IMPULSE
Impulse is a smart insole that monitors how force moves through a player's body on every jump, cut, and landing — alerting trainers and coaches the instant something goes wrong. Not after practice. Right now, on the sideline.
Current wearables track heart rate, speed, distance — but miss where injuries actually start: the foot. Every jump landing transmits 3–7× body weight upward. No wearable captures this in real time in a form coaches can act on.
Left–right force imbalances go unnoticed until they become ACL tears, Achilles ruptures, or patellar tendinopathies.
"There's no live feedback. It's more like, 'You good?' and you say yeah, even if you aren't." — Isaiah Johnson, Colorado MBB
Fatigue changes mechanics before pain appears. Coaches make decisions with incomplete information. That gap is where careers are lost.
Top 10 NBA teams by injured salary total $395M in 2025 alone. At every level below — college, AAU, high school — the same problem plays out.
A multi-layer smart insole that drops into any basketball shoe in under 30 seconds. Mechanically anchored — the sensor stays still while the foot moves, preserving data integrity under elite basketball shear forces.
How explosively and symmetrically a player pushes off on every rep
Real-time comparison of load on each foot during cuts, drives, landings
Ground contact time lengthens as players tire — Impulse catches this before the player feels it
Push-off power, jump takeoff force, acceleration off the ground
Left vs right foot load comparison in real time — bilateral ratio per foot-contact event
Ground contact time drift >15% vs session baseline triggers alert flag
Jump efficiency, cutting forces, closeout deceleration, plant angle — basketball-native
Millisecond-level contact time per step; rolling 10-contact average transmitted live
Plain-language signals (GREEN / YELLOW / RED) coaches act on immediately, sideline-ready
Plantiga is a camera. Impulse is a coach.
1,100 NCAA programs. Athletic trainers have budget authority. $5K–$15K/yr per program.
500K+ players. Parents spend $5–10K/summer. Injury = scholarship risk.
Verified load management → premium reductions → mandated infrastructure.
Impulse doesn't need the full market. It needs to own the basketball biomechanics layer — then expand outward.
Blended gross margin 70%+ at scale · LTV:CAC of 7.7× · Annual contract model tied to the basketball season · Y3 ARR ~$491K
USC IYA Cohort 11. Strategy, product design, sports innovation. 13+ athlete interviews. Relationships at USC, Maryland, Ohio State, Marquette, UConn, FSU, Emory, Delaware.
Embedded systems, FSR + BNO085 IMU, Bluetooth 5.0 architecture, end-to-end hardware builds.
IP filing, provisional patent oversight, pilot agreements, LLC formation, investor contracts.
Health Promotion & Disease Prevention. CCMA certified. USC Athletics background.
Jamaican National Swim Team. Ohio State Compliance internship. Delaware & Ohio State networks.
Senior global marketing executive. Executive leadership at Nike and Apple.
President & CEO, Apriori Bio (Flagship Pioneering). Former GSK & ViiV Healthcare.
Sensor array · Flex PCB · BLE 5.0 · 8hr+ battery · Traffic Light dashboard · 2–3 collegiate pilots · Provisional patent · Impulse LLC
Convert pilots to paid contracts · AAU individual subscription · 10–15 programs via referral · Explosiveness metrics · Fatigue drift · Haptic alerts
NBA G League + pro contracts · Insurance partnerships · Soccer, track, football expansion · AI predictive injury risk modeling
USC IYA Innovation Prize — to complete MVP hardware, build the coach dashboard, run our first collegiate pilot, and file a provisional patent.
Current state: software MVP is fully functional and live. Hardware prototype v0.1 breadboard complete; v0.2 flex PCB in fabrication. Below is the full prototype demonstration.
Interviews conducted with athletes from JUCO to NBA level, plus coaches and athletic trainers. Full report linked below.
Low-cost, high-leverage tactics executable by a 5-person student team. All targets are warm — we have existing relationships at each institution.
5 participants from target demographic (athletic trainers & coaches). Industry "Excellent" threshold is 80.3+. Conducted per Prof. Swain's guidelines — participants used the live dashboard independently before completing the survey.
Current legal standing as of Q1 2026. Xavier Tall (Head of Legal, USC Gould) is leading all filings in active coordination with outside counsel. All formation and IP documents are in progress or complete.
Equity split, roles, vesting schedule, and IP assignment clauses. Reviewed and signed by all 5 founders. Xavier Tall (USC Gould) served as lead legal drafter.
Provisional Patent Application filed targeting: (1) Mechanical Indexing System — heel cup + forefoot keying anchor, (2) Shear-Isolation Layering Stack, (3) Real-Time Load Alert Method. "Patent Pending" status active for 12 months.
Trademark registration for "Impulse" and "Impulse Score" underway. Dashboard source code copyright registered. Full utility patent target: Q4 2026.
Impulse LLC formation is underway. Articles of Organization are being drafted. We are in active contact with legal counsel to complete filing within the next 30 days.
Founder equity structure is agreed upon and documented in the Partnership Agreement. Formal cap table will be issued upon LLC formation. Counsel is advising on structure and any advisor/mentor allocations.
EIN application will be filed with the IRS immediately upon LLC formation. This is a same-day issuance process once the entity is formed. Our legal team has this queued as the immediate next step.