Striking While It's Hot with STRIKECOACH | Jason Eller | The Owner Seat Podcast

Speaker A: Welcome back to the owner c Podcast. The show for operators, franchisors, franchisees and founders who want the real playbook for where fitness is actually going and how to build a model that doesn't get left behind. Today's episode is for anyone who's ever had an idea, written it down, and then actually had the courage to go build it. Patent, product, customers, partnerships, the entire stack. Most fitness founders open studios, a small number build franchises. Almost nobody in this industry builds equipment itself, or at least they haven't been on the podcast. The hardware lane is brutal. We know this. Long development cycles, real R and D dollars, manufacturing risks, IP fights, patents, all of it a, uh, go to market motion that looks nothing like the blue teak playbook that we talk about a lot. It's why so few people try it. My guest today has tried it, is doing it and he's having a lot of success. He's patented it, he shipped it, and now listen to this. The ufc, the WWE and ESPN are all in the conversation and having a lot of fun with it. Um, my guest today is Jason Eller, inventor, founder and CEO of Strike Coach. Jason invented and patented a force detecting training mannequin for combat sports. Think boxing, mma, catching, kickboxing. Strike Coach measures the force of every strike landed to the mannequin's head. You gotta check this out. If you haven't seen it on LinkedIn and all social media, it's everywhere. From inside specific regions of the brain known to be vulnerable to traumatic brain injury, which I'm a huge, very passionate about playing football. It, uh, prints strike by strike data, manipulates the user's footwork, and for those boxers out there, you know what I'm talking about here. And it trains the athlete the way a real opponent would. Jason calls it a striking coach, a ringside doctor, and a sparring partner rolled into one product. Here's the part of the story most people miss. Jason did the first eight years of this build while teaching public school full time physics, biology and chemistry at, uh, Judson ISD in San Antonio. Amazing. Jason, man, I'm so excited about this. Welcome to the Owner Seat podcast, sir.

Speaker B: Thank you, Albert. Thank you for that introduction too. That was a really good introduction. I appreciate it.

Speaker A: Well, let's go back, let's go back to 2015. You're a fitness instructor, personal trainer, right? Some of your background. I, uh, love this brand ymca, right? You're an adjunct at National Park College. I mean, you got a lot of going on. And then you think of this idea around a mannequin that measures strike force from inside what we call the brain of it. Right. What did you actually see that nobody else was seeing? Like, what made you write this down? And then, I mean, you're like the 1%, 99% of the people would just never take action. You had this idea, you wrote it down, you said, let's do it.

Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I always say the follow through is the toughest part. But it came to me kind of like a, uh. You know how they call it a light bulb moment? So it wasn't something, uh, that I thought about for my entire life or anything like that. Uh, I was training a guy. He was a medical doctor who, uh, would eventually become my first mentor. But he was hitting the punching bag, and he asked me, well, where am I hitting this? So I said, well, right about here's where the body would be, here's where the head would be. And then he asked, how hard am I hitting it? And I said, well, there's not really a metric for that right now. And he says to me, well, don't you think that's a problem? It's kind of like a Ferrari without a speedometer. Right? And that line always stuck out to me. And then in that moment, I was like, you know what? He's right. I went home, drew some informal drawings, including, like, the footwork, motorized movement, and all that came back to him. His name was Carl. I came back to him a couple of days later. I said, what do you think about this? He said, I think you got a million dollar idea. But he said, you should focus a lot of your attention on a specific area of the brain called the corpus callosum, which is where CTE is diagnosed. And we can go down that rabbit hole and all that. But, yeah, it wasn't something I thought about my whole life. It still stemmed from someone asking me a couple of questions. And then it was just like the light bulb went on.

Speaker A: Wow, that's amazing. And I'm so glad you bring up cte. Such an important topic. I feel like there was a lot of press on it, um, after one of the movies, right? Concussion, to all of the things going on. And, you know, in professional sports, I played college football. And, you know, you hear the stories. I actually had a family member pass away. And we later find, um, actually through a buddy of mine who's a New York surgeon out in Los Angeles, um, and works with, um, with, uh, MD Anderson or ucla. And, uh, yeah, it's still a very. A very important topic. I think it's kind of flown under the radar recently. Just, you know, there's a lot of good PR out there that cleans some things up. Um, but I love that you talk about that. And this is a great way to understand how much force when you're striking someone in the head, what that's like, let alone this is also great for training. Right. And developing skill set. And uh, I've boxed a little bit and I remember we were chatting and as you were showing me this product, the footwork aspect. But you know, it's interesting, your background, I love your background from certified trainer, fitness instructor, adjunct professor, professor, you know, teaching high school biology and chemistry. I mean, you're doing it all, uh, as you're building Strike Coach. Did that like professor coaching, you really help you develop this. Like, you know, the more I talk to you, I just, I think also too, with your background, like the scientists, like you're in the details with every little bit of your product. Product at Strike Coach.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, I, I, um, sorry, let me back up. Yeah, so let's re record this part. Can you ask that question again? I'm sorry. Yeah, sorry.

Speaker A: So you have a, you have a unique background, right? So certified trainer, fitness instructor, adjunct professor, high school teacher in physics, biology, chemistry. When you were building Strike Coach, you know, did that, did it come from that coach and that teacher, that professor in you? You know, I've had multiple conversations with you and the amount of detail that you're in personally, I mean, it's like the, the scientist in you, I would call it.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Did. How did that all play into developing this so twofold.

Speaker B: So on the fitness technology piece, you know, that I thought about right away, you know, with the movement, the interactivity, landing a moving target, uh, you know, and, and you know, there was, there are concussion predictor models out there, but nothing like what I was thinking.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And, uh, you know, initially I was just thinking sensors all over the place, which we have all that too. But when I went and showed the informal drawings to my first mentor, who was also a medical doctor, he was the one who trained me and educated me on the corpus callosum region of the brain. Wow. And that's where I really started focusing my attention. I didn't have, uh, a correlated formula that's written in the patent now that would allow us to measure actual forces in real time applied to that specific area of the brain. That just came to me. I was driving, um, about a 45 minute drive and I had a correlated formula pop in my head when thinking about the product. Wow. Uh, again, went back to Carl, told him, and he's like, you know what? That would work. You could actually measure forces using the correlation from the force in the glove and correlating that with the force in the mannequin's brain. He's like, that's brilliant. And then, you know, that's. That's. It just, you know, moved on from there. But again, it wasn't something I thought about my whole life. Just little thoughts and ideas popping in my brain. And again, like I said earlier, the hardest part is the follow through. Everybody has good ideas and things like that. A lot of people don't act on them. And then the people who do act on them, um, when things get a little bit tough and challenging and you got to figure it out, a lot of people fold at that point. So I guess my best message, you know, and I'll keep saying it, is the follow through. You got to be consistent and, and work towards what you're doing every day.

Speaker A: Let's talk about that. Let's talk about that. Because I do want to get into the patent side of it as well. I think that's really exciting. Very interesting as I got to learn more with you, um, about it. But let's talk about that follow through piece. Where, Where. Like, when did it happen? Where are you? Okay, idea. You have mentorship, you're doing some of the research, it's clicking. You have the correlation model between force and strike and all of that. But when did you decide, okay, I need to build a business out of this? And you started to think about capital, money, time, and even the risk, right? Things that you're giving up, um, to be able to go at this, um, the way you wanted to.

Speaker B: Right, Right. Yeah. No. So as far. Well, first I thought, from a product standpoint, how can we make the best product? And then built a business around that. So I had the medical piece. But, you know, that wouldn't really help us. It could help us with grant opportunities, things like that. But market entry for someone like me with, uh, you know, med tech, that's pretty complicated. Fitness technology is difficult enough, right. So the idea was, okay, let's enter the market as a fitness technology unlike anything anyone's ever seen. You know, with the movement, the real time, data, feedback. And while we're entering the market as fit tech, we can go down the grant route and things like that, because what we have is incredible. And in our patent, we were even awarded the right to conduct human studies using our correlative formulas. It's actually a B2 patent because of the medical capabilities. So, you know, there's utility patents and things like that. And then they have utility B1 and B2 patents, which like, have medical claims and things like that. And we have, uh, a utility, uh, B2 patent. But the idea, I'm curious about that

Speaker A: on the patent side, you know, as we're jumping into that, it's really interesting. I think a lot of people out there are very intimidated by it or even question like, what can you patent? What can't you? Can you walk us through that whole journey from research to the legal aspect, to the financial aspect, to the just time commitment it takes to get that going. Because there's patent and then there's actual, you know, getting product out there. It's two different things.

Speaker B: Right, right. Yes, yes, yes. So the patent, you don't want to infringe on anyone else's art. So, uh, you know, when I wrote the patent, I wasn't a published technical writer or anything like that. So I looked at other patents, did some research, you know, saw how they were drafted, and then I drafted the provisional patent and I came to the understanding, like a strong patent, it has to have broad claims, narrow claims, and method claims. So you have a combination of all that. So then it makes it much harder to duplicate that way. So what I mean by that is like, for example, for a broad claim, when we're talking about the structure of it, you know, I say a motor. I won't specify what kind of a motor we're using. So that's a super broad claim when you're talking about the structure of this. Right. And then like, uh, for a narrow claim, if I want something specific that's in there that I don't want anyone else to be able to use, like, so let's say like a micro step or what I'm using it for, and the purposes, I'll add that in the patent. And that's a narrow claim. So you tie all these broad and narrow claims together and it makes it very, very difficult to duplicate. But the most important parts of the patent are the detailed description. So that's how the product's put together. And, uh, you match it to the diagram drawings. But the most critical and important part is the claim language because that's what makes your product original. So you want to have as many original claims as possible. Because when you file the patent, it's going to get sent to a patent examiner. They're looking over your claims and to see if you're infringing on anyone else's art or claiming you can do something that someone already else claimed. So that's why you want that combination of broad, narrow and method claims and you know, as many claims as you can hammer out. And it's important to look at other patents that are similar to yours as well because it's good if you find some similarities because then you know how to differentiate. So people, maybe they get scared, they're like, oh, that's too similar, I'm done. No, you look at and you're like, okay, now let me differentiate what I'm doing from this.

Speaker A: That's what you're doing.

Speaker B: I think those in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think those are, you know, the, the, the best steps forward when, when writing a patent really. And again, I wasn't a published technical writer and I was awarded every claim I wrote in the patent. All 25 claims.

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean you, as I mentioned, yeah, you did a lot of research, right? I think that that's a, uh, you did your homework in order to be able to develop and write out what you knew would the high likelihood. And it did get approved.

Speaker B: Walk me through.

Speaker A: Because you were talking about how everything's put together. So I'd imagine as you're starting this up, you're bootstrapping, right? It's, it's, you're, you're, you're in the development phase, but I'm thinking sensors and materials and electronics, the firmware, the prototyping, the manufacturing. Like, I mean when you kick this off, was it, were you the engineering team? Like, give us kind of a look behind the scenes because not a lot of people do product, right? They don't do something like this. Yeah, takes a lot of work. This isn't a service, right, where you can just go and provide the service, get paid. Uh, it's kind of that. I'm not saying there's no setup to this, but this is a bit more difficult. It's. You're piecing something together. This is a product that you're doing. Walk us through behind the scenes. Like, how did that all, like how'd you do all of that?

Speaker B: So for the first proto and yes, I did develop the first prototype. Um, so for me, I think the easiest way to start or at least if you're doing something hardware is using commercial off the shelf technologies. So I would use other people's sensors or mannequins, cut into them, embed my software. Uh, I tried a few different motors. A bunch of them kept slipping, you know, for the movement part of it. So A lot of trial and error until I figured out what the right motor was that I needed to use for this. Um, but again, it was all off the shelf technology to start. Once I got in an working prototype. Then we started using our own sensors, soldering our own chips, and then that's when I brought in the team. But I wanted to make sure it worked first and I made sure it worked using commercial off the shelf technologies.

Speaker A: And how did you, how did you do this? Because you were still teaching, right? So like, how are you splitting your time? You know, there's a lot of people out there that will reach out to me about being an entrepreneur as they have their full time job. And I'm like, look, you better be mentally prepared. It is not easy. And you gotta remember what J O B. What's paying the bills, right. J O B, number one. And if you really want to do this, I call it the tails. Right. Like what are you doing from 4am M up to when you get started on your real job? Uh, at the time. Right. And then what are you doing late at night? I mean, you're sacrificing a lot. How did you do all of this? Like, how did you split up your time, your week? I mean, even the mental bandwidth for all of this. Like, it's all, It's a lot.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, I mean, it is a lot. And it took some time to do it. And um, for me, thankfully, and a lot of people say this, but, uh, you know, thankfully I have the wife that I do. Like, she's got my back, she supports me, so. And, and she's a big believer too. Like, she saw what could be and, and now she's really seeing what is. And, and she gave me the time.

Speaker A: You just had, Triple H. I just saw the video on, online. Uh, Triple h and Stephanie McMahon punching your strike coach mannequin. I'm like, this is a dream come true. I wish I was there with you all.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, it really was. It's kind of surreal. Like all the stuff that I loved growing up, the ufc, wwe, like they're calling us to collaborate with.

Speaker A: Yeah, D Generation X right there with your Strike coach.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Nwo.

Speaker B: It's incredible, really. And a lot of fighters that I watched on TV growing up, some of them have worked with us. You know, we used to have fight parties. My parents and some of the, like Jesse James Leyja, for example, when he fought De La Hoya.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: We watched that together as a family. Now he's with us on, um, this thing. It's it's, it is surreal. It's like validation every day.

Speaker A: Amazing. Yeah, that's so cool. Well, great, because I know you're putting in a ton of work, you and your team. I've met your team, they're amazing. Let's walk through. Let's walk through. This is different than, you know, you know, a lot of the audience listening and watching. Different than studio unit economics. Right. I mean this is a total different route on the product and equipment side. So think cost of goods sold, think inventory, think tooling, investment or manufacturing. Right. A lot of the things that typically a studio doesn't need to deal with, they typically get that done by some type of vendor provider.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: Equipment provider. So I think people need a. I'd love for people to hear it from you, like. Cause you were in that studio space, you were coaching, you were teaching, um, you know, members and training clients and all of that. So what did you have to teach yourself about the. I mean, do you have experience in the product industry? What did you have to teach yourself around the hardware? Economics. And you know, we spent some time and I know you're ultra detailed. I mean you have a file and a spreadsheet for everything. I love this around you. So you've broken this down.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: How did you learn all of it?

Speaker B: I mean, just over time. Like I said, I wasn't a published technical writer, I wrote the patent, I wasn't a licensed engineer, year I developed V1. So I mean again, everyone has a good idea and we all have certain skills. So you know, the follow through, building it out how you think you might have to build it out. And when you are building something though, again, it's not like, well, I'm going to just start wiring and soldering my own sensors. You look at the available technology out there first and start from that first point. So like again, I think when you're building prototypes, I think going commercial off the shelf, you know, is, is a faster way to go. If I was soldering my own chips and figuring out what wires needed to go and what portholes to start off, I wouldn't even be at the point I'm at right now because I would have tried too early on to figure out stuff I didn't really need to figure out yet. So I think it's just doing things in the right order and doing something positive. Multiple things, positive for it every day. Every day. So it keeps growing. Yeah. And then as far as the unit economics, you know, you start sourcing parts, you see what things cost and then that's how you map out your plan to develop your product. And we uh, eventually people who uh, create products, they're going to have to draft what's called the prd. It's a product review document and it details what parts are dependent and independent of each other, how they work, how they're wired together. So like, you really got to know the finite details of your product when you're going into manufacturing. So people who are thinking about doing this, you can't just put something together that's off the shelf technology and expect to manufacture that. So that's the first part. Once you get past V1 prototype, then you start moving towards the other things till you get to a final product.

Speaker A: So I'm curious because I work with a lot of established mature companies, but also with startups and I always get this a lot. Why is it so hard for a startup? They think you can just walk into a bank and get money. Right. Can you walk us through kind of what was that capital raising structure journey like for you? Not only bootstrapping but, but you know, talking to friends and family. You don't have to talk about dollar amounts, but more so just the journey like this obviously costs some money, right? And eventually you ended up, you know, stop, you stopped the um, teaching. So you went all in on this. And you know, that's a, that's a big sacrifice, um, for you, your income. But also, I'd imagine, as you mentioned, um, shout outs to your wife and your foundation there. It's amazing, amazing support. But that's a financial risk. Right? So how did you talk to people? How did you raise funds for, you know, your MVP and your prototype? Um, walk me through that.

Speaker B: Yeah. No, so, uh, you know, reaching out to friends and family, doing live demos. You, uh, know we were on the news, so a lot of people found out about it that way. And we already had the patent issued, so we weren't patent pending or anything like that. So we had a few assets in place already before we started asking uh, you know, for funds. So it wasn't like it was at an idea stage and I, and I, you know, was trying to raise, we already had the patent and developed V1 and we had uh, Jesse James Lehas, our brand ambassador before I even asked for a dollar from anyone.

Speaker A: Amazing.

Speaker B: So, so we did have those few things in place. But to get to that point, yes, it did take a lot. But uh, you know, I stayed teaching, building, building, building until I thought the time was right to, you know, start raising funds. And, and you Know, here we are now.

Speaker A: Amazing.

Speaker B: One of the things. Also, um. Uh, we probably would be much further along than we are right now. I actually ended up being paralyzed from the shoulders down. And it took me about a year to come back. I was diagnosed with Ms. So as we were. And I haven't talked about this.

Speaker A: I can't believe this. This is the first time I'm hearing about this.

Speaker B: Uh, I'll have to. They did a whole, like, write up about it. I'll have to send it to you. But, yeah, I. I couldn't move. My wife was soon feeding me, had to clean me, all that. And, uh, they're holding the phone to m my ears. I'm talking to investors, fighters, and. And that's when we built the team out. The team was actually built from a hospital bedroom because then I realized, man, I can't do this on my own. I need a team with me. And so the company was actually built from a hospital room, believe it or not. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true.

Speaker A: I can't believe this. This is, um. Wow. How did you. I mean, I didn't even know where to start with that. I mean, so you built your team out of the hospital. You're literally, like you said, taking phone calls. I mean, you're still grinding. You're still grinding while you can't. You don't feel anything below your neck.

Speaker B: Yeah, well, I think honestly, it kind of was a blessing in disguise because working on this while going through that, it gave me hope, you know, like, there's something to work for and towards. And even the. The doctors and, you know, the. The rehab people, the. The physical therapists, uh, they all were. They loved watching me. Like, you know, I was in the hospital for about, like, two months, and I went from not being able to move to, like, moving a little bit with a walker. And when I was first there, I asked the doctor, am I gonna be nor what I consider to be normal for myself?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And she was like, well, you know, I don't want to, you know, say you could. I mean, you. You got strong will, but I don't want to give you false hope. Uh, and I even said to her, I was like, you don't understand. I'm gonna be walking out of here. And I. And I did. With a walker. I went back to work teaching while doing this. When they told me I shouldn't in a wheelchair, they're like, you need to wait. So, like, I guess for me, like, I'm comfortable feeling uncomfortable. And I think going through that whole process actually made me a lot stronger. Like, uh, you know, uh, I guess being a founder, you gotta be able to withstand some punishment. And I think that helped me a lot, you know? That's a lot.

Speaker A: Yeah. Jason, something's clearly pulling you to keep going. I mean, to face that type of adversity. Right. Let's call it that. And to continue pushing here. What, um, is it. I mean, what do you. Because I see all the videos, right? And I see the fun, I see the gamification, I see the product. I mean, this thing is killing it. But there's something deeper here. Is that the CTE part? I mean, what is it that.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, essentially. So you know what's going to make us. And I think we'll be acquired as a fitness technology. But the members of the team, we're not young guys, we're in our 40s, 50s, so we want to do something real that's impactful. And the CTE part of this is that. So we'll be able to help people that will never meet and long after we're gone.

Speaker A: So cool.

Speaker B: Uh, our correlated formula will be able to help and, and essentially start diagnosing CTE and living people. Because you can only diagnose post mortem right now.

Speaker A: That's true.

Speaker B: So it's huge. All these doctors, they want to figure out forces applied to the corpus callosum in real time. We hold the IP to that.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: So the things that we can do are incredible. We figured out what no doctor around the world has figured out yet. And we're just a bunch of high school teachers, engineers, uh, people like that. So, yeah, I mean, I think that's a huge driving force.

Speaker A: Let's talk about some exciting things. I kind of mentioned it earlier, but south by Southwest, you have this UFC and Paramount, plus then you had WrestleMania 42, the WWE, as we mentioned, uh, the logo on ESPN2 and SportsCenter. I mean, most fitness founders listening to this would die. I mean, they, they or you spend an enormous amount of money for the kind of brand exposure you get with all of. Walk us through, like, how did you land this? From UFC and Paramount to all of these other ones? Like, I, uh, mean, this is. This is huge. I'd imagine you. You had to let them know about the IP validation. And, I mean, these are great partners to have. How did, how did you. How did you get these all squared out?

Speaker B: So we're a portfolio company of Capital Factory. So they're like a venture firm based here in Austin. They're Pretty big. I think they're ranked like, number six in the country. Yeah. Uh, so less than 1% of people who apply get in. We didn't even apply. Uh, I met, uh, uh, Luis Martinez is his name. Um, we just had a meeting. I was telling him kind of what we had, and he's like, you know what? You could be an all access port co company with this. And then after that first meeting, we had a few more and eventually ended up becoming one of their portfolio companies. So the DoD's Office of Defense and Innovation is right where our offices are. So they have all these different kinds of people, people in all these different industries. So now their network is our network as well. So that's helped a lot. We've done some demos for them. So we've had a lot of high profile people seeing it. I don't know who made the call, but at some point the ufc, uh, or someone on their behalf reached out and said, you know, we want to work with you guys. We love what you're doing, uh, for south by Southwest. And I don't know who reached out to them, to be quite honest.

Speaker A: That's a massive. For those that haven't been, look it up. That's a massive.

Speaker B: Some massive events. Yeah, yeah. No, well. And, uh, one of the executives, he came out there, he jumped on it. Loved it. Came back a second day, jumped on it again. We talked about licensing. They licensed the Century Martial Arts, uh, uh, the Bob Mannequin, you know, so they already licensed products developed from outside companies. So we started talking about the ip. And also they do have all of that knowledge now. And that same executive, uh, you know, we reconnected and met again when I was in Vegas at wwe.

Speaker A: Amazing.

Speaker B: So there's all these different relationships, you know, that are stemming, like, quickly. Like, uh, and it's just, I don't know, people just randomly finding us or hearing about us. Uh, I don't know how it's that. The WWE thing, it was the same thing. A woman at south by Southwest who's affiliated with them somehow or a group that works with them jumped on it and told them about it. And they reached out to us, uh,

Speaker A: got Stephanie McMahon, she's just like, I gotta get on this thing.

Speaker B: Yeah. Well, that was kind of funny because, uh, the CEO of Capital Factory, we were doing a private event at his house, and I, uh, told him, hey, we're doing an activation for the WWE. He's like, oh, I'm good friends with Stephanie McMahon. He's like, Let me reach out to her. So then she knew we were coming and all. So it's just how things work out. It's a lot of skill combined with a lot of love, you know.

Speaker A: That's amazing. Well, it's also just building some good, genuine relationships, and it sounds. Well, yeah, yeah, the team have done that. And so aside from the big names. Right. And the big events, the volume of people that had an opportunity to try strike coach and learn about the gamification and the social layer and the, uh, mechanics of it all, I know this is fresh. What have you all learned here recently? This was just a week ago or so, um, that you had one of these events, at least the WWE one. What are some of the data points that you all are learning? Like, walk us through as you're thinking of. You're an entrepreneur, right? We're all owners. You're in the owner's seat. Sometimes you have to iterate. Sometimes you have to continue to double down. Triple down on what, you know. Wow, that was a banger. Let's keep doing that. What were some of those learnings?

Speaker B: So two main focal points. Uh, one of them is home users. There's a huge appetite for people who want this in their home. So, like, our. Our model is the B2B. We're leasing to gyms, and eventually we'll enter homes. Uh, but doing the UFC event, the WWE event, over a thousand people at each event jumped on it, and I would say 50% of them wanted this in their homes. We did an event prior to that at Capital Factory. People were ready to pay right then and there, and we had to tell them, well, we're not ready for homes yet. So I think that's the big takeaway is there's a huge appetite for the home fitness market for something like this. And that's because it connects people. So if you have one in your home, I have one in mind. We can compete against each other in a combat simulation. So. So we stay connected, but we're staying fit. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker A: I've been wanting to whoop my brother's ass for a little, so we need to. We just need to get on it. He's been a lot bigger now.

Speaker B: Well, this is the way right here. I'm, um, telling you.

Speaker A: Awesome.

Speaker B: And it's a blast. So. So that was one of the big takeaways. And we're working on the home model, our, uh, pricing, all that. We have all of that mapped out. The second big takeaway is doing activations to help supplement the raise. So now a lot of these big Companies, they love what we're doing, they love how interactive it is. So, um, we're talking, we'll see. You know, nothing's definite yet, but, um, there's interest in them lining up at least two of these, maybe more, so people can compete against each other in real time in a combat simulation. So like you said, think like if you and your brother came to the event, now you guys are squaring off against each other on two separate mannequins, but the data is shooting to the screen in real time so you can, could see who statistically was the better fighter.

Speaker A: And I'm gonna, he's probably gonna get a little bit more licks on my chin because I always drop the gloves, right? But I'm taking those power punches, like I'm gonna get him on some good

Speaker B: ones, you know, what with the movement though, uh, that'll keep you moving. It'll line you up a little bit better too. Maybe instead of going wild and flat

Speaker A: footed, I don't know, man, I gotta break some bad habits. That's amazing. And so you had two routes, right? You got the home users, which it sounds like there's a, a massive opportunity there in demand and you're, you're working that out. And then there's this, you know, to, to the actual gym and facilities or studios, I can only imagine, you know, they, they want it. I, I just think of being in a, let's just use it a lifetime. And I see the punching bags, but I mean it's just so much different. A uh, static punching bag versus something like this that's using AI that's moving, right, that's challenging your footwork and that's, and the gamification or even just the metrics, the KPIs and the force and the lands and all of that.

Speaker B: I mean,

Speaker A: uh, where are you seeing some of the, any tension points with that and what are you excited about on the two pathways? Well, no.

Speaker B: So this is a product that was built on customer feedback. So all the iterations we made are from the units we have deployed in gyms with customers telling us what they want. So that's how we arrived to the final product. So this is a product the people want. One thing when you see this in gyms though, it's uh, it's hard to explain, but the energy is different. Like when people are competing against each other, they're seeing their scores on the tv, they're sharing their scores with each other, challenging each other. It creates a different kind of energy in the gym and Then second to that, you know, trainers, coaches, it gives them a different perspective. Like Jesse James, la, how world champion boxer, world class boxing coach, he told me he loves training people on this because he could watch how they're moving, how they're throwing their strikes. So he's not just holding pads and mitts and you know, so he could really take a step back and see what they're doing. So even from a coaching perspective, you can coach in a different way and a more objective way because you can see what your client's actually doing, the things they're doing wrong and right.

Speaker A: It's amazing. I love that. And so you have these major brands, right? Obviously an amazing product. But now these brands that you're getting a ton of just looks from ufc, wwe, espn.

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker A: Walk me through what is the. Are you currently raising capital? What does that process look like? And say you were speaking to those one. You have a ton of franchisors, uh, franchisees that are listening to this, including some big box, privately owned or even public entities that are listening and watching this. What, what's your message to them? Why should they reach, uh, out to you about Strike Coach and then walk us through the capital raising? I know that's two big questions, but.

Speaker B: No, no, that's okay. Okay. No, my message, um, you know, to the gyms, facilities, you know, fitness industry as a whole, is there is really nothing that's truly interactive. So like a lot of these new products, their claim to fame, uh, I don't want to name them because I shouldn't name them but, but they claim to be interactive. Like there's interaction between the product and end user. But realistically, if there's not a TV screen there, there is no interaction between the product and end user. It's just a bike or a treadmill or a punching bag. With us, we're interactivity right out of the box. We're the only product where the end user has to think and react to what the product is doing before the end user reacts. They have to land a moving target, move their feet, keep the unit in front of them. It gives them real time data feedback. So the difference, it's, it's light years. Like I, uh, know a lot of products, you know, interactive products are in now, but essentially we really are the only interactive products because there is no other product doing what we're doing. There's nothing that moves and engages with the end user like we do.

Speaker A: Yeah, what I love about it too is it's physical. I get the VR and the digital and there's so much fun and there's great brands that do it, but there's still something missing. Right. There's nothing like, for those that, uh, do any type of combat sports or boxing, um, there's nothing like that feeling. Right?

Speaker B: Uh, right.

Speaker A: Nothing like it. You can't replicate that digitally, even with like, you know, some of the stuff you'll see at like a Best Buy, like it vibrates. It's awesome. It's cool. Right? It stimulates you, but it's not. It's not the same.

Speaker B: Not. Not even close. Yeah. Not even close.

Speaker A: Yeah. That's amazing. Well, I'm really excited about your capital raise. I'm excited about this opportunity that fitness and studio clubs have to get this product in their four wall. Um, and then obviously the direct to consumer. I mean, I think you're doing all the right things for those that. For those that want to learn more, uh, about Strike Coach, how can they reach out to you and how can they. If they wanted to invest, how can they reach out and learn more about that as well?

Speaker B: Sure. So, um, my email I can give you is, uh, Jason ellerestrikecoach.com you know, any inquiries there? Uh, you could also look at our website, any inquiries you have there, which is, uh, thestrikecoach.com and then our Instagram is, uh, the Strike Coach all underscores, like if you want to see our videos, what we've been doing and what we've been up to.

Speaker A: So cool. Well, I really appreciate your time. I know you're super busy. Thank you for number one, the vulnerability. Please say hello to your wife from the end. And, uh, such an amazing support system there. As you had mentioned. Your story's nuts. I mean, I didn't realize there was another aspect to it. Thank you for sharing that with us.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker A: Great job to your whole team. I hope they're watching this and listening. Great job to you all. This is really exciting. You're solving for a major pain point. And then as you mentioned, leaving a legacy, serving, uh, those that are in football or any type of combat sports or some type of, uh, um, hitting right and taking right. So.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, and that's like I said, why the team feels so good. We're helping people twofold. One, people are burning calories and smiling because they're having the best time. And then two, I mean, you know, there's clear medical benefits. Like we're at the forefront of, um, of research that's still in its infancy, you know, so I mean, it's just, you know, it's, it's, it's a great product in that regard. It's a product that helps people. So we feel really good about it on several fronts.

Speaker A: Excellent. Well, I'm looking forward to spending more time and, um, thank you for sharing. And I know we, we chatted a little bit about the financial aspect and capital raising. For those listening, um, fitness, wellness, any fit tech founders, if you want better cash visibility, as I mentioned, unit economics, capital strategy, or you just clean financials, make sure to reach out to me. You can find me on, on strategointel.com or of course, feel free to, uh, connect with me on LinkedIn. This has been another episode of the Owner Seed podcast. I'm your host, Albert Ramos, and if you haven't tuned in, if this is your first time, episodes drop every Monday and Friday at 8am Central. Jason, such a pleasure. This was awesome.

Speaker B: Thank you, Albert. Thank you. Thank you. Pleasure. It was all mine.

Speaker A: We'll see you soon. Thanks, everybody.

Speaker B: Uh, all right, thanks.