Background —
Rich Kosowsky has over 30 years of management, technology development, and financing expertise from successful companies including Qualcomm and Four11 (Yahoo). Rich has founded/ran numerous early-stage tech companies and has mentored start-ups for 18+ years at MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service. Rich holds BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT, and an MBA with High Distinction (Baker Scholar) from Harvard Business School.
The Kosowsky Story —
I have been managing or mentoring early-stage companies for most of my career. I enjoy solving problems and then creating the story that motivates customers, employees and investors to want to become involved.
My father was self-made, rising from humble roots to eventually found, grow and then take public a major medical device and clinical labs company. My natural curiosity to understand how things work from an early age, along with my father’s successful path from engineer to CEO combined to create a desire to help create and build companies.
You wake up in the morning — what’s the driving passion?
Making the most of the numerous discoveries we are making in training and improving motion not only in golf, but other sports performance markets and physical therapy and rehab applications. Our patent (pending) is very broad and covers many markets.
What was the genesis for PerfectMotion®?
PerfectMotion® was born from my personal frustration with improving my golf swing. I am a reasonably good athlete and enjoy a variety of sports. My golf instructors and their instruction were great, but the ability to learn and groove new motion was lacking. Now I understand why. We are all grooved – we have the data to prove it – and improving motion requires both an ability to develop better motion and then a system to groove it. This is exactly what our app provides.
How does PerfectMotion® differentiate itself from other competitors in the category?
We don’t really have direct competition. We are approaching the problem in a very different way. The PerfectMotion® app is a uniquely-personalized AI-based golf training system. Golfers quickly groove repeatable, efficient body motion with every club through our innovative process of continuous expert feedback.
Think of a loop. You start by taking a swing. Then you receive feedback immediately. Based on the feedback, you make an adjustment. Now repeat. This trial-and-error method of “Swing, learn, adjust” quickly allows a golfer to feel efficient motion that video and trial-and-error simply can’t.
Who is your customer?
PerfectMotion® has two customers, golfers of all abilities and professional instructors. PerfectMotion® allows golfers to work on their game anywhere, anytime, with or without a ball. All they need is their phone. For app subscribers that want to accelerate their PPI gains, they can choose from a list of top instructors worldwide to work with remotely in a uniquely personalized and effective way.
Top instructors are embracing PerfectMotion® because the app and platform expand their brand, speed their students’ improvement with measurable results and create a new revenue stream at twice their “on the box” rate.
How do you plan on reaching them?
I’ll start with the instructors, since they validate the app, provide credibility to our organization and are a key distribution channel for PerfectMotion®. We have already been successful in partnering with 20 top instructors worldwide and adoption is accelerating.
As for golfers, since we have been able to seed this two-sided marketplace with top instructors, golfer adoption is taking off because of the instructor’s promotional efforts and word of mouth. With PerfectMotion®, we have eliminated any barrier to the experience. Golfers can use the FREE version of the app forever, (it has all of the features of the Pro version except you are limited to one session per day).
Many companies follow a predictable path in securing key endorsers to validate their efforts in the broader marketplace. Will you be following such a path?
Once again, we have a very different approach than other companies. When we partner with an instructor, we encourage the instructor to promote themselves and their expertise – that is their brand. Our app and platform are simply the method through which their audience can work with and access this expertise. We provide all the resources necessary for them to integrate PerfectMotion® into their offerings and help them promote their expertise.
Instructors have access to priceless intelligence on their students and followers to help them create more relevant content and personalized tips. They create a new remote coaching service that is efficient, effective, personalized and offered at a price point unheard of in golf. We grow as the instructors grow their remote teaching business.
Customer service is routinely touted by all companies. Define the term and the approach you plan on taking with PerfectMotion?
We think of customer service as a critical way to connect with and learn from our users to help us improve our products and organization. The only way to truly be successful in achieving our goals is through user feedback. We go out of our way to capture feedback on all aspects of the experience. This has led to the release of over 300 versions of the app, many of those necessitated by users with great ideas and insight.
If you could change one thing in golf unilaterally — what would it be and why?
An ability to play less than 9 holes during the week. As life gets busy, it is hard to find two to three hours to commit to golf except on weekends. But unfortunately, if you have less time, you are relegated to the driving range or practice area. If clubs and courses could create efficient ways to play 4 – 5 holes, they would help increase utilization and revenue while providing a way to welcome newer players.
The major golf organizations are all seeking ways to attract Millennials, women and minorities to golf. If you were counseling them what you advise they be doing?
The pandemic has been a silver lining for the game of golf in that the demand has been off the charts. There were an additional 50 million rounds played this year. So, the golf industry has been given a huge opportunity to welcome new and returning players. Many of these players are Millennials and women.
As an industry, golf needs to make it easier to achieve a basic level of competence so that the game is enjoyable to play. That means more and better ways to welcome players with little or no experience and engage them in methods of learning that are convenient, comfortable and affordable. If we can get the new players hooked, they will stay for life.
The biggest challenges facing PerfectMotion® — short and long term are what?
Short term, it’s the ability for us to successfully cut through noise and get our message out. We have created a new way to deliver personalized instruction efficiently and effectively at a very attractive price point. Many companies claim that their products use “AI” and provide “immediate feedback” when they do not.
Longer term, our biggest challenge is managing the growing pains of a high-tech company as it starts to see accelerated adoption and demand. Obviously, a good problem to have.
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