i3 - January/February 2016 - 85

Policy

LEARN HOW THE FOUR WINNERS OF THE CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION'S INNOVATION ENTREPRENEUR AWARDS
ARE CREATING SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES.

Whistle Sports Network, Innovation
Entrepreneur Award, 2015 Startup of the Year
Sports broadcasting is a billion dollar business
with one big handicap: Young people aren't
watching TV anymore.
Whistle Sports Network is capturing that
younger mobile demographic by the millions,
with more than 300 member content creators.
Rather than focusing solely on hyper-elite players, Whistle embraces the idea that sports are
everywhere. "Sports happen outside stadiums a
lot more than they happen inside a stadium," Executive Vice President
Brian Selander says.
The idea was formed when CEO John West was at home watching
sports and his kids couldn't care less. West wondered why no one in
sports was targeting the younger demographic. A conversation with
YouTube led West to the idea of creating a hub for people who are
creating sports content online.
"Rather than being a sports network that broadcasts to you, we're
a sports community with more than 150 million fans that's growing
by two million a week," says Selander. Whistle Sports has nearly 70
employees in Los Angeles, Dallas, London and New York, and has
raised $36 million in funding. Whistle will be creating multiple original series for Verizon's new Go90 video service, and their first foray
into traditional TV began in October with Nickelodeon's weekly Top
10 Trick Shots.
The core audience is aged 14 to 30 and is 85 percent male, but
everything on the network is family-friendly. Whistle works closely
with creators to refine and develop their brands. "We can inform on
the best kinds of posts, best content, integrating across platforms,
making sure that kernel of content grows," Selander says.
Winning the Innovation Entrepreneur Award is a validation. "For
years, CTA members have led the way in creating technology and
tools to engage in an innovative way," West says. "It's a great honor to
be recognized in that tradition."

C TA . t e c h / i 3

Paper Battery Company, Innovation
Entrepreneur Award, 2015 Startup
of the Year
It's a challenge for traditional
batteries to deliver peak
power without bulk. The
Paper Battery Co. has created
supercapacitors that are
paper-thin and flexible, with
a longer lifespan and a lower
risk of overheating than
chemical batteries.
Paper Battery began at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute in New York. The three inventors, all postdoctorates, had been working on a project involving a
medical device made with nanomaterials. As they were
working with the device, one of them realized that with
some modifications, its architecture could be used as
a battery. They had created a super capacitator that
could bend or crumple and still fully function.
They brought in Shreefal Mehta as the CEO and
president to turn the concept into a company. Based in
Troy, NY, the Paper Battery Co. now has more than a
dozen full-time employees and has entered the production phase. The first shipments went out in December,
and by the end of 2016 the company expects t0 have
revenue in the millions, Mehta predicts.
Storing energy in a field rather than chemically
makes it easier to absorb or release a lot of energy in a
device very quickly, allowing for lightning fast recharging and peak pulse currents in very small devices,
like when a camera flashes. "We complement lithium
batteries very well-we make it so the lithium battery
doesn't do the peak pulses at all," Mehta explains.
Many battery breakthroughs coming out of academia in the past have been celebrated but did not
make it to market, Mehta says. Paper Battery Co.
intentionally kept a low profile until it was ready to
ship. "We have a product that's in production now
and ready for orders," he says. "This is demonstrating a business model and tech platform that we've
been working on for a while and it's available now,
not tomorrow." At CES 2016: Sands Expo, Booth
80033

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016

http://paperbatteryco.com/ http://whistlesports.com/ http://CTA.tech/i3

i3 - January/February 2016

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