by Brendan Wright, IUPUI undergraduate student
Jeremy Hochstedler, the founder and CEO of Diamond Charts and Telemetry Sports, kicked off the Sports Innovation Institute at IUPUI Speaker Series with a discussion on sports analytics and entrepreneurship at the National Institute of Fitness and Sport (NIFS) Auditorium in front of a crowd of IUPUI students, faculty, and staff on Tuesday, March 6.
Hochstedler discussed how fulfilling a need in the sports coaching world led to the founding of his two businesses, Diamond Charts and Telemetry Sports, which are both based in Noblesville, Ind., and provided advice to those in attendance.
As a college baseball coach presenting a scouting report, Hochstedler would have to go to each team’s website and capture the at-bats from each player from the team’s most recent 8-10 games.
He would then chart the location of each player’s hit, what type of contact it was (ground ball, fly ball or line drive), and whether he became a runner or whether it was an out. Through this process, a need was presented, and Jeremy took his engineering background to help create Diamond Charts.
After developing a solution for his own coaching need through Diamond Charts, the company was a much needed solution nationwide and has become the premier spray charts service for the nation’s top NCAA baseball and softball programs.
While Diamond Charts was evolving, Jeremy saw the same need presented in the National Football League (NFL). After years of testing and expanding the possibilities, Telemetry Sports has done what it can to help satisfy that need.
Hochstedler’s company has created a way for coaches to break down game film to include very specific information needed breaking hours of reviewing game film, partly due to Telemetry Sports, into mere minutes. Coaches can now break down numerous plays in the time it used to take for just one play.
He advised everyone in the room that the most important thing to do as an entrepreneur is to completely master your craft before expanding. Basically, if you haven’t found a way to service 40 teams then don’t attempt it, because you may disrupt a future partnership.
“If you can hit a home run in one area, then do that before moving on to the next,” he said. “Don’t grow too fast. Diamond Charts couldn’t handle 40 teams let alone the 7-8 that we already had (at the start).”
He also advised the group that as an entrepreneur, you have to surround yourself with great people and going to work will become a challenge in the best way possible.
“Go out and find the humble rock stars,” he said. “Those are the people who are confident in what they’re doing, but are humble and great to work with.”
With budding entrepreneurs in the audience, Hochstedler advised them to “do what you can to understand the market on a personal level.”
Entrepreneurs have to find a way to “connect to the person to which they may present an idea and to understand.” If they’re talking to a coach, understand the position they’re in and make sure to outline the benefits for that specific position first.
The SII Speaker Series affords students, faculty, staff and the general public the opportunity to hear from sports leaders, educators, innovators and entrepreneurs in the most passionate and vibrant sports city in the nation on the campus of IUPUI.
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