Founders And Funders

Derek Belch, founder and CEO of STRIVR, started out simply helping athletes improve performance through the use of virtual reality. Now the company is using VR to improve preparation that leads to better performance, regardless of the job. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary Though Derek Belch says luck played a role in helping STRIVR become the business it is today, it’s clear that science and study played an even bigger part. While a graduate assistant and football coach at Stanford University, Belch started working on his Master’s thesis with Jeremy Bailenson, a professor who runs the virtual reality (VR) lab at the school. Belch hoped to find a way to train football players using VR. He says, “The project was very successful academically. It was so successful, I had to decide if I wanted to keep coaching or take the idea and go back to the business world.” As luck would have it, the Stanford head coach mad