Sports Entertainment startup – Robot Sports

Many of those who will end up reading this post would have at least once in life heard or seen a video or an episode of World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE (previously WWF). In our time it was famous for the trash talk of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Y2J Chris Jericho, for the awe inspiring entrance and charisma of the Undertaker and the pure strength of Brock Lesner. For those who are not familiar at all, well just continue reading and you will understand every bit of what I mean to communicate, I promise. 

I have been a hardcore fan of two things since childhood, Hollywood movies and WWE (or should I say Sports Entertainment). So what is sports entertainment? A simple Wikipedia search would give you this ‘Sports entertainment is a type of spectacle which presents an ostensibly competitive event using a high level of theatrical flourish and extravagant presentation, with the purpose of entertaining an audience.’ It doesn’t mean that the sport has to be scripted like WWE (in their defense, it is essential for them to script the matches, results and the trash talk) but it means that it goes way beyond the thrill of sport in order to entertain its audience.

Being an ardent fan, it has been my dream to build a globally renowned Sports Entertainment company from India. Why should all such businesses come out from the USA or Japan? Why something needs to become popular abroad to become popular in India? During my journey I have realized that a majority of the audience in these countries accept and can differentiate between ‘Entertainment from Sport’ and ‘Sports Entertainment’. Something which is still missing in India. So how do I plan to do this? Take an emerging stream of Robotics and mix it with a form of entertainment that is extremely close to sports entertainment in principle and yet highly popular in India, Video Games! 

When I say Robotics or Robots I mean anything that is made up of metal or plastic and electronics with no sort of living tissue inside and are controlled remotely by humans. If you take my definition then most of the things around you are robots. So we took a global phenomenon called ‘Drone Racing’ and experimented with it. (PS: It is safer to call it quadcopter or multirotor in India). And we are not limiting to quads. I am working on some weapons and big RC (Radio Controlled) car (image below) to bring my love for action packed Hollywood and Video games to life.

Watch a video we did to showcase the concept and tried to relate it to a modern day video game. Got the similarity? 

So I have now set out on the journey of creating a unique blend of entertainment and new & emerging field of robot sports via my startup called Enwitra.

We have been successful in gathering over 65000 views from across SE Asia and have over 2100 fans on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/enwitrarobosports. Having done all this it is sad that there is surprisingly no support from the Indian ecosystem.

We are now not only short on funds but also team members. The venture is not only about the content but also about how the content is presented, our viewers’ experience (Imagine sitting at home you feeling as if you are sitting inside the quadcopter) and much more to go along with it.

Having said all this I invite suggestions on

1. The idea
2. Team members (videographers and 3D animators)
3. How to raise sufficient funds.

I look forward to having some great interactions with my fellow Rodinhoods.

Twitter: @sagargarg87