And, teams have been using the latest technology for
dynamic pricing and secondary ticket markets for quite some time.
 |
| A football play. |
Who can forget Jon Gruden and Andrew Luck at QB Camp
going over Spider 2 Y Banana?
Well, we are starting to see some movement in this
area. Volleyball coaches are using ipads during matches. And, this past season,
the Rose Bowl champion Stanford football team put their playbook on an ipad. And,
this is a big step forward…as last season the Stanford players had to learn
more than 200 new plays each week. Imagine having to print out 200 plus pages
for 80 players, not including the coaches!
SportsLab is right at the heart of this new
movement, changing the landscape of how playbooks are created and shared. The
co-founders, Noman Ahmad and Monty Mitra, started by creating an easy-to-use
mobile app for high school and college football coaches and athletes to
collaborate and share plays.
In addition to making the creation of plays easier
and more cost-efficient, this product really helps players on the field−as their
studies have shown players retain 30% more strategy and are more prepared. It
helps players become more engaged and understand the plays and their roles
within those plays much better.
And, as Curtis McCauley, the football coach from
McClymonds High School in Oakland, CA, said, “When it comes to x’s and o’s and
the mental part of the game, that’s where it gets really complicated. That’s
where games are won and lost. If we had a tool to communicate this better to
the kids, we’d be that much better. I used to give the kids playbooks…they
don’t read them…this is a wonderful tool for us…this is taking us a step in the
right direction.”
Recently, I sat down with Noman to learn more about
SportsLab.
PJ:
Where did you get the inspiration for this product?
Noman: I grew up in Oklahoma with a passion for
sports. My co-founder, Monty, is from Texas. And, sports are woven into the
fabric of the culture in Texas. We’ve always been technologists and tried to
dream up ways that technology intersected with sports. My nephew is playing
high school football and I see the challenges he faces. What SportsLab is doing
is trying to help players get better for their team.
PJ:
How did you get started?
Noman: We launched the web app in August of 2012 in
a beta test with 100 teams using and engaging with it. They wanted to see an
ipad app, but we didn’t have the funds to do it. We have the prototype
completed, but do not have full funding to test it, road map it…finish it and
get it in the AppStore.
PJ:
Tell me about this project with a high school in Oakland, CA, to test pilot
your ipad app.
Noman: We’re making a difference in the local
Oakland community. We have a test pilot with McClymonds High School. We believe
it’s a compelling story. Technology usually goes to the highest earners. But, we
are bringing this to under privileged, challenged areas. After hearing about
this Oakland High School and Lincoln High School in Southern California both
wanted to be involved. It’s interesting, they are going after it.
Editor’s
note: Oakland High School jumped onto the project after this interview took
place.
PJ: For this project with McClymonds High School, you are using a crowd-funding site to raise funds. How does this work?
Noman: indiegogo is great. It draws attention to
the community to drive entrepreneurs to deliver the wanted platform. It helps
develop a following and the community doesn’t allow you to have tunnel vision.
It opens your spectrum and vision to make the best possible product available.
When talking to coaches and athletes, it’s not about
the features, it’s about the experience. This is why we decided to get up on a
crowd-funding site.
PJ:
Tell me about the competition you face in this space and how your product is
different.
Noman: We have a few competitors, but they are
focused on BCS teams and the pros. We focus on high school and college, which
is unique. The way we do it, helps save cost and time. We facilitate the
creation and sharing of plays. It’s about collaboration and gaining feedback to
develop great features focused on the players instead of having a massive
playbook.
We can really win against our competition by
focusing on developing the tool we want to deliver…easy to use, but allowing
powerful things to happen. In my background, there are a whole bunch of things
that need to happen on the front end to make it easy for consumers. Just like
Apple and Google do it.
PJ:
What’s next for the product?
Noman: With the pilot we’ll figure out what things
the athletes and the coaches want to do with it. We’ll expand out and deal with
platforms that are accessible today and roadmap…getting information to help
athletes get better. Our big vision is for self-empowerment…really the ability
for athletes to make better decisions on their own time.
We’re focused on more adoption and traction…and a
bigger presence by next football season.
For more information on the McClymonds project and to invest http://www.indiegogo.com/sportslab
