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Founder@ Interview
Interview with Francisco Baptista
“Just to keep going. You are going to get so many no’s before you get one yes. That’s across everyone, from investors to customers..” – Francisco Baptista
Today we feature Francisco Baptista, the founder at TeamSportz. We hear their story in their own words, their successes, their challenges and their insights.
Let’s start by getting to know you. Can you please tell us a little bit about you and what you do?
I’m the Founder and CEO of AI multi-sport app, TeamSportz. Constantly curious, I’m always applying my technical and leadership skills to find more efficient solutions to complex problems.
I’m a self-taught software developer with 20+ years, of working and leading projects at a number of top companies, namely, Hearst Magazines, Bauer Media, and Arrow Electronics.
As a lifelong avid basketball player and experienced developer, I combined my passion for sport and relentless drive for technology to create a sport and fitness solution that would be accessible to everyone, and that’s how the idea of TeamSportz was born in 2017.
Since then, I’ve been relentlessly developing and improving the product, building a strong team, and securing investment enabling me to officially launch TeamSportz to market in November 2021.
A great introduction and start to this interview. Can you please tell us, how did you start, from what age, and what made you decide to change direction and start?
As a child, growing up in Angola, I used to watch my mum play basketball for the local team and kept every one of the newspaper clippings that reported her games.
Basketball was and still is my one true love.
Playing basketball enabled me to escape the harsh realities of my environment during the Angolan civil war and caused many childhood shenanigans as I bunked off school to play around town or masquerade as my father (we share the same name) in order to play on his behalf for his university team.
As a teenager, moving from Angola to Brazil to study, then moving to Portugal where I started my career as a software developer, and finally to the UK without speaking English —I was not a stranger to adversity.
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In all areas of my life, I was self-taught and my passion and relentless drive for improvement meant that I could still compete today with the younger members of my basketball team, (even being 10-20 years older than them).
With the rise of AI, I thought that I would finally be able to use technology to improve my performance on the court, yet no matter where I looked I was unable to find a solution.
I wanted something that could be used indoors and could perform an analysis of my game rather than just tracking how far I had run or my heart rate. This is where the concept for TeamSportz was born.
My passion for building TeamSportz stems from my life experience, from knowing firsthand the impact that technology and sports made in my life as a father, husband, and professionally. — Now I’m all in and am putting that into TeamSportz, with the hope that: by making AI simple, affordable, and accessible it will also have a positive impact on others’ lives.
Thank you for that insight. So can you tell us…What does your business do and where is your company based?
We are based in London. TeamSportz is an AI sports platform to help players and coaches reach their full potential. The app uses AI to analyse, measure, and generate accurate performance data for the players during drills and exercises. The coaches use the web platform to understand, support, and help their players’ development.
Players can share the results of their self-catered drills and exercises, the TeamSportz app stores their progress in an organised way, so they can easily showcase their performance with coaches and teammates.
Players will understand their performance and progression and be able to visualise reps, sessions, speed, and accuracy as well as challenge one of their teammates.
Coaches can easily manage their teams and players. The TeamSportz Coaches Corner intuitive dashboard hosts team rosters, allows coaches to communicate feedback to players, organises exercises, and analyses players’ activity as well as their progress. Analytics will enable coaches to compare players’ performance and see who is heading up the Leaderboard.
TeamSportz is on a mission to provide an affordable and accessible, cutting-edge solution for every team, so they can improve their performance, enjoy the game and improve their well-being.
What’s the story behind your success? What led to your aha moment? how did you get to where you are now?
Sorry, I think I combined this answer previously…
Thank you for sharing that. What’s been your life’s biggest lesson so far?
Starting a business is naturally difficult. I am a black founder without any PhD in AI. The odds generally are not in my favour to start a business.
In the U.K. alone, nine in 10 businesses fail in the second year of their creation. We are in our third year, so hopefully, we’re not one of those statistics. But starting a business is naturally difficult. Attracting the team, the right team, especially when you don’t have sufficient funding and you are effectively attracting individuals that buy into your vision. Those are very difficult things to achieve.
Some of the things I may have done differently is to pay closer attention to the people I bring onto the team. It hard to attract the right talent combined with a passion for the job they’re doing. I am lucky now to say I have a great team that shares the same vision as me.
I wish I knew how to pitch perfectly – from a sales and fundraising perspective. It took me years to nail down the solid pitch I have now, which of course would have saved me time had I known all of the do’s and don’t before.
If you were to go back in time, what piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
The best advice I received that I would tell to my younger self is when Amanda McKenna said to me earlier on that in order to build the team I just needed to convince one person to believe and embrace my vision. That other forms of motivation would quickly wear off.
We’re nearly halfway through our interview so it’s a great time to ask how does your business run. What three tools make your business run better?
Tools we use:
Github
Docker
PHP/Laravel
Javascript/Typescript/React
ReactNative (App development)
Android Studio, XCode (App development)
Amazon Web Services (EC2, S3)
MySQL/MariaDB
Linux/Nginx/Apache (server software)
Cloudflare (CDN)
Stripe (payments)
Pusher (notifications)
Mailgun
Slack
Trello
Intercom
All of these are crucial to the work we do. Our entire development team utilises all of these platforms. Our marketing and sales team utilise Slack, Trello, and Intercom.
What do you know now that you wished you had known before?
I wish I knew how to pitch perfectly – from a sales and fundraising perspective. It took me years to nail down the solid pitch I have now, which of course would have saved me time had I known all of the do’s and don’t before.
What has been your greatest or proudest achievement or moment?
My proudest moment is being able to build something from the ground up to the size it is now. I work 20 hours a day still and I can see the work is paying off. We now have secured 345k in investment and have 1,200+ players and 50+ coaches on the platform.
What future life goals do you want to achieve and why?
My life goal is to give athletes all over the world, regardless of background, disability, financial status, or anything else, the opportunity to stay active, play sport, and improve performance to have the same chances that privileged athletes have. I know personally all too well of what I didn’t have as a kid growing up playing basketball in Angola, so I want those in my shoes to have that chance.
To finish our inspire questions…”We believe that sharing inspiring words can inspire others.” If there was one positive thing you would say to someone to inspire and empower them what would it be and why?
Just to keep going. You are going to get so many no’s before you get one yes. That’s across everyone, from investors to customers.
“Thank you it has been great learning more about your founder story and TeamSportz”
To learn more about TeamSportz Visit www.teamsportz.pro
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