Four surgeries before graduating high school might have hindered Thomas Fields' hopes of a basketball career, but that didn't stop his entrepreneurial drive.
Fields was playing basketball for the former Reagan High School, now Heights High School, in Houston when he noticed problems facing young athletes. He wanted to practice as he healed from ACL injuries in his knee but didn't want to rely on high school coaches being there to open the gym doors. Basketball shooting machines, like the one locked in the gym, are expensive to purchase and cumbersome to carry around and use.
"It was a real problem for athletes like me, and I don't think [sports equipment companies] understood the problems that athletes were going through," Fields said.
Young athletes should have access to sports equipment designed around their needs and priced with families like his in mind, Fields said. After graduation, he went into his parents' garage and started work on a concept: Grind Basketball, a portable shooting machine capable of folding down into a duffel bag.
From the basketball shooting machine concept, Grind Interactive was born. The company designs interactive products that help athletes improve their game.
Building Grind Interactive took some grind itself. The company failed to raise capital for its first three years and relied on bootstrapping, Fields said. He was going to school, working at Raising Cane's and the YMCA, trying to save any money he could to finance Grind. Eventually, he ended up in the University of Houston's startup and tech accelerator Red Labs. That was a game changer, Fields said.
"It finally gave this kid from the inner city of Houston access to tech- and business-minded people, advisers to give me a roadmap on how to develop the business model," Fields said.
In 2019, Grind Interactive raised its first small checks from angel investors. The company officially launched in March 2020 — right in time for the Covid-19 pandemic. But despite the pandemic and related supply chain issues, Grind has grown through Covid-19.
Grind got a bump in notoriety and social media followers from a 2020 appearance on "Shark Tank," which ended in Grind negotiating a deal with Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran, Fields said. To date, Grind has amassed more than $1 million in pre-orders, and the firm is on track to deliver around 80% of them by the end of the year.
"We'll be done with our pre-orders by February, and we'll go into on-demand delivery in March of next year," Fields said.
After appearing on "Shark Tank," Grind was selected to Indianapolis-based Techstars Sports Accelerator, where the company was introduced to a host of experienced sports technology investors. Grind plans to close a $1 million fundraising round in mid-January, bringing its total to $1.6 million raised to date.
Grind is headquartered at 3308 Garrow St. in the East End, but the company is looking to move into a larger space in the East End or EaDo areas next year to support its growth.
Earlier this month, Fields was one of nine Houstonians named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 2022 Class.
