Sports scientist wins Auckland University of Technology’s Innovation Challenge

Despite his nerves, sports scientist and PhD candidate Tanuj Wadhi walked away from the Auckland University of Technology’s Innovation Challenge this week as the overall winner.

His business concept, EliteVu, offers sports teams technologies to track performance and monitor athletes' internal (cardiovascular and metabolic stress) and external loads (distance and velocity). 

Wadhi aims to help coaches by providing insights into athletes’ health and recovery.

Coming from a background in sports science, he saw an obvious gap in the market.

“When I did my Master’s in Exercise and Sports, I saw the university only tracked how much work the athletes are doing. Nobody really cared about how the athletes respond to it,” he says. 

"It seemed very obvious to me that the reason they weren’t doing it is because the technology just doesn’t exist. I’m trying to fix that.” 

Wadhi was one of five to make it through the university’s five-month Innovation Challenge, culminating in a Dragon’s Den-style final pitch night. 

Participants covered business ideas ranging from clean energy production to boosting psychological safety among employees. 

The programme offered finalists professional pitch coaching, mentoring and the chance to win from a $30,000 total prize pool. 

The challenge is about showing students how their studies can be relevant in the business world and the value of perseverance, says Fiona Hurd, AUT’s Associate Dean Academic for the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law.

“A lot of what we find with entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial mindset is the ability to fail as ideas develop and the ability to go back and prototype.” 

The challenge is less about the product, and more about the output of that process, she says. 

For Wadhi, who left with a $10,000 giant cheque, it was exciting seeing people reacting positively to his product, which he says motivates him to keep working on it. 

He will spend the next few years completing his PhD in sports science, and building the steps needed to take EliteVu to market.

His winnings are going directly back into his research. 

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‍Components of a good pitch 

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The event's judges were Wendy Thompson, founder of creative group Thompson Spencer and social media agency Socialites, James Palmer, a partner with venture capital firm Blackbird, and AUT alumnus and Conical Studio founder Alejandro Davila.

They and Wadhi have six tips for founders preparing a pitch deck (a presentation that helps potential investors learn more about your business): 

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1. Tell your story

Building a business is selling a narrative, says Palmer. 

Both he and Thompson say those that stood out in the challenge were those who started with an authentic story.

“They put themselves in their story and then translated that through to the problem they were going to solve,” she says.

Energy and acting skills help too, says Davila. 

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2. Understand the problem

A really deep understanding of your customer's problem stems from empathy in the first instance, says Palmer. 

For sports scientist Wadhi, this wasn’t an issue as he was once part of his ‘target market'.

“The problem I’m trying to solve is a problem I faced myself,” he says. 

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3. Know what you have ...

Focus on what is really unique about the business and the idea you’re trying to create, says Palmer. 

“The world is incredibly competitive and so building something that is truly novel and different is the most important thing.” 

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4. ...And what you don’t

For Davila, what really stood out was that Wadhi wasn’t trying to ‘please everyone’. 

He knew exactly what the product was, what he could offer his customers and where his limits were.

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5. Structure

Make sure you have a cohesive and clear structure throughout your pitch, says Davila. 

Thompson says choosing Wadhi as the winner was due to a combination of reasons. 

“One, he understood his customer and his customer's problem. And two, it was very professionally put together. [Wadhi] had a great team behind him.” 

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6. Practice makes perfect

“I must have practised [my pitch] at least 30 times over the past week with myself and a few times with friends and colleagues,” says Wadhi. 

One of his strategies was to try out his presentation on people with no background in his industry to pinpoint any knowledge gaps.

“If they can understand what I’m talking about, anybody can,” he says.