Halo Sport neuropriming headset by Halo Neuroscience now has summer Olympic athletes from a variety of countries training with the novel sports tech product joining NFL, NBA, MLB teams along with the US Ski Team and elite training facilities across the nation looking for a competitive edge other competitors, teams and NGB’s are not using yet to improve performance. Last February, the Sports Techie community blog chatted with Dan Chao, CEO and co-founder of Halo Neuroscience and Stanford alumni, as we did again yesterday about their latest business development opportunities that included winning a 2016 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (SSAC) startup trade show and blitz competition and also last week’s win in the Hype Foundation Global Tech innovation for Sports Competition at the US Regional resulting in entry into the late August contests Finals in Rio. We discussed the news about the new 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro Halo users as well as a second open public pre-sales opportunity for any athlete, coach or trainer around the world interested in a discounted opportunity to purchase this game, practice and rehab changing sports technology neurological training device.
Olympic Halo Users
The newest business partnerships for the company are with a number of international athletes participating in various sports training with Halo Sport to prepare for Rio. This development is noteworthy because many of those that compete at the highest levels have never heard of the Halo before.
“We’re excited to be working with summer Olympics athletes who are interested in Halo Sport’s potential to help them further improve their training,” said Chao.
Chao was delighted to talk about the Olympic athletes training with Halo Sport, including, Hafsatu Kamara, the female 100m sprinter from Sierra Leone in Africa participating in her first Olympics in Brazil; Michael Tinsley, a United States 400m hurdler and silver medal winner at the 2012 London games in the UK; Mike Rodgers, a 4x100m relay sprinter for the United States and winner of a 2015 World Relay Championships gold; Mikel Thomas, the 100m hurdler from Trinidad & Tobago who made his first Olympics appearance in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and Natasha Hastings, an American 400m woman sprinter and Olympic gold medal winner in the 2008 women’s 4x400m relay in China. The final athlete is Samantha Achterberg from Denver , she competes in the modern Pentathlon which consists of fencing, pistol shooting, swimming, horse riding, and cross-country running while training at the USOC facilities in Colorado Springs.
“I’ve been an athlete long enough to know when I have more strength and power, and I can definitely say that Halo Sport has helped me improve in those areas,” said Kamara. “During resistance training, I usually do weighted hip thrusts at 100 kg — after using Halo, I can now train at 120 kg and I feel like my training is pushing me into top form.”
“My goal with Halo Sport is to improve technical positioning during hurdles, and I’m excited to say that my technique has improved a great deal since I started using the device,” said Thomas. “I feel much more confident about going into the Olympics this summer, and I know that I’ve positioned myself well for the rest of the track season.”
Chao added “Each athlete brings a unique background and training regimen to Rio this summer, and the training we’re doing continues to build on the work we’ve done with athletes from the Winter Olympics, military, NFL, NBA, and MLB.”
Halo Sport
Halo Sport stimulates the brain’s motor cortex during training. This stimulation, called “Neuropriming,” focuses the brain into a temporary state of “hyperplasticity,” or hyperlearning. As a result, training becomes more productive for the brain to build neuromuscular connections—similar to how proper nutrition makes training more productive for the body to build muscle. Improved neuromuscular connections allow athletes to produce more precise, coordinated, and/or explosive movement, whichever they target during their training.
The Halo Sports Pro is a service package bundle designed for elite teams, athletes, trainers, and performance organizations.
There are no major upgrades to this system but they did tweak it with “subtle things,” according to Chao, such as “re-engineered ear pads that are acoustically transparent making them the only company to sell this type of product.” Chao said, “The feedback from coaches and athletes about the difficultly to hear each other while training resulted in a better product that enables improved communication.”
For Sale
A second Halo Sport system pre-sales campaign is currently underway on the company’s website haloneuro.com. For a limited time until inventory supply is depleted, anyone can pre-purchase Halo Sport for the special pricing of $649—a $100 discount from the regular retail price—and receive the innovative device before the general public. When Halo Sport was unveiled back in February, the first wave of pre-sales sold out in less than one week.
For now they will sell only through their website because it is important to Halo that buyers find complete information not often available on Amazon sites. They want to generate web sales questions and answer with the correct info by their own experts.
Halo Neuroscience will continue to develop future partnerships with elite athletes and teams throughout the world in preparation for the release of Halo Sport to the general public this fall. For information about how to pre-order Halo Sport, visit https://www.haloneuro.com/get-halo-sport
Sports Techie, I asked Chao what he was most proud of in regards to Halo and the announcement released today. His answer was threefold.
One, he could not believe after a short amount of time for a startup that not only were professional sports teams using the headset but now, Olympic runners and an Olympic Modern Pentathlon competitor were as well. Secondly, he was extremely happy about their results at the two sports tech competitions by Hype Foundation and the SSAC because it meant they are being judged by open-mined judges and as a result are now in front of more eyeballs and potential users. The first pitch was eight minutes and the second pitch was a mere six minutes long. Finally, Chao said, “no one thought about the neuro science principle in sports and now the tides have turned, mindshare has occurred and as a result, neuropriming is now on the map.”
He was thrilled to announce the use by female athletes as a company first. I wanted to know if the results and data obtained by women differed from men. Chao said, “the motor system of men and women are not much different for strength and conditioning but ladies often have better fine motor control.”
Another demographic I inquired about was potential millennial users. Chao replied, “Millennials are the new winners, they are more proactive and make informed decisions on their own. They have a different relationship with the brain, grew up with luminosity of products and exchange techniques.”
In terms of product marketing exposure, Rule 40 by the IOC limits the advertising of Olympic stories by non-official sponsors such as Halo so in essence, they are relying on approved “guerrilla marketing” promotions such photos taken of the athletes wearing the Halo when getting off a bus, using it at the Olympic Village or when training at practice venues. The modified rule allows for media and reporters to contact Halo about their product an Olympic athlete is wearing and answer questions about it so look for a follow up blog by me to showcase the buzz, acceptance and results Halo produced in Brazil.
They currently have 25 employees. I asked whether they were going to hire a Director of Sales for the Autumn sales launch to the general public. Chao is quick on his feet and although he had not been asked this before imo, he said this was a good idea and if I knew anyone that was a good fit to let him know. If you are interested contact me via either Twitter handle and I will forward your contact info to Chao.
Lastly, I mentioned the show Silicon Valley and asked Dan if he watched it since they are based there. He mentioned, “Silicon Valley is as crazy as ever. Venture firms have raised record rounds including one of our investors that raised a $1.8 billion round.” With all the big and new startups, the area is as crazy as ever he assured me. His perspective about the HBO series included how, “it was a a little too close to home, painfully truthful and less satirical.”
The Hype Foundation finals are August 24 near the end of the Olympics. I look forward to reconnected with Dan around that time to hear how their Olympic athletes fared, if the buzz was what they expected and what the future entails after the Games end.
The stealth mode Halo was operating under is still in effect but thanks to exposure by the press and bloggers, you may end up owning one just like members of Team USA.
See y’all later in Seattle, Atlanta and around the world.
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