Before the Lead Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Accelerator was open, Tommy Shavers knew he wanted his young company to be part of it.
Shavers even knocked on the door of the accelerator before it opened, he told Orlando Inno. Shavers got his wish when his company, Orlando-based Nestre Health & Performance Inc., was one of six companies accepted into the accelerator’s inaugural cohort in 2020.
That six-month program played a pivotal role in putting Nestre on a path to its recent $1.6 million investment round and upcoming product launches, Shavers said.
Through a mobile app and neuro-strength training rooms, Nestre offers users a proprietary training methodology built on the concept of neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to change and adapt over a person’s lifetime. Nestre does not claim to cure any medical conditions, but it promotes its services as a way to improve overall mental wellness.
The company’s fitness and training focus made it a perfect fit for the Lead accelerator, which German company Lead Sports opened in Lake Nona in 2020, two years after Shavers founded Nestre.
The startup also got help when Shavers, a resident of Lake Nona, got connected with Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances of Lake Nona master developer Tavistock Development Co. Caulfield was instrumental in connecting Shavers with Lake Nona’s burgeoning startup ecosystem, Shavers said.
When Nestre was accepted into the Lead accelerator, its focus primarily was on the physical training rooms. However, the time spent in the program, combined with the Covid-19 pandemic, made Nestre spend more time on its digital product, Shavers said.
Now, the mobile app and neuro-strength training rooms at the Lake Nona Performance Club both are slated to debut in the first quarter.
Plus, staff at Lead, a globally-recognized name in sports and health technology, helped Shavers forge connections with leaders in the technology space.
This helped Nestre build up a list of big-name investors from the technology and sports sectors, including retired NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver Calvin Johnson Jr. and former Verizon 5G vice president Toby Redshaw, Shavers said. “Lead expanded our reach from just the sports world to the tech world.”
These investors pumped $1.6 million into Nestre in a pre-seed investment round that was announced Jan. 4. That money will fuel the company as it goes to market in the first half of this year.
In addition to Nestre’s work with athletes, the firm is assessing the cognitive function of startup founders, with plans to offer these services to the venture capital and startup sectors, according to Lead Sports CEO and co-founder Christoph Sonnen. “They are ready to take this industry by storm.”
The southeast Orlando community of Lake Nona hosts a growing hub of sports and health technology startups. Not only is it home to Lead’s only U.S. accelerator, but Lead and Tavistock last year partnered to launch the Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Fund. The fund aims to invest $30 million in startups based in the Lake Nona area, or that operate there, and help make the community the “Silicon Valley of sports,” fund Principal Thomas Rudy previously said.
Meanwhile, the growth of these innovative startups is important for Central Florida’s economy, as those firms can create high-wage jobs and generate economic impact as they scale. Startups also create innovative solutions for other businesses, help develop a community and make it easier for other new companies to form in the future.
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