15 Sep 2026 05:57
Measure It at the Source
Max Darsonval spent twelve years in the SEAL teams, most of it as a combat medic, and left on what he calls a 50.01% decision. He’s now founder and CEO of Velocity AI, building a sensor and a coaching app that take velocity-based training - the tool every D1 and pro weight room already has - out of the facility and onto anyone’s barbell. He and Neal get into why 22-week strength programs break the moment real life happens, how drone IMUs turned into a wearable, why the SEAL Future Foundation became customer one, and what the wearable industry has to fix before people stop wearing them. Plus Don Pancho’s in Imperial Beach, the post-BUD/S institution.
Key topics
* From sponsored big-mountain skier to dishwasher to BUD/S at 17
* Why SEALs build their own medics and what that taught him about the body
* Leaving the teams at twelve years on a 50.01% decision
* Velocity-based training, and why most lifters have never heard of it
* Power equals force times velocity: measuring readiness at the source
* Why a 22-week program can’t know what you did yesterday
* Drone IMUs, a hideous first PCB, and why you need 200 Hz
* $500K, 20 developers, seven months to an MVP
* The SEAL Future Foundation as customer one
* Data fatigue and why coaching is the next frontier for wearables
* San Diego’s wearable cluster: Google, Fitbit, Dexcom, Oura
* Don Pancho’s in Imperial Beach and the case for Tacos El Gordo
Links & resources
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