Athletic Entrepreneur Invents a Redefining Product from a Hunk of Metal

Roy Morejon:
Welcome entrepreneurs and startups to Art of the Kickstart, the show that every entrepreneur needs to listen to before you launch. I’m your host, Roy Morejon, president and founder of Enventys Partners, the world’s only turnkey product launch company. From product development and engineering to omnichannel marketing, we’ve helped our clients launch thousands of inventions and earn more than $1 billion in sales over the past 20 years. Each week I interview a startup success story, an inspirational entrepreneur, or a business expert in order to help you take your launch to the next level. T.

Roy Morejon:
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Roy Morejon:
Welcome to another edition of Art of the Kickstart. Today I am super excited because I am speaking with Brock Massner, CEO and co-founder of NV Athletics, and the inventor of the NV Rack. Brock just launched his campaign yesterday, so I’m super excited to kind of dive in. Now that he’s hopefully had a good night of sleep, we can talk about this campaign and all the work that they have done to get there. So Brock, welcome to Art of the Kickstart.

Brock Massner:
Hey, thank you, Roy. I’m excited to be here.

Roy Morejon:
Yeah, me too, man. I got my workout in already this morning, so I want you to give the crowd the elevator pitch for the NV Rack.

Brock Massner:
The NV Rack is a supplementary training tool. It’s a squat rack attachment that you can attach to any squat rack, and it’s going to increase the effectiveness of all your lifts, exercises, and movements, using our patented and trademark technology of Non-Varying Resistance.

Roy Morejon:
What is Non-Varying Resistance? Because I think that’s probably the biggest thing of like, “Okay, cool, I work out, all of that. Am I not doing it right? Are there other things that I should be doing?” Let’s go through the education of why NVR, Non-Varying Resistance is important.

Brock Massner:
That is where NV Rack is, Non-Varying Rack. And then NV Athletics is Non-Varying Athletics. So that is our bread and butter. We’re using the NV Rack is kind of our MVP to push this new type of training. Honestly, it’s a type of resistance that not a whole lot of people have used, and it’s something that we really think will be the new standard of resistance training. We are super excited to push this out. Once people try it, it clicks, a light bulb goes on.

Brock Massner:
So starting off, it’s not going to be a static weight. A lot of people ask, “Well, why wouldn’t I just add more weight to a certain exercise, and that will increase the resistance?” This is not going to be a static weight; this is actually going to be a force that is applied upon in a certain direction.

Brock Massner:
With this directional force, you’re actually able to increase your muscle recruitment, which is one of the biggest things, especially for bodybuilders, beginning lifters, to learn proper technique and proper form. But one of the biggest pieces, and one of the main reasons why we invented or why we came up with this product was to help youth athletes and help beginners generate a high power output, but at a light, safe, and repeatable weight.

Brock Massner:
When we’re using this type of resistance, you’re able to increase your power output because we’re using the same principle, force equals mass times acceleration. The force is the power in this equation; and so to increase your power output, normally people are going to have to increase the mass or the load that they’re lifting. We are increasing the acceleration of your lifts or movements or exercises, so you’re able to decrease that mass, be able to do more reps, safer reps, have better form, and do it more often and prevent over training. With the force applied with our technology, we’re increasing the acceleration output of your movements.

Brock Massner:
I know that might be a lot of jargon and a long-winded answer to say that it’s simply attach it to whatever movement you’re doing, and it’s going to increase the effectiveness by increasing your power output, increasing your muscle recruitment, and making all your exercises safer by improving your technique and form.

Roy Morejon:
So Brock, you’ve been in the fitness industry for a few decades now. What was that kind of light bulb moment maybe that you had in terms of creating this product, or at least starting the idea of it? Talk about that process that you’ve gone through over the few years now.

Brock Massner:
I grew up wanting to be an athlete. I was very fortunate enough to have a personal trainer in middle school and high school. Shout out to Paul Armstrong. I owe him a lot for what he taught me. He was able to give me a ton of different training philosophies, a ton of different training tools, that I used all through middle school and high school. After using the different equipment, cable machines, resistance bands, practicing Olympic lifts, a bunch of different training tools, I was like, “Well, I like this piece of this type of equipment. I like this type of training philosophy from this piece of equipment. I want something that kind of combines all of these training principles into one.”

Brock Massner:
So really the seed started, I would say, in high school. I went to the University of Iowa, studied biomedical engineering. I did draw up the very first rough draft while I was in college, but it was a year after I graduated that I gave it to a buddy and said, “Hey, can you weld this together?” And at that point, the proof of concept was made, and it was a hunk of metal.

Roy Morejon:
[inaudible 00:05:56]

Brock Massner:
It wasn’t pretty, and it did not need to be in… I had a lot of, let’s say, apprehension behind like, “What’s this going to feel like? What’s this going to do?” Because be perfectly honest, it’s for the most part an untested type of resistance used on different lifts and stuff. So I was like, “What’s this going to feel like?” And once I used it, I was like, “Holy smokes, this is even better than I imagined that it was going to be.”

Brock Massner:
I was at one of the largest CrossFit gyms in America at the time, and I was competing in CrossFit, I was teaching youth athletes a lot, and I was teaching kind of new beginners coming in. One of the biggest things was, I want to use this tool to help teach people to lift properly and still get the same benefits out of lifting heavy or being powerful, but staying at a lighter weight, so everyone stays safer.

Brock Massner:
I used the proof of concept on members at the gym, my youth athletes that I was training, and the feedback was just phenomenal. And I was like, “All right, what’s the next step?” That’s when I dove into… I’ve probably listened to over 75 audiobooks about marketing, inventing, licensing, just kind of the ground up where to go. So I found a product development team in Houston. They made it a shinier hunk of metal. It was a hunk of metal, but it’s a shinier hun metal.

Brock Massner:
But I kind of took it one step closer. Then I then started training professional athletes. I was able to be at a different gym in Houston, started training professional athletes, Olympic athletes, body builders. I even competed in power lifting myself, continued to compete in CrossFit, and just absorbing as much knowledge as I could. Made some tweaks and continued to try to improve upon the product.

Brock Massner:
My cousin, who I roomed with in college and obviously grew up with, he was the entrepreneur. He actually had a few different startups at the time. He saw the product and was like, “Yes, this is it. This needs to be a thing. I want to help you.” From there, we started NV Athletics LLC. Took it to a new engineering team and made it, what I would say, what it looks like today. Made it look like a product that could be sold and could be marketed. But then, I mean, we’re probably at about the fourth or fifth prototype at this point.

Brock Massner:
We got hooked up with… Most people know the Hypervolt, but Hyperice the company. They are a manufacturer in Encino, and we got partnered up with them. They have a lot of smart engineers over there, too, so we put it in their hands. They’ve made the final few modifications to make it what it is today. Took the steps as needed to get the manufacturing line all set up. Now we are just trying to educate people on what this product can really do, and how big of wave we are trying to create in the market.

Roy Morejon:
In talking about the education that you have gone through over years and years, what advice would you give yourself now or at the beginning of this process, knowing what you know now?

Brock Massner:
Ask for help. I felt with my engineering background and my expertise in the fitness industry, I felt like I had a good grasp on the product that I wanted to create. That being said, there are a lot of people who are smarter than I am, especially in the business side of things. I’m super lucky to have my business partner, Zach. My wife Alyssa is also the CSO of our company, and she is our glue that kind of holds us all together. She is the marketing and sales guru of the team, and she’s been able to help guide us through the steps. Zach has been instrumental in the partnerships and the connections we’ve been able to make.

Brock Massner:
To loop back to this answer, connect with the right people and be patient. Everyone wants to get it done now, now, now, now, now. Making the smart partnerships, making the right connections with the right people. Don’t just jump on the first thing that comes up. This is a long road, and just make sure you do it correctly.

Roy Morejon:
In talking about this long road, what’s next after this? I think after you produce this product, get a lot of consumer feedback that you’ve already been getting, what does the future rollouts look like for NV Athletics?

Brock Massner:
Yeah, I mean, like I said, the NV Rack is our MVP, but it’s not going to be our only piece of equipment. We are super excited. We already have a few other patents on other technology where we’re able to let more people try what non-varying resistance feels like, whether that’s in the rehab or hospital facilities, whether it’s the general user. I would definitely say that this is a product that is definitely more of a performance tool to increase your performance and your overall benefits of your exercises. But, there’s so much benefit to where Non-Varying Resistance can have in different areas of whatever your goal may be. We’re Non-Varying Athletics, and so we’re coming out with more Non-Varying Resistance type of products, and we are committed to getting this type of technology out to the fitness industry.

Roy Morejon:
You mentioned something earlier in the last question in terms of asking for advice or getting help. I think that’s one of the biggest sticking points that I hear from our audience, is that they all want to do it alone because they want to lead the charges. This is their passion, this is their thing. But you’ve made it a family affair where you’ve brought wife in, other members, into the team. What’s that been like in terms of having that support system, and has it allowed you to move faster?

Brock Massner:
I would say, I don’t know necessarily about faster, but I will say that trust is obviously one of the biggest things. I mean, obviously I have trust in my wife and the knowledge that she has in this industry of marketing and sales, and so trusting in her. And being able to trust my business partner and cousin Zach has been super instrumental, and just the knowledge, and I know the background and experience that he has. I would say that’s the best thing about having this a family affair is just knowing that you have people that you can trust, and, to be perfectly honest, people that you can tell the truth to.

Brock Massner:
I would say that if it’s a brand new business partner and you don’t really know the person that well, you may be a little apprehensive to bump elbows or disagree with something. But we can be fully upfront and honest with each other and say, “You know what? That’s probably not the best idea. What if we did this?” Rather than not wanting to ruffle feathers and skirt around, maybe hurting somebody’s feelings. We’re pretty honest with each other, and we bounce ideas back and forth off of each other. I think that’s probably the best part about making it close knit.

Roy Morejon:
Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, especially when you’re bringing something to market, right? It’s so important to have honest conversations as you’re going forward. I think not only about the product itself, but certainly you guys have had opportunities to get consumer feedback on this product because you spent the extra time and money of making this a beautiful working product where, like you said, you’re at the CrossFit event trade show and got people to right there to try it out. What was that kind of feedback that you were getting in person from the folks at the event? And, have you taken that into potentially some of these next products that you’re maybe rolling out?

Brock Massner:
Yeah, good question. Yeah, we were fortunate enough to… We went to the CrossFit Games. We had a vendor booth up there. We’ve taken it to facilities, I’ve been to hundreds of gyms, and you know, you get a handful of people at a time. We’ve actually been to the Consumer Electronic Show, which was in Las Vegas, and that was a trade show that was crazy. Now that being said, not everyone was there to work out. A lot of people were in suits, so not a whole lot of people touched the product.

Roy Morejon:
Smaller stacking and CES upstairs.

Brock Massner:
That was a great experience. But the CrossFit Games was so cool, just because we had people filtering through using the product nonstop, and to get people’s feedback, and stuff that we had gotten before. But it was a wide, wide range of athletes; even kids would come up and try the product. It was something that I had a huge passion for, is to train youth athletes, and I think that’s where one of the main pushes the NV Rack will go to is to high school athletes, young CrossFit users, and things like that.

Brock Massner:
So to be at the CrossFit Games, we did learn some things. We learned how to properly set up a booth. I think the biggest thing was, people would walk by, and I can completely understand this, it’s called the NV Rack. A lot of people walked by and thought it was the whole entire squat rack that we had it attached to. They were like, “Well, we don’t need a squat rack. We already have a squat rack.” So we ended up printing out this huge banner that said, “It’s not the squat rack, but it will attach to any squat rack.” And so just small little things like that, learning how to set up a booth properly, how to vendor properly, how to promote and bring people in properly was one of the biggest learning things that we took away from that.

Brock Massner:
But honestly, the feedback that we got from the CrossFit was always super positive. There’s always little modifications. The product in a inventor’s head, it’s never perfect. You always want to make the small little improvement here and small little improvement here. If you keep doing that, you’re never going to push out your product. You’re always going to want to make it perfect by adding this, by adding this, by adding this.

Brock Massner:
There’s things that we knew that we wanted, and they were reinforced by the people that we were talking to at the CrossFit Games. We were like, “Yeah, absolutely. That’s something that we actually do have.” For instance, the exercise library. Something that we have set up and in the works where we will have a large exercise library on our website where people can go and look and see how to properly use the NV Rack to its fullest potential. And that’s what a lot of people asked for, was like, “Well, how do I know if I’m using this properly?” Or, “Is it simple to use?” It’s simple to use in the fact that we were like, “Yeah, you just attach it to any movement or exercise or a piece of equipment that you want to use it for.” But in the same realm, people are maybe a little apprehensive to, “I didn’t think about using it for that. I didn’t think about using it for that.” Now, for instance, this exercise library, we’re like, “Here are all the exercises that we have come up with where we have seen the biggest improvements that the NV Rack can make for those certain exercises and movements.”

Roy Morejon:
Amazing. Well, Brock, this has been amazing. This is now going to get us into the launch round. You ready to go?

Brock Massner:
Yeah, we are excited. I mean, we were expecting obviously a good launch. We’re confident in the product, and the teams that we’re working with right now are awesome. So we felt confident going into it. But the fact that we were fully funded in four hours was… You said, “Get a good night’s sleep,” the night before the launch. Yeah, I was pretty nervous, no matter how confident you can be. But after that first four hours, it was just a kind of a monkey off your shoulders a little bit, and you just can breathe again. And yeah, a good night’s sleep happens.

Brock Massner:
We’re in the launching round now, so we’re getting units in our hands that we’re able to give to people, and I think that’s what we’re super excited for. We’ve had a lot of people try it, a lot of people see it, but it doesn’t necessarily click for a lot of people just by seeing it and just by us explaining it. And once people use it, it’s always a light bulb that goes off. So getting units into people’s hands is something that we’re just super excited for, and something that we know can propel us forward because of how confident we are, and the good feedback we’ll have, and just the progress that people are going to be able to make. It’s going to make marketing the product a lot easier, and we know that people are going to start talking about it and the buzz is going to be there.

Roy Morejon:
Amazing. Well, now it’s time for my launch round where I’m going to rapid fire a handful of questions at you. You’re good to go?

Brock Massner:
Yeah, let’s do it.

Roy Morejon:
So what inspired you to become an entrepreneur?

Brock Massner:
My father started his own business. I would say that that’s probably where it originally started. Just seeing him and what he was able to, starting from ground zero and building up. The amount of respect that I have for him is enormous. Seeing that, I think, is probably what pushed me the most. I would call myself an inventor. I, by no means, would consider myself a business professional. But I’m an inventor, and I think that’s what I’m excited for, as well as just coming up with new products to be able to help people.

Roy Morejon:
All right. So if you could meet any inventor or entrepreneur throughout history, who would you want to have a workout with?

Brock Massner:
Yeah, that is a great question. One just popped in my head, and this is kind of, I don’t even know, I’m assuming he was… Henry T. Ford. Weird answer, maybe, but he-

Roy Morejon:
He’s actually been a fairly common one on the show over the years.

Brock Massner:
… he was coming out with essentially a new technology and a new product. That’s something that I… By no means I’m calling this the car, but breaking into a new piece of equipment or technology that hasn’t really been tested or proven, and just picking his brain on that, who knows, maybe he’s good at working out, too. That would probably be it.

Roy Morejon:
Had to lift a lot of nuts and bolts, right? Robots back then. So what would’ve been your first question for him?

Brock Massner:
Good question. I would say how to be a… As an entrepreneur, I think there is a lot of self-doubt, like, “Hey, is this really something that people are going to like? Is this something that I’m passionate about it, but are other people going to see that?” I would say how to be confident and to know that it’s stick to your guns, and how to educate and how to push a new technology. Because that is one of the biggest things we’re coming up against. The product itself we are a hundred percent confident in. It’s the education piece that we know we have to push and improve on, is how do we educate people about this technology, and about this product, and about this new type of training. So that’s probably what I would ask him, is how to educate people.

Roy Morejon:
I think that was probably one of his hardest things. His main quote is, “If I ask people, they would just say they wanted faster horses.”

Brock Massner:
Exactly.

Roy Morejon:
Introducing a completely new technology that didn’t even come into their reality.

Brock Massner:
Absolutely.

Roy Morejon:
I know you said earlier that you’ve listened to tons of different books or audiobooks on startups and entrepreneurship. What’s one book that you would recommend to our audience?

Brock Massner:
That’s a great question. However many inventing and licensing books I read, which I think probably is applicable to my field pretty well, I think one of the books was called… I can’t remember even remember the author. The Keys to Inventing, or The Six Keys to Inventing, or something like that. The Keys to Inventing.

Roy Morejon:
We’ll look it up and send it out to all the people. Don’t worry.

Brock Massner:
But I would say probably the best book as far as just business or different outlook on money in general, and probably a lot of people have heard of this book, or know it, or may be a cliche answer, but Rich Dad, Poor Dad was a very, very good book that I will take with me forever.

Roy Morejon:
Nice. What advice or one piece of advice would you give to a new inventor or entrepreneur that’s looking to launch their product?

Brock Massner:
Probably going to reiterate some things I said earlier. Patience. Zach and I have been fortunate enough to be able to bootstrap this ourselves, which we are very proud of, and something that we’ve had to have patience for, because we’ve had full time jobs throughout this whole entire process. We’re very proud of that. That being said, it makes the process slow. But that being said, I don’t regret a single step of that. So patience is probably one of the biggest things.

Brock Massner:
When you do find those partnerships, do your due diligence in vetting. I’ve seen and heard of a lot of different other entrepreneurs and product developers get burnt. There’s a lot of people out there promising certain things. So I would say, do your due diligence. Find the correct business partnerships and teams that you’re wanting to team up with. Patience, and research, and due diligence is what I would say.

Roy Morejon:
Nice. All right. Last question, Brock. I know you just launched this campaign less than 24 hours ago, but really interested to hear your take on what does the future of crowdfunding look like?

Brock Massner:
That is a great question. I would say we’ve always talked about doing a Kickstarter. At the time, and this might be shooting myself in the foot when I say this, but I’ve always thought of crowdfunding as at-home user products, or small little products that want to get pushed for the general user. You know, the mom and dad at home, or the young kid that anybody can buy, and be like, “Oh, that’s a cool idea. I want one of those,” in just the vast market of things. But going through this process and realizing, like, “No, crowdfunding can push.” I mean, we are not a cheap product for the crowdfunding area. So I would say the future of crowdfunding is taking large, maybe more niche products, and pushing it to the right people, and building that validation to market. It’s not just for the small little products anymore. It’s to validate your product, get that funding that you need, and the pre-orders that you need in our situation. Crowdfunding, the future of it, is to help launch new startups and businesses, I think.

Roy Morejon:
Absolutely. Well, Brock, this has been amazing. This is your opportunity to give your final pitch to our audience and tell them where to go and where to check out NV Rack.

Brock Massner:
Yeah. Obviously Kickstarter, all you have to do is just search NV Rack, and we’re going to be the ones that pop up. That’s obviously where you can go and purchase it, make any donations or pledges that you want. Any little bit helps. Whether you just want to support the idea of this type of training to benefit everyone, maybe you’re not interested necessarily in having a NV Rack yourself. Any pledge helps. So I would definitely go to Kickstarter. Find us on NV_Rack on Instagram, and we put out a lot of education tools, updates on our Instagram. Our website as well, just NVAthletic.com is another one. Go there, checkout our About page. We have more scientific research and backing of the Non-Varying Resistance to explain that a little bit more. I would say just follow us as much as you can, get as much education as you can, and honestly just help push us on other social medias, whether it’s your social media, or link with a friend, link us with the gym that you go to, and we will try our best to get it into everyone’s hands.

Roy Morejon:
Amazing. Audience, thanks so much for tuning in. Make sure to visit artofthekickstart.com for the notes transcript, links to the campaign, everything else we talked about today. And of course, big shout out to our crowdfunding podcast sponsor over at ProductHype, the top newsletter for new products that just launched. Brock, thank you so much today for joining us on Art of the Kickstart.

Brock Massner:
Thank you, Roy.

Roy Morejon:
Thank you for tuning into another amazing episode of Art of the Kickstart, the show about building a better business, life, and world with crowdfunding. If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode as much as I did, make sure to show us some love by rating us and reviewing us on your favorite listening station, whatever that may be. Your review really helps other founders and startups find us so they can improve their craft and achieve greater success like you. And of course, be sure to visit artofthekickstart.com for all the previous episodes. And if you need any help, make sure to send me an email at info@artofthekickstart.com. I’d be glad to help you out. Thanks again for tuning in. I’ll see you next week.