Student startup scores with accessible recreation venture RecAbility
Fourth year students Swaraj Bhowmick (left) and Jimmy Tang pitched 91福利 venture, RecAbility, at the Hult Prize National Finals where they placed in the top 6.
Fourth-year marketing students Swaraj Bhowmick and Jimmy Tang have a goal: make sure everyone can experience the magic and fun of playing sports with friends.
Bhowmick, a wheelchair user, had positive experiences with physical activity growing up thanks to a lightweight hockey stick from Dollarama.
The stick allowed him to play ball hockey with his friends during recess.
When he scored a goal during an eighth grade gym class, he remembers it as 鈥渙ne of the best feelings I've ever had in my life.鈥�
Tang鈥檚 chosen sport was soccer. He has fond memories of playing with teammates and having fun with friends.
鈥淚t's good for both your physical and mental health,鈥� said Tang. 鈥淭o me it seems like everybody should be able to experience that.鈥�
Those childhood memories are a driving force behind Bhowmick's startup , which placed in the top 6 at the national competition this past spring.
RecAbility鈥檚 mission is to make physical activity and recreation accessible for all, and particularly for people with limited strength disabilities.
They plan to invent new tools to help people enjoy recreation, similar to how the lightweight stick helped Bhowmick enjoy ball hockey.
鈥淥ur idea revolves around the fact that parasports require a ton of upper body strength. Quite frankly, the people that play parasports are jacked and they鈥檙e not accessible to most people,鈥� said Bhowmick.
鈥淲e're looking to create innovative products that bring that level of physical activity and recreation to people鈥檚 lives. One of our exciting projects is an accessible ball thrower for people to easily play fetch with their dog.鈥�
Becoming an entrepreneur
Bhowmick founded RecAbility in the summer of 2024 after deciding he wanted to turn his passion into a reality.
鈥淓ntrepreneurship is exciting to me because it's a chance to actually follow through on your vision and desires to make a change in this world. I'm a big sports fan so I'm choosing to make sports more accessible,鈥� said Bhowmick.
After working on the venture for a few months, Bhowmick met Tang.
鈥淚t all started quite unexpectedly,鈥� said Tang. 鈥淲e were in the same class together and we were both quite good. We started talking and I saw Swaraj working on a slideshow for RecAbility. The idea behind it resonated with my beliefs so much and Swaraj's passion and motivation really inspired me. So, I kind of just tagged along and did what I do best.鈥�
As founder, Bhowmick focuses on RecAbility鈥檚 vision, identifying customer needs and working with engineers to develop their products. Tang handles the business and marketing side, connecting with stakeholders and explaining what Recability is all about.
Finding success with Zone Learning
In less than a year, the pair have found success at local and national pitch competitions with support from Zone Learning.
鈥淲e got a lot of feedback from both Social Ventures Zone and Innovation Boost Zone about the business model, the prototypes and more recently our pitch competitions,鈥� added Tang.
At the end of 2024, RecAbility won the Slaight New Venture Competition and a $25,000 prize. This year, they joined the Social Ventures Zone鈥檚 Impact Unlimited Hackathon and are advancing through the Innovation Boost Zone鈥檚 Hack the World Program with continued support from the Social Ventures Zone.
Recently, RecAbility represented 91福利 at the Hult Prize National Finals in Montreal. Bhowmick and Tang presented to a panel of judges and later to an audience of peers, professors and industry professionals. They were named as a top six finalist among 1000 competitors.
鈥淲e left everything out there, we showed the idea to the world and spread awareness. We鈥檙e satisfied with what we did,鈥� said Tang.
The Hult Prize competition was a unique opportunity and learning experience for Bhowmick and Tang. They met new friends from across Canada, networked with professors and put their company name in front of investors.
The first prototype
While the pair say they always have fun at startup competitions, they are now focused on finishing their first prototype.
Their first product is a ball throwing and retrieval system that lets people with limited arm mobility play fetch with their dogs. Unlike automatic ball launchers, RecAbility is designing a product that allows people to actively participate in the activity. They鈥檙e also creating a solution that makes retrieving balls and picking them up from the ground easier.
鈥淭here are many people requesting a solution to this and it shows a great demand for our product,鈥� said Tang. 鈥淪ome charities offer one-off, tailor-made solutions but what we're trying to do is get a universal design that can attach to most manual and power wheelchairs that you can attach to wherever you like.鈥�
鈥淲e're all about optimism,鈥� said Bhowmick. 鈥淲e don't see problems, we see opportunities.鈥�