PULSE CHECK ISSUE NO. 07
Panel 1: The New Brand Blueprint
How wellness and performance brands break into sports culture.
The opening conversation set the tone for the day, a masterclass in how brands can authentically earn their place in sports culture, not just buy their way into it.
šļø Divya Goel (VP of Fan Engagement, Williams Racing / FanCapital) shared how one of F1ās most historic teams is redefining its edge. While others race for podiums, Williams is racing for connection, leading the way in digital engagement and partnerships rooted in fan data, authenticity, and transparency. Itās about being the most honest team in F1, on and off the track.
ā” Craig Lyon (VP of Marketing, Nutrabolt) showed what it looks like when a brand plays offense in culture. During March Madness, C4 signed one player from every team, not for fame, but for personality and genuine love of the brand. The result was a viral āGold Bottleā celebration that made its way from the locker room to the tarmac. By aligning with the athletes themselves rather than the NCAA, C4 found a way to show up inside March Madness without ever needing an official partnership.
šŗ Seth Hart (SVP of Partnerships, FloSports) brought it full circle, reminding us that some of the most powerful sports stories happen off ESPN. FloSports gives visibility to overlooked athletes like Bo Bassett, a high-school wrestling phenom who became the youngest four-time Super 32 champion, building storytelling platforms for competitors mainstream media misses. In a world obsessed with highlights, Flo is spotlighting the why behind the athlete.
The takeaway:
The strongest brands play their own game, chasing meaning, not noise.
Bill Murphy (CEO, Willpower), Divya Goel (VP of Fan Engagement, Williams Racing/FanCapital), Craig Lyon (VP of Marketing, Nutrabolt), Seth Hart (SVP of Partnerships, FloSports)
Panel 2: The Performance Platform
Inside the partnerships between pro teams and performance brands pushing human potential forward.
This panel explored what it takes to build high-performance environments that go beyond training, where mindset, recovery, and authenticity all matter as much as physical skill.
š Jerritt Elliott (Head Volleyball Coach, University of Texas) shared what it means to coach champions in the new era of college athletics. Under his leadership, UT Volleyball has claimed three national titles, but his approach is rooted in emotional freedom and individuality.
He works with each of his sixteen players to help them build their own personal brand, because in todayās landscape, confidence off the court fuels performance on it. With NIL and wearables now central to college sports, Jerritt sees the modern coach as more than a strategist. Theyāre part mentor, part manager, part guide for 18ā22-year-olds learning to balance ambition, pressure, and opportunity.
šāļø Natasha Van de Merwe (Director of Endurance, Raw Nutrition) emphasized that elite performance begins with listening, to athletes, consumers, and the body itself. Her philosophy is that recovery starts long before the cooldown, beginning with sleep and nutrition. She takes a case-by-case approach to training and recovery, underscoring that the best innovation happens when you meet athletes where they are.
š Casey Toohill (Former Defensive End, Houston Texans) spoke to the evolution of athlete-brand relationships. In his view, true performance comes from obsession, a willingness to constantly refine what works and discard what doesnāt. With the rise of NIL and brand partnerships, Casey sees a clear shift toward equity-based deals and long-term storytelling over transactional promotions. The best partnerships, he said, are those where the athlete and the brand grow together.
The takeaway:
Performance partnerships are no longer about logos or sponsorships.
Theyāre about alignment, authenticity, and shared pursuit.
Bill Murphy (CEO, Willpower), Natasha Van de Merwe (Director of Endurance, Raw Nutrition), Jerritt Elliott (Head Coach, University of Texas - Volleyball), Casey Toohil (Former Defensive End, Houston Texans)
Track Two: Pushing the Limits
Where neuroscience, recovery, and innovation meet human capability.
After a morning built around brand and culture, the afternoon shifted gears into the science of performance, the mental frameworks, physiological systems, and technologies that push human potential to its edge.
Panel 3: High-Stress Cognitive Performance
From battlefields to racetracks to championship games: sharpening the mind under pressure.
This conversation explored how the worldās top performers operate when everything is on the line, where milliseconds, decisions, and composure can define careers.
š§ Dr. Tommy Wood (Head Neuroscientist for F1 Drivers, Associate Professor, University of Washington) guided the discussion through the science of pressure. As both a researcher and practitioner, his work focuses on understanding how the brain manages cognitive load, fatigue, and focus in extreme environments.
šļø Antti Kontsas (Performance Director - Motorsport, Hintsa Performance) drew from nearly a decade of experience coaching four-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel. He offered a rare look into the invisible demands behind racing, 24 events a season, over 120 days away from home, and the responsibility of leading an entire team from engineers to marketers. With margins as small as a tenth of a second separating first from second, mental precision becomes the ultimate competitive edge.
šŖ Dr. Sten Stray-Gundersen (Professor of Exercise Science, University of South Carolina) introduced the concept of stimulus, supply, and support as the foundation of resilience. Through tools like Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) training, he explained how neuromuscular conditioning can strengthen the bodyās stress response, regulate recovery patterns, and build readiness for high-stakes environments.
š¬ Lauren Betzing (Chief Strategy Officer, Evolve) closed the discussion with a look into the future of neurotech. With AI and machine learning transforming data collection, she described how validated sensors and cognitive mapping are unlocking individualized āneuro blueprintsā, helping athletes identify predictive trends, optimize focus, and measure cognitive efficiency in real time.
The takeaway:
The next frontier of performance isnāt physical, itās neurological.
The best in the world arenāt just stronger. Theyāre smarter under stress.
Tommy Wood (Associate Professor, Univ. of Washington), Antti Kontsas (Performance Director, Hintsa Performance), Sten Stray-Gundersen (Professor of Exercise Science, Univ. of South Carolina), Lauren Betzing (Chief Strategy Officer, Evolve)
Panel 4: American Performance
Sports, defense, and wellness leaders on the future of human ingenuity.
The final conversation of the day zoomed out, way out, asking how technology, data, and human consciousness intersect to shape the future of performance. It was a global conversation about what it means to be human in an age defined by constant optimization.
š¤ Siu-Anne Gil (Founder & CEO, Drive Flow AI) explored how data overload can be a gift when used with purpose. The more information we gather, the more outliers emerge, and itās in those outliers that new insights are born. But as she reminded us, innovation only matters when it stas ethical and human-centered.
š§ Rob Insinger (Co-Founder & CRO, Ammortal) shifted focus to the nervous system, our most overlooked performance tool. With an influx of data from wearables, he pointed out that hyperawareness can sometimes increase stress. The goal isnāt just measurement, but mastery.
At Ammortal, their work brings people into parasympathetic states so powerfully that even their facial expressions visibly change, a reminder that true recovery is emotional as much as physical.
š§¬ Bill Powell (Co-Founder, Anthropy Partners) guided the conversation toward convergence: sports, medicine, and defense working together to push human limits responsibly. He reminded us that after all the tech and billions in research, many of the best practices still mirror what our grandparents taught us, rest, eat well, slow down. The key, he said, isnāt just innovation, but iteration and collaboration. No one discipline holds all the answers
š Steve Tidball (Founder & CEO, Vollebak) closed the day with a philosophical lens, redefining what āhuman performanceā even means. He spoke about the trillions of bacteria, cells, and systems making micro-decisions inside us every second, and how the mind and body are simply vehicles for something much deeper. To unlock our potential, he suggested, we may need to reframe performance not as dominance over the body, but as communion with it.
The takeaway:
Data can show us where weāve been, but awareness shows us where weāre going.
The next leap in human performance will come not just from machines, but from meaning.
Bill Murphy (CEO, Willpower), Bill Powell (Co-Founder, Anthropy Partners), Rob Insinger (Co-founder + CRO, Ammortal), Steve Tidball (Founder + CEO, Vollebak)
Closing Reflection
As the sun set over Austin, the energy from the day felt electric, part science fair, part think tank, part locker room. Across four panels, two tracks, and one shared mission, the common denominator was clear:
Performance isnāt a single discipline. Itās a language connecting sport, science, innovation, and community.
From F1 engineers to neuroscientists, founders to athletes, Willpower: World of Sports & Human Performance proved that the future belongs to those willing to ask bigger questions, about recovery, consciousness, data, and what it truly means to perform at our best.
And this was only the beginning. ā”
