Since retiring from the NFL in 2019, former Seattle Seahawks star Doug Baldwin has dipped his toes within the tech trade, advising early-stage firms and investing in others.
However now he’s diving deeper into the startup world as CEO of Ventrk, a healthcare spinout of Bellevue, Wash.-based invention agency Mental Ventures.
Baldwin lately took the CEO reins at Ventrk, the mum or dad firm of two exercise-focused apps: TheraCentric and TrainCentric.
Baldwin, 33, started advising Ventrk shortly after retiring from the NFL. When it was time to spin the corporate out of Mental Ventures, he was requested to take over as CEO.
That is Baldwin’s first time as an worker of a tech startup, not to mention main one. However his expertise on the soccer area actually offered some preparation as he goals for startup success.
“I’ve been lucky sufficient to be round profitable organizations,” mentioned Baldwin, who gained a Tremendous Bowl with the Seahawks in 2013. “I do know what it appears like. I do know what it tastes like. I do know what it smells like.”
We caught up with Baldwin to be taught extra about Ventrk and TheraCentric, a house train app designed for bodily remedy sufferers. The expertise behind the app was initially created by Seattle-area entrepreneurs and childhood buddies Jarid Adams and Sam Bender; each stay on the firm in government roles. Ventrk employs 4 folks and has raised $1.65 million since spinning out of IV; buyers embrace HBSI Capital, which led the seed spherical, and different angels.
The interview was edited for brevity and readability.
Startup: It’s nice to talk with you once more, Doug. You’ve been busy since retiring — serving to out The United Manner, constructing a neighborhood heart, talking on the Startup Summit, elevating your children, and extra. How did turning into a startup CEO match into your post-NFL life?
Doug Baldwin: Once I left soccer, I had no concept what I needed to do. Diving into enterprise and tech was all the time one thing I used to be eager about. As a toddler, I cherished taking part in with LEGO units, I cherished constructing issues. And I nonetheless have this fascination and fervour to create. That is one thing I’ve been eager to do, to check out and see if I could be profitable.
Startup: Inform us extra about TheraCentric.
Bodily therapists sometimes ship sufferers dwelling with a bit of paper for his or her workout routines. There’s no monitoring of progress. There’s no gathering of information to indicate the progress and efficacy of the applications.
And other people simply don’t full their applications. Research present that individuals who really full their applications decrease therapy prices. That’s an enormous deal for the affected person, to allow them to get wholesome. It’s an enormous deal for the bodily therapists as a result of they need to see their sufferers get more healthy. It’s a part of their popularity. And it’s an enormous deal to insurance coverage firms. Our buyer (the clinics and bodily therapists) pays a subscription price to entry this information for reimbursement. Insurance coverage firms will need to know if their insured are literally doing their plan of care.
What’s the bigger imaginative and prescient for Ventrk?
As soon as a person has accomplished their therapy with TheraCentric, they’ll migrate over to TrainCentric, the place you could have your train applications and may work with trainers. It’s the identical guided expertise. And it’s not simply with train — it’s sleep, food regimen, and so forth.
I’m actually enthusiastic about this as a result of as we glance out into the world, there may be extra of an emphasis on caring for your physique. We’ve got all these units and expertise now accessible, capturing information that helps you make higher selections about your well being. We’re going to develop into the hub for that. We’re beginning off with bodily remedy as a result of it simply makes a ton of sense.
How will your expertise with sports activities efficiency and information within the NFL assist with TheraCentric and TrainCentric?
You come into the apply facility and it’s made for you. There’s no signup sheet, there’s no ready line. We had all of the instruments accessible. You may have these conversations and you’ve got all this information about your train load the day gone by, and that means that you can change what you’re doing the subsequent day to be able to get the simplest exercise and on your efficiency to be the perfect on Sunday.
However the common individual doesn’t have this. We’re taking all these ideas and wrapping it up right into a software program platform that’s actually empathetic for the affected person and for the bodily therapist and whoever else is utilizing it.
All my expertise and understanding of what’s priceless for the well being and well-being of the high-performing athlete, it comes into play right here. If you happen to can simply break that down and construct it again up right into a platform that’s simply digestible and user-friendly for on a regular basis folks, we are able to make some impression on folks’s lives.