Watchout how Huupe is innovating the at-home basketball space like never before

If the 1800s mark the Industrial Revolution, then the 2000s will mark the digital revolution. Every year, analog industries are going digital, and society is adapting to new technology faster than ever before. This is especially true in the world of sports. Many technological advances are flipping century old sports on their heads, possibly none more than the game of basketball. From advanced statistics to wearable technology and beyond, the NBA is leading the charge of this technological revolution.

While the NBA continues to innovate, so does the at-home game of basketball. One company that is at the forefront of this revolution is Huupe, a company that developed the world’s very first smart basketball hoop. Huupe was founded by Paul Anton and Lyth Saeed to solve an issue that these two childhood friends faced in their own lives – they weren’t able to play basketball against each other when they moved away for college. Without skipping a beat, however, the two friends found a workaround. They started using Snapchat on their smartphones to play basketball against each other from their separate locations.

Anton and Saeed would record themselves shooting shots on the court from their phones using Snapchat and then send the videos back and forth, competing in games such as HORSE, free-throw contests, three-point contests and half-court contests. After graduating from college, Anton and Saeed both went headfirst into the business world. Saeed led operations for Qup, a mobile rideshare app that has now done over 60 million rides worldwide, and later Jobot, a company that has disrupted the technical recruiting space in a major way using artificial intelligence. At the same time, Anton co-founded an advertising company that was recently acquired by one of the nation’s leading advertising companies before developing the Augmented Reality (AR) application, Real Shot, which allows users to play basketball remotely on Augmented Reality glasses while simultaneously tracking various data points.

Fast forward a couple years later to 2019, and Anton and Saeed find themselves back in Milwaukee, both home for a much needed break from school and work. Anton asks Saeed to come over and beta test his new AR game. Saeed played the game and quickly fell in love with it, but made a suggestion that changed everything. After a couple hours of playing Anton’s new game that he just spent the past few years developing, Saeed remarked, “What if we took this game and put it on a basketball hoop?” Anton stated that his jaw dropped when Saeed mentioned this new idea. The rest was history. Almost immediately, Saeed put in his two-week notice and joined forces with Anton to create Huupe. The duo reminisced on their college days playing basketball together from across the country, quickly put together a business plan and secured $1.8 million in funding thanks to a prototype they made in Anton’s garage and a phenomenal video that was produced in just 30 days. The video highlighted the pair’s entrepreneurial skills as well as their innovative and tech-savvy new product.

Huupe features a high definition smart screen on the backboard that almost seems hard to believe. The Huupe allows users to play against other Huupe users remotely and train like NBA players by tracking incredible pieces of data on the court or at home in the driveway. The Huupe also contains specific workouts from NBA trainers and basketball experts, as well as analysed data reports that help to improve one’s game.

The Huupe can be purchased on huupe.com for a down payment of $100 right now, with the full price of $3,995 to be paid when huupes are ready for delivery later this year and early next year. Huupe has secured Venture Capital investment, current and former NBA player investment and significant angel investment as the company plans to revolutionise the game of basketball through their smart hoop.