Jacob Rothman revolutionizing sports industry with Perch
BOSTON (BVM) — The journey through life offers many twists and turns. For 2016 MIT graduate Jacob Rothman, his journey has helped him become a revolutionary in the sports and tech world.
Rothman first fell in love with sports, specifically baseball, in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was one of the most popular sports where he grew up.
“Baseball’s probably the biggest sport down there,” Rothman said. “They had crazy travel circuits down there, and you could play year-round. I had a really good community of friends, and it continued through high school, and it gave me an opportunity to play in college. It made a ton of sense, and it was a lot of fun.”
Rothman’s passion for baseball continued to burn, but he soon realized he might not have the talent to make it to the big leagues. Rothman turned to his intelligence and made academics his main priority.
“I realized in high school I wasn’t going to be a professional baseball player,” Rothman said. “I was pretty good in baseball and had a couple of DI offers. I was very good in school, and I felt like that was where my future career would take me.”
He began attending high school academic camps to improve his schoolwork. Rothman’s educational goals became bigger, too, thanks to those camps. One of his goals was to attend MIT.
“With MIT being the best engineering school in the world, it always made a ton of sense for me to go there,” Rothman said. “You got to continue to play sports, but you really got a great education, which helps secure a great future. MIT was always the goal, and I was lucky enough to play there.”
Rothman began to study aerospace engineering while an infielder for the MIT Engineers’ baseball program but made a move to mechanical engineering shortly after his freshman year.
“Mechanical engineering can mean a million different things,” Rothman said. “What I really focused on was product design.”
Rothman continued his passion for mechanical engineering and began searching for a technological breakthrough. He’d find that breakthrough in 2016 when the popularity of the Apple Watch and Fitbit skyrocketed.
“A lot of this technology was geared around aerobic activities like running,” Rothman said. “Keeping track of steps, calories and heart rate. These are metrics that did provide a lot of value for lifting weights. We noticed the opportunity to fill a gap in the market. Provide a similar quantified self-workout but for strength training.”
Rothman herniated a disk while squatting around the same time.
“It was this weird, freak accident at 19 years old and you really don’t hear that much about young people slipping a disc,” Rothman said. “And you really don’t recover from an injury like that. My back always hurts. And it was like, ‘How do I prevent other people from having those injuries when they’re weightlifting?’”
Both scenarios sparked an idea that is now known as Perch. It’s a new way for athletes to train and get the best results.
“We make a weight rack smart,” Rothman said. “We produce a small camera that essentially retrofits to a weight rack. Athletes lift like they normally do, but the camera is capturing the sets, reps and power output of about a dozen different metrics. It helps athletes stay safe in the weight room and optimize their performance so they can put their best product on the field.”
In 2019 Perch’s first big customer, the LSU Tigers football team, helped jumpstart the company.
“It was definitely a weird time back then,” Rothman said. “LSU wasn’t our first customer, but they were our first large customer that really put us on the map. Technology like ours has existed for a long time, but we’ve invented a way to make it more seamless in the weight room.”
It was a great start for Perch. But soon after, the country went into lockdown with the fear of COVID-19 sweeping the globe. It shut down the sports world, and Perch seemed to be stuck in the mud.
“We were lucky enough to stay in business,” Rothman said. “We still grew during the 2020-21 season. Now, as sports have returned, we’ve really taken off.”
Helping Perch take off were several college and professional teams, including the Miami Dolphins, Georgia Bulldogs and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Byron Jones, a cornerback for the Dolphins, became an investor in the company after using the product to better his performance.
“Perch helps me train smarter,” Jones said in an official press release. “It enables me to see my weight room performance, my lifting speed and power, on every rep of every set, allowing me to reach my training goals without overexerting myself in an already physically demanding sport. I’m excited to see Perch continue to innovate as they revolutionize the way free weightlifting is measured.”
With several prestigious clients, Perch continues to help athletes at all levels, and people from all walks of life continue to get stronger.
“I think we’re already there in terms of No. 1 in the market when you’re looking at pro and college,” Rothman said. “Our next goal as a company is to make the world a stronger place.”
Rothman’s success with Perch has landed him on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. He was joined alongside his co-founders, Nate Rodman and Jordan Lucier, both MIT graduates.
Rothman and Perch look to be on the right path to continue to help athletes at all levels to continue to get stronger. He’s continuing to help the company grow, and in just six years, Perch seems to be a game changer for many people.
“Starting a company is a really challenging thing, and often you don’t get a lot of validation,” Rothman said. “You’re met with challenge after challenge; it feels really great when people recognize the hard work.”
