FounderMetrics: Raj Thiruchelvarajah

In the second episode of this second season of FounderMetrics, Ifty Nasir interviews Raj Thiruchelvarajah. Raj is the CEO and co-founder of Hytro - the world’s first Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) wearable device.

Excitingly, Raj hinted during the interview that Hytro might one day take to the stars. And sure enough, a few months later...

Hytro collaborated with scientists from SpaceX, NASA, Sheffield Hallam University, and Labfront to perform research on the recently launched Polaris Dawn space mission!

Get the key takeaways below - or click here to listen to Raj and Hytro's incredible journey in full.

Leaving corporate life behind

I started my working life at an accountancy firm. And then, in a classic move, I went into banking management consultancy. I did that for 15 years, crunching spreadsheets and working with many of the banks in the City of London.

But I got to a point where I really wasn't enjoying what I was doing. I remember working on a project as a management consultant, where I worked 30 hours without a break. You know, you live in the office for that time.

And you think, what am I doing this for? Being a consultant wasn't really benefiting anyone, to be honest.

I wasn't even doing it for me; I didn't really want to become a partner in a big corporate machine. So, I wondered, “What's the point of this?”. I was looking for something different to do, and I have always been into sports.

The lightbulb moment

At that point, I met a guy called Paul Harter, who is actually one of our co-founders.

Paul had retired from a very distinguished career in law and founded a business in health and nutrition coaching. I joined him as the CEO, and we did that for a while. Then we hired a guy called Dr. Warren Bradley to help us with our clients.

Warren has a PhD in exercise physiology and a decade in pro sports. After a few months of working with us, he said, "I've got this idea." He spent all his money on a patent but had no idea what to do with it. He put it in front of Paul and me; we had a look, and we knew - that's how it all came about!

It was all quite unusual. Usually, you do one of these normal jobs: you're an accountant, a lawyer, a doctor - generally one of those, right? And that's what your parents would be happy with, particularly if you’re Asian. Being an entrepreneur wasn't really a thing.

It's the kind of thing you probably see Richard Branson doing, but very few other people. Now the world's changed, you've got kids coming out of university saying, "I want to be an entrepreneur." That wasn't necessarily a thing before.

External validation as an early key metric

At the beginning of our journey, we weren't really clear on what we were looking at. We were probably a bit too focused on revenue, the typical metrics that everyone looks at.

But one of the things that happened during the journey was that increasingly, we had coaches saying to us, "I can't believe I didn't think of this myself," which is one thing.

And then the second thing was, "Can I invest in the company?" And now we have over 80 pro sports coaches invested in Nitro, and that’s still continuing to snowball.

We asked the coaches what was going on, and they said the players wanted the product for home use so they could use it again. These aren't tangible metrics in some ways, but they’re really good signs on several fronts that this is going in the right direction.

So, for us, that external validation of what we're doing, and the continuing advocacy of those individuals is really powerful.

And that continues to happen. It's a really good indication that we're on the right track.

A great example we have to talk about is Cameron Norrie, the British number one tennis player.

He had a knee issue during Wimbledon last year and started using our product to help him with that. He then started using it for preparation, training, and recovery, showing genuine advocacy of the product.

He wanted to invest, and alongside him came his two physios, his strength and conditioning coach, his tennis coach, and one of his mates - all invested in our tech. This authentic use of the product is really important for us.

From strength to strength

We're dominant in football and rugby; those are our two main sports. We have cricket teams as well. One of the surprising ones for me was Formula One. We supply the Alpine Formula One team, work with their academy, and collaborate with several other drivers across the grid.

The pro sports business is the foundation and the fundamentals of what we do. We will always operate in the pro sports element, built for and proven by science in many ways - but we’re looking to expand.

The medical opportunity is incredibly exciting because we can positively impact the lives of millions of people across the world with our product. There's a societal impact to this.

The learning curve

All founders go on a learning curve. The challenge is, how long can you stick on that learning curve before it gets too steep for you, and you probably need to step back? At the moment, I've been okay.

What I'm trying to do is identify the areas I'm not so good at and find ways to address them. Whether it's through coaching for myself or hiring for the company, we need to grow.

There are so many different challenges we encounter. I don't yet know at what stage we’ll be too big for me or whether I can keep on that learning curve.

Diversity of thought is really important to a team.

People seeing things from different perspectives give you a greater set of tools to problem solve and a broader view of what could be happening.

If you've got a team of people who see the world the same way, you've got blind spots you might not be aware of.

Listen now

You'll find Raj's episode and more from FounderMetrics wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify. You can also watch the interview in full on YouTube. Don't forget to like and subscribe!