Horse is a casual basketball competition among friends, where players try to one-up each other with made shots. Head to any park on a Saturday, or a neighborhood cul-de-sac, and you could stumble upon a game of Horse. It’s not, even in the age of Zoom calls, a game you'd consider playing remotely.
But Paul Anton and Lyth Saeed, friends and basketball aficionados, did not let that stop them. About a decade ago, they figured out how to play Horse while they were in different locations, using Snapchat.
They held their phones in one hand and shot the ball with the other, while they recorded their shots and sent the photos back-and-forth.
Fast forward to 2022.
The duo founded Huupe, an AI-powered smart basketball hoop that's equipped with a high-definition, weatherproof screen as a backboard.
This enables players to do several things, including participate in games like Horse from different locations, due to multiple cameras inserted at the top of the backboard. The co-founders said the goal is for basketball to be a unifier.
“Pretty soon, people from all around the world will be able to play basketball with each other and stay connected,” said Anton, who serves as CEO. “Basketball transcends language, religion, race, color and creed. Now, the game itself transcends physical distance.”
The founders themselves are a melting pot. Saeed is originally from Jordan. And, Anton is of Greek descent.
Huupe is taking pre-orders now, while it raises a seed round.
Foundation
Both of the co-founders grew up in Wisconsin and have been playing basketball from a young age. Anton said he’s been playing since he could walk.
Anton previously co-founded Atlas Media, a digital sign company in Milwaukee. It was sold to Lamar, for an amount he declined to disclose. He also founded Real Shot, an augmented reality gaming company in San Francisco.
The duo started with an early Huupe prototype in Wisconsin and then took it across the country, doing demos for investors.
They came to OC five years ago, met some investors here and never left. Huupe’s HQ is in Huntington Beach. It leases about 4,000 square feet in an industrial area. About one-third of the company’s 14 employees work in OC. The engineering team is in Milwaukee. Manufacturing is done in Asia.
Funding
Huupe raised $3.1 million in a pre-seed round. Investors included Paradigm Sports Management; F Street Ventures, part of Milwaukee's F Street Group; and Ball Tek Ventures, a group of angel investors in Milwaukee and Washington, D.C.
The startup also has backing from former NBA player Trevor Booker, via his firm, JB Fitzgerald Venture Capital, and NBA player Thaddeus Young, through his firm, Reform Ventures.
A local SoCal investor is Audie Attar, the founder and CEO of Paradigm Sports Management, which is based in Irvine.
He decided to invest because he "got to touch and feel the first prototype" and was "fascinated" by it, he told L.A. Inno.
"Then, upon doing further research, looking at the total addressable market, and what’s out there, every other basketball hoop was an analog or a dummy basketball hoop, if you will, and I was even more excited," he said.
Huupe is currently raising a seed round. The target amount has not been decided yet. The funds would be used to get the first 300-plus Huupes to market, hire more team members and create a network to deliver 100,000 units over the next four years, Saeed said.
Sales so far
The Huupe sells for $3,995. A financing option will be available in the future, according to a company spokesperson. Huupe started selling the smart hoops in March via its website and word-of-mouth. Huupe is in the process of taking $100 pre-order down payments via the company’s website.
“We have sold to schools, gyms and youth development organizations,” Anton said, declining to disclose the names of any specific entities.
The founders then plan to get Huupes into the consumer market starting next year.
Huupe’s special features
Huupe’s smart backboard enables players to participate in pre-recorded workouts, drills and live sessions with an on-screen trainer.
The backboard has three cameras inside, which monitor a shooter’s percentages and can detect where shots are taken. Using AI, Huupe then provides data on the arc of each shot. The middle camera tracks whomever is playing for streaming purposes.
There’s also a mobile app that serves as a wireless remote for the backboard screen.
The co-founders made the backboard out of tempered glass. They said they “extensively” tested it before bringing it to market, to weatherproof it and make it as strong and sturdy as possible. This included baking it in an oven, up to 185 degrees.
Benefits of Being in SoCal
The duo said the benefits of putting Huupe's HQ in SoCal include two professional NBA teams (the LA Lakers and the LA Clippers), as well as a wide array of sports-related investors and advisors.
