Introducing the Skye Team + Week Recap

Meet the Team

Ciaran Brayboy – Harvard '23, studied Computational Neuroscience. Former basketball recruit. Grew up learning about nutrition from his father, a functional medicine practitioner. Leads sales, ops, technical infrastructure, and performance marketing.

Elisha Thornton – Senior at Harvard studying History and Biology. Walk-on turned team captain of a top-10 program. Building Skye after firsthand battles with injury. Drives product, brand, and all things creative.

Mason Langenbrunner – Senior at Harvard studying Government and Economics, Captain of Harvard Hockey, drafted by the Boston Bruins. Focused on business development and strategic partnerships.

Mitchell Lee – Sophomore at Harvard studying Econ. Blue-chip tennis recruit, ranked #2 in the class of 2024. Handles graphic design and content.

New Skye Branding

Mitchell and Elisha have been working incredibly hard revamping our brand over the last two weeks--we have gone through 70+ mockups and just yesterday we landed on our new logo and brand image. Our original look leaned hard on the black-and-white minimalism you see from brands like Puresport, Maurten, and much of the sports performance market (check out the carbon copies). After living with it for a few weeks, we realized we would not stand out in a sea of black and it wasn’t authentic to us. 

We opted for a 1970s/80s retro sports, vintage-Olympics look as a direct contrast to the status quo: cobalt blue, warm reds, big typography, a hint of track-meet nostalgia. It captures how we approach sport and life: give it everything, and have fun while you do it. Our next batch of product will carry the new mark. 

Getting Product Right for Manufacturing

In the product sphere, we sent a cold email to Carla Spiropulo, the founder of Nelly’s Organics. She kindly replied and shared her story of avoiding high-cost formulators and building her own manufacturing facility to take her recipes straight from the kitchen to the grocery store. An approach we haven’t really heard of before. 

On our end, we’re testing version two of our product with our formulator. The first iteration the formulator created did not taste as good as we wanted. Our challenge so far has been prioritizing exceptional taste and ingredient profile while also ensuring a competitive price point. We will receive the V2 formula this week and see whether it meets our quality standards to begin the manufacturing process. If not, back to the kitchen. 

Player Insights

We spoke with 15 pro and collegiate tennis players this week about the challenges of the sport’s solo nature. As a former basketball player, I used to envy the control individual athletes had over the outcome. But hearing their stories about traveling alone, training alone, eating alone, winning alone, and losing alone gave a new perspective. Thank you to everyone who shared. We’ll keep shaping the newsletter around your feedback.

Also, poolside in Hawaii, I ran into Jacques Cesaire, a nine-year NFL vet with the Chargers and now a coach with the Browns. We talked about leadership. His advice is below.

Heard this week

• All-American tennis player Henry Von Der Schulenburg on mental performance: “Especially when it comes to the mental side of the game, practice exactly how you play. Don’t expect that you’ll be able to miraculously control your mind and emotions during a game when you blow up every practice.” 

• Nine-year NFL veteran and assistant coach of Cleveland Browns Jacques Cesaire on leadership: “The best teams have the best functioning systems which are lived each and every day by the leaders of that organization. The best leaders he played with had obsessive focus on the mission and disregard everything which doesn’t help them reach the goal.” 

Learnings

1. The human brain is wired to notice contrast—what stands out, not what blends in. That’s why you need to look at what everyone else is doing, then deliberately choose a different path, especially in how you present yourself. But this is hard. When we create, we tend to copy the status quo without realizing it. And doing something different can feel risky. It goes against our instinct to fit in. But if you play it safe, you’ll be invisible.

2. ChatGPT can be helpful for quick logo iteration. Helpful to have people who know Adobe Illustrator. Don’t spend money on Fiverr graphic designers. 

On your Journey to Greatness,
Ciaran + Elisha
Skye Performance