Investment Firm.
Touched on Teams being VCs, and Athletes Being Entrepreneurs.
Discussed MLB’s need for a cap- focusing on how it will allow owners to grow the game and maximize their investments.
While these subjects have their differences, they boil down to two parties combining their individual assets with a sincere belief that one plus one is a hell of a lot more than two.
In typical investing, one party comes with capital and the other comes with a business. Whether that business is an idea (angel investing), a growing company (VC), or a mature enterprise (public equities), the belief is that the infusion of capital improves the outcome for the business…and therefore for the investor.
Not All Investment is $$$
While a lot of investments are about capital, that is not the only thing that can move the needle. We regularly see larger companies test this thesis, investing in ventures that overlap with their core business:
The Dodgers launched Elysian Park Ventures, where their sports and entertainment platform helps young companies get in front of customers and test their products.
Kraft Heinz spun off Evolv Ventures, leveraging their knowledge and experience to help startups disrupt the food industry.
Ford Motor Company invested in Rivian, believing their manufacturing capabilities will help the electric vehicle startup scale.
In all three cases, companies are combining 1) their capital and 2) their expertise to attract great businesses. But still, in all three, the money matters.
However, every once in a while we see evidence of investors who offer such an amazing value proposition, they become backers without money being a factor…and in some cases even get capital flowing in the opposite direction.
YCombinator
“Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups.
Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($125k) in a large number of startups.
We work intensively with the companies for three months, to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors. Each cycle culminates in Demo Day, when the startups present their companies to a carefully selected, invite-only audience.
But YC doesn’t end on Demo Day. We and the YC alumni network continue to help founders for the life of their company, and beyond.”
That is the top of YCombinator’s landing page. The world’s most well known accelerator is clear about what they offer:
A small amount of money
Direct work with the startup, improving both the business and the pitch for later funding rounds.
A platform for companies to showcase themselves to pre-selected investors.
An alumni network for future partnerships.
YCombinator makes a simple proposal to startups, and it has barely anything to do with money. Rather, it has everything to do with the tools they provide: better product iteration, better pitches, and better access to future investors.
Twilio
“Intelligent customer engagement—at scale
Twilio powers personalized interactions and trusted global communications to connect you with customers.”
YC offers a clear trade off for new companies: for 7% of a startup, they will help the company grow.
While their value proposition is enticing, what Twilio and similar API and platform companies do is even more extraordinary.
Twilio provides a business to business service, allowing any new company to “make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and perform other communication functions using its web service APIs.”
Like other API businesses, they charge companies a tiny amount per use, making the service attractive for companies big and small. And at the surface, this seems like a standard B2B offering. However, when digging deeper, it is a lot more- it is an engine for growth.
When looking at Twilio’s list of largest customers, we see enterprise company after enterprise company. Again, at the surface, this is expected for a public company with Twilio’s scale.
But it didn’t start this way. Many of these businesses signed up with Twilio when both companies were in their infancies, using Twilio’s messaging platform to help them grow.
Could Uber have taken down traditional taxis without Twilio enabling real time communication? Could AirBnB have become bigger than the world’s top hotel chains on their own?
Maybe. But they would have had to build messaging capabilities internally. It would have taken longer. It would have cost more. And it likely would have required a additional capital.
While Twilio is not a shareholder in either company, they absolutely shared in Uber and AirBnB’s meteoric rise. As these companies grew into two of Silicon Valley’s biggest winners over the last decade, their monthly checks to Twilio grew exponentially.
Investing In Coaches
“Supplying unique, actionable insights to help athletes move better.
Reboot Motion is a sports biomechanics company, dedicated to helping coaches improve athlete performance. We work best when partnering with the world’s top coaches and organizations. If that is you, please reach out below.”
That’s the first thing people see when they visit the Reboot Motion site.
Our long term goal is to build a platform that gives coaches x-ray vision to the athletes they train. We want to show them how momentum moves through the body, and offer actionable insight they can use immediately.
But mostly, we want to offer leverage for any coach to do their job better- creating better results for their athletes and a better business for themselves.
In other words, we want to do for coaches what YCombinator does for early stage entrepreneurs, and what Twilio does for growing businesses.
Why Empowerment is better than Automation
A lot of tech today comes down to 1) automation or 2) empowerment.
In the sports world, we see too many companies trying to “replace the coach”. We disagree with that idea and want to move in the opposite direction.
Instead, we are committed to empowering coaches, and our commitment is based on one core belief: coaching is hard.
We are not talking about automating statistical analysis or record keeping. That can be done.
Rather, we are talking about gaining an athlete’s trust and guiding them through the ups and down of an amateur or professional career.
That’s the hard stuff. That’s the stuff you cannot automate away.
Across sports, great coaches are worth their weight in gold. They know how to make changes that accelerate an athlete’s performance better than software ever could. They know how to translate what is actually happening to what an athlete needs to hear. And they know how to shepherd someone through an athletic journey that is anything but forgiving.
However, they are currently bogged down doing less important work. Too much of their time is spent scrubbing videos, combing through data, and bouncing from app to app.
We see a different future for coaches. We see a future where technology handles everything beneath the surface. One where coaches spend their time on the highest value task- direct interaction with their athletes.
Testing Our Hypotheses
Today, we are running our first experiment by partnering with one coach to see how our platform integrates with a private coaching business.
To decide on the right test, we made a checklist to ensure this was the right experiment to run:
The pilot could not take away from our focus of expanding our MLB business. We have a lot of ideas for our MLB partners and we have a long way to go to dominate.
We had to operate at the top of the market. Our brand and our analyses are still most effective for professional athletes where slight improvements make a world of difference.
We had to have a coach we trust, and a coach we love.
Check, check, and check.
Introducing Mike McFerran Powered By Reboot Motion
Mike McFerran is a baseball lifer, a relentless learner, and an incredible pitching coach.
We at Reboot have been fans of Mike for a while, and I personally have leaned on his work to teach me about developing pitchers.
What makes working with Mike so perfect is he already uses movement analysis as a fundamental part of training pitchers. Currently, he does it 1) via the state of the art pitching lab he has available to him at Wake Forest or 2) by manually looking at raw video.
But what if he had more choice? What if we gave him access to expert biomechanics that mimic the lab from anywhere? What if an athlete could get the same detailed analyses used by pro teams, along with expert coaching, all without leaving their backyard and without setting up mountains of expensive equipment?
Put differently, how would Mike’s business change if all athletes needed was the cellphone already in their pocket?
That is what we want to explore.
And Mike wants to test this too (that’s one of the many things we like about him). He knows he is a great coach, but he knows great can get greater with better tools.
Will it Work?
Today, these are just questions. But we are beyond excited about what a positive outcome would mean- for Mike’s business, for the athletes he works with, and for the countless other expert coaches we will grow with in the future.
So, if there are any:
Athletes looking to improve in the offseason
Agencies aiming to give their clients an advantage
Pro clubs who know offseason progress leads to in season success
Talk to Mike. He is the expert that can help athletes perform better. We just want to offer some support.