Upcoming Events, Courses, and Talks

Pull up a chair for an intimate conversation with Eric Roberson, founder of HOOPTEQ, who's bringing portable training devices to basketball courts everywhere. This fireside chat covers the real journey of building hardware for the sports market—where your product needs to survive both skeptical coaches and aggressive gameplay.

Eric will share what it's really like to develop technology for athletes, from early prototypes that didn't quite work to breakthrough moments that validated the vision. We'll discuss the challenges every hardware founder knows: stretching funds through development cycles, convincing early customers to believe in your vision, and deciding which feedback matters.

The conversation will explore those critical moments: when to push forward despite doubts, how to keep the team motivated, and finding resilience when easier paths exist. Eric's journey proves that success isn't about avoiding failure—it's about learning faster than you fail.

Fireside chats are intimate sessions to bring founders together for real talk about the entrepreneurial journey. No slides, no scripts—just honest conversations about what it really takes to build a hardware company. Whether you're celebrating wins or navigating challenges, these discussions remind us that every founder's path is unique, but none of us are alone in the struggle.

About the Speaker 

Eric Roberson is the founder of HOOPTEQ, the world's first basketball shooting machine in a backpack. His journey from concept to market includes all the classic startup challenges: funding constraints, product iterations, and finding believers in a traditional industry. Eric's experience building durable hardware for demanding athletic environments offers valuable lessons for any founder working at the intersection of technology and human performance.