Company: DribbleUp
CEO: Eric Forkosh
Headquarters: Brooklyn, New York
1. What is your elevator pitch?
DribbleUp makes basketball training awesome with the first ever ball + app that tracks your dribbling live using your smartphone camera.
2. Problem & Solution
Problem: It’s nearly impossible to train effectively on your own, without an expensive trainer or coach to guide you. We used to train from YouTube videos and instructional DVDs, but it just wasn’t cutting it.
Solution: The DribbleUp smart basketball and app guides you through interactive drills with video instructions from our virtual coach. Your training sessions are tracked live and analyzed to provide you with a graded breakdown of your performance. DribbleUp makes training fun, effective, and affordable.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
Youth basketball players ages 7-17 years old who want to improve their basketball skills and don’t have 24/7 access to a basketball trainer. The beauty of DribbleUp is that it adjusts to your level, whether you’re a kid picking up the ball for the first time or a pro player looking for an edge – DribbleUp will improve your ball handling.
4. Business Model – how do you make money?
We sell smart basketballs on DribbleUp.com for $79.99. You can check out the app for free on App Store, but it requires a DribbleUp basketball to use.
5. What else do you want the audience to know about your venture?
Who We Are:
We’re a team of passionate young athletes who appreciate the struggles of basketball training. We’ve spoken with hundreds of pro players, trainers, coaches, and youth athletes on our journey to give you the perfect basketball-training tool.
Check out our website, DribbleUp.com, for videos of the basketball+app in action.
Why DribbleUp is So Different:
+ First ever basketball+app that tracks and analyzes your dribbling using your phone camera
+ No hardware inside the basketball, so you can use it in real games
+ Most affordable smart basketball ever – just $79.99 vs. $200 WilsonX & 94-Fifty balls
We love talking to players and trainers alike, email us at eric@DribbleUp.com .
Bonus Question:
If you were stuck on a desert island with any three athletes, who would they be and why?
Kristaps Porzingis – because if he can carry the Knicks on his back and handle the pressures of NY expectations, he can figure out a way to get us off the island. Also he has really long arms.
Metta World Peace – we’ll have a lot of free time to hang out on the island, and he seems like an entertaining guy you can have long conversations with. Plus if there are any pandas, we’re gonna need him.
Lionel Messi – just to spend some time with the GOAT.