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Gritty Hitter helps student athletes improve their skills and get recruited

May 9, 2019

A new Ames-based company is looking to help softball players train more effectively and get recruited by colleges.

The Company, Gritty Hitter, offers an online membership that provides athletes, coaches and parents with the content to help student athletes improve their skill set and help them get recruited by colleges.

“I was reached out to by Randy Schneider, a former D1 softball coach, and at the time he just wanted help for a website,” said Brady Trent, co-founder of Gritty Hitter. “I met up with him and we started talking and quickly realized it made a lot of sense for us to make a business together instead of me just building him a site.”

Since launching on Feb. 1, the site has had around 50 people sign up, Trent told Clay & Milk.

Athletes who sign up for a membership will receive virtual training videos, the ability to track their workouts and their own recruiting profile.

“Right now with the recruiting tools that are out there, someone will pay $2000 and have a recruiter go send out all these emails to college coaches. Those emails basically all go to spam now and unless you’re a really great player it’s not going to do anything for you,” Trent said. “Whereas what we do is only $150 a year for athletes and they get a recruiting profile, where we include all of their stats on there but focus on the grit. How hard do they work? How much are they tracking their workouts? How many videos are they watching? And then we calculate a grit score that we think is going to be more valuable to recruiters in the long run because that’s what recruiter really want to see.”

Gritty Hitter will be sponsoring the 144-team, PGF Stars and Stripes Tournament in St. Charles Illinois July 11-14th through a partnership with Dave Betcher Events.

The company is also working on a team program that will allow entire teams to sign up at once.

“Long-term we want to take this to every sport out there,” Trent said. “Right now we’re focusing on this niche with softball and just trying to conquer it and do it really well.”

Gritty Hitter helps student athletes improve their skills and get recruited | Clay & Milk

A central Iowa ag-tech accelerator has secured more backers and finally has a name. The Greater Des Moines Partnership first announced the accelerator last year, naming four initial investors. On Monday, the Partnership said the program will be called the "Iowa AgriTech Accelerator" and named three new investors. The new investors include Grinnell Mutual, Kent Corp. and Sukup Manufacturing, all Iowa companies. They join investors Deere & Co., Peoples Co., Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Co. and DuPont Pioneer. Each investor has agreed to put up $100,000 for the first year of the accelerator. Startups entering the program will receive $40,000 in seed funding in exchange for 6 percent equity. Tej Dhawan, an angel investor and local startup mentor, is serving as interim director until the AgriTech Accelerator names a permanent leader. Dhawan held a similar role with the GIA before Brian Hemesath was named as managing director. As interim director, Dhawan said his main job includes hiring the accelerator's executive director, establishing a business structure and initial recruiting for the first cohort. The accelerator will place few filters, such as location and product, on the applicant pool, Dhawan said. "When you’re seeking innovation, innovation can come from every corner of the world so why restrict ourselves," he said. One area the the AgriTech Accelerator won't recruit from is biotech. For its first cohort, the AgriTech Accelerator will work out of the GIA's space in Des Moines' East Village, Dhawan said. A future, permanent home is still to be decided. The accelerator's program will host startups from mid-July through mid-October, ending with an event connected to the annual World Food Prize. The GIA, which the AgriTech Accelerator is based on, also ends with presentations at an industry event. The accelerator has also started lining up a mentor pool. The Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Soybean Association and the Iowa Pork Producers Association have agreed to provide mentors, as has Iowa State University. While the AgriTech Accelerator is loosely based off of the GIA, it will differ in its business structure, Dhawan said. The GIA runs through a for-profit model for both operations and its investment fund. The AgriTech Accelerator will have a nonprofit model for its operations and a for-profit setup for its fund. Dhawan said the nonprofit model is being used so the accelerator can better work with other nonprofit partners, such as trade associations. "These are all organizations that are nonprofits and can be amazing stakeholders without ever having to be investors in the accelerator," he said. "It becomes easier to work with trade associations in their nonprofit role when we are also a nonprofit." When it's up and running, the AgriTech Accelerator would be one of a handful of ag-focused startup development programs in Iowa. Others include the Ag Startup Engine out of Iowa State University and the Rural Ventures Alliance from Iowa MicroLoan. Matthew Patane is the managing editor and co-founder of Clay & Milk. Send him an email at mpatane@clayandmilk.com.

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