The idea for Brave came about when two engineering students, William Kodama and Dhyey Parikh, our current CEO and COO respectively, completed a semester-long project for a class their first year at the University of Virginia in 2017. That semester-long project evolved and thrived in the

program in the summer of 2018, and slowly turned into a passion for both of them. Evan Magnusson, our current CTO and CFO, then turned the duo into a trio when he joined the team to assist with Unity and VR development. Their project grew even further at the

, at which point the team recognized Brave’s potential for real change and impact on people.

William, Dhyey, and Evan are driven, have a collaborative spirit, and work hard to actualize their vision. Since meeting in various classes at UVa, the three have worked together to develop the best possible product.

The team has a simple philosophy: they listen to people’s problems and work to solve them. Throughout college, the three spent a lot of their time on calls to meet as many people as possible to gauge their questions and concerns. The three conducted these phone call interviews and product development from their shared attic space when they were in another important phase of Brave, the

“We spent time listening to potential customers across gaming, virtual reality, military, health care, physical therapy, and sports,” said William Kodama.

Brave’s founders want to ensure the production of a consumer-oriented and consumer-inspired product for anyone’s use. Their company culture makes sure of this.

As they entered their final year of college, the meetings and market research continued. The COVID-19 pandemic also entered their world. When asked about the impact of the pandemic on their progress, William answered straight away:

“COVID sealed the deal for entrepreneurship for us because all of our classes were remote so we had a lot of time on our hands to work together.”

However, the pandemic offered a bit of a challenge as well. The team wasn’t able to meet with customers or build partnerships as easily as they would have liked. Although they had added time to meet with partners, the nature of those meetings had changed – everything was being conducted remotely and now, meetings had to be scheduled well in advance. During this time, they also encountered a problem with their exoskeleton development. However, they found a way to pivot their efforts to address and avoid the inadequacies of the exoskeleton and gaming markets.

Combining all of their notes from their past customer discovery and carefully reading over them, the team arrived at a new early-stage solution: wearable motion capture.

Through all of their trials and setbacks, the Brave team pushed forward each time with the power of teamwork. The UVa environment was a great place which fostered a supportive, collaborative space for William, Dhyey, and Evan to comfortably share their ideas and work on their project.

“From the professors, students, and alumni – everyone is invested in making entrepreneurship really strong at UVa,” said Evan.

Receiving constructive feedback from

, their past professor and current mentor, or reviewing business principles with Professor

from McIntire’s School of Commerce, the three founders have always pursued collaborative relationships to help their project grow.

Brave is a product of collaboration, grit, and passion: three traits which are reflected in its product. Our founders created Valor with the intention to provide the best, most adaptable wearable motion capture. They can not wait to extend Valor to the Athletaverse and watch their venture, which started as an idea for a class, grow into life-changing technology.