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Building a resilient business: The ProBatter Sports Experience
68 Plays1 year ago
In this episode , I unravel the narrative behind ProBatter Sports' success and gain insights from Adam Battersby, President of ProBatter Sports.
Adam's entrepreneurial journey is a testament to innovation, perseverance and a relentless pursuit of excellence in the world of sports training .
Enjoy this conversation with Adam.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
00:00:00
Speaker
Do something you love and don't be afraid to roll up your sleeves and work hard because that's what life is. It's working hard and doing something you like. No one wants to be miserable, so if you do something you love and enjoy, it's more fun than
00:00:27
Speaker
Welcome to the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast, where I sit down with successful entrepreneurs and hear their stories.
00:00:36
Speaker
from their biggest failures to their greatest successes. You get a behind the scenes look at what it really takes to make it as an entrepreneur. So come along for the ride and let's explore the entrepreneurial journey together. Today, I have the pleasure of sitting down with a trailblazer in the sports technology industry. The president of ProBatter Sports, Adam Batisby.
00:01:02
Speaker
His entrepreneurial journey is a testament to innovation, perseverance, and a relentless pursuit of excellence in the world of sports training. Join me as I unravel the narrative behind ProBata Sports' success and gain insights from Adam on the intersection of technology and athletics.
00:01:24
Speaker
Let's dive into the fascinating world of sports innovation with Adam Buttersby. Welcome to my show, Adam. Well, thank you for having me. Let's kick things off by you telling us a bit more about yourself and your childhood. Yes. So I grew up in Connecticut and growing up, I played a lot of sports. I played baseball, wrestling, football.
00:01:48
Speaker
And sports was always a big passion of mine. And it took up a lot of my free time. So I always enjoyed it. So getting into the sports industry has always been a fun thing for them. OK. So could you provide our listeners with an overview of your company, ProBata Sports, and the unique solution you bring to the sports training
Innovations in Sports Technology
00:02:09
Speaker
industry?
00:02:09
Speaker
Yes, so what we do is we put a video screen in front of a baseball softball or cricket pitching machine and the video screen shows a right hand or left hand baseball pitcher winding up before the ball comes out of a hole in the video screen. And same for cricket. You see a cricket guy, you know, running up before the delivery and it's all computer controlled. So whatever pitch you want, there's 10 different pitches, whatever speed you want from 40 to 100 miles an hour, whatever location you want. You can get that all off the touch
00:02:39
Speaker
And similarly, you can pitch, you know, one pitch at a time, repeat a pitch, you can record your own sequences. So really, it's the closest thing to real life batting practice that you can take without having an actual pitcher throwing the ball to you. Okay, sounds so interesting. We'll delve into a lot more details in our conversation. But now let's still get to understand your company and what you do. Can you share
00:03:04
Speaker
The story behind the founding of ProBata Sports and what really inspired you to venture into the sports technology industry. Yeah, so growing up, my dad actually built a batting cage in our backyard, which was great. It allowed us to train basically year round, well, except in the snow and the cold.
Founding Story of ProBatter Sports
00:03:23
Speaker
But it was great, but we found that there was
00:03:26
Speaker
The pitch machine that we had was a two wheel pitching machine. It was a great machine, but the problem is you hold the ball up, then you put it in the wheels and sometimes it doesn't go through smoothly. So you're kind of hitting off your front foot. You can't really train properly. So we knew there was something that we could improve in that aspect. Another thing is there was dials on the machine, which change your wheel speeds, which then create breaking, you know, the brakes, the different pitch types.
00:03:52
Speaker
So you throw a pitch, if you want to change it, you gotta move the dials, then tilt the pitch head, throw some test pitches. At that point, you knew what was coming. You knew it was either a fastball, a curveball, a slider, a changeup. So the batter didn't really learn how to hit the pitch, you just learned where to put the bat to hit the pitch. And that's what created some problems with me because I could always hit the fastball, but the breaking pitches gave me some trouble. So we thought of an idea to come up with a fully programmable pitching machine.
00:04:21
Speaker
they can change a pitch type by the batter without the batter knowing. So then he has to learn how to hit those pitches. And that's what really started the pro batter sports video pitching machine. Okay. Sounds very interesting. All right. So as the president of pro batter sports, what initially drew you to the world of sports technology and how has your background influenced your approach to leading this company?
00:04:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the background being baseball, me and my father both enjoyed, you know, watching and playing baseball. He always coached me growing up. So naturally, it was a good fit for us to get in the baseball industry. We obviously knew what we're doing. We obviously knew the sport. So that definitely helped. And we also had contacts that we can get. We can reach out to, get some feedback, show them the machine, show them what they think.
00:05:09
Speaker
So that helped us out a lot as well. And the contacts also at Major League Baseball and Colleges that we were able to tap into as well.
00:05:18
Speaker
to get feedback as well, you know, on our machine and through the development stages. So is your father still involved in the running of your company? Yeah, he's actually, he's a full-time lawyer. He does our patents and trademarks. So he's still involved, but he doesn't do the day-to-day, but he's still involved with all the, you know, we have Zoom meetings, he sees the numbers, the spreadsheets. So yeah, he's still involved. So more like an advisory kind of rule for you now, I guess. Yeah.
00:05:47
Speaker
Yeah, he oversees a lot of the stuff as well. And also, it's good to bounce ideas off of him and get feedback from his perspective and my perspective as well. Sure, sure. It's always good to bounce off ideas, especially since he was around from the beginning. So how long has the company been in existence? How long has it been in existence? Yes, we started 1999, so this our 25th year, which is pretty unbelievable if you think about it. Yeah.
00:06:17
Speaker
Alright, so let's delve into some more details. So your company is known for its cutting-edge technology in baseball and also you just talked about softball training. Can you share some success stories or notable achievements that showcase the impacts
00:06:39
Speaker
your products have had on athletes and also on teams? Yeah, sure. I mean, with our machine being the closest thing to real life batting practice without actual pitcher, I mean, we've helped a ton of athletes get to the next step. I remember there was one guy who bought a machine off when he was still in high school.
00:06:58
Speaker
he thought he was going to go to college he ended up getting drafted so our machine was able to help him get drafted and get to the major leagues which was his dream come true basically that was his goal from day one so it was pretty good we also had trot Nixon from the Boston Red Sox he bought a machine way back when it was one off season he was hitting the right hand pitchers very well but the left hand pitchers gave him a little bit of a problem so his batting average is lower against them so
00:07:25
Speaker
He came to our office, we met with him and his father. He bought a machine, put it in his friend's training center in North Carolina, and he basically just hit against left-hand pitchers all year, you know, all offseason. And that coming year, he degraded against left-hand pitchers and right-hand pitchers and signed a, you know, a very significant contract.
00:07:44
Speaker
But more importantly, we also help the younger player. At the Major League level, you could always get someone to throw batting practice to you. The bigger the name, the more people volunteer. But at the younger levels, it's harder to get that kind of training. Sometimes a father and son go to batting teams, and a father can't throw the different breaking pitches or throw a ball over 60, 70, 80 miles an hour. So that's where our pitching machine comes in and allows you to train better and train more efficiently like a real baseball game.
00:08:14
Speaker
Okay, so the sports industry is very dynamic and ever evolving. So how do you stay ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation? Yeah, I mean, you're right. There's a lot of new products coming out, a lot of new technology, a lot of new ideas. I mean, everyone, not everyone, but a lot of people want to get to Major League Baseball because it's fun. They think there's tons of money there. They want to sell to the New York Yankees.
00:08:38
Speaker
So, basically what that said to me, you have to kind of keep your technology ahead. So, this is actually our third generation of pitching machine. You know, it'll be so often when new technology comes out, we implemented our machine, which reduces the price of it and makes it a better machine, a more robust machine. We also improve our picture images on our video screen. Just about two months ago, we did a new video shoot with all new softball pictures at different ages.
00:09:04
Speaker
right hand and left hand pictures for baseball as well. So our customers or their customers aren't just seeing the same picture over and over and over again. They're seeing different pictures in different stadiums, different backgrounds. So it helps them stay engaged. That sounds very exciting. Adam, you are a practitioner in this industry. And like any business person, any entrepreneur,
00:09:30
Speaker
I'm sure there's been highs and lows. And I always say that, yes, we always pick lessons from our journey, our entrepreneur journey. Now let's talk about some of the challenges you face as a small business owner in this industry. And how did you overcome these challenges? I believe by sharing your experience, a lot of our listeners will be able to pick useful lessons from it. So can you share some of your challenges and how you've been able to overcome these challenges with us?
Adapting to COVID-19 Challenges
00:09:59
Speaker
Yeah i mean the biggest one that comes to mind is the most recent it was during covid where all of our major markets were shut down basically so we were unable to sell to commercial training centers or gyms because they were shut down major league baseball shut down college baseball shut down so
00:10:16
Speaker
It hurt and we also sell out to the private use individuals and when the market went down so much, you know, everyone was hurting. So that hurt us a lot. So we had a we had to figure out ways to survive during the covid years. And moreover, after the covid covid years were really tough for us because
00:10:33
Speaker
It was really hard to get parts. I mean, our circuit board parts, we had to switch a lot of our vendors. We had to get multiple vendors for each part so we could call each vendor and make sure we can get parts in the timeline that we wanted. So just make sure you have a lot of sources for your different parts or your vendors just in case one vendor can't get a part in time for your needs.
00:11:00
Speaker
Are there any other challenges you'd like to share?
00:11:08
Speaker
day-to-day challenges with customer challenges. A bit of advice for your customers is always be nice to your customers, always stay friendly with them, always keep in touch with them. A good customer is very good for you because if another prospective customer wants to buy a machine and he wants a referral or talk to other customers, you can then have a handful of customers to show to them and talk to that they can help them with their business plan, with planning, with how they use the machine,
00:11:38
Speaker
And so that's always helpful. And another thing is employees. Make sure you have good employees that you trust and that you know the job done. Because a good employee makes your life a lot easier. It sure does. So you've touched on a number of things, but I still want to ask more questions. You've shared the challenges in your submission. You've also talked about, I believe, some lessons you've picked up.
00:12:04
Speaker
But generally, what are some of the lessons that you've picked up in business so far, lessons that would really speak to my audience? Yeah, I mean, networking. Networking is a huge one, not only with your customers, but just with everyone. I mean, when we started our products, we needed to create a pitch database for our machine. And what that is, basically, we're throwing 10 different pitches. So we need feedback from the major league level, from the college level, from the player level, that our pitches and our breaking pitches, they look realistic.
00:12:34
Speaker
So that was great and we had a lot of contacts that we really want to get their feedback, their advice, their recommendations. So that was great. But networking also at either social media level, that's very important too. I get a ton of leads for sales through social media.
00:12:53
Speaker
You know, I get a lot of, if there's a customer I want to call on, for example, a prospective customer, I can go on Facebook, see their facility, see how nicer, not nice their facility is, see what kind of machines they use. So I already know about their facility before I call them. So therefore I can cater my phone call to their facility and that helps out a lot as well. So definitely social media is very important and it helps get your own company out to people that you wouldn't normally hit.
Networking and Collaboration for Success
00:13:23
Speaker
Okay, so in your answer you talked about networking and its importance. I believe then you really appreciate the importance of networking of collaborating with the key stakeholders. So how is collaboration very crucial?
00:13:38
Speaker
to pro-batter sports and how do you collaborate with your coaches, players, and other stakeholders to really ensure that your products meet the evolving needs of the sports community? Yeah, I mean, coaches in general, there's a lot of major league coaches out there. Major league coaches, they change
00:13:56
Speaker
Not often, but they change it fairly often. By networking, any new coach, you can go to your old contact or another friend or customer to try to get in with that new coach. Because any new coach is a prospective customer that can potentially buy your machine. The name of the game is to get as many machines out there as we can, not only for business reasons, but also we want players to use our machine and talk about our machine.
00:14:42
Speaker
helps our database. Like I said, there's a lot of turnover for coaches at all different levels called collegiate level, major league level, minor league level. So you got to make sure that you keep current with all the new coaches, you got to keep current with all these new batting cages and training centers as they pop up a lot. I mean, now there's a lot of little facilities out there with travel baseball is huge right now. So a lot of these travel baseball teams and they have a lot of money because it's expensive to play on these teams, but they also have facilities and they have
00:14:44
Speaker
and find out the benefits of our machines so they can get better as a baseball player.
00:15:11
Speaker
parents that want their kids to succeed in the field. So a lot of them will help the facility owner buy the best technology in the market. So you got to keep up with all the new facilities out there and try to pitch them your machine. Okay. So you just talked about the importance for you to keep up with things happening. So that goes to underscore the importance of always ensuring that yes, you're on top of the game.
00:15:34
Speaker
You agree with me. Exactly. You agree with me, Adam, that the intersection of sports and technology is becoming increasingly important. So how do you see the future of sports technology shaping up? And what role do you see pro-batter playing in this evolving lens? Well, if I could see in the future, our machine will be able to do it. So we can say, I can sell a lot of machines.
00:15:55
Speaker
But I mean, there's so much technology out there for baseball right now. I mean, A, there's our pitching machine that shows the video pitcher, the video pitcher winding up. There's also all the analytics software. So, for example, there's systems out there that track how hard you hit the ball, how far it goes, the exit velocity going off the bat, the speed.
00:16:13
Speaker
right for pitchers so if a pitcher's training it can teach them if they're really getting enough spin on the ball or if they need to get more spin on the ball so so much training out there it's also so much you know physical training as well for these athletes to get better get bigger faster stronger
00:16:29
Speaker
so they can hit the ball further and run faster. But the technology, I don't know what the next step is, but we have to look into it and find out and keep our eyes open because once we find a new product, we have to capitalize on it. I agree. So as a leader, a leader in this particular industry, what values or principles guide your decision-making process?
00:16:49
Speaker
Well, you have to think about what's best for the company and what's best for everything. Basically, your employees, your company, the future of the company, the direction of where it's going. You have to think about all that stuff. Sometimes you have to turn certain things down because it's not good for the employees. Sometimes you have to tell the employees, listen. We have to do this for us to advance and for us to all do better and get the company better.
00:17:16
Speaker
You have to just kind of look at the different decisions out there and weigh the pros and cons and make the best decision. I mean, all the decisions you make might not be right, but just learn from them and try to move on from there. Okay. My guest once again is Adam Buttersby. He's the president of ProBatter Sports. He's been sharing his rich experience in this particular industry.
00:17:37
Speaker
Adam, your company emphasizes player development. Please share insights into how your technology contributes to the overall growth and improvement of athletes at the various skills level. Yeah, I mean, our machine ranges from 40 miles an hour to 100 miles an hour. So we can hit basically, or anyone from, say, seven years old can hit against our machine, and they can improve with our machine all the way up to the major league level. I mean, we sell to home run champions.
00:18:07
Speaker
So really all different levels, but one of the main levels that it really helps with is the minor league player who's a stud in high school. He got drafted, but all studded at 18, 19 years old, he's facing 23, 22 year old pitchers or 24 year old pitchers in the minor major leagues that throw very hard and have nasty breaking pitchers. So the pitchers that they saw in high school,
00:18:30
Speaker
I mean, they're not nearly as good as these pitchers, so they have to somehow speed up their learning curve to help hit against the new pitchers they're going to see. I mean, the splitters, the cutters, I mean, the nasty pitchers that they don't see in high school, they're going to see Major League, minor league baseball. So a lot of these hitters, they'll hit against our machine for hours just against those pitchers, the faster pitchers, the pitchers with nastier breaks, so they can help themselves up, you know, help themselves out and get to the next level and stay at that level as well.
00:18:56
Speaker
So Adam, tell me, given the advancements in virtual and augmented reality, do you foresee these technologies playing a larger role in sports training? And how do you, as a company, how do you, what's indeed are the plans that you have to integrate these kinds of innovations?
00:19:13
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think it's gonna get into, yeah, it's gonna get into sports. It kind of already has. I don't know if we will get into it necessarily, but I think we have to do our research on it before we make that decision. But it's hard to say if that's gonna come in or not. But if it is, we'd like to be a part of it. Okay. Now let's talk about running a small business as you have it.
Financial and Operational Challenges
00:19:35
Speaker
The financial aspects of running a business.
00:19:37
Speaker
Can you discuss the financial aspects of running a small technology related sports manufacturing business? And how have you managed to grow it? Yeah, I mean, we've been out of it for 25 years. We were lucky enough to have investors help us out who believed in our product.
00:19:53
Speaker
and the owners as well who believes in it and keep on helping on every way they can. But running a small business, it's tricky at times. I mean, you gotta make sure, A, you got into it with the full knowledge of what you're getting yourself into and doing so much market research that you know there's enough of a market to sell to to survive. You also have to keep costs down because the small business in a small market, it's tough sometimes. You have busy times of the year,
00:20:20
Speaker
slower times of the year, so you have to make sure you're managing your cash flow at both times. And also, I mean, you're a small company, so you don't have a dedicated team for each aspect of the business. A lot of your day-to-day is doing other parts of the business that you didn't think you'd get into at first, but you have to learn and also network, basically. And if you don't know what you're doing, you have to figure out
00:20:44
Speaker
what to do and how to do it so it makes you grow and learn different aspects of the business but small businesses you know one day you're doing one thing the next day you're doing a totally different thing so you have to make sure you understand that part okay so with your rich experience and wealth of experience and running your business up until this point in time
00:21:01
Speaker
I'd like to use the rest of my questions for you to give us pieces of advice for my listeners who are largely small business, some are now starting business, some are midway in business, some are facing challenges and now on the verge of giving up. So what really will be your advice to an aspiring entrepreneur looking to enter the sports technology sector?
00:21:23
Speaker
Do your homework. Make sure there's a market for the product you're looking to sell. Because if you don't do your homework, you could be walking in and spending a lot of money and not going anywhere.
00:21:38
Speaker
We did extensive research. We talked to a lot of coaches to make sure that they believed in our product. And also, some that didn't believe in our product would get feedback why they didn't believe in our product, which would help us create a product that more users would enjoy, more users would like, and find it beneficial. But really do your homework. Do patent searches to make sure there's no competitors or nothing out there that will
00:22:00
Speaker
You know, we'll come after you. Make sure you're different in a way that it's going to be beneficial to your customers. Make sure you're staffed properly in terms of people that are willing to do the work because it is a lot of work. Small businesses is a ton of work. I mean, it's long hours. I mean, you know, you're on the phone a lot during the weekends, you know, service calls, sales calls, nights.
00:22:21
Speaker
and you have to keep everyone happy. So just be prepared to work. Be prepared to work. And these are the words from my guest Adam Wattersby. So you've given pieces of advice to an aspiring entrepreneur looking to enter the sports technology sector. Now I would like to pick pieces of advice generally to business. What would be your words of advice to someone in business struggling and on the verge of giving up?
00:22:47
Speaker
Small business, that happens more than you think. Sometimes you want to give up, but you have to just remember why you started and stick to it. Some days are good, some days are not so good, but you know what? It's like a roller coaster and enjoy the highs and work to eliminate the lows and look at it as learning experience. If you had a low, why'd you have a low? How can you fix it to eliminate those lows?
00:23:13
Speaker
But like I said, there's bad days in any company and you just have to work to limit those bad days and make your product stronger and your company stronger and you gotta work to limit those like I said. But just keep it chin up and keep on working and you'll get through it. Keep on working. Enjoy the highs and learn to limit the lows. Enjoy the highs.
00:23:35
Speaker
and let it limit the lose. I really like that. We're just about wrapping up, Adam. It's been amazing conversing with you. Picked a lot of nuggets from your time in business. What would be your general advice to businesses, whether small, medium, or even those near and large? Keep on, like I said earlier, keep on working. If it comes easy, you're lucky. Nothing comes easy. It's going to come with
00:24:02
Speaker
with the right employees, with the right mindset, the right motivation, with the right work ethic. It's going to come, but you've got to just stick with it. Don't let the lows bother you and celebrate the highs and network. That's what I'd recommend, network. Have a lot of people that you know in the industry that can help you out. Also have a team that you can go to to knock ideas off of or bounce ideas off of. Whether it be friends or colleagues or just other sales professionals or business professionals that you can
00:24:32
Speaker
you know, bounce ideas off of to help grow you and grow your business. Okay, so have a strong team, have a strong network, have people around you who you can always go to and bounce off ideas. Adam, looking ahead, what future projects or developments can we expect from ProBak Task Force and how do these align with your vision for the company?
00:24:54
Speaker
Well, as of now, we're not quite sure. We're always looking to expand to different sports. We had a few people come to us to see if we can do certain other sports that we're looking into right now. So we want to try to grow. We also just came out with our first ever non-video pitching machine.
00:25:12
Speaker
standard 3-wheel pitching machine that you can roll on and off the field. We believe the market for that is pretty extensive. So we're going to see how that goes. I mean, we've always had a video pitching machine with a video screen in front of it, but now we're going to have a machine they can use in the field. And I think that's good too, because a video pitching machine really has to be indoors and covered from the elements,
00:25:32
Speaker
sunlight or the video image be washed out which is great but you know during the summer everyone wants to be outside because summers don't always last that long so this machine could be able to take on the field it'll be a lower price point too so we're hoping to hit some volumes with it and yeah I mean go out to that market hard another market we want to go out there is the high school market in the first 15-20 years we're gonna sell a whole lot in high schools but in the last five to six years we sold a ton to high school so that's a huge market so we're gonna try to capitalize on that one as well
00:26:02
Speaker
Okay, yeah. It's an amazing conversation with you, Adam. Before I finally go, what would be your general advice or last words to my listeners?
Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
00:26:11
Speaker
Do something you love and don't be afraid to roll up your sleeves and work hard because that's what life is. It's working hard and doing something you like. I mean, no one wants to be miserable, so if you do something you love and enjoy, it's more fun than
00:26:28
Speaker
doing something that you hate. I mean, they say if you do something you love, it feels like you're not working a day in your life. I don't know if I really believe that statement, but it definitely helps with your life and helps you put a smile on your face and keeps you around what you love. You know what I mean? Like going to Major League Stadium, seeing Major League players use our machine. I mean, that's fun. You know, it's at least fun for me, you know, and reinforces why you spent so many hours and so much money and so much time in the office. So it's, you know, do something you love and work hard. Right. Do something you love and work hard.
00:26:58
Speaker
These are the last words from my guest, Adam Battersby, the president of ProBatter Sports. Thank you, Adam, for sharing your rich experience with us today on the Entrepreneur Speaks Podcast. We wish you the very best. Well, thanks for having me. And just before I leave, if anyone wants more information, please feel free to go to my website, which is probatter.com. It's www.probatter.com. Or if you want to talk directly, it's 203-874-2500.
00:27:27
Speaker
Okay, so this has been another exciting episode of the Entrepreneur Speaks Podcast. I'll come your way next time with another exciting episode. I'll meet your host Kofi Animeidou. As always, do take good care of yourself and let's continue to keep hope alive. Cheers.
00:27:46
Speaker
Please be sure to subscribe to the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast on all your favorite podcast channels and if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to us on social media or in the comments section below.