Company Profile: Firstbeat Helps to Enhance Performance and Well-Being
Where is the boundary between good and bad stress? How long should you rest after a hard workout? Firstbeat makes it easy to know the answer to these questions and many more, as it offers innovative solutions that point the way to healthier lifestyle choices and better performance results. Today the company is the number one provider of wellbeing and sports analytics worldwide.
Like many other companies from Finland enjoying international success, Firstbeat's business model is built on specialized expertise in data analytics and technology. Firstbeat adds physiology to the mix and applies expertise across three different sectors: wellness services, professional sports, and licensing for consumer products.
The scientific basis for their contributions derives primarily from analysis of heart rate variability. This changes in the heart from one beat to the next. Monitoring data for analysis can be collected using either a chest strap that transmits the heart’s electrical impulses, or from optical sensors that detect blood flow beneath the surface of the skin. With that information the company makes exercise, sleep and stress visible and manageable in everyday life.
Firstbeat was founded in 2002, but the story behind the company kicks off in the early 1990s with investigative research into athlete overtraining and the autonomic nervous system. The research focus has since expanded from elite athletes to everyday life. Today the company employs over 60 specialists in physiology, sports technologies, analytics and well-being. Firstbeat researchers also continue to publish many scientific articles about physiology and the confluence of technology and analytics.
Millions of consumers, thousands of companies and hundreds of professional athlete teams utilize the Firstbeat technology. Currently, nearly half of NHL teams rely on the Firstbeat Sports platform for training load and recovery analysis. A recent feature from Detroit Red Wings Development Camp highlighted how introducing young players to Firstbeat Sports was an essential step in becoming professional, preparing the body, and setting the stage for top performance and success. Firstbeat Sports is also utilized in the NFL and NBA, where the tech savvy Golden State Warriors can be seen using the system.
"Today nearly 40% of our sales are the result of engagement with U.S. markets. This is no accident. We are strategically targeting this area and see it as vital to our future growth. Across the U.S., preventative healthcare is increasingly recognized as an effective method of reducing overall healthcare costs. Over 1000 companies worldwide, including many Fortune 100 companies, have utilized the Firstbeat Lifestyle Assessment as part of their corporate wellness services. We have laid the groundwork to take advantage of rapid growth opportunities in the U.S. and have already begun to see results," describes CEO of Firstbeat Joni Kettunen.
A significant portion of healthcare costs are attributable to lifestyle decisions. Firstbeat's mission is to help people find the right way to exercise, balance stress and recovery, and make sleep more restorative. Improvements in any of these areas may result in lower global healthcare costs. Having already analyzed several trillion heartbeats, Firstbeat knows how to make a change.
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