CJ Handron, co-founder and CEO of Diamond Kinetics, traces his love for baseball back to childhood, citing it as a crucial influence on friendships and life skills. His journey from a high school hitter to tech innovator began at the University of Pittsburgh, where he merged his passion for the sport with sensor technology that can inform players about how well they’re doing in the game. Over the past decade, this has resulted in the formation of Diamond Kinetics, which itself has evolved its sensor products from clunky prototypes to seamlessly embedded technology following recent collaboration with industry manufacturers like Marucci Sports. Looking forward, Handron imagines a future where sensor technology becomes an effortless part of the player’s experience, focusing on helping younger players improve and enjoy baseball.
What’s your batting average?
I was around a 0.300 hitter in high school.
Is that the time your love of baseball struck or was it earlier?
For me, baseball goes back as far as I can remember. It’s the only sport I really consistently loved and played from as far back as when I was seven years old, and I give baseball a lot of credit for a lot of the most important things in life. A lot of my closest friends are from baseball. A lot of the life skills I learned like teamwork, leadership and dealing with failure all came out of baseball.
How did you translate that love and passion for the sport into a company?
Sometimes the stars just align the right way. And for me, that was at the University of Pittsburgh with the ability to be working inside the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence at Pitt and being with an engineering faculty member who had the concept for sensors that could measure metrics for baseball and softball. I had this fortuitous opportunity to be in the right place at the right time with the right people at the University of Pittsburgh that all of a sudden allowed me to align this thing I’m deeply passionate about with my background and skills.
How has that journey been ever since?
It has been exhilarating, fun, hard as you can imagine, and I wouldn’t trade a single day of it over the last 10 years. It’s been an absolute labor of love that I’ve just had so much pride building and growing over the years with all the people at Diamond Kinetics.
Can you explain how the product has evolved since its origins as an initial prototype and in the context of Diamond Kinetics’ recent partnership with baseball equipment manufacturer Marucci Sports, which will see this tech embedded right into the bats directly instead of relying on attachable sensors?
It has really been dramatic. Over the years, the earliest prototypes were probably five times the size of what today’s sensors are now and were very clunky and difficult to work with and put on a baseball bat. Now over the years, you can’t even see them. They’re embedded in the knobs of the bat; they don’t have to come out of the bat and just kind of work magically. That’s been really exciting to see the work that the team at Diamond Kinetics has done, and frankly, just the entire industry around sensors and electronics has enabled that, too, as things have gotten faster, smaller and more cost-effective during that period of time as well, enabling us to stay on the front edge of innovation. It’s unrecognizable today relative to where it was almost 10 years ago.
What does that make you think the future will look like for Diamond Kinetics and this technology going forward?
I think we started the future a few weeks ago with sensors permanently embedded in the bats. I think that’s a big part of our story going forward. The sensor itself sort of disappears into the background and is this effortless experience for a player that’s just there and magically works for them. It enables creating what’s a really fun and exciting app experience with other players and kids because at the end of the day, our biggest North Star mission and purpose is we want to help get kids, younger players who are maybe 14-years-old, get better and faster at baseball or softball and have fun while they’re doing that. The hardware and the sensor technology disappearing, if you will, is a big piece of that, and we think that’s a big part of the future.
Can you tell me about a typical day for you?
I’m an early bird, so my day starts around 6 a.m. My family’s very important to me; we have a 13 year old and a 10 year old, so I’m a big part of the morning routine with them as they get ready to go out the door for school. And that, to be honest, is one of my favorite parts of the day. Our family is getting up and moving. It’s a good opportunity for everybody to spend a little time together before everyone goes in their different directions. That’s a very consistent and important part of the day for me. [With] my Diamond Kinetics day, my favorite part is that every day is different and so there’s very little repetition. I love the people who I work with, getting to lock arms with them to come up with new ideas and solve problems. But my favorite part is that it’s all different, and I get to do a wide range of things, whether it’s external with customers, partners or it’s internal with other people.
Is there a city street you prefer when it comes to the best dining scene for you and your family?
I’m a big fan of Lawrenceville for restaurants. That’s probably a go-to spot for my wife and I and our family in terms of where we think about first when we think about going out to dinner.
Any songs or artists on repeat right now?
I am a big Chris Stapleton and The Avett Brothers fan. Those are my go-to stations on Pandora or any music service.
ABOUT CJ HANDRON:
Title: Co-founder and CEO, Diamond Kinetics
Age: 43
First job: Baseball field maintenance technician
Education: Bachelor’s, North Carolina State University; MBA, University of Pittsburgh
Family: Wife, Jessie; daughter, Maggie, 13; son, Charlie, 10; chocolate lab, Moose
Hobbies: Baseball, hiking, golf, skiing, fishing
Causes: National Multiple Sclerosis Society
