Get to know the cofounders of Ochy

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Ochy was born from our wish, as former top athletes, to help runners acquire good running technique to reach their running objectives.

Our mission is to empower coaches and health professionals to assist their athletes and patients in injury prevention and running technique improvement. We also aim to provide every runner with the tools to become an efficient and injury-free runner. 
To achieve this, we are developing a cutting-edge application that offers accessible running and gait analysis for all.

‍Our motto: become a better runner!

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Who are the former athletes Khaldon and Perrine?

We both met while studying at the University of Central Missouri in the USA. Khaldon came from Jamaica and Perrine from France. We wanted to study abroad while continuing our passion for track and field. Thanks to our good athletics results we both got scholarships.

We first met on a track at 6:45 am during a training session. 11 years later we are still waking up at 6:45 am but now it’s because our two kids jump on our bed.

During our track career, we went to the NCAA championship many times, won conferences indoor and outdoor. Khaldon has a 400m personal best of 46.8 while Perrine has one of 56.8.

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After our studies, we decided to move together to France. At that time Perrine got a job in Luxembourg in a clinic specializing in biomechanical analysis. Then 2 years later we moved to the south of France and she decided to open her own franchise. Khaldon was an architect at that time but because a lot of marketing needed to be done for Perrine’s job, Khaldon found a passion in that field.

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Now that our athletic career is over we both kept running for fun but still have in mind to get better at every race. Most of the time we run 5 kilometers and 10 kilometers.

But in 2022 we ran a half marathon in Nice. Khaldon plans to run the Amsterdam Marathon at the end of 2023.

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A third cofounder joined the Ochy team

In march 2022, Victor became cofounder of Ochy. We met because we were in the same incubator, we were both creating a company.

Through the exchanges, Victor liked our project and our vision and we were looking for a CTO. Victor decided to join the team. Today he manages the technical development of Ochy.

Victor is a graduate of Epitech Paris and already has solid experience in mobile and web development, as well as in the agile environment of a start-up. He also worked in larger compagnies such as Engie and as a freelancer.

Man of challenge and adventures, Victor works for his dreams. He has walked more than 6000 kilometers across Europe all by himself and notably went from France to North Norway by foot.

Passionate about advanced technologies and AI, it is this approach that attracted him to Ochy. Since then, he has been practicing the essential sport at Ochy: running.

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What triggered us to start the company to democratize running analysis?‍

We used to have laboratory biomechanical analysis throughout our careers. Once our athletic careers were over, we continued to run long distances for fun. We wanted to improve our distance performance but we didn’t want to go to a lab to do a biomechanical analysis because the price was too high.

What to work on then? How to become more efficient with our running technique?  We then thought to ourselves, "If we are in search of a way to get better, many runners are certainly in the same situation".

‍Ochy's motto is: become a better runner!

Given our two current professional experiences in mobile application development and biomechanics expertise, we decided to create Ochy to facilitate the execution of biomechanical running form analysis. 

Our solution is dedicated to coaches, health professionals and runners. 

The Ochy solution is easy to use:

• Affordable : eliminating the need for expensive equipment purchases
• Quick and simple : no sensors to install, just a smartphone to use Ochy 
• Efficient : Once the video is sent, the analysis result is received quickly

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What are the milestones that led Ochy to its biomechanical running analysis solution?

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First step : Ochy as a MVP

We both started thinking about Ochy in June 2020. Given our sports background, we first reached out to our personal network of coaches and athletes to get their thoughts on the idea and their expectations of such a tool. At the same time, we conducted market research, surveys, and finally released an MVP version of the app in February 2021.

‍In just a few weeks (and without marketing or paid publication), we received 150 videos from users looking for biomechanical analysis of their running technique. 

Even if the analysis still has to be done manually before being sent back to the user by email, these first results show a strong interest for such a product and a solution on the field within everyone's reach.

‍But in order to help us go even further in our adventure, we signed in April 2021 with the incubator program 1Kubator.

June 2021 : MVP 2.0

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The MVP2.0 version was released in June 2021 and gave us the opportunity to create many partnerships with big athletics clubs such Bordeaux Athlé and EFSRA Reims athlétisme. We are currently working with 5 athletic clubs and 8 personal running coaches in France, UK and USA to improve the product. In July 2021, we signed our first customer, Club of Pacé with 14 analyses.

‍The company was then officially incorporated in France on 27 July 2021.

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Ochy's approach to helping people become better runners

Running has been a part of our lives since a very young age. We both competed at a high level, amateur level, had injuries, setbacks, high achievements and failures. We have had coaches and also have coached ourselves. This gives us a broad spectrum of what the majority of people go through in running.

Our vision is to democratize biomechanical running analysis by making it easily accessible to coaches, health professionals, and runners alike. With Ochy, all you need is a smartphone to capture a running video and analyze it using our cutting-edge application.

‍Our platform offers a comprehensive analysis that takes into account the entire human body, enabling coaches and health professionals to gain a deeper understanding of their athletes' or patients' biomechanics.

‍For runners, we offer a simplified yet comprehensive report that is easy to understand and provides actionable insights to improve their running technique and prevent injuries.

‍Our goal is to empower everyone to become an efficient, injury-free runner and reach their full potential.

By running more efficiently, by strengthening the right muscle groups, the chance of getting injured is reduced by ⅓ , while the opportunity of reaching a goal increases.

Where is Ochy today ?

Today, we have many professional and amateur users, including healthcare professionals, coaches, and runners.

We actively seek feedback from our clients to ensure that we provide the best possible version of our solution.

In addition to this, we are constantly working to improve our application and add new features. In the near future, we will be adding a back/front view to analyze running posture and detect new gestures that need improvement.

At present, we are in the process of fundraising to secure our development and expand our team.

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