New technology from startup ventures is transforming the global sports industry. This Startup Series has introduced over 300 startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience by allowing Founders of promising new ventures to tell their story and pitch their idea. 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 inclusion in this series.
Company name: 776BC
Founder(s): Cameron McKenzie-McHarg & Kate McKenzie-McHarg
Headquarters: Melbourne Australia
1. What is your elevator pitch?
776BC is a performance innovation company that works with athletes and elite and national sporting teams in Australia, the US and the UK providing performance apparel. 776BC has just launched its world-first Motion project; a range of performance apparel that clearly highlights how an athlete moves. Motion takes the tech-based movement analysis out of the lab and onto the training track delivering real-time performance value with a simple accessible solution for any sport where movement and technique is fundamental to performance.
2. Problem & Solution
Typical approaches to movement analysis requires athletes to be assessed in a lab environment. More recent innovations have incorporated sensors in garments that makes the apparel compromised, expensive and still requires the user to interface with a screen to extract value and meaning.
Motion has used gold standard lab-based practices and well-established knowledge around key anatomical landmarks used for movement analysis to interpret into a patented visual design of key lines and markers in a range of performance apparel that clearly highlights how an athlete moves. These are similar sports garments to what athletes are used to wearing, but 776BC Motion gives you, your coach or instructor the key visual cues to easily assess correct technique and form within any and every session.
Motion also come with a companion App that provides detailed video analysis features, and instructional training videos, showing what markers and lines on the Motion apparel you should focus on to achieve correct movement and technique across different sports and exercises. You can also compare you form within an exercise against the form of some of the best athletes in the world.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
The Motion Apparel is perfect for any sport or activity where technique is key to performance; i.e. rowing, athletics, gym exercises, pilates, yoga, golf, gymnastics, tennis etc etc.
Elite coaches, instructors, and athletes will get immediate value out of Motion as they understand movement and can immediately use it to focus on the key areas to maintain consistency of movement within every session, every rep.
But equally Motion has just as great value for beginners and the everyday athlete, providing them with the key points to understand the basics of correct movement within a sport or discipline.
4. Business Model – how do you make money and what has been your revenue to date?
776BC has been operating for 4 years, initially focused on working directly with elite teams and athletes. We sell the 776BC performance range through our online store and have a physical store (the 776BC Performance Lab) in South Melbourne.
Revenue has grown at 240% year-on-year for the last 2 years with annual revenue now comfortably over seven figures.
5. Management Team – with titles
Cameron McKenzie-McHarg, CEO & Co-Founder
Kate McKenzie-McHarg, Chief Marketing & Operating Officer & Co-Founder
Simone Quaranta, Product Manager
James Richmond, Technology Manager
6. Financial needs: are you currently looking for investment? Have you raised investment already? If so, who are your investors?
We completed a seed round early 2016 with private investors which provided the business with the foundational capital to establish key business structures and continue to grow the core business.
Motion has now provided an exceptional growth opportunity with a product that is truly unique, and has broad use across sports and markets. Therefore we’re currently talking to a number of investment partners to provide capital for what should be an exciting growth period.