In this Q&A, you’ll hear from Dave Anderson, CEO of BreakAway Data, a direct-to-consumer sports data company. Sharing lessons learned from multiple seasons in the NFL, Dave explains how aggregated data in the hands of athletes acts as the ultimate resume and training tool.
Can you tell us about what you’re working on at BreakAway Data?
Dave Anderson: BreakAway is a performance company that empowers athletes with data.
Data, stats, times, scores, and numbers are your resume when you are an athlete. The fact that athletes don’t control or have easy access to this information blows my mind. In short, our company puts an athlete’s career on their phone so they can use it however they choose.
Our dashboard aggregates data from wearables, game footage, media clips, in-game radar—just about any source—so athletes can optimize their training, performance, recovery, health, career opportunities, and lifestyle.
The way we see it, athletes should treat their data like a piece of equipment — and as the only direct-to-consumer sports data company out there, we want every athlete to be educated, aware, and on top of all of the biometric data that’s been collected on them throughout their career.
How did you come up with the idea? What key insight led you to pursue this opportunity?
DA: We have worked with the best leagues and teams in the world—from the NFL to the WNBA to the English Premier League—and they all had one similar pain point: communicating tech and data with their athletes.
So, we set out to solve that problem in the most effective and simple way — by putting it on their phone. The traction we’ve had with top performers across the world solidified our belief that we were solving a real problem in sports.
How big can this get? What’s the addressable market and how do you go about capturing it?
DA: Nike told me everyone is an athlete… you just need to meet them where they are in their personal journey.
Worldwide, we see that everyone wants to learn from pros. Whether that is a YouTube video of how to fix a chair or a TikTok on how to get better at Excel, we are betting that athletes want to learn from others’ experiences, especially those at the top of their game.
And how do you do that? It’s not with a single video. If you really want to follow an athlete, you need to be willing to put in the day-in and day-out grind. You can find that experience on our app. BreakAway is designed for athletes but appropriate for anyone trying to improve their health and overall well-being.
Thinking on growth, we can be the next big brand in sports — something every athlete uses whether they are just starting their career or they want to get back to their fightin’ weight.
Who is the core customer? How are you acquiring customers? And how will you grow the customer base?
DA: Aspiring athletes are our core. And professional and college athletes telling their inspirational stories through our app is big for acquisition.
We are also attracting customers through our league and team partnerships, and additionally through our marketing efforts. We will continue to grow our customer base through strategic technology and data partnerships that instantly expand the number of users and increase the value of our product.
Anything else you’d like to share with readers?
DAL Data sounds dorky, but it is now the lifeblood of nearly every digital product we interact with.
I encourage everyone, not just athletes, to better understand their data. It tells an amazing story — either a story that you will fall in love with and continue or one that will blow your mind and change your behavior.
For instance, when I discovered the average number of times I pick up my phone in a day, I almost threw up. What this says to me is that your data speaks very loudly, and following it unlocks enormous potential for change.
If you’re interested in having your company featured in our Startup Q&A series, send an email to team@fitt.co.
