There are several founders who think that lone fine ideas can arrive from them. Haniff Brown is not one of those founders.
In 2024, the Williams College math important and erstwhile personal equity capitalist was promoting his business Fit:match’s AI body-scanning innovation as a way to assistance shoppers discover apparel that fit. Then a important English football squad asked if he’d bring the tech to their younker academy for an entirely distinct use. He nearly stated no, but went anyway, and following listening to the coaches, he established an entirely distinct use for the tech — and much bigger endeavor in the process.
Today, Fit:match partners alongside FIFA, Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball to provision athletes a complete set of anthropometric and body-composition measurements in seconds. Brown said alongside Entrepreneur to portion his insights and direction for building, expanding and seizing unexpected opportunities.
Let’s commencement alongside the elevator pitch. What is Fit:match?
Fit:match is a build intellect platform. Think of us nearly akin the ChatGPT or the Claude or the Gemini of the individual body. We provision distant admission to build intellect and build analytics at scale. So if you desire precision or data analytics on the individual body, we are the business providing that for hospitals, for athletes, and coaches, and really throughout the board.
Talk to us concerning the pivot from your tech focusing on group purchasing clothing.
I think it was in 2024 whenever we got a call from a really ample sports squad in England. We were doing several activity in a retailer and they stated to us, “Hey, we really akin your technology. I cognize that you’re using it for shopping, but can you sway by our younker academy out in the countryside in England?” At first, we were like, no, the innovation is built for this purpose. But sometimes as an entrepreneur, you fair have to obtain a hazard and you have to go alongside your gut. And I felt, why not? So whenever I was there, I started to conversation to the coaches, I started to conversation to the scouts and afterward the sports scientists. And that really was the aha instant for us. What they told us at that academy is, “Hey, if you can get this build scanning procedure downward to 10 to 15 seconds, you would unlock a huge advantage for us.” Because most assessments in sports obtain a lengthy period and affect pulling an sportsperson out of training. I came rear from that trip and I was fair like, “We’re going all-in on this.”
You’re a die-hard Manchester United fan — how does it awareness to build a endeavor about item you love?
What makes me the happiest is the fact that whether it is the MLB or Major League Soccer, we’re doing it at the younker level. If you can democratize it the correct way, you can get admission to additional youth, you can assistance create ecosystems and pathways that don’t be today, and you can additionally provision data to parents so they can create improved decisions for their sons and daughters.
Photo credit: Fit:match
For entrepreneurs, how crucial is it to put your merchandise in people’s hands to experience it?
You have entrepreneurs, and afterward you have founders that are trying to build item that doesn’t exist. I’m on the second piece. A big part of this journey for me has not lone been, “Hey, the innovation works!” but it’s additionally now proving to enterprises, businesses, markets and consumers that this is item they can do. A big part of how I’ve tackled acceptance is to put the innovation out there as much as possible. Because the additional that’s hidden, the additional obstacles you have to visage in that marketing journey. So all client call that I have now, whether I’m talking to Cleveland Clinic or a sports squad in Peru, I commencement alongside a demo of the technology. Not a video, not a picture. We have person on our squad get on the call, obtain out their iPhone, click four pictures, and go through the technology, since I desire to instruct the individual on the another flank that this is easy. This is an cognition that I continually inform group my eight-year-old son can do and my 70-year-old mom can do. And what I established is the ROI and the payback on putting it out there has been huge.
What’s your direction to founders out there seeking funding?
I’ve been fairly open concerning this. I do not akin fundraising. I akin construction products, I akin scaling teams, I akin having fun on that flank of the business. So I perspective fundraising nearly as if you’re going in a car from Los Angeles to New York, and location alongside the row you’re gonna interrupt downward and not have any energy left. And you need a gas position alongside the journey. Fundraising is those gas stations. It’s not the means, it’s not the ends — it’s fair several energy that you need to get to the next phase and execute your journey. If I build the correct product, if I build the correct market, if I have customers who are paying, I’ll discover the correct investor. I discover a lot of entrepreneurs try to concentration on fundraising first, afterward those things second. What I established is that fundraising becomes easier formerly you resolve for those things. So my direction is to concentration on the material that investors really desire to see.
There are several founders who think that lone fine ideas can arrive from them. Haniff Brown is not one of those founders.
In 2024, the Williams College math important and erstwhile personal equity capitalist was promoting his business Fit:match’s AI body-scanning innovation as a way to assistance shoppers discover apparel that fit. Then a important English football squad asked if he’d bring the tech to their younker academy for an entirely distinct use. He nearly stated no, but went anyway, and following listening to the coaches, he established an entirely distinct use for the tech — and much bigger endeavor in the process.
Today, Fit:match partners alongside FIFA, Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball to provision athletes a complete set of anthropometric and body-composition measurements in seconds. Brown said alongside Entrepreneur to portion his insights and direction for building, expanding and seizing unexpected opportunities.
