TechEcho

Hello, Hacker News community! We're the founding team of BigHoops : brothers Paul (CEO) and Dan Brown (CTO) and Brantley Beaird (Investor & Advisor).Dan and Paul have always been passionate about sports, particularly basketball. Over time, we noticed that while many people love watching Basketball, not all have access to or can easily engage in the sport with friends casually. That's why we created Bighoops - an experience that reimagines basketball for everyone, much like what Topgolf did for golf.Bighoops uses AI to adjust shots based on skill-level and performance and offers a variety of gameplay types, and we largely own this space given our early and broad patent. We believe it not only makes basketball more accessible and enjoyable (>90% positive reviews from 2,000+ paid experiences) but also introduces a fresh, exciting approach to the sport.Here are some additional reasons why we think Basketball entertainment dining will be as omni-present as bowling alleys and Topgolf in 5-10 years.* Size / Total Addressable Market (TAM) - Basketball is the ~2nd most popular sport in the US with what we think is >3x the TAM of golf entertainment dining. Topgolf was acquired for $2.7b in 2020.* Favorable real estate economics - Topgolf requires ~15 acres and ~$30m per venue, BigHoops fits in most malls and shopping centers at $5-$10m per venue, capitalizing on the commercial deals that have opened up since the pandemic and due to the general rise in e-commerce.* Accessibility - Not everyone can make solid contact with a golf ball, but just about everyone can and has shot a basket, and our patented AI skill-based adjustment along with regulation and larger than regulation hoops make it fun and competitive regardless of skill-level within a group.* Gameplay - BigHoops Original (medium exertion and pace), HORSE, Acceleration, Shot Clock, Staying Alive, Pong, Battleship, etc - these are just some of the gameplay types we currently have and are building. They span the spectrum of exertion, pace, and difficulty catering to both hardcore and casual players, families and birthdays, corporate events, etc.Note that we admire Topgolf and their successful model, and we plan to adapt their playbook to our unique context and needs in the Basketball entertainment dining industry.To date, we've raised a $450k seed round, have a patented AI-enabled machine that achieved a 90% fill rate @ $55/hr in our first beta Atlanta site, have built user stats and custom booking software online and at-venue, have a new and improved production-ready unit with additional experience-enhancing features (not shown in video), and have secured ~40% of funds for our Series A but are still looking for a lead investor.We're excited to bring Basketball entertainment dining to the world and are eager to hear what the HN community thinks. We would particularly appreciate feedback on fundraising and investor leads given that we’re more real estate and capex heavy vs the more typical pure-software HN startup, but any thoughts, feedback, and challenges to our assumptions are greatly appreciated. We are also open to potential collaborations and partnerships that could help us take Bighoops to the next level.Thanks, and we look forward to your insights!1-min machine-in-action video - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd9zH0UnAxQ&t=1s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd9zH0UnAxQ&t=1s</a>Visit us at <a href="https://www.bighoops.com/?utm_source=hackernews" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.bighoops.com/?utm_source=hackernews</a> or feel free to reach out at paul.brown@bighoops.com

Brantley from BigHoops here. Ironically, I've never been a huge sports fan and don't ever really watch sports, but that said, I love doing social, fun things with friends that don't exclusively involve alcohol like at a bar, which is one reason why I love BigHoops.Topgolf does this well but golf is a difficult sport and just not that much fun for me. Honestly, I think they succeeded in spite of golf's popularity (on-course play has been declining since the mid-2000s) by creating a terrific and more upscale experience compared to the more old-school entertainment dining of bowling (which has been catching up in terms of nice-ness). And if you pair a terrific experience with a sport that's more fun to play (also with a much larger market), I think there's a lot of potential.I'm at brantley.beaird@bighoops.com if you have any questions :-)

I'm also curious to hear thoughts on the skill-based component of BigHoops. I consider this very important as it can level the playing field making it fun regardless of skill-level in general but particularly within a group.A quick personal story...this hit home recently when I took my 8 year old niece along with my 10 year old nephew and 2 of his male friends to play basketball (games, HORSE, and Knockout) at a school playground. My niece is younger and smaller, and she felt left out, eventually leaving to go play on the playground by herself because the boys were older / taller / better. I feel that a skill-adjustment component to the physical game will make the game much more accessible and attractive to folks regardless of skill-level, gender, age, etc.Another way I like to think about this is...has your 10 year old child ever beaten you (40ish yo, decent shape) at Topgolf or bowling?

The entertainment dining space has been heating up with a variety of concepts over the years and more recently - pickleball, F1, soccer, axe throwing, baseball, etc. It's kind of wild to me that Basketball entertainment dining hasn't been done before. I guess software + hardware makes things more tricky, and Paul and Dan can personally attest to some hardware challenges along the way, but still...given the popularity of the sport in general and, heck, even the popularity of the "pop-a-shot" games at arcades and Chuck E. Cheese, it's surprising to me.I'll also say, I think the video above is cool, but honestly, it doesn't do justice for the experience. It's WAY more fun in person. At our beta site at an Atlanta brewery, half-way through a game, people who aren't that into basketball are talking trash and having a blast.

I don't post a ton to HN, much more of a daily lurker, but I'm surprised this post isn't a bit more popular given the builder nature of HN and that there's not a ton of hardware posted...and it's kind of cool / different.I'm a big nerd, but I'm wondering if HN is too nerdy for this? Maybe we'll get more traction on some relevant subreddits?

Good post Brantley, it’s exciting times in entertainment dining. The reason Basketball has not been done before is that the machine has to adapt to different skill levels to accommodate fun for everyone, lots of robotics and coding. The future is here!

This feels outside the bounds of what counts as a "Show HN": <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html">https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html</a>This isn't something I can actually try.

Show HN: BigHoops – Topgolf for Basketball [video]

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Show HN: BigHoops – Topgolf for Basketball [video]

6 comments