Measure It at the Source

Max Darsonval spent twelve years in the SEAL teams, most of it as a combat medic, and left on what he calls a 50.01% decision. He’s now founder and CEO of Velocity AI, building a sensor and a coaching app that take velocity-based training - the tool every D1 and pro weight room already has - out of the facility and onto anyone’s barbell. He and Neal get into why 22-week strength programs break the moment real life happens, how drone IMUs turned into a wearable, why the SEAL Future Foundation became customer one, and what the wearable industry has to fix before people stop wearing them. Plus Don Pancho’s in Imperial Beach, the post-BUD/S institution.

Key topics

* From sponsored big-mountain skier to dishwasher to BUD/S at 17

* Why SEALs build their own medics and what that taught him about the body

* Leaving the teams at twelve years on a 50.01% decision

* Velocity-based training, and why most lifters have never heard of it

* Power equals force times velocity: measuring readiness at the source

* Why a 22-week program can’t know what you did yesterday

* Drone IMUs, a hideous first PCB, and why you need 200 Hz

* $500K, 20 developers, seven months to an MVP

* The SEAL Future Foundation as customer one

* Data fatigue and why coaching is the next frontier for wearables

* San Diego’s wearable cluster: Google, Fitbit, Dexcom, Oura

* Don Pancho’s in Imperial Beach and the case for Tacos El Gordo

Links & resources

* Velocity AI

* SEAL Future Foundation

* Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval

Connect on LinkedIn

* Neal Bloom

* Max Darsonval