How Aquimo Brings Joy to Sports Fans By Creating Genuine Moments of Play

It’s always fascinating to learn how a company got its start.

We’ve all heard that Amazon, Google, and Apple began in garages. At SportsTech, it’s not uncommon to learn that many of the companies in our program started on a sports field.

Aquimo’s founder and CEO, Mark Jeffery, saw his company originate on a golf course in Arizona. Long a fan of the game, Jeffery was able to blend advantageous insight into the ever-changing tech revolution he was holding in the palm of his hand.

Physically playing and tinkering with mobile phones and attaching them to golf clubs allowed him to see a world where fans could mimic athletes’ gestures to participate in fun games. A flick of the wrist holding a smartphone could replicate a basketball shot or swing of a bat. Suddenly, fans could use downtime between action to participate in stadium entertainment.

Aquimo’s games took off at universities in Arizona and delighted a young, upwardly mobile fanbase. At one activation of an Aquimo game, Jeffery recalled how students jumped up and down at the excitement of competing with others in the arena – a tangible moment that showed Aquimo’s games brought joy and delight to fans.

Today, Jeffery is building a platform that can engage legions of fans worldwide, whether cheering in a stadium, watching at home, or following along on their phone.

Taylor Pipes – Boomtown
To get started, I would love to learn more about you, your career journey, and how you ended up in your current role at Aquimo.

Mark Jeffery – Founder and CEO at Aquimo
My name is Mark Jeffery, founder and CEO of Aquimo. My background is pretty non-traditional. I was at UC Berkeley in electrical engineering and computer science research faculty. I did that for several years and decided to return to school and get an MBA. I went to Northwestern, the Kellogg School of Management. I was recruited to join the faculty in 2001 and became a professor at the Kellogg School of Management for 16 years. I had an absolute blast. I just just loved it. But my wife, it turns out, was also at a research faculty in the engineering school and, long story short, was offered tenure at Arizona State University. And so it’s my turn to move.

I moved to Arizona, and it was a fortuitous decision. I love to play golf, and there’s a lot of it in Arizona.

The genesis of Aquimo started on a golf course driving range in Arizona about 12 years ago when we had an idea. The idea was: Here’s a mobile device, and there are sensors in this mobile device. We could use those sensors to do something useful, like fix my golf swing.

Imagine 12 years ago, on a driving range, we attached phones to golf clubs. We took swings and hit golf balls. There’s a 6-axis MEMS gyroscope in here. We saw that the sensor data was this beautiful, smooth curve. Using the mobile device’s motion sensors, we analyzed a sports motion with very high fidelity. We patented that. That was the first patent that we did.

The patent ultimately was awarded in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia. It gets interesting two months later. I remember being in my office and moving my phone, and there was this black dot, and it went up and down. I moved the phone, and this dot went up and down. I’m like, Oh my gosh, we just invented the Wii for the internet. So, we filed a patent. To the shock of my patent attorney, the patent gets awarded, and it’s awarded again in Europe, the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, China, and Korea.

So we’ve got this patent. We know it’s a good patent because other companies, such as Nintendo and Samsung, referenced it in their patents, which implies it’s very good—like a foundational patent.

So then it became, well, what do you do with it? I learned a saying that I think is very, very important: What is a startup? The answer is that it’s a group of people trying to figure out a business model that works. We were trying to figure out what the heck to do with this technology that we had invented.

We actually went on several dead ends where things could have been more commercially viable. We created the number one college basketball game. We licensed 44 colleges and universities to develop an app that was a college basketball game. It was a beautiful product that was customized to every college and was based on in-app purchases, but it just didn’t make money.

It didn’t make money because you had to pay 30% to the App Store, Google, and Android, and we had to pay the universities a 15% licensing fee. Even though the usage metrics and revenue for in-app purchases were actually quite good for a game of its type, it just didn’t make money. It was a losing proposition.

These are the critical inflection points when starting a company. Around that time, we came up with a gesture to control the game, which we also patented. The gesture motion was awarded a patent. In 2017, we got this game working, where you’re using motions to control a game connected to a digital board in the Arizona State University stadium.

Six weeks later, we got it working in the University of Arizona basketball stadium, where a few thousand students were playing, and their reaction was quite extraordinary.

They start jumping up and down; they get so excited. They just absolutely love it. That was the turning point, and I think we got something. Let’s create a new revenue model instead of thinking that we’re going to license the IP from brands and venues and make in-app purchases. Maybe we can actually give it for free to end users. In return, we have the brands and teams give us the marks, so we don’t pay for them. In fact, they pay us! We totally took the revenue model and turned it upside down.

That’s the core brand marketing revenue model that we came up with. Fast-forward to today, and we’re live with over 100 teams and events throughout the U.S. and in other countries. That’s the launchpad into sports tech.

I think what would be helpful is we play a game and then you get the idea of how it works.

Pipes –
Sounds great.

Jeffery –
Let me share my screen here. Okay, so let’s play a game. Can you see my screen? Yeah. What sport do you like?

Pipes –
I love basketball and football.

Jeffery –
I like basketball. So this would be the NBA All-Star game. Can you see the QR code?

Pipes –
I can.

Jeffery –
Alright, great. You scan that QR, and we do the same thing.

We started by making apps, and our first professional team, the Chicago White Sox, said the meeting is done now if it’s an app. So we were like, the app is not going to work. So, we came up with this scan to join. You should see something that looks like this. You want to accept the terms and conditions.

And then put a username in. You know, you can take something like Taylor 22 or something.

Pipes –
And then enable orientation.

Jeffery –
Yeah, that’s a critical thing. Okay. We’re in the game here. You should see the home screen.

Pipes –
It’s like, show me this one right here.

Jeffery –
Oh, yeah, you’re there. You tilt the phone forward and shoot basketballs when I hit tap to play.

Pipes –
And I just start going.

Jeffery –
There’s a power meter on the right side. It will go in if you get it on that line and do it straight. It is a game of skill, so it does take a little getting used to once you get it. You’re going to be like, Okay, I get this. Yeah. So you practice, and I will get the controller while doing that.

Pipes –
This is crazy. This is awesome!

Jeffery –
Alright. How did you do?

Pipes –
I made some shots.

Jeffery –
That’s great.

Pipes –
Yeah, you’re right. You get that sensation, and you’re in.

Jeffery –
Here’s the thing, though. Right away, you notice the motion sensors: if you go left or right, the ball goes left or right, right.

Pipes –
Yeah. Wow. It says the controller. You see, there’s the yellow-orange button right there.

Jeffery –
I’m going to press launch. Basically, you’re in the stadium at the NBA All-Star game. It’s counting down right now. There’s a whole big audio track about getting ready to play. It’s going to be awesome. The game is going to start to count down, and we’re going to play simultaneously.

Pipes –
Oh, wow. Okay.

Jeffery –
We’re now playing simultaneously. You just made an awesome shot, right?

Pipes –
This is awesome.

Jeffery –
Look at the screen in your avatar when you make a shot. You’re on the screen. Tpipes is on the screen, which is neat. Wow! So you got this. You got this. Oh my gosh. He’s pulling ahead. He’s got it. He fights ahead right now. I can’t take a sit down, though. Oh, man, you’re bringing it at the end!

Pipes –
I got it! I won!

Jeffery –
It was a hard fight. Oh, wow. Oh, that’s great. You just want to experience the joy, right?

Pipes –
That’s unbelievable.

“I don’t play many video games, but I haven’t had that feeling since I was a kid!”

Jeffery –
So, let me speak to a few things here. We did something incredibly unique. You got a game on your phone in seconds, and you did not go to the App Store. It’s not an app. In seconds, you got the game, and in seconds, you’re playing. It is very intuitive. Once you do it one time, you get it.

You’re in Denver, and I’m in Iowa City. We just played across the United States. We can play across the world. You could be in Singapore, Tokyo, London, or Delhi, India. We can all play simultaneously, and there is no perceptible delay.

Pipes –
None.

Jeffery –
And here’s the kicker: it’s scalable to millions of people right now. Millions of people can play simultaneously across the world with no delay.

Pipes –
Can you walk me through the application process to SportsTech?

Jeffery –
SportsTech actually approached us, which was really cool. We were not aware that the application process had closed. I’ve done these things where you apply, and it’s usually theater that doesn’t go anywhere.

I was working with Chris Traeger, a terrific guy. He said, “Mark, no, really, we want you to apply.” They opened up the application process for us. We went through the gauntlet, and out of the 1,500 applicants, we were among the ten selected. The reason for that is that we started in stadiums to build credibility.

We always knew that this was actually a broadcast play. Whether we’re live at Madison Square Gardens with the Knicks and Rangers, there are 19,000 people in that stadium. However, a couple of million people watch those games on TV. The idea is that there’s a stadium play, then a broadcast play. It’s just a very, very natural next step.

We’re essentially inventing a new revenue stream for broadcasters, teams, stadiums, and brands. We’re allowing the broadcaster and the teams to monetize the screen. Our data shows folks play anywhere from three to six minutes on average, depending on the format. That’s a real return on investment we provide to brands, and it’s an asset that is quantifiably monetizable by the broadcasters and the venues.

Pipes –
I’ve seen this pattern as a consumer of sports and technology, where this third screen has helped augment our lives somehow. But we’ve reached a really interesting moment where the screen is a valuable asset for sports franchises and teams, but they haven’t been sure how to monetize it, right?

Jeffery –
That’s exactly the case. When I was a professor in business school, there was an old saying: “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

Teams, venues, and broadcasters have a set of traditional assets. For example, they sell signage in a stadium, their digital board for broadcast, or ad spots during the broadcast. It’s also branding, like in the studio. They’re not considering selling this screen, but it’s incredibly relevant.

As one example, we are working with Sky right now (we have yet to reach a deal), but we’re moving very quickly toward the agreement. In the U.K., Sky (the broadcaster’s branding) is the only branding they can have in the stadium. They can’t do ads in their broadcast in the studio. We take it for granted in the U.S., right? Everything is broadcast. It’s brands everywhere, right?

Now, the screen has become incredibly valuable, and they can brand and sell it. But this is a radical new idea.

Pipes –
What is your development side? And what does your team look like? I assume you have engineers, developers, and designers building these experiences in these games. What is your secret sauce to manufacturing these games, getting them into stadiums, and getting them to teams?

Jeffery –
We own the full stack. Our dedicated development team is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delhi, India. We have our team; the main office is in Phoenix, Arizona, where we do all the art and make it look beautiful. Our tech leadership is actually out of Cupertino, California. We have an excellent technology background. That’s my strength. From the beginning, we built the platform to be incredibly scalable for many users. What we’re working on now is making it scalable to many customers. That’s a work in progress. The scalability is there; the game platform is built with a portfolio of 60 games. And we’re actively working with Comcast’s universe of companies to get these going on broadcast.

Pipes –
There are interesting parallels to many companies in this cohort. Are you collaborating and talking with other teams to find out how you can help each other?

Jeffery –
The answer is absolutely yes. We are actively sending referrals when it makes sense to the other teams.

Pipes –
You’ve solved the game latency problem! I’m in my basement here, and it’s astonishing that we can play that game without any issues.

Jeffery –
Exactly. We’re actually working with XFINITY and the cable box, and I want to share with you what we’ve been working on, including what we designed over the last three months that could be integrated into the XFINITY Game Platform.

Pipes –
You mentioned golf, but are you a consumer and sports fan? How do you watch sports? When you watch, do you think about improving the product?

Jeffery –
You know, absolutely! Did you watch it (PGA Championship)?

Pipes –
I sure did.

Jeffery –
It was awesome. Right? Was it one of the best finishes that you’ve ever seen?

Pipes –
Yeah! The lowest scoring is traditionally one of the most challenging courses. What Xander did was just incredible on that birdie on that last hole. That was wild!

Jeffery –
It was just phenomenal. I just absolutely loved it. So that championship was absolutely riveting.

What do people do during breaks from sporting events? They’re typically on this device (motions to mobile) right here. To answer your question, there is massive downtime if you’re in a typical stadium environment.

The Team (and venue) monetizes downtime by selling as much as possible. They’re unaware that there’s still another 40% that they could monetize. I don’t know if you’ve seen the fan camera stadium—they look around at the fans and people doing silly stuff. They are just leaving a very significant amount of money on the table.

As I looked at the PGA Championship, I could see who was playing through on the left side (of the TV screen) and advertising on the right. My perspective was the advertising was not particularly compelling. It wasn’t particularly engaging. You could play our game and do a contest closest to the pin to see how you compare to Xander and Bryson. We’re talking with Comcast and the PGA TOUR about getting that data feed so we can do real-time contests based on Xander and Bryson’s actual data of where they landed on the green to see if you can do better to win a prize.

Of course, this can be a branded experience, a sponsor roll moment infused across all of the NBC product portfolio. This is what’s possible!

Pipes –
What are the trends you’re keeping an eye on in sports tech? AI comes to mind. How are you pivoting or adapting and thinking about the future?

Jeffery –
We are actively using AI internally to build customizable graphics. It has weird glitches, like showing that humans have six fingers. But once you realize that’s what happens, you have to fix it.

AI is a powerful tool for productivity that we are embracing. As I look forward, the challenge is that we’re creating a product that doesn’t exist. We’re bringing it to a market that is traditional and resistant to change. It’s going to take time to penetrate this market. Once we do it, we show that the value you can get from doing this is just so self-apparent.

We’re building a very serious company that could significantly impact media and sports worldwide. So that’s where we’re going. You have to start somewhere. The early days are always the hardest, right? You always look back at successful companies and say, Man, it looks easy, right? It’s incredibly difficult. We’re fighting the fight every day and working to build products that wow our clients and end users.

Pipes –
Are there any sports tech companies that you’re following? What are you intrigued by right now?

Jeffery –
There’s the company that makes the infrared clothing…

Pipes –
KYMIRA?

Jeffery –
That tech is absolutely fantastic.

Pipes –
I have yet to talk to them. So I’m excited now!

Jeffery –
It’s so good. I was following this whole thing about infrared in athletics. Studies show that applying infrared to an injury speeds up healing. The idea that they have created a fabric at the molecular level of the threads in the garments is phenomenal.

The other company is Mobii. The 250-millisecond latency on streaming will blow your mind. It’s so good, and the demos are unbelievably compelling. It’s great.

Pipes –
Well, Mark, thank you so much for chatting and giving me your time. I appreciate it.

Jeffery –
My pleasure. Thank you.