INVENT 2025 Finalist: Benchmark Sports

Founders name: Brian Conway

What was the “aha” moment that sparked your idea?

The idea for Benchmark Sports came from my own experience as a player, seeing first-hand how coaches prepare and deliver training. Some created plans in Word or PDF documents, others relied on a notebook, and a few used Google Forms shared into WhatsApp groups for feedback. Overall, planning and communication is scattered, and meaningful feedback from players is rare. As a result, most sessions were built on intuition and past experience rather than clear evidence, structured feedback, or science. That gap was the starting point for Benchmark Sports.

What is your background?

I recently completed my Master’s in Mechanical Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast, where my research focused on robotics for cataract surgery. During my studies I developed a strong interest in entrepreneurship, health technology and sports technology, and gained hands-on experience through both industrial placements and startup environments.

Outside of engineering, I have played Gaelic football for my club Carrickmore and represented Tyrone at county level. This experience gave me an understanding of sport at a high level and exposed me to the realities of training and coaching, which helped shape the direction of Benchmark Sports. I am now working on Benchmark Sports full-time through the Quest program.

Tell us a bit about your solution

Our first product, Benchmark Coach, is a smart training session generator designed to save coaches time and improve the quality of training. It combines a structured drill library with collaboration tools, allowing coaches to work together on shared training plans, share sessions with players in advance, and review effectiveness afterwards through player feedback.

We offer two packages: a Coach-Only package for underage teams (U6–U18), and a Team package for senior squads, which gives both coaches and players access to the platform. AI-powered session planning is coming soon, helping coaches create tailored training sessions in seconds.

Our long-term vision is Benchmark Elite – an advanced platform that leverages data and AI to provide real-time and forward-looking insights to coaches, supporting decision-making during sport.

We are completing trials with teams in October and already have more than 100 coaches on our waiting list. Our official launch is planned for January 2026.

What first impression do you want users to have when they experience/use your product?

We want the first impression of Benchmark Coach to be that it’s straightforward, collaborative, and enjoyable. Coaches should feel straight away that planning a session is quick and simple, and that sharing it with players or other coaches takes no effort. At the same time, they’ll realise they finally have the tools to review sessions, gather feedback, and make better-informed training plans.

Where do you hope to be in five years?

In five years, we aim for Benchmark Sports to be the go-to coaching technology platform across multiple field sports, trusted by clubs and coaches at every level. Our focus is to push deeper into AI-driven features, delivering real-time and forward-thinking advice that helps coaches make smarter decisions, save time, and run more effective training.

What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve received so far?

The best feedback we’ve received so far is that Benchmark Sports is solving a problem coaches instantly recognise. In early conversations, coaches told us they spend too much time preparing sessions, rely on scattered tools like Word docs and WhatsApp, and rarely get proper feedback from players. When we showed them Benchmark Coach, their response was that it felt simple, practical, and something they would actually use day to day.