Startup Spotlight: Sparkwear

by Ellen Durkin and Anastasia Klipa

March 11, 2021



In our Startup Spotlight Blog Series, we want to recognize some of our local peers and fellow companies in the Pittsburgh startup ecosystem. Today, we are highlighting John Rattray, CEO and founder of Sparkwear, a technology company that strives to provide communication tools for everything from conferences, cruises, college orientations, and beyond.

Image of John Rattray

We began by asking John about his professional background:

John Rattray: My professional background is primarily academic. I went to University of Maryland, Baltimore County, I did my undergrad in electrical and computer engineering, and then from there I did my Master's at Johns Hopkins University in electrical and computer engineering as well, in the niche field of neuromorphic engineering. I'm currently pursuing my Ph.D. but there also was a tiny, six month stretch that I worked in Silicon Valley as a software engineer at Cisco.

From there, we learned about John’s company, Sparkwear, and what inspired him to start it.

I was inspired to develop Sparkwear by my upbringing, I feel. I was born in the 90s and I sort of had my feet in both worlds of growing up in the 90s where there weren't cell phones--cell phones weren't ubiquitous yet. People would talk to one another and play sports outside like backyard soccer, football, and all that. It was a very tight community in terms of people interacting with one another in physical spaces. Then circa 2000 cell phones become more popular. Everyone's on Facebook and using cell phones more often and you sort of lose that interaction with people in person. But technology is still awesome, right? It just didn't seem as though the two things were working together simultaneously. So the idea for me was like, hey, why don't I mix cool technology that we have now with the way in which we would interact with one another in person. That's sort of the premise behind it all. It's using technology to help people interact with one another.

"It just didn't seem as though the two things were working together simultaneously. So the idea for me was like, hey, why don't I mix cool technology that we have now with the way in which we would interact with one another in person."

He then talked more about social media and its effect on his business:

I think [social media] plays a major role in exposure. With so many people being on social media now, it's an exceptional way to let people know what you're working on and have them interact with your brand and your everyday developmental process. It's really cool to be able to go and work on these cool products every day in the lab and be making constant development and be able to share that [with your followers]. Look at Boston Dynamics - they're constantly creating new stuff. It's cool to be able to see them work on the process and not just see their final results. So I think [social media] plays a major part in helping people, customers, and clients- they’re connected with your startup and your business.

As with most businesses, Sparkwear has endured the challenges that came about due to the Covid-19 pandemic, especially considering that Sparkwear relies on creating social engagement.

So the biggest challenge, no surprise, is that social networking events stopped completely, which is what my company is premised on. How did we accommodate for that? Two ways: One, our technology is designed to provide personalized introductions to users based off of their proximity to one another. So what we did is we utilized the same technology and made a pivot to give users feedback on how close they were for social distancing. So we utilized that proximity component, but for a different purpose now [during the pandemic].

The other way that we accommodated for the challenge, and this one is sort of funny, is to be patient. What we were able to do in being patient was really discover how important it is for people to interact in person, right? We could have done a full pivot and forgotten about our main goal and sort of lose sight of how important it is for us to interact with other people in person and then kind of give up on the idea. So in being patient, now we're here in 2021, and now we're thinking about reopening those public spaces. We have the reemergence of the cruise line industry. Some small social networking events are starting to come back online. It's important that we stay true to our mission because now we're prepared for it.

Despite Covid-19 and other challenges that come with growing a business, John is still excited for new opportunities in the coming year.

I think the onset of Covid-19 made it seem as though opportunities were minimized. I think we're at a point now in 2021 where things are looking up, things are improving, and we're finding ways to make the most of it and accommodate for the current climate that we're in. There is a reemergence of the events industry. I just saw a commercial for Norwegian Cruise Lines that's about to start running again. That's a potential client, so I'm excited about that. I’m excited about the opportunities that exist moving forward and looking to really take advantage of all of those opportunities.

"I think we're at a point now in 2021 where things are looking up, things are improving, and we're finding ways to make the most of it and accommodate for the current climate that we're in."

John then reflected upon relocating his business from Baltimore to Pittsburgh, and his experience with the startup community here.

I chose to relocate my business to Pittsburgh because I received my first investment from AlphaLab Gear, and to be a part of that accelerator program, I had to be physically in Pittsburgh. At the time, Sparkwear was not in full swing or swinging at all. After joining the AlphaLab Gear accelerator, I moved to Pittsburgh, received that initial investment, and began starting my company; incorporating [Sparkwear], acquiring new customers, and the rest of everything else that comes along with being a part of the accelerator program.

I think it's a very attractive region right now in terms of the tech space, in terms of startups. I think there's definitely a shift from Pittsburgh being that steel mill, industry-esq place to one that's more focused on developing technology. I mean, you have really big tech companies out here. You have Google. You have a lot of self-driving car companies. You have all of the entrepreneurship and technology that's coming out of the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and it's attracting a lot of talent, a lot of people who are interested in being in the tech field. It is a unique location right now; it's really drawing those who are interested in technology to the region.

"It is a unique location right now; it's really drawing those who are interested in technology to the region."

John reflected that the entrepreneurial spirit is buzzing strong throughout the region as a whole.

Duquesne University started the Duquesne New Venture Challenge, which my company was a part of and was a finalist last year. This year, we moved on to the second round so far. This provides a great point that there are other entities that are in the region that are facilitating entrepreneurship, not just Pitt and CMU.

We asked John how important it is to have a sense of community among businesses and companies in the Pittsburgh startup space:

It's absolutely important as a startup [to have a community and support each other]. You're jumping into the fire. You don't know anything about what's going on, unless you've done startups before. But I guess I'm thinking about myself starting a business for the first time. There's just a lot you don't know, so being in a community, you're able to leverage everyone else learning at the same time. Somebody goes through a legal problem, they can help you when you go through a similar legal problem. Someone's incorporating, they can help you in the process of incorporating as well. Being in the startup community is so powerful because you're able to learn at a much quicker rate, and you don't have to make all the mistakes yourself... because you're going to make plenty of mistakes and that's okay.

I have also observed bigger entities helping smaller entities, because the bigger entities were smaller entities at one point--at least some of them are really reaching back out and helping.

I do feel that Pittsburgh has a strong startup community. While I've been here for the past two years, I've been able to get a lot of exposure as a startup because I feel that there is a culture of highlighting startups and helping them grow. There is also really cool programming, like Thrival, that I had the benefit from being a part of. Thrival is sort of like a festival where they highlight startups from all different types of areas: VR, AR, startups working with self-driving cars, machine learning, or startups in the mommy world (shout out to Connect Wolf!). This highlights the startup diversity in the region, and it provides a very big community.

"Being in the startup community is so powerful because you're able to learn at a much quicker rate, and you don't have to make all the mistakes yourself... because you're going to make plenty of mistakes and that's okay."

As for advice for startups looking to locate in Pittsburgh, John had many suggestions on the business side of things as well as fun things to do around the city.

Just based off of my experience, look into accelerator programs, look specifically at Alpha Lab Gear. I'm not saying that because they're paying me to say that; I've gone through the program and it helped me a lot. I can say for certain that [AlphaLab Gear] would help future startups as well. Look into accelerator programs that are structured because they will be very helpful in eliminating some of the variability when it comes to starting up your business. There are so many different things that go into a startup, and any way that you can reduce complexity will be helpful -- an accelerator program helps a lot in doing that. They have programming set for you and know what support you're going to need.

I like Pittsburgh; it has a good aesthetic. It definitely did have its heyday during the steel mill industrial time period. That's not to say that it's waning now, just having another heyday now for tech. There's a lot of really good architecture here if you're into that, and the food is good. There's a lot of great parks. There's a science museum, and a lot of other museums. There's a lot to keep you busy and entertained. Duquesne Incline on Mount Washington--great views! There's tons to do [in Pittsburgh]; you'll be busy with your company, but there’s plenty to do to keep your life balanced.

For me, I like playing sports. I think there's a pretty good sports community that’s out here that you're able to tap into. I was playing soccer in a tech league that was here. I was also playing in some other soccer leagues as well. I was able to play flag football. I think the organization is called PUMP, but there's a lot of different organizations out here that facilitate people playing sports on teams and there's a lot of meetup groups. I was also able to play volleyball--I like doing sports. It’s a little cold and snowy right now, so unless you're a fan of snowboarding and skiing, then this information is completely irrelevant for the wintertime.

"There's tons to do [in Pittsburgh]; you'll be busy with your company, but there’s plenty to do to keep your life balanced. "

Many thanks to John Rattray of Sparkwear for allowing us to interview him, and for teaching us more about his startup experience here in Pittsburgh. If you want to learn more about Sparkwear, please visit the Sparkwear website. We will be featuring more startups in the coming weeks -- stay tuned!

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