Two Hong Kong start-ups among 12 finalists in Invest HK programme
Budding entrepreneurs from around the world are increasingly eyeing Hong Kong as a start-up base, thanks to an InvestHK programme, writes Mark Sharp
Toronto has a vibrant start-up culture, and that left Keith Rumjahn feeling like a small fish in a big pond. So he returned to his hometown of Hong Kong to take his Coachbase application to the next level.
Rendering hand-drawn notes obsolete, the sports coaching tool animates players onscreen. Coaches can plan team members' moves and share post-match analyses via a mobile device or the Coachbase website. The app covers 12 sports, from basketball to soccer, volleyball and field hockey.
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"I coached an under-14 basketball team in Toronto. At that time the iPhone came out, and I worked as a software developer, so I said, OK let's write an app," Coachbase founder and CEO Rumjahn says. "I just bought some books online and programmed the first version."
After some finessing of graphics, the app started to gain currency, and there have been 200,000 paid downloads to date, including teams in the NBA, Brazilian soccer clubs, Germany's national handball team and university sports groups. But Rumjahn wants to take it further and gain more exposure in Asia. He aims to raise up to US$800,000 to market Coachbase.
"I think we have, hands down, the best product on the market; people just have to know about it, and we need the money to extend our reach," he says. "If anyone can hook us up with a connection to a Chinese sports team, that would be amazing."
