Inform Performance

Episode 212: In this episode of Accelerate, Nicola Graham is joined by Jason — Founder of Joyned Capital, former semi-professional footballer in the Netherlands, and a leader at the intersection of athlete identity and technology investment.

Jason’s journey spans elite sport, corporate banking, venture building, and two years designing and running the Qatar SportsTech accelerator programme — giving him a rare perspective on both sides of the performance and investment table. After transitioning out of football, he made it his mission to reshape the narrative around athletes in business and redefine how investors engage with sport and technology.

Now through Joyned Capital, Jason is focused on changing the face of investment — building bridges between high-performance sport and high-growth tech, while empowering athletes to become credible, strategic investors.

Across the conversation, Jason breaks down what the high-performance mindset really looks like beyond the pitch — exploring growth, curiosity, relentlessness and grit in the world of startups and venture capital. He shares practical insights into the different types of capital founders can pursue, and why relationships — not just capital — are the true currency in early-stage investment.

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Topics Discussed:

• From semi-pro football to founder and investor
• Designing and leading Qatar SportsTech’s accelerator
• The high-performance mindset in venture
• Understanding different types of investment capital
• The rise of the athlete investor
• Building meaningful investor–founder relationships

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Where you can find Jason:

LinkedIn

Website

Instagram

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Sponsors

VALD Performance, makers of the Nordbord, Forceframe, ForeDecks and HumanTrak. VALD Performance systems are built with the high-performance practitioner in mind, translating traditionally lab-based technologies into engaging, quick, easy-to-use tools for daily testing, monitoring and training

Hytro: The world’s leading Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) wearable, designed to accelerate recovery and maximise athletic potential using Hytro BFR for Professional Sport. 

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Where to Find Us

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:

Instagram

Twitter

Our Website

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Our Team

Andy McDonald

Ben Ashworth

Alistair McKenzie

Steve Barrett 

Pete McKnight

Episode 211: In this episode, Andy McDonald is joined by Trent — founder of The Tendon Lab and a specialist in Achilles and Patellar tendon health.

Trent brings nearly a decade of professional basketball experience as a physical therapist, strength coach, and former VP of Player Health and Performance into his focused clinical and research practice in Traverse City, Michigan. A former collegiate basketball player turned tendon scientist, his work now centres exclusively on evaluating and enhancing tendon structure and function.

Alongside consulting with professional teams on high-performance systems and return-to-play processes, Trent is pursuing his PhD in tendon health under one of the world’s leading tendon researchers. His mission is clear: bridge the gap between emerging tendon science and the realities of performance environments.

Across the conversation, Trent unpacks what “tendon health” really means beyond pain or imaging alone. He explores how structure, function, and symptoms interact — and why they don’t always move in parallel. The discussion dives into the role of UTC imaging, intelligent loading strategies, and how to progress athletes toward high-level stretch–shortening cycle (SSC) demands with clarity and confidence.

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Topics Discussed:

• Defining tendon health
• The role of UTC imaging in clinical decision-making
• Structure vs. function vs. pain
• Strategies for progressive tendon loading
• Targeting tendon substructure adaptations
• End-stage / SSC tendon loading in performance settings

Where you can find Trent:

LinkedIn

Website

Instagram

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Sponsors

VALD Performance, makers of the Nordbord, Forceframe, ForeDecks and HumanTrak. VALD Performance systems are built with the high-performance practitioner in mind, translating traditionally lab-based technologies into engaging, quick, easy-to-use tools for daily testing, monitoring and training

Hytro: The world’s leading Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) wearable, designed to accelerate recovery and maximise athletic potential using Hytro BFR for Professional Sport. 

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Where to Find Us

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:

Instagram

Twitter

Our Website

-

Our Team

Andy McDonald

Ben Ashworth

Alistair McKenzie

Steve Barrett 

Pete McKnight

Episode 210: In this episode of Accelerate, host Nicola Graham is joined by Emma Meehan — Founder, CEO, and CTO of KinetikIQ.

Emma is building technology that sits at the intersection of biomechanics, machine learning, and real-world performance. KinetikIQ turns any smartphone into a full-body 3D biomechanics system using LiDAR and AI — no wearables required — making advanced movement analysis far more accessible across sport and health.

With a background in computer science and software engineering, alongside experience as a competitive weightlifter, Emma brings both technical depth and practitioner perspective to product development. Her work has already been recognised across sport, technology, and business — including wins at the KPMG Global Tech Innovator Ireland and the Barca Innovation Challenge, Best New Sports Business of the Year at the Irish Sport Awards, recognition from SportsTechX as a European startup to watch, and features in the Sunday Business Post and Irish Independent 30 Under 30 lists.

Together, Nicola and Emma explore what it really takes to build a company as a technical founder, how the Irish startup ecosystem can support early-stage growth, and the realities of securing venture capital in sport and healthtech — alongside the lived experience of building as a female founder in a still-emerging industry.

Topics discussed:

Building a company as a technical founder

The role of the Irish startup ecosystem in early growth

Venture capital funding in sport and healthtech

The realities of being a female founder in sports technology

Where you can find Emma:

LinkedIn

Instagram

KineticIQ

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Sponsors

Gameplan is a rehab Project Management & Data Analytics Platform that improves operational & communication efficiency during rehab. Gameplan provides a centralised tool for MDT’s to work collaboratively inside a data rich environment

VALD Performance, makers of the ForceDecks, ForceFrame, HumanTrak, Dynamo, SmartSpeed, NordBoard. VALD Performance systems are built with the high-performance practitioner in mind, translating traditionally lab-based technologies into engaging, quick, easy-to-use tools for daily testing, monitoring and training

Hytro: The world’s leading Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) wearable, designed to accelerate recovery and maximise athletic potential using Hytro BFR for Professional Sport. 

- 

Where to Find Us

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:

Instagram

Twitter

Our Website

-

Our Team

Andy McDonald

Ben Ashworth

Steve Barrett 

Pete McKnight

Episode 209: In this first episode of Accelerate, host Nicola Graham is joined by our very own Andy McDonald — CEO & Co-Founder of Gameplan Performance and the voice behind Inform Performance.

Nicola’s work sits at the intersection of preventative health, human performance, and business strategy. With a background spanning advanced clinical practice, leadership roles across growth and M&A, and an Executive MBA, she now supports founders, funds, and performance-led organisations to translate scientific credibility into scalable strategy, measurable outcomes, and commercial growth.

Andy brings 15+ years of frontline experience across elite sport — from collegiate programmes to the NBA, UFC, and Indy500 — and shares the realities of building technology as a practitioner, not just an idea.

Together, they explore why Accelerate exists, and what it really takes to build products, platforms, and companies that sport will actually adopt.

Topics discussed:

• Why we started Accelerate
• Building tech as a practitioner-founder
• Managing multiple stakeholders in rehab environments
• Turning evidence into products teams will trust and use

Where you can find Andy:

LinkedIn

Instagram

X

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Sponsors

Gameplan is a rehab Project Management & Data Analytics Platform that improves operational & communication efficiency during rehab. Gameplan provides a centralised tool for MDT’s to work collaboratively inside a data rich environment

VALD Performance, makers of the ForceDecks, ForceFrame, HumanTrak, Dynamo, SmartSpeed, NordBoard. VALD Performance systems are built with the high-performance practitioner in mind, translating traditionally lab-based technologies into engaging, quick, easy-to-use tools for daily testing, monitoring and training

Hytro: The world’s leading Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) wearable, designed to accelerate recovery and maximise athletic potential using Hytro BFR for Professional Sport. 

- 

Where to Find Us

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:

Instagram

Twitter

Our Website

-

Our Team

Andy McDonald

Ben Ashworth

Steve Barrett 

Pete McKnight

Episode 208: In this episode, Andy McDonald is joined by Jake Gillies, Lead Sports Scientist at Bristol Bears Rugby, working at the sharp end of performance data integration within English Premiership rugby.

Jake’s role centres on quantifying the physical demands of match play and translating performance technology outputs into actionable training decisions. Prior to joining the Bears, he worked as a Sports Scientist at Harlequins Rugby, alongside experience as a Strength & Conditioning coach in the British Basketball League (BBL) — giving him a broad, cross-sport perspective on how data should (and shouldn’t) be used.

Across the conversation, Jake breaks down what it really means to turn data into action. He explores how practitioners can move beyond numbers for numbers’ sake, contextualise information within rehab and performance environments, and ensure that data serves decision-making rather than complicating it. The discussion highlights the importance of athlete intent, flexible testing frameworks, and clear visualisation when bridging the gap between rehabilitation and match performance.

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Topics Discussed:

• Turning data into action
• Contextualising data in rehabilitation
• Managing complexity in rehab objectives
• Insights vs. information in sports science
• The importance of good data in rehab settings
• Athlete intent & performance metrics
• Flexibility in testing protocols
• Effective data visualisation & dashboards
• Bridging the gap between rehab and match performance

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Where you can find Jake:

LinkedIn

Instagram

X

- 

Sponsors

VALD Performance, makers of the Nordbord, Forceframe, ForeDecks and HumanTrak. VALD Performance systems are built with the high-performance practitioner in mind, translating traditionally lab-based technologies into engaging, quick, easy-to-use tools for daily testing, monitoring and training

Hytro: The world’s leading Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) wearable, designed to accelerate recovery and maximise athletic potential using Hytro BFR for Professional Sport. 

- 

Where to Find Us

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:

Instagram

Twitter

Our Website

-

Our Team

Andy McDonald

Ben Ashworth

Alistair McKenzie

Steve Barrett 

Pete McKnight