Hiroyuki Doi, the CEO of SPLYZA Inc., founded the company on May 2, 2011. In the approximately 10 years
since, the company’s flagship service, "SPLYZA Teams," has grown to be adopted by around 900 teams, with
over 30,000 users. Additionally, the "SPLYZA Motion" service, released in 2022, has already been widely
utilized by many users since its launch.
Here, we’ve summarized the founding story of SPLYZA Inc. We hope you’ll take the time to read it.
The Inspiration Behind the Founding:
A Desire to Feel Excited Every Day of the Week
SPLYZA CEO Hiroyuki Doi began his career as a software engineer. During his student years, he lived a life
entirely detached from sports, not even joining any extracurricular clubs. However, in his third year as a
working professional, he had a chance encounter with windsurfing. From that point on, he devoted his
weekends to the sport, spending entire days immersed in it. This passion, however, made his weekday work
seem dull by comparison, and he came to a realization: if life is a continuous sequence of weeks, he wanted
to experience a life where all seven days of the week were exciting. With that goal in mind, he quit his job
and moved to Australia on his own.
However, even though he spent his days in a foreign country indulging in his favorite activity, he found
himself feeling unfulfilled. Australia is a mecca for windsurfing, but there he had no acquaintances or
friends, leaving him to practice in solitude day after day. It was during this time that Doi had an
epiphany: "I love windsurfing, but what made it truly fun was having friends to practice with, shooting
videos of each other, watching those videos together afterward, and discussing them over dinner. It was the
entire experience, with all its components, that brought me joy!".
Doi still holds the goal of becoming "the best amateur in Japan," a vision he shared with his peers at the
time. Even though windsurfing is an individual sport, they all worked toward the same shared goal, and it
was the process of pursuing that collective vision that gave him a sense of fulfillment.
After returning to Japan, however, Doi encountered an unexpected setback—his car was stolen. To make matters
worse, all of his windsurfing equipment was inside the car. While he had been contemplating starting his own
business, he faced a dilemma: continuing with windsurfing would leave him neither the time nor the money
needed to prepare for entrepreneurship. This unfortunate incident became a turning point for Doi, spurring
him to take the leap and begin working toward starting his own company.
"Realizing the desire of amateur athletes to become 'better'."
As Doi worked toward launching his business, he brainstormed over 100 ideas. The final concept he settled
on was his last proposal: "Let's improve the lack of IT utilization in the field of amateur sports, not
professional sports." This idea stemmed from Doi’s experience in Australia, where he used to film himself,
write blog posts about techniques and updates, and connect with his friends back in Japan.
At the time of SPLYZA's founding, the "IT × Sports" field was predominantly geared toward professionals or
top-level athletes, such as Olympians. The services were priced at tens of thousands to hundreds of
thousands of yen, completely out of reach for amateur athletes. With this in mind, Doi and his team
established the slogan, "Fulfilling the 'I want to get better' of amateur athletes," and started working to
realize a service combining "IT × Sports" using video technology. This effort led to the founding of SPLYZA
Inc. by a team of three, including Doi.
**
"SPLYZA Teams' predecessor app "Spoch" was released in 2014."
The founding of SPLYZA dates back to 2011. Three years later in January 2014, their service "Spoch" was
finally launched. However, despite the long launch process, there was virtually no response from consumers.
This is understandable since at that time, the founding members of SPLYZA were all engineers and none were
knowledgeable in BtoC marketing. Subsequently, they exhibited at trade shows and made announcements on
Facebook, but the only people who responded were friends with no connection to sports.
The reason why they couldn't release the app for a long time in the first place was that they were
developing it based on themselves as users, as what they wanted. They continued to implement any feature
that they thought was necessary, which led to an increase in development costs without any real
progress.
Amidst this, Doi began selling the service to universities across the country via email and message boards
in the spring of 2014. Despite conducting an enormous amount of sales efforts, only two users registered for
the service. At this point, his spirits were broken and he was in a slump so severe that he began to
question whether the concept itself was wrong. He didn't know what he could do next and so for the time
being, the "Spoch" service was put on hold.
Released "Clipstro/Clipstro Golf" in the latter half of 2014.
Taking the lessons learned from their previous experiences, they developed and released two new apps in
just two months. The first, "Clipstro," was released in July 2014 and automatically converted sports videos
into slow-motion replays. Then in December of the same year, they announced "Clipstro Golf," which
specialized in analyzing golf swings. However, at first, only acquaintances used the apps. At that time, the
industry was shifting away from the "paid app model" and towards the "freemium" model. Regardless of the
business model, they realized that "if an app is not recognized, nothing will start."
So, Doi came up with a plan to "actively reach out and expand his network of contacts in the sports
industry." For one year, he traveled all over Japan, meeting with sports business professionals, and coaches
of school sports teams, and even appearing on sports media. His efforts paid off, and gradually, the
recognition and awareness of his product increased.
And at the end of 2014, "Clipstro" was picked up in a special feature on the App Store, and the following
year, it won the Microsoft Innovation Award. Gradually, the company SPLYZA and its self-developed apps
gained recognition around the world.
In 2016, despite having left "Spoch" hanging in the air, Doi couldn't give up on it and continued to hear
feedback from sports professionals every day, identifying improvements and requests for the app's
re-release. Through trial and error, he improved the features originally aimed at individual sports and
re-launched it with enhanced team sports functions. Finally, in October 2016, the revised version of Spoch,
now called "SPLYZA Teams," was released.
**
Although it seemed like a smooth start, the challenges continued.
The beta version of "SPLYZA Teams" was received with great enthusiasm, with trial
registrations from 150 teams across 20 sports categories. However, the app ended up not being used at all.
As a result, when the app was officially released in January 2017, only five out of the 150 registered teams
had become paying customers. Around the same time, Doi had been meeting with 20 to 30 venture capitalists
per year, but none of them believed that amateur sports could be profitable, and he struggled to secure
funding. It wasn't until he pitched at KDDI's Mugin Labo that he was finally able to raise 60 million yen in
January 2017.
This time, having more acquaintances in the sports industry turned out to be a disadvantage. In response to
requests and hearings from coaches of various sports and age groups, the app was packed with a full range of
features. However, despite incorporating every conceivable feature, the app was not being used at all.
Nevertheless, they couldn't afford to miss the opportunity they had almost grasped in front of them.
Therefore, they decided to narrow down the app's features to focus on "high school soccer club activities,"
which were the most popular among the initial five teams. However, during the soccer festival held in
Hamamatsu in July 2017, they received criticism from coaches one after another during their sales pitch. For
example, some said they were interested but didn't have any extra time to spare, while others said they
didn't want to increase their workload any further. Despite this setback, Doi didn't give up and decided to
shift his approach.
“TEDxHamamatsu” presentation by Hiroyuki Doi→[ YouTube ]
Photo credit: TEDxHamamatsu
Solution provision that solves the customer's problems has finally fit.
Today, it's not uncommon for high schools to allow students to bring their smartphones to school, and some
schools even provide tablets to each student. Additionally, many schools offer Wi-Fi access. It was in this
environment that the idea of "getting students involved in video analysis" was born. As a result, "SPLYZA
Teams" was completely overhauled in just one month to allow for collaborative work by multiple people.
As they started to pitch and conduct seminars in various places, they received unprecedented reactions from
both students who found it interesting and teachers who were moved by it. It was the moment when innovation
was born for SPLYZA Corporation and sports clubs nationwide. The user reactions at subsequent seminars
changed 180 degrees, and this became the catalyst for a movement in youth teams across the country to
"analyze game footage" and "create analysis teams within their teams".
In this way, SPLYZA, which achieved a problem-solution fit, was able to clarify the essential challenges
of its users and satisfy the needs of potential customers. Rather than focusing on features that the
development team wanted, they adopted a stance of prioritizing the needs of the users when developing new
functions.
As an aside, SPLYZA was founded in Shizuoka, where student soccer is popular in Japan. This allowed the
company to expand its services mainly to high school soccer and grab the opportunity to surface. If it had
been started in Tokyo or Osaka, for example, it might have faced a different outcome.
**
The necessary puzzle pieces to complete the puzzle are beginning to come together.
In 2018, personnel who had not previously been present in the company began to join one after another.
Within a short period, three individuals - a soccer analyst, a former teacher and club activity advisor, and
a graphic designer skilled in social media marketing - were hired. At the time, the company was not actively
recruiting and was barely making ends meet, with few users. It was not a situation where they could afford
to hire new staff, even if people came knocking on their door. However, they decided to take a chance and
hire them anyway.
After that, to make "SPLYZA Teams" more user-friendly, the company became more active in developing new
features based on customer requests and feedback. As a result, the app's features are now used more than 10
times as much as before 2018. In addition, the company actively approached previously untapped markets
through marketing on social media and launching owned media, increasing the number of users.
In August 2019, the long-awaited SPLYZA Cup was held in Yaita City, Tochigi Prefecture, with a focus on
user engagement. From 2020, the company strengthened its sales efforts, and by its 10th anniversary, the
number of teams using "SPLYZA Teams" had grown to over 500, with the number of users surpassing 30,000. As
of March 2023, the number of teams using the service has increased to approximately 900.
**
A global team with members gathered from all over the world.
The nationalities of the staff working at SPLYZA are truly worldwide, spanning seven countries including
Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Honduras, China, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. Many of
the foreign staff members are engineers, making it possible to develop software in multiple languages.
Starting a business in a local area has its benefits, but there are some disadvantages when it comes to
recruiting talent. However, since one of the founding members of SPLYZA was American, we actively recruited
foreign staff without being overly concerned about hiring Japanese people.
Generally, most of the reference materials related to programming are in English, so it is better to have
people who can read English rather than just Japanese. By using services such as LinkedIn and Stack
Overflow, we received applications from dozens of talented engineers from around the world in a short
period.
For example, even if a foreign national wants to work in Japan, there are limited companies that will
accept them unless they are large corporations that have established a global framework. However, SPLYZA's
strength is that it offers an environment where people can work even if their Japanese language proficiency
is imperfect. Although English is the majority language in the current development environment, there is a
flexible environment where we can respond to different situations and partners.
**
Riding the Wave of Rapid "Digitization" in Education
With the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020 and initiatives like the Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology's "GIGA School Program," ICT education has advanced rapidly. In line with
this trend, the company launched a new in-house developed service in April 2020: "Lecta," an app for
automatic camera work editing to enable on-demand lesson distribution. Gradually, the company also began
developing apps with a focus on usage in the education sector.
During this time, Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences High School (referred to as "Naniwa High
School" hereafter) approached the company with a proposal to use SPLYZA Teams in their classes as part of
their ICT education efforts.
As SPLYZA Teams was originally an app specialized for team sports, the school expressed a desire to utilize
it for individual sports and in fields such as sports science and biomechanics. Responding to this need, the
company began co-developing a new app with Naniwa High School that would enable "AI-based markerless motion
analysis." This led to the creation of SPLYZA Motion, which was officially introduced at Naniwa High School
in September 2021 and began practical use in classes.
By September 2022, a beta version of the app was released. As of October 2024, the app is now used by over
130 organizations across education, sports, and healthcare sectors, with its reach expanding daily.
The Integration of Teams and Motion into School Education
Building on the foundation of its original target audience in extracurricular sports activities, SPLYZA
Teams and SPLYZA Motion have expanded into "school-wide usage" through applications in classes and career
guidance. Currently, examples of usage in local governments and many elementary and middle schools across
Japan are increasing.
In particular, elementary and middle school teachers have shown great enthusiasm and cooperation,
facilitating smooth progress in education-related development and initiatives. Seminars have also been held
in various locations to further support these efforts.
For elementary and middle schools, the primary use case is in physical education classes. SPLYZA Teams has
been introduced as a "video review tool" that enables students to independently move from "identifying
challenges" to "solving challenges." It is valued for its ability to "visualize ideas," "enhance
communication," and promote "process-focused evaluation."
In high schools, there are numerous examples of SPLYZA Motion being utilized in inquiry-based classes,
particularly in schools with programs focused on sports science. Students actively use the app as part of
their studies, thinking critically about "how to obtain the necessary data for research" while applying the
app in practical scenarios. This hands-on, exploratory approach to learning is becoming increasingly
common.
Additionally, former teachers with experience in the education field have recently joined SPLYZA, which has
strengthened the company’s ability to not only provide tools but also propose "curriculums that utilize
SPLYZA Motion and SPLYZA Teams" directly to schools. This has become a significant advantage.
The Expansion of SPLYZA Motion
Moreover, in university settings, challenges such as "the inability to effectively utilize expensive systems
like motion capture" have been identified. In response, the introduction of SPLYZA Motion has gradually
emerged as a solution to address these issues, leading to its growing adoption.
AI-Based Motion Analysis Technology Makes Strides in Healthcare
Up until now, SPLYZA Motion had been developed primarily with a focus on the education sector. However,
due to advancements in the technology that exceeded initial expectations, it has become usable in fields
such as research institutions, departments and faculties specializing in sports science, as well as medical
schools and rehabilitation.
Encouraging feedback from professors and students in the field, such as, "With SPLYZA Motion, it could
immediately be applied in medical and healthcare settings," has been particularly motivating.
Additionally, joint research with universities began at the end of 2023. Agreements have been established
with Kyoto University in December 2023, Kibi International University in January 2024, and the Graduate
School of Medicine at Osaka University in August 2024. These collaborations are steadily progressing
research centered around "AI-based motion analysis technology."
By expanding examples of its use in the sports science field at universities, the adoption of SPLYZA Motion
in healthcare is also gradually increasing.
SPLYZA Products: Unlimited Potential
Up until now, SPLYZA’s products primarily focused on themes like "improving through reflecting on sports"
and "personal growth through sports." However, as SPLYZA Motion continues to gain traction among users, new
outcomes have emerged, such as "reducing the likelihood of injuries during sports" and "accelerating
recovery through proper rehabilitation in the event of an injury."
SPLYZA has embraced a renewed vision of "fulfilling the desire to improve," adopting a policy of developing
and providing products that contribute to "improving skills and performance in sports, education, and
healthcare."
With this evolution, the company’s offerings now extend beyond just supporting the competitive aspects of
sports. They enable a broader engagement with sports from multiple perspectives while also contributing to
education and healthcare. This indicates that the potential of SPLYZA’s products is still full of untapped
possibilities and growth opportunities.
**
Developing Individuals Equipped to Navigate Modern Society Through Sports
Sports are inherently about tackling problems without definitive answers, requiring the discovery of
challenges and the pursuit of solutions through trial and error. By engaging in sports and leveraging
SPLYZA’s services, we deeply hope individuals of all ages will cultivate the strength to thrive in modern
society.
Additionally, SPLYZA Motion holds great potential to contribute to society in areas such as "preventing knee
and lower back issues" and "visualizing workload to prevent occupational injuries among athletes and manual
laborers." From the perspectives of health maintenance and safety measures, it has the capability to make
significant contributions. Moving forward, we aim to realize services in the sports and healthcare sectors
that enable even more people to achieve their goals of "getting better."
Moreover, SPLYZA has a long-term vision of establishing “SPLYZA Park” — an all-weather facility equipped
with fields, gymnasiums, and video recording equipment at every venue. These parks would not only host
matches and tournaments but also feature meeting rooms where stats and video analyses could be conducted
immediately after a game. This vision aims to shift away from the traditional "play and forget" culture of
sports, fostering a stronger culture of "reflecting and improving" in sports.
Making SPLYZA Products Your "Life Standard"
At SPLYZA, we aim to grow our products into services that can be used by people all over the world. We
envision creating solutions that inspire messages like, "I became a professional athlete thanks to your
service," "I made it to the Olympics," "I was able to recover from an injury," or "I used it for
rehabilitation and learned to walk again." We strive to deliver solutions that elicit such feedback
daily.
Currently, SPLYZA is actively incorporating AI technologies such as image recognition and deep learning. By
leveraging cutting-edge technology, we are developing innovations that automate processes previously reliant
on human effort. Moving forward, we will continue to proactively develop services that help users solve
their challenges. We remain committed to embodying the vision of our founder, Doi, who champions the theme
of creating a life where every day — all seven days of the week — is filled with excitement.