Executive Highlight
Chase Pfeifer
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CEO/Co-Founder, Dashr
- Industry: Sports
Business Founded: 2016
Phone: (850) 591-0112
Email: [email protected]
How long have you been in your industry?13 years
Why did you choose your industry?I grew up playing most every sport there is. This continued into high school being a 3 sport athlete, then into college playing football at FSU. So I have always had a love for the industry and a respect for what it takes to be successful in it. While at FSU I studied mechanical engineering, after graduating I went to the University of Nebraska for a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. During my masters I researched the kinematics of place kicking which snowballed into me helping to start the Nebraska Athletic Performance Lab where I continued my research, obtaining a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. The experiences and connections I made at Nebraska proved to me that there was a definite need for affordable electronic timing. Given my experience in both athletics and engineering I figured I was a good fit to help meet that need.
Who are your typical clients?Coaches at any level - middle school, high school, club teams, college/university, gyms/trainer, professional teams, etc. If you value accurate movement performance metrics - you are a perfect fit for us. We also work with a lot of hospitals, rehab facilities, and research labs to evaluate patients.
What do you like best about being in this industry?Seeing athletes improve and reach their goals. Testing days are an electrifying environment where teammates are building each other up and celebrating each other's success.
What are common problems you see?Coaches have always understood the value of performance testing - just like anything else, you need to understand your baseline then measure again in the future to get a unbiased metric of change. Until recently, the technology to take these measurements was too cost prohibitive. Now they have access! The problem is that there is just so much that a coach may want to measure. So they have a dozen different technologies on different platforms and they also have an athlete management system (AMS) to put it all in - it can turn into a lot. We have worked to expand our technology offerings to help reduce the number of platforms needed. We also integrate with several AMS platforms so there is no need to manually transfer data.
What advice/tips do you have for clients?Test often and test consistently. Also, Dashr offers a lot more than just electronic timing. Look into all the functionality on our Dashboard, there is a great deal of untapped value at your fingertips.
When is your busy season?Our typical busy season is February through July which coincides with off-season football training, track season, and in the summer - camps and combines. As more sports such as hockey and baseball have begun adding performance testing to their yearly regiment, we are starting to see that busy season expand.
What keeps you up at night?Thinking about the next valuable metric we can quantify! We have so much fun building prototypes and testing them in the field. We have a LOT of new devices in the pipeline.
How do you market yourself to grow/expand your business?Starting out as a small operation we relied tremendously on word of mouth and making relationships with distributors who would do a lot of the marketing for us. As we have grown we have built strategic partnerships with others in the industry, such as Hudl, D1 Training, RedLine Athletics, Teambuildr, SimpliFaster, etc. These relationships combines with our online presence and ecommerce site have allowed us to grow rapidly.
How involved are you in the community?Dashr is a business, but we started the company to help athletes be prepared when opportunities presented themselves. Basically, knowing how to properly run the drill that will play a part in determining if you make the team. We sponsor equipment at no cost to several testing events across the country each year. Events that are free for athletes to attend and obtain test results to help them get recruited.We also sponsor the Nebraska High School Performance Index State Championship which is free for all high schools in Nebraska to help their athletes get noticed!
What is your favorite not for profit or charity?We are a big advocate for ALS research and those who provide resources for ex-athletes. My favorite charities include the Steve Gleason Foundation and the Nebraska Greats Foundation.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of getting into this business?Build relationships in the industry, with both businesses and customers. Coaches are a tight-nit loyal community who constantly ask for and give advise and share their experiences. If you truly provide something they value and are available if they have questions - they will continue to come to you and will share the experience.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?Free time? What's that?? Most anything with my wife and three young kids - so lots of pool and playground time.
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