TeamSportz Seeks to Revolutionize Athletic Training With AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic, with tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 making headlines. Many of these stories reflect fears that robotic machine-learning algorithms will replace humans in jobs and artistic endeavors. But a startup called TeamSportz(Opens in a new window) is using AI for a decidedly people-forward purpose: helping athletes improve their performance.
The UK-based TeamSportz is a Black-owned startup created in 2021 by founder and CEO Francisco Baptista, a software engineer with more than 20 years of experience. Baptista discussed his vision for the company with Dan Kihanya of the Founders Unfound(Opens in a new window) podcast, which spotlights founders from underrepresented communities.
Born in Angola, Baptista grew up during the chaos of the bloody Angolan Civil War before eventually moving to Brazil to study as a teenager. From Brazil, his next stops were Portugal, where he began his career as a software developer, and then the UK, where he learned to speak English. Throughout all the tumult, he was comforted by his greatest passion: basketball.
"I learned to play basketball because my mom used to play basketball," Baptista explains. "All the trouble that I could get into, I didn't, because I was always keen to stay a little longer in a basketball court...or run away from school and play a little longer instead of going back into class. So a blessing and a curse."
It was his love of basketball—and other team sports—that inspired Baptista to create a platform that could provide individual athletes, teams, and coaches with analytics and insights to help them improve their training regimens.
The TeamSportz platform comprises two components. The first is a mobile app for Android and iOS that lets
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