BeatYourRecord

BeatYourRecord was my first real experience in the startup world. I went to a meet-and-greet type of event at Anderson School of Business, and there were many MBA teams there presenting their concepts. Other students, including engineers, were also invited to facilitate matching up. I met Dean and Harsh there who were working on a neat concept involving playing (mini) sports game competitively but through recordings. An offline multiplayer experience! I wasn't sure at first but decided to join up with them.

We applied to Startup UCLA for that summer. I think it was the second cohort for the program. Startup UCLA was immensely helpful and fun, and I met some awesome people there. It deserves its own post. We grinded for a summer there, brought several interns on, and got some MVPs out. The program toured us around some VCs to pitch and learn from. Dean, our CEO, gave our pitches. I remember his first pitches being mediocre, but he improved like crazy over the weeks, and VCs eyes started to light up at the concept.

Here is our explainer video done by Valentina Vee. Thanks Val! Check out her latest at her site.

Here's me testing out the software. The countdown at the end is voiced by Matt Dompe (broadcaster for the Eugene Emeralds), who has that beautiful radio casting voice.

Here's an example shot of a user recording their attempt at "Most Freethrows in 1 Minute".

Ultimately, we shutdown BYR. It had a few big issues and required a bigger commitment than we could give. I was working on my PhD at the same time (and my advisors somewhat reluctantly let me do Startup UCLA), so I got back to that after.