Hardware fails. Coaches push back. Plans change. This is the real version of building Slingshot: every decision, every dead end, and what the data actually said. We're three founders building it in the open, not optimizing for a pitch.
It runs on a trainer's phone. It's built so the trainer can sync the pods after practice and send each family a weekly report. Anyone with an iPhone can install the test build. Every number in it is sample data, because the pods can't send the app anything yet.
On iPhone it installs through TestFlight, Apple's app for test builds. If you run basketball training in LA, OC or San Diego, message us and we'll show you how it works.
No board to test, so September went to the software spine: the Bluetooth transfer layer that empties a pod, a laptop host to drive it, and the coach app that turns a session into a parent report. All on a dev kit and sample data, honestly.
We restarted outreach in July because the engineers were blocked on trainer language. Here is what nineteen messages produced, and why the reply rate turned out to be the wrong thing to be pleased about.
The second board is designed and in production. What we changed from V1 and why, from the power chain to the optics, plus why it's being built by a new factory after the last one couldn't deliver on time.
The design left our hands and became a board on its way to us. No undo on copper. The band and casing come together while we wait, plus the honest list of what designing V1 already taught us to change for V2.
Next: the first real sensor pod. Before we trust a board layout, we have to know whether heart rate even survives on the upper arm during live play. It's the one result that could force a redesign. Here's the bet, and how we'll know if it paid off.
A co-founder asked whether a stopwatch and a good eye could do what Slingshot does. It's a fair question. The answer is the reason we're building this.