Tucked away in the northeast Canadian port town of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Kinduct Technologies has thrust itself onto the global stage. The company, which just celebrated its 10-year anniversary after finding its niche as an athlete management system and wearable data consolidator, has announced the largest exit ever for a Canadian sports tech company.
Kinduct was purchased by U.S.-based mCube, which makes tiny motion sensors and 3D motion tracking technology. The deal gives Kinduct access to a global footprint with offices all around the world and motion sensor hardware assets that will help it expand into new areas of performance monitoring and digital health.
The road to this achievement wasn’t paved, nor straight. Kinduct started in sports medicine and orthopedics, making 3D medical animation videos. “It was like going to war with a butter knife competing with multimillion-dollar healthcare companies,” says Kinduct CEO Travis McDonough.
McDonough had to pivot early and often in the initial years before settling on athlete intelligence. This week, he took a break from the celebration, to explain what this deal means for Kinduct and its clients, and to remind other founders that though the road may be challenging, power through and stay grateful.
On powering through adversity . . .
We’re not only off the beaten track in North America, but we’re off the beaten path in Canada. We’re certainly not a household name for sports technology, but it’s been all about the people. The people from this region who have worked together and powered through adversity to do things on a global scale. We’re like a sports team that devoted 10 years to win a championship, and it feels really good. It’s a proud moment for us.
On not getting founderitis . . .
One of the things we’ve always tried to be good at is being self-aware. As a CEO/founder, you never want to get what we call founderitis, where you don’t know when it’s time to hang up the gloves or bring somebody in who knows more than you do to do the business justice. For me, we did punch above our weight and made significant inroads and impacts. But there comes a point in time in every company’s evolution where you know you can bring things to the next level, but only by bringing in the more experienced folks who have a global footprint.
On what this deal means for Kinduct’s global footprint . . .
We already have a partnership in India, and a new one in Japan. But now with this acquisition we’ll have eight offices around the world to sell through, everywhere from China, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Hollywood, San Jose. These are all great opportunities to push sales and marketing closer to the epicenter of some of these markets and I think that’s especially important now since COVID-19 sort-of locked down travel.