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Tell how and why you got to where you are now, as a founder of a sports tech startup.
As a child, growing up in Angola, I used to watch my mum play basketball for the local team and kept every one of the newspaper clippings reporting her games. Basketball was my one true love.
Playing basketball enabled me to escape the harsh realities of my environment (Angolan civil war) and was the cause of many childhood shenanigans as I bunked off school to play around town or masqueraded as my father (we have the same name) in order to play on his behalf for his university team.
As a teenager, I moved from Angola to Brazil to study, then to Portugal where I started my career as a software developer and then to the UK without speaking English so I am no stranger to adversity.
As with all areas of my life, I was self-taught and my passion and relentless drive for improvement mean that I can still compete today with the younger members of my basketball team, even at the ripe old age of 42!
With the rise of AI, I finally thought that I would be able to use technology to improve my performance on the court yet no matter where I looked I was unable to find a solution. I wanted something that could be used indoors and could perform an analysis of my game rather than just tracking how far I have run or my heart rate. This is where the concept for TeamSportz was born.
Who is a person that was a huge part of your success today?
The person I am most grateful towards that helped me get me to where I am with TeamSportz is Jorge Pena and we have an interesting full-circle story. Jorge is now the CTO of my company, but he was also the one who offered me my first job as a software engineer when I was just a young lad.
At the time when I was just starting out, Jorge offered me a job even when I did not have any experience! Fast forward 20 odd years later, when I needed to find the first person to help build TeamSportz, I knew that only someone that was able to give that leap of faith to me way back then would join me in this crazy venture, and that was Jorge. Jorge and I have been building TeamSportz for 2 years now and I could not be more grateful.
What are three things that concern you about the sports industry today? What can be done to address these concerns?
In the sports industry today, there’s very much a narrow view of sports participation. Too much money is spent and built for top tier teams and organisations and far too little is built for lower tier, amateur sports teams.
There’s a huge gap right now between grassroots sports and professional level teams, and with TeamSportz, I’m trying to close that gap and make professional performance analytics tools available to everyone. Our mission here is to democratise sport and give everyone a chance to achieve their full potential through providing them support and analysis that professional players currently receive.
Another main concern is that players nowadays are being pushed extremely hard to the point where they are getting injured left and right. With TeamSportz, we’re able to help in the way of improving execution of drills and exercises to prevent injuries, as well as track how active a player is so the coach can always see the progress the player is making outside of practices and games.
My last concern would be Covid-19. Of course we are out of the worst of it (for now), but when these pandemics become a factor unexpectedly, teams need a workaround solution to still be able to practice and stay in shape. With TeamSportz, players are able to stay connected to their teams and practice exercises and drills (from wherever), using only their phone. In cases like Covid, where it’s not possible for the player to be practising in person with the team, TeamSportz is the perfect solution to stay in shape.
So far in your startup journey, what impact have you made in the sport community?
We have 1000+ players using our platform and our Customer Satisfaction Score says that 91% of our players love or like our product. However, where we think we are making a bigger impact is on the increasing the level of engagement between players and coaches and the level of activity. Once a player joins TeamSportz he/she becomes 3 to 5 times more active and that level of activity persists for as long as the coach requires.
What motivated you to continue moving forward regardless of any setbacks you’ve faced?
I want to live in a world where fewer people are left without sports technology. Having that vision in my mind helps deal with all setbacks. And, seeing the reaction of our coaches and players when they discover TeamSportz fuels my desire to continue forward.
I have been lucky to be surrounded by a set of Angel investors that go above and beyond to help me personally and the business to succeed. Their advice, support and recognition of our struggles helps us feel less alone. I would like to particularly thank Amanda McKenna, Lisa Paasche and Toby Hollis for their unconditional support .
What’s something surprising you learned from raising investment?
There is no recipe for success. There are certainly steps and things that every entrepreneur should do to minimise the risk of fundraising but don’t fall into the trap of copying someone else's funding journey. I would even go to say that my best pitches were when I did not use a deck and instead I told investors about the world I wish existed, I was authentic in my passion to create such a world.
What is the biggest compliment you’ve received from a coach or player using your product?
Michael Case, the Head Coach of Manchester University basketball teams said to me that TeamSportz saved his life during lockdown. Michael went on publicly describing how TeamSportz helps them as a team.
“TeamSportz is definitely the way forward! With the time being difficult now and my players not being able to practice actively as a team, TeamSportz has helped me give my players a continuous competitive edge.
From exercise to basketball fundamentals, my players have grasped the opportunity to excel.
From a coaching perspective, being able to monitor players' work ethic and training patterns has helped a lot.. I can use the data to ensure I get them working at similar times.
I use it myself also! It's easy to use, it is only gonna get better and better. My players love to use it, the data doesn't lie! I'm grateful to TeamSportz and the rest of the team for this opportunity to work with them, making my day to day player focus so much easier.``
What is the best advice you received during your startup journey?
The best advice was when Amanda McKenna said to me earlier on that in order to build the team I just needed to convince one person to believe and embrace my vision. That other forms of motivation would quickly wear off.
