Table tennis is a physically and mentally demanding sport where progress is not easily measured. Players spend a lot of time in the gym, but it can take months before all that effort is even noticed, as they currently have no way of accurately measuring their progress.

Racketry solves this problem by giving players allows you to analyse the movement and power of your punches, and to video analyse your workouts via a mobile app. The racquet records every shot, identifies which shots were played (for example, was it a forehand spin, was it a backhand cut ball), counts shots, measures calories, in short, gives the player all the information they need to have a really good training session.

It gives professional players that "edge" to get/stay on top, and makes the sport more fun for amateurs with tailor-made training programmes and networking with other Racketry racquet users. It also makes it very quick and easy to create "highlights" videos, which are especially popular among young people in the age of social networks.

Early adopters see great potential in fast sports analysis and smart recording. However, they stressed that the smart racquet should not in any way degrade the current playing experience. Thus, a lot of effort has been put in the last period into seamlessly integrating the sensor into the handle, so that the smart racquet does not look any different from a regular racquet. User experience has also been one of the key drivers for Matthew in the development process.

Also Matej Šircelj used to play ping pong, now plays recreationally. This year, he left the comfort of his regular job as a programmer and went into entrepreneurship. "When I was promoted as a programmer in my previous jobs, that was enough of a challenge for a while. But now I find it challenging to leave the corporate world and create something on my own. When you're on your own in an entrepreneurial journey, you also see how much you have to learn."

But you can't make a successful business story all by yourself. So he first teamed up with David Orešnik, who is the head coach of the Mengeš Table Tennis Club, one of the biggest clubs in Slovenia. David has taken on the role of assistant coach and with his help and the involvement of his protégés, they have managed to improve the initial prototypes through iterations to the point where they are now useful and beneficial to players in the extremely difficult conditions that occur whenever there is even a little bit of sporting competition.

"When it dawned on me how big a difference it is to make a physical product that you have made yourself as a hobby project, or a product that needs to work anywhere, anytime and will potentially be used by thousands of users, I decided to look for a support environment that had the knowledge and experience to do so. I experimented with accelerators in Germany and Belgium, thinking about how it would be necessary to set up a production line somewhere in China one day, but in the end, the answer to all these questions turned out to be in Trbovlje, just an hour's drive from Ljubljana.!"

The first visit to the Catapult was anything but ordinary, as on that very day a film crew was shooting a promotional video for SPIRIT on the SIO's support environments. He presented the idea to the Katapult team and a few extras from other companies inside the building while flying the drone. "Sooner or later you're going to have to pitch in front of investors anyway, here's a great opportunity, just jump in the water!"

And it is. He impressed with the idea and the technology he had developed, the effort he had already put into developing prototypes, and his personality. A man on the spot. He was immediately ours. "I was very pleasantly surprised by you, Catapult is not bureaucratised like some of the foreign accelerators I've had experience with, it's like a foreign legion; come, come, we'll take you... They're not looking for what you don't have that would get you rejected, they're looking for how they can help you."

Here he got advice on setting up a business, premises, accounting and, most importantly, mentoring and professional support.

He and his mentor inspected the electronic circuit and discussed challenges and possible improvements. It is a battery product with a limited volume, which requires the implementation of an ultra-low power solution. He also advised the company on its supply chain and business model and connected it with an external expert, Dr Sebastijan Šprager, who helped the company develop algorithms for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

"When you're trying to build a business out of a hobby project, you have all the obstacles in front of you in your head. You spend months thinking about a problem that you can't solve, that you don't even need to solve yet, and it's taking up energy and time and holding back progress. Emy biggest concern was production. When I first arrived at the Catapult and saw the L-TEKA production line, I was relieved. I don't use this line for laying circuits yet, but the mentality is different. I'm a perfectionist and I'm also very keen to learn, it could take months to get into something without any real results. Jernej has helped me a lot with electronics, guiding me. When you're iterating, it's nice to discuss the process with someone who can warn you if you're doing something wrong. That's the main thing I find about mentoring - it leads you to find the right path faster. But I've also learned a lot about electronics in the process."

The business model has been as long in the making as the product and the technology. Racketry is not limiting itself to table tennis, but is also looking more broadly into other racket sports in the future. First, they will sell their own smart rackets under their own brand. Later, they want to become a technology platform that will allow other brands to integrate smart sensors into their products.

Funding? It started with their own savings, and this year, with the support of external mentor Alen Draganović, they were successful in a call for a P2 start-up incentive. They plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign at the end of the year, and have also attracted interest from venture capital funds.

And where is the biggest market? Asia is at the forefront with more than 300 million players, Europe and America also have a market of more than 10 million potential buyers. Matej called his solution "PLAYER EMPOWERMENT" because he wants to redefine what it means to be an athlete: "I believe that today's technology can upgrade the user experience for all athletes and at the same time, in the age of social networks, enable them to become stars, even if they may not be ranked among the best in the world. Everyone can be the hero of their own sporting story."