Sixers Innovation Lab Officially Opens Doors at Philadelphia 76ers Training Complex, Announces Four Diverse Inaugural Startup Companies

On Jul 19, 2017

The Sixers Innovation Lab Crafted by Kimball officially opened the doors to its 8,000-square-foot lab space located at the base of the Business Operations Facility at the Philadelphia 76ers Training Complex in Camden. In a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the Innovation Lab officially recognized its four diverse inaugural companies spanning the esports, daily fantasy sports, pet care and digital cause media industries. The Sixers Innovation Lab ribbon-cutting ceremony included remarks by Sixers CEO Scott O’Neil, Sixers Innovation Lab Managing Director and Founder of AND1 sportswear, Seth Berger, City of Camden Mayor Dana Redd and Kimball Office President Mike Wagner. Esports training platform U GIT GUD, innovative cat feeding system Doc & Phoebe’s Cat Co., and digital cause media company Live Life Nice, join previously announced daily fantasy lineup recommender Monster Roster as official Sixers Innovation Lab companies.

“Since the announcement of the Sixers Innovation Lab Crafted by Kimball, we’ve seen hundreds of applications from ambitious startups around the world interested in joining our lab team here,” said Seth Berger, Sixers Innovation Lab Managing Director. “The four companies we welcome into our lab today are entrepreneurs who have demonstrated the most innovative thinking, strategic planning, vision and most importantly, heart. Our goal is to remove the ‘noise’ that drowns so many startups, and give them the resources to focus on what they do best, innovating and thinking consumer-first.”

Monster Roster: Monster Roster is a daily fantasy sports lineup recommender that combines a unique process and powerful algorithm to help daily fantasy sports users build superior lineups with proven results. Monster Roster’s patent-pending algorithm provides optimum recommendations for each position, allowing users to select players individually to complete their weekly fantasy lineup. Monster Roster’s recommendations are applicable to NBA, NFL and MLB matchups in DraftKings 50/50, DraftKings Tournament, FanDuel 50/50 and FanDuel Tournament competitions. Monster Roster can create approximately 100,000 unique lineups each week and is the only lineup optimizer of its kind in the fantasy sports industry today. The company was founded in 2015 by San Francisco native Dylan Elder, who postponed a degree from Georgetown University to accelerate Monster Roster’s expansion with the Sixers Innovation Lab Crafted by Kimball.

U GIT GUD: U GIT GUD is an online, hyper-improvement training platform providing professional, amateur and beginner esports players with (patent-pending) dynamic analytics and personalized recommendations with insightful videos from some of the top esports players in the world.The first esports coaching platform focusing on the analytics behind player decision-making rationale and stylistic tendencies, U GIT GUD helps gamers “git gud” through individualized player analysis and a series of educational video tutorials featuring the world’s elite esports players. U GIT GUD is the only esports training platform to analyze and quantify players’ individual impact in team game play. This offering allows users from professional coaches to casual gamers an unparalleled opportunity to analyze, compare and correct individual player tendencies and behaviors, amplifying team impact. The startup will debut a beta private platform in late July, supporting the world’s most popular gaming title, League of Legends. The company was founded in 2017 by Cornell Alumni (2013), Shinggo Lu and Alan Liang. The 26-year-olds hail from Iowa City, Iowa and Champaign, Illinois, respectively.

Doc & Phoebe’s Cat Co.: Doc & Phoebe’s Cat Co. is an award-winning, indoor hunting feeder that maximizes cats’ natural instincts to hunt and play while combating the top causes of cat physical and mental illness and death, via five mice-shaped feeders mimicking the size, shape and tactile disposition of prey. Replacing the traditional bowl of food, the patented feeder guides cats to a natural process, alleviating the “scarf and barf” phenomenon, ensuring cats maintain healthy weight, preventing bad behavior caused by restlessness and anxiety and ending night waking for feeding. The innovative, award-winning, feeding system has taken the $66-billion-dollar pet food industry by storm, and is currently utilized by over 15,000 cats around the world. Prior to joining the Sixers Innovation Lab Crafted by Kimball, the product has been chronicled by FOX News, Business Insider, The New York Times, and Daily Mail. Formerly branded as The NoBowl Feeding System, Doc & Phoebe’s Cat Co. has been awarded the International Cat Care’s “Cat-Friendly Award,” was named the “Best New Cat Product” at 2016 Super Zoo, and is celebrated by veterinarians and feline behaviorists around the globe as the correct way to feed cats. The company was founded in 2014 by University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine 2000, Middlebury College 1995 alumna and Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania native, Dr. Elizabeth Bales; who developed the product as a solution to the epidemic of cat behavior problems she recognized over 17 years as a practicing veterinarian.

Live Life Nice: Live Life Nice is a cause-driven digital media company with a simple mission: to inspire people to “Be Nice, Do Nice.”  Through original, moving content, Live Life Nice will launch a social movement embarking on a quest to infuse and highlight positive news into society. Featuring compelling video content and the compassionate, engaged consumers it galvanizes, Live Life Nice provides an opportunity for cause-minded brands to integrate directly into captivating, poignant and accessible stories. The company was founded in 2014 by Voorhees, New Jersey native Christian Crosby, the In-Arena Game Day Host for the Philadelphia 76ers between 2014 and 2017. Crosby began his career with the iconic team at 18 as a trampoline dunker, in-game performer and media personality.

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