There are some founders who assume that solely good concepts can come from them. Haniff Brown just isn’t a kind of founders.
In 2024, the Williams School math main and former non-public fairness investor was selling his firm Match:match’s AI body-scanning know-how as a manner to assist buyers discover garments that match. Then a serious English soccer group requested if he’d deliver the tech to their youth academy for a completely totally different use. He nearly mentioned no, however went anyway, and after listening to the coaches, he discovered a completely totally different use for the tech — and far larger enterprise within the course of.
Right this moment, Match:match companions with FIFA, Main League Soccer and Main League Baseball to ship athletes a full set of anthropometric and body-composition measurements in seconds. Brown spoke with Entrepreneur to share his insights and recommendation for constructing, rising and seizing sudden alternatives.
Let’s begin with the elevator pitch. What’s Match:match?
Match:match is a physique intelligence platform. Consider us nearly just like the ChatGPT or the Claude or the Gemini of the human physique. We offer distant entry to physique intelligence and physique analytics at scale. So in order for you precision or knowledge analytics on the human physique, we’re the corporate offering that for hospitals, for athletes, and coaches, and actually throughout the board.
Speak to us in regards to the pivot out of your tech specializing in individuals shopping for clothes.
I feel it was in 2024 once we bought a name from a extremely massive sports activities group in England. We have been performing some work in a retailer they usually mentioned to us, “Hey, we actually like your know-how. I do know that you just’re utilizing it for procuring, however are you able to swing by our youth academy out within the countryside in England?” At first, we have been like, no, the know-how is constructed for this function. However generally as an entrepreneur, you simply should take a danger and you need to go along with your intestine. And I felt, why not? So once I was there, I began to speak to the coaches, I began to speak to the scouts after which the sports activities scientists. And that actually was the aha second for us. What they advised us at that academy is, “Hey, if you will get this physique scanning course of all the way down to 10 to fifteen seconds, you’ll unlock an enormous benefit for us.” As a result of most assessments in sports activities take a very long time and contain pulling an athlete out of coaching. I got here again from that journey and I used to be identical to, “We’re going all-in on this.”
You’re a die-hard Manchester United fan — how does it really feel to construct a enterprise round one thing you’re keen on?
What makes me the happiest is the truth that whether or not it’s the MLB or Main League Soccer, we’re doing it on the youth degree. When you can democratize it the suitable manner, you will get entry to extra youth, you may assist develop ecosystems and pathways that don’t exist at this time, and it’s also possible to present knowledge to folks to allow them to make higher selections for his or her little children.
Photograph credit score: Match:match
For entrepreneurs, how essential is it to place your product in individuals’s arms to expertise it?
You’ve entrepreneurs, after which you will have founders which might be attempting to construct one thing that doesn’t exist. I’m on the latter piece. An enormous a part of this journey for me has not solely been, “Hey, the know-how works!” but it surely’s additionally now proving to enterprises, companies, markets and customers that that is one thing they will do. An enormous a part of how I’ve tackled adoption is to place the know-how on the market as a lot as potential. As a result of the extra that’s hidden, the extra obstacles you need to face in that promoting journey. So each shopper name that I’ve now, whether or not I’m speaking to Cleveland Clinic or a sports activities group in Peru, I begin with a demo of the know-how. Not a video, not an image. We have now somebody on our group get on the decision, take out their iPhone, click on 4 photos, and undergo the know-how, as a result of I need to educate the individual on the opposite facet that that is simple. That is an expertise that I all the time inform individuals my eight-year-old son can do and my 70-year-old mother can do. And what I discovered is the ROI and the payback on placing it out there was big.
What’s your recommendation to founders on the market in search of funding?
I’ve been pretty open about this. I don’t like fundraising. I like constructing merchandise, I like scaling groups, I like having enjoyable on that facet of the enterprise. So I view fundraising nearly as should you’re stepping into a automotive from Los Angeles to New York, and someplace alongside the road you’re gonna break down and never have any gasoline left. And also you want a fuel station alongside the journey. Fundraising is these fuel stations. It’s not the means, it’s not the ends — it’s just a few gasoline that it’s essential to get to the following stage and execute your journey. If I construct the suitable product, if I construct the suitable market, if I’ve prospects who’re paying, I’ll discover the suitable investor. I discover a number of entrepreneurs attempt to give attention to fundraising first, then these issues second. What I discovered is that fundraising turns into simpler when you remedy for these issues. So my recommendation is to give attention to the stuff that traders actually need to see.
There are some founders who assume that solely good concepts can come from them. Haniff Brown just isn’t a kind of founders.
In 2024, the Williams School math main and former non-public fairness investor was selling his firm Match:match’s AI body-scanning know-how as a manner to assist buyers discover garments that match. Then a serious English soccer group requested if he’d deliver the tech to their youth academy for a completely totally different use. He nearly mentioned no, however went anyway, and after listening to the coaches, he discovered a completely totally different use for the tech — and far larger enterprise within the course of.
Right this moment, Match:match companions with FIFA, Main League Soccer and Main League Baseball to ship athletes a full set of anthropometric and body-composition measurements in seconds. Brown spoke with Entrepreneur to share his insights and recommendation for constructing, rising and seizing sudden alternatives.
