It
all comes from the desire to share home workouts and make them more engaging,
interactive, dynamic. Thus, two founders passionate about combat sports rewrote
the training dynamics, reaching a global on-line community. Giampaolo Colletti
interviews Valerio Raco, co-founder of Punchlab, for FARE INSIEME STARTUP
Punchlab, that start-up that rethinks workouts starting from the smartphone
FARE
INSIEME STARTUP is the spin-off of the FARE INSIEME project dedicated to
presenting some businesses that form part of the Primo Ventures portfolio, a
company that manages funds specialising in the digital sector and new space
economy. Confindustria Emilia has started up a partnership with Primo Ventures
with the objective of providing its associates with new opportunities for
growth thanks to the presentation of the most innovative start-ups on the
market. Here are some of their stories.
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
“Sports is
at its best when it brings us together.” Frank Deford, one of the greatest
sports writers of our times, the American who for six decades chronicled the
exploits of the stars and stripes sports champions, repeated it like a mantra. After all, this idea of being together
applied to sport explains well Punchlab, a start-up that has developed the best
app with more than 500 thousand users in the world to make training for combat
sports, in particular boxing, interactive and customised. Valerio Raco, who has
always been a fan of combat sports, thought it up from scratch. «For a good
part of my life I've had a punching bag hanging in the garage, but always
recognised the limitations of training alone. Lack of guidance or of a way to
compare yourself to others has a disastrous effect on motivation. I then
started thinking about what I needed to solve my problems, and how to make it
happen. From there I started to imagine what would later become PunchLab», says
Raco. The start-up offers a digital alternative to those who are used to
following combat sports courses in the gym and to those who already train at
home alone but do so without the help of technology. But there is something
more here. Because you don't need sensors to count the number and strength of
punches thrown: everything passes through the connected smartphone. «Today's
smartphones have a series of very high-level sensors capable of tracking all
the movements and events that happen around the phone. And it is one of the
fastest developing technologies on the market. In our case it is sufficient to
mount the phone on the punching bag so that PunchLab can transform the
acceleration and movements of the bag into force and number of punches»,
specifies Raco.
Start-up
profile. PunchLab has been active since 2019, therefore a year before the
arrival of that pandemic, which multiplied hi-tech solutions for all kinds of
activities. There is no headquarters because everything is remote. Today the
start-up has two founders and three employees and the turnover - just over half
a million euros - is generated 97% from the foreign market, specifically from
the American one. Thus, sports trainings - not just those connected to the
punching bag - evolve thanks to digital technologies. «Especially during the
pandemic, it became increasingly important to be able to train independently
from home, without a coach or a reference team. Technology is a key aspect to
be able to replace these elements even in a domestic environment. This concerns
both the access to content and lessons, and the development of sensors, which
also allows the monitoring of athletic performances and the contextual feedback
to the user. All this allows people to train more effectively, but also to keep
their motivation high», says Raco. Meanwhile, customer requests are evolving in
this more connected and complex time. «What until a few years back was a niche
activity – that is, training from home – has become increasingly widespread,
involving a large number of people, especially beginners who want to get back
into shape but are not ready to join a gym or a course. For this reason the
motivational aspect is becoming increasingly important. Activity tracking and
group competitions are becoming a default aspect of fitness apps, as is the
availability of customised courses based on the user's level and goals», says
Raco.
Start-ups
and market. Listening to the market becomes essential. «I think that the
characteristic that has allowed us to survive like small fish in a market as
vast and competitive as that of the United States is the ability to understand
limitations and strengths and to make the most of our limited resources. The
choice not to produce hardware in-house, but to use smartphones has allowed us
to offer our main value of interactivity and activity tracking. The decision to
work with audio training allowed us to acquire a lot of material from US
coaches remotely. Every decision we made was based on these aspects and with
the full awareness of being underdogs», concludes Raco. Here is that clear
passion that allows things to really happen. What a great lesson in business!
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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