Sports Innovation Lab has launched in Boston, taking a page from Forrester
The Sports Innovation Lab today officially launched its market research and advisory platform that will identify and evaluate the technology companies, products and services to power the future of the sports and fitness industry.
Based in Boston, the Sports Innovation Lab's flagship platform will give client members access to more than 1,000 sports and fitness technology vendor profiles, organized into sectors that describe each company's capabilities in the markets they serve. The founders include Josh Walker who is former vice president of research from Forrester, a leading research and advisory firm.
He notes that Sports Innovation Lab is essentially emulating what companies like Forrester and Gartner do, but with a focus on sports tech and fitness. Further, co-founders Angela Ruggiero, a four-time Olympic medalist, and Isaiah Kacyvenski, a former linebacker who spent eight seasons in the NFL including six years with the Seahawks, will join Walker.
Kacyvenski, who found success after his playing days was an early employee of MC10, graduated from Harvard Business School and has invested in 15 startups. He first met Ruggiero when the two former college athletes were attending Harvard.
Ruggiero, who was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2015, has spent more than a decade in sports administration, working with organizations like the International Olympic Committee and the Los Angeles 2024 Olympic bid team.
Walker, meanwhile, spent more than six years at Forrester and knew Kacyvenski from the Boston startup scene.
“We’ve continued to see that nobody was doing this,” said Walker, who is also a startup investor. “It wasn’t a single lightbulb moment, there was just a constant need for us to help the people we were working with understand what’s happening with sports and technology.”
Added Kacyvenski: “We come at this from multiple angles, but we see the same opportunity.”
The Sports Innovation Lab has the full support of the city of Boston as the ideal hub for global sports technology innovation. "Boston is a city with a strong sports culture, and I'm thrilled the Sports Innovation Lab is taking two of Boston's best attributes and leading the way in sports innovation," said Mayor Martin J. Walsh.