For exercise, he regularly organizes pickup basketball games.
The only problem?
As he got older, the games started to leave him increasingly sore & fatigued.
Hyperice, the leading sports recovery company, is set to become the next multi-billion-dollar sports business.
The part you didn't know?
Without Kobe Bryant, it would have never happened.
Time for a thread 👇👇👇
For exercise, he regularly organizes pickup basketball games.
The only problem?
As he got older, the games started to leave him increasingly sore & fatigued.
"I wanted to get the level of treatment the pros were getting."
A combo of elevation, ice & compression made sense — but ice bags didn't…
As the ice melts, the bag fills with air — causing it to lose its coldness & compression.
Not to mention, they looked ugly.
Instead, Katz set out to engineer a better solution.
But would it work?
Next up — testing & feedback.
Why professional athletes?
"If it was good enough for them, it would be good enough for everyone else."
As for who, Katz swung for the fences…
Ryan Badrtalei, the youngest member of the UCI coaching staff, would open & close the gym for Kobe.
Badrtalei's friend?
Anthony Katz
Kobe, thinking it might give him an edge, graciously agreed.
Bryant told Katz he would use them for a month and provide feedback.
Katz agreed, hired an engineer, and months later Kobe was wearing Hyperice on the Lakers bench.
Why Hyperice?
Kobe was wearing Nike Hyperdunks at the time.
Within months, LeBron James, Blake Griffin, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and others all had samples they were using.
Katz' plan was working…
Katz setup Hyperice as a corporation — retaining 1/3 of the shares himself, giving 1/3 to his engineer, and setting aside 1/3 for future athlete investors.
Early Hyperice investors include:
— @tpolamalu
— @blakegriffin23
— @lindseyvonn
— @Mark_Sanchez
— @RudyGay
— @_OlivierGiroud_
That's not all…
Revenue:
2014: $1.5M
2020: $200M+
Once the product was good enough for the pros, every non-pro athlete in the world wanted to use Hyperice.
Next up...growth capital to scale.
New investors include:
— @PatrickMahomes
— @JJWatt
— @naomiosaka
— @TheTraeYoung
— @rickiefowler
— @God_Son80
— @CMC_22
— @BenSimmons25
— @AntDavis23
— @CP3
He knew Kobe Bryant was always looking for an edge.
By incorporating the ideal customer in the product development process, Hyperice changed the way that athletes train forever.
The more interesting part is that the founder gave up more than 60% of the equity on Day 1, in hopes of securing the perfect team.
At $700 million valuation, I'm sure he doing just fine :)
Chiefs players were drinking soda & smoking cigarettes during halftime of Super Bowl I, while it’s now normal for an athlete to sleep in a $150k hyperbaric chamber.
Times have changed...
1. Follow me, I tweet cool sports stories everyday.
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More from Sport
When thinking about who to play in DM for Leeds the word "role" is important. Let's have a think about the role:
A lot of people think Struijk isn't good enough in the build-up phase. Well, what does the DM do in build-up?
Here's a passing network from last season:
As you can see, Phillips' role in the Championship last season was largely facilitating build up in the wide area (on the left interestingly).
Per Wyscout, Phillips is putting up a figure of 7.03 long passes per 90 minutes and completes around 59%. Last season he was making 6.94 long passes per 90 mins at around 52%.
Per dribbles he's putting up similar numbers across both seasons (between 1 and 1.5 p90) and per duels he's putting up the same number (20 p90).
All of this suggests his role hasn't changed much over the last couple of seasons.
This exactly. I think the 8 and fullback roles in this system share quite a lot of common attributes, even forgetting how Bielsa looks to hybrid them in 3-3-1-3. No wonder that we've seen Dallas, Shackleton, Gotts etc play both. And these roles play to Dallas' strengths.
— Jacob Standbridge (@PocketTrumpeter) February 13, 2021
A lot of people think Struijk isn't good enough in the build-up phase. Well, what does the DM do in build-up?
Here's a passing network from last season:
As you can see, Phillips' role in the Championship last season was largely facilitating build up in the wide area (on the left interestingly).
Per Wyscout, Phillips is putting up a figure of 7.03 long passes per 90 minutes and completes around 59%. Last season he was making 6.94 long passes per 90 mins at around 52%.
Per dribbles he's putting up similar numbers across both seasons (between 1 and 1.5 p90) and per duels he's putting up the same number (20 p90).
All of this suggests his role hasn't changed much over the last couple of seasons.
#swfc are finally back in league action tonight 8pm GMT away to Coventry #pusb
A relegation six pointer to kick off our second half of the season with 7 points separating us in 23rd and them in 16th.
A look of our numbers and theirs below and what they can tell us.
[thread]
I looked at the survival prognosis for teams in our position yesterday (https://t.co/rmVT8b5sFl).
Thankfully a prognosis is not a prediction, but it does bear out just how important tonight's game is.
Can we quantify match importance then?
Well, @FiveThirtyEight have given it a right good go and how they've done it is explained here: https://t.co/ObjB079Fjw
Their match importance rating ranges from 0 to 100 for a team.
In a game with a high match importance vs. a team with low match importance, a team's likelihood of winning increases: All else being equal, if match importance is 100 for the home team and 0 for the away team, the home team's odds of winning drop from Evens (50%) to 8/11 (58%).
If we look at the combined match importance ratings for both teams, tonight's game ranks 14th of the 317 matches with match importance ratings. Pretty important then!
Of our matches only the win against Bournemouth had a higher combined match importance than tonight's match:
A relegation six pointer to kick off our second half of the season with 7 points separating us in 23rd and them in 16th.
A look of our numbers and theirs below and what they can tell us.
[thread]
I looked at the survival prognosis for teams in our position yesterday (https://t.co/rmVT8b5sFl).
Thankfully a prognosis is not a prediction, but it does bear out just how important tonight's game is.
#swfc Derby's latest win over QPR leaves Wednesday six points adrift of 21st and safety with two matches in hand.
— Peter A. L\xf8hmann (@ploehmann) January 27, 2021
How have teams in those circumstances done in the previous 22 seasons?
[thread] pic.twitter.com/LxENys45wC
Can we quantify match importance then?
Well, @FiveThirtyEight have given it a right good go and how they've done it is explained here: https://t.co/ObjB079Fjw
Their match importance rating ranges from 0 to 100 for a team.
In a game with a high match importance vs. a team with low match importance, a team's likelihood of winning increases: All else being equal, if match importance is 100 for the home team and 0 for the away team, the home team's odds of winning drop from Evens (50%) to 8/11 (58%).
If we look at the combined match importance ratings for both teams, tonight's game ranks 14th of the 317 matches with match importance ratings. Pretty important then!
Of our matches only the win against Bournemouth had a higher combined match importance than tonight's match:
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Great article from @AsheSchow. I lived thru the 'Satanic Panic' of the 1980's/early 1990's asking myself "Has eveyrbody lost their GODDAMN MINDS?!"
The 3 big things that made the 1980's/early 1990's surreal for me.
1) Satanic Panic - satanism in the day cares ahhhh!
2) "Repressed memory" syndrome
3) Facilitated Communication [FC]
All 3 led to massive abuse.
"Therapists" -and I use the term to describe these quacks loosely - would hypnotize people & convince they they were 'reliving' past memories of Mom & Dad killing babies in Satanic rituals in the basement while they were growing up.
Other 'therapists' would badger kids until they invented stories about watching alligators eat babies dropped into a lake from a hot air balloon. Kids would deny anything happened for hours until the therapist 'broke through' and 'found' the 'truth'.
FC was a movement that started with the claim severely handicapped individuals were able to 'type' legible sentences & communicate if a 'helper' guided their hands over a keyboard.
For three years I have wanted to write an article on moral panics. I have collected anecdotes and similarities between today\u2019s moral panic and those of the past - particularly the Satanic Panic of the 80s.
— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) September 29, 2018
This is my finished product: https://t.co/otcM1uuUDk
The 3 big things that made the 1980's/early 1990's surreal for me.
1) Satanic Panic - satanism in the day cares ahhhh!
2) "Repressed memory" syndrome
3) Facilitated Communication [FC]
All 3 led to massive abuse.
"Therapists" -and I use the term to describe these quacks loosely - would hypnotize people & convince they they were 'reliving' past memories of Mom & Dad killing babies in Satanic rituals in the basement while they were growing up.
Other 'therapists' would badger kids until they invented stories about watching alligators eat babies dropped into a lake from a hot air balloon. Kids would deny anything happened for hours until the therapist 'broke through' and 'found' the 'truth'.
FC was a movement that started with the claim severely handicapped individuals were able to 'type' legible sentences & communicate if a 'helper' guided their hands over a keyboard.
👨💻 Last resume I sent to a startup one year ago, sharing with you to get ideas:
- Forget what you don't have, make your strength bold
- Pick one work experience and explain what you did in detail w/ bullet points
- Write it towards the role you apply
- Give social proof
/thread
"But I got no work experience..."
Make a open source lib, make a small side project for yourself, do freelance work, ask friends to work with them, no friends? Find friends on Github, and Twitter.
Bonus points:
- Show you care about the company: I used the company's brand font and gradient for in the resume for my name and "Thank You" note.
- Don't list 15 things and libraries you worked with, pick the most related ones to the role you're applying.
-🙅♂️"copy cover letter"
"I got no firends, no work"
One practical way is to reach out to conferences and offer to make their website for free. But make sure to do it good. You'll get:
- a project for portfolio
- new friends
- work experience
- learnt new stuff
- new thing for Twitter bio
If you don't even have the skills yet, why not try your chance for @LambdaSchool? No? @freeCodeCamp. Still not? Pick something from here and learn https://t.co/7NPS1zbLTi
You'll feel very overwhelmed, no escape, just acknowledge it and keep pushing.
- Forget what you don't have, make your strength bold
- Pick one work experience and explain what you did in detail w/ bullet points
- Write it towards the role you apply
- Give social proof
/thread
"But I got no work experience..."
Make a open source lib, make a small side project for yourself, do freelance work, ask friends to work with them, no friends? Find friends on Github, and Twitter.
Bonus points:
- Show you care about the company: I used the company's brand font and gradient for in the resume for my name and "Thank You" note.
- Don't list 15 things and libraries you worked with, pick the most related ones to the role you're applying.
-🙅♂️"copy cover letter"
"I got no firends, no work"
One practical way is to reach out to conferences and offer to make their website for free. But make sure to do it good. You'll get:
- a project for portfolio
- new friends
- work experience
- learnt new stuff
- new thing for Twitter bio
If you don't even have the skills yet, why not try your chance for @LambdaSchool? No? @freeCodeCamp. Still not? Pick something from here and learn https://t.co/7NPS1zbLTi
You'll feel very overwhelmed, no escape, just acknowledge it and keep pushing.
Joe Rogan's podcast is now is listened to 1.5+ billion times per year at around $50-100M/year revenue.
Independent and 100% owned by Joe, no networks, no middle men and a 100M+ people audience.
👏
https://t.co/RywAiBxA3s
Joe is the #1 / #2 podcast (depends per week) of all podcasts
120 million plays per month source https://t.co/k7L1LfDdcM
https://t.co/aGcYnVDpMu
Independent and 100% owned by Joe, no networks, no middle men and a 100M+ people audience.
👏
https://t.co/RywAiBxA3s
Joe is the #1 / #2 podcast (depends per week) of all podcasts
120 million plays per month source https://t.co/k7L1LfDdcM
https://t.co/aGcYnVDpMu