2019 Startups to Watch: ShotTracker sensors detect high-scoring year for sports tech firm
January 14, 2019 | Austin Barnes
Editor’s note: Startland selected 12 Kansas City firms to spotlight for its annual Startups to Watch list. The following is one of 2019’s companies. Click here to view the full, ranked list of Startups to Watch.
ShotTracker’s elevator pitch: ShotTracker is a sensor-based technology that tracks statistics and analytics for basketball practice and games in real-time. It’s a small sensor that goes on the player and a small sensor that goes in the ball. We have partnerships with Spaulding, Willson, Under Armour, Adidas, and Nike. There are sensors around the arena — or facility, where we track the location of the player and the ball within two to five centimeters.
Davyeon Ross is an athlete who likes to win, he said of the defining characteristic that has helped him turn his Merriam-based company — ShotTracker — into a startup slam dunk.
Founders: Davyeon Ross and Bruce Ianni
Founding year: 2013
Amount raised to date: $26.5 million
Noteworthy investor: Magic Johnson, David Stern, Brian Howard, Seventy-Six Capital, The L.A. Dodgers, KCRise Fund
Programs completed: Dodgers Accelerator Program
Current employee count: 30
“We have two founders who have already exited startups in the past,” said Ross, co-founder of ShotTracker. “When you look at [our] leadership team and board of advisors, people like David Stern — who was commissioner of the NBA for almost 40 years and is really trying to revolutionize the game of basketball — those are all things that are critical to allow us to be where we are today.”
Such experience, coupled with the hustle instilled in an athlete-minded founding team, has brought ShotTracker from an idea on the bench to a position at center court of the Kansas City startup ecosystem in under 10 years, Ross said in anticipation of a record-breaking year of partnerships, capital raises, and product rollouts for the company.
“We have an amazing group of people and individuals. I think as founders, you want to make sure that those people get a return on the hard work and efforts that they’re putting in,” he said of putting his team first in every business decision made by ShotTracker executives.
Mimicking a layup drill, ShotTracker signed deal after deal with college basketball teams, broadcast networks, and tournaments in 2018, Ross said, recalling the events as momentum buildings moments for the company.
Click here to read more about ShotTracker’s performance in 2018.
“The more success we can have in Kansas City the better,” Ross said of the months and years ahead. “[That’s what] we think about when we think about the process of where we’re going as a company.”
Davyeon Ross and Bruce Ianni, ShotTracker
1) Bungii
2) ShotTracker
3) RiskGenius
4) Metactive
5) Pepper IoT
6) Signal Kit
7) Life Equals
8) Bellwethr
9) Homebase.ai
10) Tea-Biotics Kombucha
11) SquareOffs
12) Zohr
2019 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Chefs transform ‘ugly’ produce into beautiful dinners: How Kanbe’s Markets is taking food waste off the menu
From lumpy apples to a spotty potato, foods with cosmetic flaws are still edible and nutritionally dense, said Ali Curbow. “People turn away these types of produce because it is considered ‘ugly’ — but we’re hoping to showcase that these ugly produce can be made into something beautiful,” said Curbow, marketing manager at Kanbe’s Markets,…
Gator, shrimp po’boys made to order, but Chef Esra has more than sandwiches plated for KC’s East Side
Opening a restaurant is just one phase of Esra England’s vision for Kansas City’s East Side. “I’m looking at a restaurant as an anchor point. Once you have a restaurant in the area, the community will be able to do different things like host meetings or classes — and hopefully, other businesses will start to…
KC investors power $4.5M round for OP startup poised to ‘unlock billions’ for its customers
Overland Park-based Realto has closed a $4.5 million funding round — thanks in large part to the backing of Kansas City-based investors. “We’re excited to welcome these important investors as we continue to expand our robust trading capabilities across the universe of alternative products,” Brian King, co-founder and CEO, said in announcement of the funding round which…
Meet seven founders hoping to pay their bills while changing the world; LaunchKC Social Venture Studio unveils first cohort
Dr. Shelley Cooper held back tears during a nearly four-hour introductory session to the new LaunchKC Social Venture Studio earlier this spring, she said. She’d already found her calling with Diversity Telehealth; now the startup founder had discovered truly mission-aligned colleagues within her cohort. “My focus has always been to bring healthcare to underserved areas…