Olympus

Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management

Industry: Fitness + Tech

MBA Founding Student Name(s): N. Scott Tsangeos

Brief Description of Solution: Olympus sports performance software helps coaches track, analyze, and improve their athletes’ workouts to minimize the risk of injury and improve performance. Olympus is the only product that is able to translate handwritten notes into digital data with just the snap of a picture providing coaches with the flexibility and speed of pen and paper and the analytics and automation of software.

Funding Dollars: $250,000

What led you to launch this venture? Strength training has had a tremendous impact on my physical, mental, and psychological well-being. I founded Olympus to share these benefits with as many people as possible and our mission reflects this. We exist to help everyone find strength in numbers.

What has been your biggest accomplishment so far with venture? We recently deployed Olympus with our initial group of customers and the feedback has been incredibly positive, with one coach even saying that our product is “revolutionary for the strength and conditioning industry.” Additionally, we have already seen coaches refer us to other coaches in their network. This is a very positive signal because it means that they like Olympus enough to attach their name to it. A ton of work continues to go into building the product, selling to organizations, and providing an exceptional user experience. It makes me feel very proud that we are able to consistently deliver value to our coaches and athletes right from day one.

What has been the most significant challenge you’ve faced in creating your company and how did you solve it? We actually started as a B2C mobile app for individuals to better manage their own workout data. While we had a loyal group of athletes who used Olympus 3+ times every week, we struggled to see a path to monetization. We tried some social media campaigns and other promotions to see if we could rapidly increase adoption, but nothing worked. This forced me to ask the question, “Who has a similar problem (managing workout data), but feels the pain more acutely and would be willing to pay to solve it?” That question fundamentally changed the trajectory of Olympus. We now work with colleges, high schools, and gyms across the country to help coaches deliver workouts, analyze data, and ultimately improve the performance of their athletes. In just the six months after switching our focus to colleges, high schools, and gyms, we acquired 10 customers, built a pipeline of over 50 other organizations, and surpassed $50K in revenue.

How has your MBA program helped you further this startup venture? While the resources for startups at Kellogg are great, what made the biggest difference was the support of both my classmates and professors. When I told people in the “real world” that I was going to build a company, they asked “Why?” However, when I told people at Kellogg, they asked “How can I help?”. I cannot count how many times I have leaned on my peers for their functional expertise, ideas, and product feedback. Should Olympus continue to grow and become all that I believe it can be, I think it’s pretty cool to know that so many of my classmates and friends are forever part of the Olympus story.

What founder or entrepreneur inspired you to start your own entrepreneurial journey? How did he or she prove motivational to you? I don’t think I was inspired by a founder; Olympus started because there was a problem in my life that I was passionate about solving. However, I continue to be motivated and inspired by the coaches that I speak with on a weekly basis and the athletes who are consistently putting in the work to perfect their craft. There are so many sacrifices that come with performing at a high level. I feel a tremendous responsibility to deliver a product that makes our coaches’ lives easier, provides better performance insights, and contributes to the continued success of every athlete we work with.

Which MBA class has been most valuable in building your startup and what was the biggest lesson you gained from it? New Venture Development with Sonali Lamba transformed how I think about building a company. Because of her class, I view every decision as an experiment with a clear X and Y variable. What are we trying to solve, what hypotheses do we have, and how are we going to test it? This approach forces constant prioritization, goal setting, and KPI’s. With each experiment, we learn a bit more about our business and sharpen our vision for how we are going to grow.

What professor made a significant contribution to your plans and why? I feel extremely fortunate to leave Kellogg with a “personal board of advisors” whom I trust and can go to for guidance, encouragement, and inspiration. Sonali Lamba helps me think through hiring and early-stage team formation based on her own experience as a founder, Jeff Eschbach continues to help me navigate early-stage fundraising, Carter Cast helped us swiftly and successfully navigate the pivot from B2C to B2B and hone our value proposition, Troy Henikoff’s B2B SaaS startup experience provides a great blueprint for building and selling enterprise software, and Gregg Latterman is consistently opening up his network to introduce me to people who have unique perspectives and relevant experiences.

How has your local startup ecosystem contributed to your venture’s development and success? Olympus would not be where it is today without the Northwestern and greater Chicago startup ecosystem. The Garage (Northwestern’s entreprenurial center) introduced me to my first teammates, gave us consistent workspace, and provided the resources necessary to work full-time over the summer and run the business after graduation. The Zell Fellowship at Kellogg was also instrumental in the growth of Olympus helping me think through our transition to enterprise software, connecting me with mentors, advisors, and investors in Chicago area. It also brought together a cohort of founders at Kellogg to celebrate wins, share learnings, and support each other on our entrepreneurial journeys.

What is your long-term goal with your startup? Right now, we are hyper-focused on improving our offering and scaling our customer base. Long term, my goal is to build Olympus into the number one platform used by colleges, high schools, and gyms to optimize performance for their athletes.

Looking back, what is the biggest lesson you wished you’d known before launching and scaling your venture? Conducting customer research and collecting product or concept feedback without asking people to pay for the product is only marginally useful. These “out of context” interviews don’t tell you anything about how much customers actually value your product and are willing to pay for it. The minute you try to sell your product or service the pace of learning rapidly accelerates – I wish I had done this earlier.

DON’T MISS: MOST DISRUPTIVE MBA STARTUPS OF 2024