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. This particular startup is taking part in the Hype Global Sport Innovation Competition In Rio De Janeiro on August 24th, 2016.
Company names: BodyRecog Metrics, and LIVE GOOD
Founder: Anita Bušić, MS Molecular Biology
Headquarters: Boston, MA, USA, and Zagreb, Croatia, EU
1. What is your elevator pitch?
BodyRecog – The Body Shape Tracking App – enables trainers to monitor trainee’s progress directly and remotely, and to see measurable training results with BodyRecog PRO, while trainees may track their body changes – where they lost fat or gained muscle in cm/inch, with BodyRecog HOME.
BodyRecog automatically assesses health risks for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer, based on one’s digitally measured body type and body shape, and provides expert explanations and recommendations.
As an integrated web and mobile health biometrics platform (PRO and HOME versions), BodyRecogTM monitors personal health in real-time.
2. Problem & Solution
Problems BodyRecog addresses:
- Insufficiently personalized training programs
- High attrition rate and revenue loss for fitness centers and gyms
- Loss of motivation in trainees
- Need for remote monitoring and self-monitoring
- Significant obesity-related health issues & costs
BodyRecog solves all above-mentioned problems by:
- Empowering trainers to create more efficient and personalized training programs (body composition programs), along with proper tracking of progress, regular feedback, and full support provided (including trainer, doctor, nutritionist, friends, family etc.).
- Lowering attrition rates and increasing revenue as BodyRecog PRO provides more productive time with the client, increasing client’s satisfaction, improving their progress rate, and achieving desired results.
- Increasing motivation as BodyRecog HOME helps improve athletes’ training results, an average person’s health, and reduce obesity-related diseases by empowering and motivating people to achieve their athletic or health goals. Photos with measurements, or 3D avatars with measurements, showing their progress over time, present a great psychological tool for keeping a person’s motivation and willpower high.
BodyRecog also enables trainees to share their progress with the world via their Before, During and After Photos of body transformation, and thus stick better to their goals.
- Enabling remote monitoring (BodyRecog PRO) and self-monitoring (BodyRecog HOME), as changes of body measurements are clearly displayed on photo or scan, in tables and graphically, which for professionals eliminates the need for often and regular face-to-face check-ups, as that can be done remotely. Total time savings per client sums up to 3 hours, plus saving money in hiring.
- Lowering obesity-related health issues & costs as Citizen Science features enable a creation of a huge data-base from tracking users worldwide anonymously, which is useful to sport and biomedical professionals to very quickly see effects of various factors (exercise, nutrition, drugs, environmental factors, lifestyle habits, etc.) on a certain population, taking into consideration age, sex, ethnicity etc.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
Our market segments are both businesses and customers. In business, these are sport clubs (professional & amateur), fitness & wellness centers, scientific & health institutions, health insurance companies, food supplement companies, pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies, etc. Our end-customers are athletes (professional & amateur), and health-conscious individuals.
The market potential is global, which prove the following stats:
- The health and wellness industry will be a Trillion Dollar Industry in 2017. An estimated 1 billion wellness apps will be downloaded in 2016. The wellness app industry will be worth $10.2 billion in 2018.
- The global Healthcare IT (HCIT) Market is estimated to reach $228.7 billion by 2020. The demand for HCIT solutions worldwide has significantly increased due to the need to streamline workflow and manage patient information.
The smartphone boom and growing preference for self-care management have propelled the penetration of healthcare applications. In the future, smartphones are likely to be the primary monitoring device for many athletes, health-conscious individuals, and patients.
Sources: Rock Health, Markets & Markets
4. Business Model – how do you make money?
Revenue will come from sales of: (1) BodyRecog PRO directly to biomedical and fitness experts, and indirectly via affiliates and strategic partners; (2) BodyRecog HOME directly via app stores, and indirectly via BodyRecog PRO users, affiliates and strategic partners; (3) licenses to third parties; and (4) analyzed, depersonalized big data to interested parties.
Further granulation of the product is planned, in order to offer a choice of several “packages” to the customer.
Additional Monetization is also planned, in the form of in-app purchases, advertising, external subscriptions, peripheral device sales, healthcare services, revenues from drugs, sport foods and food supplements sales.
5. Management Team – with titles
Anita Bušić, CEO, MS Molecular Biology
John Coleman, CTO, PhD Biomedical Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Saša Ćurčić, CMO, Digital Marketing Specialist
Juanette Budimilić Mikolaci, CSO, MS Anthropology
6. What else do you want the audience to know about your venture?
BodyRecog Metrics and LIVE GOOD have a great team of experts in sports, biomedicine, nutrition, and biomedical electrical engineering, and we work closely with several business advisors. We have partnered up with four tech companies for the development of BodyRecog, and several science institutions for development of various modules, and for the scientific verification and validation of each module.
Innovative Technologies used in BodyRecog consist of 2D-photogrammetry, 3D-scanning, artificial intelligence, deep machine learning, augmented reality, cloud-based interconnectivity, and big data.
Thus far, BodyRecog has won 15 internationally acclaimed invention awards.