#59 - Meet the Startup Gamifying Your Training Gains

So you want to play in the NFL, but your 9-to-5 seems to be a pretty big obstacle.

We truly sit in this intersection across sports gaming and media and technology. So for us, it's fun to have relationships with platforms with, like, Meta, Apple, and Google, some of the largest companies in the world, but then work closely with these sports leagues like the NFL.

There's going to be the equivalent of the next kind of Madden Football, you know, kind of things that is going to happen.

But this idea that holograms didn't have heartbeats was a unique solve for them. So coaches were like, okay, well, right now we're using trash cans, so let's just give this thing a shot, right? So that's really what created the opportunity to show like, hey, there's value in this technology.

All right, everyone knows what time it is. Welcome back to this episode of The Tech Optimist. We've got a Meet the Startup show for you today, and the company that we talked to today is Status Pro. So now on the AV side of the ball, we have Mike Collins, founder and CEO here at Illuminate Ventures, taking us through the interview today. And then our guest is Troy Roy Jones Jr., co-founder and CEO of said company, Status Pro. We're gonna get into that, what they do here in a second. But you know my voice. My name is Sam Herrick. I'm the guide, editor, and just narrative, uh, savant for this show. So Status Pro is a sort of VR and gaming company, but they gamify experiences, which is really fascinating. An experience that, you know, so many gamers and so many sports fans out there want to experience, which is being a quarterback and either playing on the defensive line in the NFL. Maybe you want to be a quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens like Lamar Jackson. You can be in this game that they've created. So in this episode today, uh, Troy and Mike really sort of talk about, uh, their founding and, you know, why they got into the sort of, um, licensed gaming sphere and how, uh, Troy and his co-founder's experience is so special and how they feel like they had A one-in-a-million lifetime opportunity to get this gaming company off the ground. So I'm not going to spoil anything else because I think this conversation is really cool and there are some really awesome points that come up here. Um, but yeah, sit back, relax, enjoy the rest of your drive on your commute, enjoy your sort of chat with me and Mike and Troy. Let's do it. As a reminder, the Tech Optimist podcast is for informational purposes only. It is not personalized advice and it is not an offer to buy or sell securities. For additional important details, please see the text description accompanying this episode.

Yeah, it is. It is.

So I'm up in New Hampshire and it's, it's nice this time of year, but it can be a little rough in the winter.

Yeah. Yeah. Is it, is it starting to feel like fall yet or are you—

Oh, definitely. Definitely. The trees are starting to change. It's kind of starting to At the very beginning of that kind of classic leaf peeping period.

Yeah.

So warm days, cool nights, really nice time of year up here.

Nice. Yeah, I was in Bristol last week, Connecticut and New York. Bristol at ESPN Connecticut just for some meetings. And it was really nice. It was like 90 during the day and at night it got a little cool, but not too chilly.

Yeah, we're like, we're probably 3 weeks further along the calendar than Bristol. So you can get a sense.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Welcome to this episode of Alumni Ventures Meet the Founder. I'm here with a really exciting company. I'm a sports guy, as a lot of you know, and StatusPro, which is an AV portfolio company, is kind of in the middle of that. I'm here with the founder and CEO, Troy Jones. Troy, nice to meet you.

Yes, pleasure to meet you, Mike. And you're a sports fan, so you got to tell me, what's your favorite sport? What's your favorite team?

You know, I— this gives me an excuse. My favorite sport— I played basketball growing up.

Okay.

And I played at Dartmouth.

Nice.

And my claim to fame, and this ages me, is that I got to cover Michael Jordan when he played for North Carolina.

So Did you, did you hold them to 10 points?

Yeah, I mean, they beat us by 48, and, you know, that was, that was a team that had— it wasn't just Jordan, it was like Sam Perkins and Brad Daugherty, Matt Daugherty, Joe Wolf. Kenny Smith was their freshman point guard. It was— they were, they were a juggernaut. Yeah. And We were one of those Ivy League, they're coming back from exams, let's have kind of a walkthrough, get them back in shape kind of games. So, yeah, I was a highlight film on college basketball with Jordan dunking over me for about 6 weeks.

He's not a bad person to have. Yeah,

no, like I said, it's probably the 3rd time that this has been brought up on this podcast. But, yeah. So, I love, I'm from the Midwest, so I'm a believer in kind of staying loyal to your team.

Okay.

I'm a Milwaukee Buck fan. I'm a Green Bay Packer fan. I'm a Chicago Cub fan. And I'm a believer in kind of good times, bad times, you stick with your team. Got you. But I do love sports. So tell me a little, give me the elevator pitch. Tell me, you know, what's StatusPro and what do you guys do?

Yeah, so StatusPro is an entertainment technology company. We leverage XR to build first-person sports products across gaming, media, and training. So our flagship product was NFL Pro Era, the first-ever fully licensed sports game in VR. The game is the fastest sports— fastest-selling sports title in VR history on the Meta Quest platform. It's been 4 stars since it launched. Over 1.2 million users. We just launched last week with the main feature being defense. So now you can now tackle people in VR and make big hits without feeling all the pain that comes with contact in real football. So really excited to bring that to the world. And really, we're just really trying to democratize the professional athlete experience is what we say. So myself and my co-founder, Andrew Hawkins, 2 former athletes. I played Division I quarterback at the University of Maryland and Western Kentucky. Hawk played 6 years in the NFL with the Bengals and the Browns. And, you know, for us, we always talk about, you know, what does it look like to take that experience we had of that and share it with the world, right? Because usually 1% of people get a chance to do what you did and guard Michael Jordan, right? Or even play at the highest level. So to be able to share that with fans through this new innovative technology has been amazing. We truly sit in this intersection across sports gaming and media and technology. So for us, it's fun to have relationships with platforms like Meta, Apple, and Google, some of the largest companies in the world, but then work closely with these sports leagues like the NFL and some of the athletes who we partner with to market the title. So it's truly a business that's all-encompassing. Yeah. Paul and I always talk about, we feel like it's a culmination of our life's experiences because we've always been, you know, people who enjoy technology. And obviously we played sports games growing up and we were athletes, right? So to be able to build this company that's really driving innovation across sports You know, founded by 2 former players and former athletes, which is extremely rare. We're really excited about it. And, you know, we feel like we've done a great job so far and we look forward to continue to build out the vision.

I want to interject here because I think it's a really good spot to sort of take a second and back up and really understand this company that is StatusPro. So I have navigated over to their website, www.statuspro.com. Status.pro on their Our Story page. Um, and I kind of just want to read it because I think it's really cool, and I think it sort of helps set up, you know, uh, the rest of the episode really nicely. So Andrew Hawkins, Hawk, and Troy Jones each have their own unique journey that ultimately propelled them into the tech space as successful Black co-founders of a budding startup. Leaning on their respective experiences as former athletes, the duo wanted to help others better understand what it takes to compete at the highest levels from an athlete's first POV. Their vision manifested into the development of the Pre-Game Prep, a training product for the NFL club coaches and players. From there, they have applied similar technology to build new applications geared at providing the most immersive and entertaining first-person sports simulations for sports fans. The 2 friends and business partners have since secured funding from institutional and celebrity investors including LeBron James, Naomi Osaka, Drake, Maverick Carter, Jimmy Iovine, and Paul Watcher to help grow and scale a first-of-its-kind technology and sports company. Now, the difference— Status Pro is disrupting the world of VR by creating the world's most authentic and immersive gaming and training products. Founded and developed by former athletes, our technology is designed to help players and coaches unlock the ultimate strategic advantage while simultaneously allowing fans to see the experience of what it's like to be a pro. The NFL and Status Pro have partnered together to develop the first-of-its-kind NFL-licensed virtual reality simulation gaming title. More on that here in a second.

I mean, this is inevitable, isn't it, that you're going to be able to, with near-perfect approximation, feel like you are participating in these sports. And again, we'll show some demos in post-production here, but it's not hard to envision the day where it's not just sitting in front of a flat screen. And the graphics today are amazing, especially compared to where they were 10, 20 years ago.

Yeah.

But a fully immersive experience where you turn your head and you are in the stadium and you're really physically replicating the thing. thing to me is just inevitable. I think it's a question of timing.

Yeah.

And who wins that race. And, um, you know, so I don't think we have to predict that this market's going to happen or that it's going to be huge and there's going to be huge, uh, you know, there's going to be the equivalent of the next kind of Madden Football, you know, kind of things that is gonna happen. But, you know, tell us about your secret sauce. Where, why, why is Status Pro gonna, you know, be one of the winners in this game?

Hold on, hold on. I know we all really want the answer to this. I know it's a bummer. You can boo me all you want, but we're gonna do an ad and then we're gonna get into Troy's answer. Please don't go anywhere. I promise we'll be right back.

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Yeah, no, it's a great question. And to your, to your earlier point, I do believe it's inevitable. And I think One of the advantages we have as a company is 2 things. Number one, we do have the first mover's advantage. You know, this is year 7. You know, for myself being in this space, drilling into the technology, the first headset that I put my hands on was the Microsoft HoloLens, right? Yeah. So when you couple that with the fact that we are former athletes and a lot of people from our company have either played sports or worked in sports at a high level, we uniquely understand the use cases that really are going to drive innovation within the sports space. So typically in the early days when we first started the company, Hawk and I would get together and talk about, hear all these grand ideas that the technologists would have around how athletes could use the product. And all of them were valid use cases, but like any industry, you got to crawl, walk, run to really show the value of how, what problem does this technology immediately solve, right? And I think that for us, because we come from this space, we uniquely understand that and we're able to package and present the product in a way that's very additive to, to the consumer no matter who it is on the end, right? So when we first started in 2017 as a training product, we knew that, hey, coaches wanted to be able to simulate walkthroughs during the phase 1, which is the first part of OTAs, which is the beginning of the season when they're allowed to come back. Because the CBA states that you're not allowed to line up against a heartbeat. So they can't simulate walkthroughs against coaches, teammates, janitors, anyone. But this idea that holograms didn't have heartbeats was a unique solve for them. So coaches were like, okay, well, right now we're using trash cans. So let's just give this thing a shot, right? So that's really what created the opportunity to show like, hey, there's value in this technology. And similarly to the game, you know, when we first launched NFL Pro Era in 2022, the first-time user experience, the first thing you did was run out of the tunnel and get a feel for what it's like to run into a stadium with the crowds roaring and excited. And that came from Hawk and I sitting down and saying, what was the coolest part that you had when you first got to, you know, college football at a high level or the pros?

Yeah.

And it was certainly the tunnel runout that both of us remember vividly. So being able to give the user that so they can say, that's such a unique experience. And it's something that you wouldn't really think is important of everything that goes into a sports game, right? Like you got to get the AI right, the gameplay, all that stuff is important, the mechanics, all of that's important. But really drilling into the small experiences that you can't have anywhere else that lend to the technology that's uniquely parallel with the experience the athletes are having. And that's just something that I think that we just have a strong hold on. And I think that if we continue to do what you said, which is weather the storm as technology gets better, really drill into the benefits of the technology and the elements of the sport, we got a chance to be here and be the leader, continue to be the leader for when the time that this space becomes ubiquitous.

Yeah. And I think for those of our listeners who have experienced this, you know, and I own the Vision Pro and there is some really Immersive experiences in there related to mountain climbing, related to— there's actually some footage from the Kansas City Super Bowl. And it is different. It is a very different experience to look around and be there. And yeah, it's very expensive. There's not enough content. We are at the early days, but— You know, you'd rather be early than late. And again, I think we're on the steep part of the growth curve on the next 5 or 10 years. And, you know, we're really excited about your team and just getting in early and grinding it out because we think, again, there's going to be big companies created in this space. So talk about, you know, if there's an ask, for our community? How could— what are you looking for? How could we help?

Yeah, well, you know, the top ask for founders is you're always raising money, right? So you always look to continue to just grow and scale. To your point, we're in the early days of this space and building a company during a very challenging and complex time. You think about the remote aspects of building products, the emerging category that is XR/VR. You know, we were the first company really building sports in this space. So we're truly building a plane, in the air, right? So we always invite people who are interested and excited about the XR space from just an investment standpoint, not just when the business is raising a round or raising a note, but even just to talk to the investors about what are you looking for? What excites you about this space? What do you look for in companies? So any person who's excited about XR, who's excited about what we're doing, 'cause I do think sports is a unique use case that couples nicely with new hardware that could really drive the innovation and bring—

Yeah.

Be the content that's the champion to bring people in. People who believe in that, we love to, connect with those people because, as you know, building a company is hard. So you try to surround yourself with believers that believe in the, obviously the founding team, but just also the space as well, because then you get creative opportunities such as activations at, you know, different schools that may have top football teams that want to showcase the, you know, the product or, or, you know, conferences to where you get a chance to socialize what you're doing and what you're building. So we're always open to that. And then second, obviously, Sorry.

I'll just pause you there, which is, I think you're, it's really smart, Troy, that, you know, I tell founders that you have 2 jobs. You, half of your job is you're always raising money. And even when you're not in a round, you're always trying to meet investors, people who might be interested in your next round. And the other half is just building the business. But it's 50% of the job description is selling. And raising capital. So definitely for our community that is in that camp and is just interested in tracking the company and following along, please reach out. What's your second ask, Troy?

Yeah, second is go play the game. I want everyone to go experience it. Listen, I tell people, Quest is launching a headset this fall that's going to be extremely favorably priced. I ask people to just step in and try it. I think Yeah. You know, the videos are great, but to your point, you said something that was very accurate earlier in which the graphics are going to get better over time as the technology gets better. And I think that a lot of people will forget that this is a computer on your face. This is literally the iPhone 1. This is the first ever PlayStation, right? Like, we're at the very beginning of this. And I think when you watch a video of the, you know, the demo that we'll show throughout the episode, you'll look at it and you'll say, okay, this looks great, but comparison to traditional games, the fidelity may not be there. But I promise people, when you actually put the headset on and when you're fully immersed, you will realize that it's a totally different experience. And I think that's something that, to your point, Apple Vision Pro tried to solve for. They went extremely high fidelity and qualities, which is why you got that price point that you get there. Meta's headset is not as powerful, but it's a truly fun and compelling experience that's engaging because of the interactive nature of it. I just think that people trying the game and playing the game, they'll have the time of their lives. So

it's— Yeah, no, it is one of those things that you have to experience. versus talk about. So encourage people to do that. If there was an introduction or a partnership, or if you could wave a wand, Troy, who would you love to talk to?

Interesting. That's a great question. You know, this is— I would make— I'm going to give an honest answer and direct answer. So obviously, we were a part of Disney Accelerator Program this year. And we got a chance to meet Bob Iger, which was amazing. And we got a meaningful amount of time with him, just giving him a high-level overview of the business. But personally, I just would love to have a longer sit-down conversation about how he thinks about products, how he thinks about partnerships, how does he just continue to push innovation in such a large company? Because obviously it's even challenging as a startup, but for Disney to do what they've done as a larger company is just impressive. And I read his book a lot, Ride of a Lifetime. And one thing that I noticed was He had a vision for how, you know, the Marvel IP, the Fox IP, all these things tied together. And, you know, the board didn't necessarily see it at the beginning. So just picking his brain on, you know, sitting in a seat where you're a person who loves innovation, who loves disruption, but the vision isn't clear sometimes to stakeholders. Just learning more from him about that, how he thinks about the future of the space with AI coming in XR. Yeah. What's Disney's plans as this technology goes? I mean, they're the world's largest media company. So if you can get a— really get a feel for how he's thinking about things, I think for a startup like myself who's building something which you expect to be the future of which content is consumed, it'll be extremely helpful. So that's— I probably would say— I'd probably say a dinner with Bob Iger, probably.

Great. OK, awesome.

Before we wrap up this episode, I want to provide a little bit more credit where it's due and kind of boast up Troy and Hawk and this massive achievement that they've gotten with being part of the Disney Acceleration Program. And, you know, Troy was just talking about how his dream dinner or dream conversation with anyone would be Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney. And I think it's just really cool that, you know, Bob Iger has this program within Disney's walls at all, that I want to share it. And I think it's an awesome achievement that they are a part of this program. And I want to, you know, talk a little bit more about it. So the Disney Accelerator Program is a business development initiative designed to foster innovation and accelerate the growth of promising companies in the technology and entertainment sectors. So here are some, you know, key things about it. So the Disney Accelerator, now in its 10th year, selects a small group of innovative companies to participate in a mentorship and development program. The program focuses on exploring how emerging technologies can be used to enhance storytelling, create new experiences, and bring Disney magic to fans in novel ways. So some benefits from this program or being a part of this program, when you participate in companies receive investment capital, access to coworking space and on Disney's creative campus, guidance and mentorship from Disney's senior leadership team, opportunity to collaborate with Disney's brands and businesses. The structure, so the program typically lasts a few months and it culminates in a demo day held at the Disney Studios in Burbank, California. And participants are invited to visit Disney's Glendale campus for like key milestone weeks, which is really cool. And some of the focus areas for this program, they often target companies working in cutting-edge technologies. Which is why it's perfect that Status Pro is within this program. So, um, you know, companies involving artificial intelligence, virtual reality and AR, autonomous vehicles, blockchain and Web3 technology, and sort of immersive entertainment experiences. And the fact that Status Pro, uh, knocks 3 of these off of that list is just incredibly, incredibly cool. Um, so since its inception in 2014, the Disney Accelerator has connected over 60 global companies with Disney's resources and Notable alumni include Epic Games. Epic Games is the large company behind Fortnite, which has taken the world by storm. Kahoot, which is awesome, which is like a classroom sort of quiz platform. So the program has led to successful collaborations and even acquisitions, demonstrating Disney's commitment to embracing technological innovation in the entertainment industry. All right, that's my spiel. That's all I got. Uh, one more ad and then we're gonna wrap this show up, so we'll be right back.

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Okay, well, thanks. Uh, it's been really interesting talking to you and meeting you, Troy. Congratulations on what you've built so far, and look forward to catching up, you know, 6, 12 months and continuing to track your story. So

yeah, I appreciate that, Mike. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Um, again, super excited. Blessed

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