How a former Red Raider basketball player turned his experience on the court into an AI-driven sports tech startup.
For many Red Raiders, Matt Mooney is remembered for his leadership and clutch shots during the unforgettable 2018–19 season that carried Texas Tech Basketball to its first-ever National Championship appearance.
But for Mooney, that season was never the finish line.
At the 2026 Discoveries to Impact Keynote Luncheon—a signature event within Texas Tech’s month-long celebration of research, innovation, and entrepreneurship—Mooney returned to campus not just as a former student-athlete, but as a founder.
Discoveries to Impact is designed to showcase how ideas, talent, and determination evolve into real-world solutions. This year, there was no better example of that journey than Mooney himself. As the keynote speaker, he was selected not only for his success on the court, but for what came after—his ability to translate personal experience into innovation and build a company rooted in solving a problem he once faced as an athlete.
Mooney took the stage as the founder and Chief Vision Officer of AthletIQ, a company using artificial intelligence to transform the way athletes train. His story reflects exactly what Discoveries to Impact was built to celebrate: how resilience, curiosity, and entrepreneurship can create impact far beyond the original arena.
AthletIQ was born from a simple frustration Mooney experienced as a player.
While redshirting at the University of South Dakota, he spent countless hours shooting nearly 1,000 shots a day, but something felt off. Most practice shots were wide open, while nearly 90% of game shots in competition were contested. That disconnect stayed with him. Years later, it became the foundation for AthletIQ.
What began as a robotic training concept evolved into an AI-powered mobile app that uses a phone’s camera to analyze shooting mechanics in real time, giving athletes immediate feedback and helping them train smarter, faster, and closer to true game conditions.
What started as a $50 prototype made from PVC pipe, caster wheels, and cardboard hands has grown into a sophisticated platform capable of simulating defensive pressure while tracking the mechanics behind every shot. The vision is ambitious: to make AthletIQ the premier company for player development across basketball—and eventually multiple sports.
That kind of innovation requires more than a good idea.
It requires support.
After receiving the President’s Innovative Startup Award, Mooney continued to look for ways to accelerate AthletIQ’s development. When he reached out to the Innovation Hub for help finding an app developer, the timing could not have been better.
That same weekend, the Hub was hosting HackWesTX, a high-energy event where more than 200 students from Texas Tech and universities across the state come together to build apps, develop software, and compete for prizes.
Seeing an opportunity, Mooney leaned in.
He offered incentives for participating teams to develop early versions of the AthletIQ app, turning the competition into a real-world innovation challenge. By the end of the weekend, four student teams had created different versions of his platform, each bringing unique ideas and technical approaches.
Mooney selected a winning team—but the impact didn’t stop there.
Impressed by their work ethic, creativity, and execution, he went on to hire several of the students as interns. Today, he continues to recruit Texas Tech students to support AthletIQ’s growth.
“Texas Tech, Taysha, and the Innovation Hub have opened doors for me I could have never opened myself,” shares Mooney. “They've helped me secure funding, but even more importantly, they've helped me find the right people to drive my company's vision forward: interns, a full time mobile app developer, and mentors that have guided me to launching our app in one month.”
What started as a request for help became something much bigger—a pipeline of talent, opportunity, and collaboration.
A true full-circle moment: a Red Raider returning to campus not only to build a company, but to create opportunities for the next generation of innovators.
Mooney’s story stands out because it bridges two worlds.
While many know him as the player from Texas Tech’s historic Final Four run, he is also an entrepreneur building a company in a highly competitive technology space. AthletIQ has already raised more than $500,000 and continues seeking investment to bring its app to market, with future applications extending beyond basketball into sports like volleyball and football.
For the audience in the room, Mooney’s story made that connection tangible.
“The same way Texas Tech helped me live out my dreams on court in 2019, they are now helping me build a business so that basketball players worldwide can also live out their dreams on court.”
The same discipline that carried him through a championship season became the foundation for building a company. The same instinct to question how athletes train became the starting point for a new solution. His journey moved naturally from the court to product development, investor meetings, and startup growth—showing how innovation often begins by refusing to accept the way things have always been done.
That same spirit carried into the morning’s Startup Expo, where the Innovation Hub transformed networking into a live showcase of entrepreneurial progress.
The expo brought together both graduating and alumni startup teams from across the Texas Tech ecosystem, creating space for founders to connect directly with investors, mentors, community partners, and fellow entrepreneurs. Startups including GeoListen, Rahm Sensor Development, MelodiaSync, PillMed, and Nami Diagnostics were among 18 ventures representing industries spanning biotechnology, AI, clean energy, sports technology, healthcare, and consumer products.
The expo demonstrated that ideas born in classrooms, labs, and side conversations are becoming real companies with customers, patents, prototypes, and national potential. It offered the broader community a clear view of entrepreneurship in action—tangible progress happening right here in West Texas.
Mooney’s journey from the basketball court to AthletIQ is a reminder that success is rarely linear.
The same discipline that built a championship season can also build a company. The same curiosity that questions a practice drill can become a patent-backed business. And the same university that helped shape an athlete can help launch an entrepreneur.
“I am nothing but grateful for Taysha and the Innovation Hub helping me make a dream become reality and give basketball players worldwide a way to someday live out their dreams on the court.”
At the Innovation Hub, that is the goal every day: helping people carry momentum forward—whether it starts in a lab, a classroom, or on the hardwood.
Because impact does not end at graduation.
Sometimes, it is just getting started.