Hitting the Slopes with AI – Elite Ski Coaching for Everyone

For too long, personalised ski coaching has been a luxury reserved for the few. Artem has decided enough is enough by creating Yeti Coach – the world’s first Sport GPT. 

Yeti Coach in a nutshell is an AI-powered platform that democratizes ski training using computer vision. It’s simple – you upload your skiing video or get filmed on a dedicated smart slope, and the system will identify technical mistakes and provide tailored, affordable training plans.

Meet Artem, the visionary behind Yeti Coach, an AI-powered platform set to revolutionise how we learn and improve on the slopes.

‘My name is Artem. I was born in Russia and spent the last three years living in the Middle East. Before moving into tech, I was a professional ballroom dancer, winning a world championship title and representing the UK in international competitions. I trained extensively in the UK, which became a second home through sport. 

In the tech sector, I worked on a vertical farming project, supported startups in securing investment and B2B clients, and led innovation initiatives at one of the leading metallurgical companies. 

Today, I’m bringing together my background in competitive sports, deep tech, and venture to build an AI-driven platform that makes high-quality ski coaching accessible to everyone.’ 

Before we dive more into the semantics of the business set-up, we got chatting to Artem who surprised us with the answer to this question: where in the UK are you most looking forward to visiting when you can? His answer – Cornwall. As an avid surfer in his spare time (of which is very limited of course), Artem has been honing his skills out at sea which naturally ties back in with Yeti Coach. He’s also planning a trip to the Scottish Highlands to visit several of the country’s top ski resorts — including Glenshee, Cairngorm, and Nevis Range — combining business with pleasure as he explores opportunities to test Yeti Coach in real-world conditions. The perfect mix of work and adventure.

One of the biggest goals for the platform is to extend from Skiing coaching to other sports based activities that we want to get better at. With Artem having various hobbies and dabbling in many different sports, it’s only natural he’s chosen to pursue a business in this world! 

Meeting Artem last week at our in person event at the Dragon’s Den I can tell from very first impressions that he is a great negotiator and shrewd businessman. Networking comes naturally to Artem who works a room of strangers effortlessly. There wasn’t a moment throughout the day that he wasn’t networking or listening intently to a fellow Innovator’s ideas. Skills like these will do him well when looking to expand and improve Yeti Coach.

In fact, whilst we were chatting on our Zoom call we got onto the subject of his current business name which is now up for debate.

‘I’m now considering changing the business name. While it wasn’t meant to be temporary, it was originally built around skiing — which made sense at the time. But as the platform evolves and we start exploring other sports, I’ve realised the name might feel too niche or limiting. I’d like something more universal, something that better reflects the broader vision of what we’re building. While skiing was a natural starting point for the platform, it quickly became clear that focusing solely on winter sports would be too narrow. That realisation led to a broader vision: building a sports tech platform that can adapt across disciplines and seasons. The UK, with its strong innovation culture and global connectivity, has proven to be an ideal headquarters for launching and scaling such a venture.’

We will keep in touch to find out what the name change may be, we must admit sometimes putting a name on your business can be one of the trickiest things to do and get right, so it makes sense to change it if needed.

Artem’s path to entrepreneurship has been anything but conventional. With roots in elite competitive dance, he built a career defined by discipline, precision, and international success — including a world title and representing the UK on the global stage. Years of training in Britain left a lasting connection to the country, shaping his mindset and passion for performance, which now fuel his approach to building innovative sports technology.

Artem’s experience in tech spans multiple industries — from developing solutions in AgroTech to working in tech consultancy, supporting companies with fundraising strategies and B2B growth. At one of the world’s leading metallurgical companies, he also drove forward major innovation programmes. Now, he’s channeling that diverse background – combining the precision of sport with the strategic mindset of tech and venture – into building Yeti Coach.

But regardless of Artem’s project past, the continuous frustration with access to high-quality coaching in any sport, but namely Skiing was what led to the evolvement of Yeti Coach. So let’s go back to the details – I have never been skiing, but I can certainly empathise with the issues we all face when it comes to investing in our own skills or hobbies. Can we really justify the daily, weekly or monthly outgoings to a coach? Personally, I do invest in a Personal Trainer as I need their help to motivate me to achieve my goals. But not everybody has the disposable income for this.

In the ever evolving world of AI helping us with almost anything, it’s natural that Artem is using this technology in the best way possible. 

The way he explained the business model to me was this: there are two key streams. The first is a B2B2C model, where Yeti Coach installs high-quality camera systems directly on ski slopes in partnership with resorts. These systems capture the client’s descent from multiple angles. Skiers can then purchase their videos directly through the Yeti Coach platform, access them online, and use them for learning or sharing. The second is a B2C model, where users upload their own skiing footage to the platform. In both cases, Yeti Coach’s AI processes the videos, analyses technique, identifies errors, and delivers detailed, structured feedback to help users improve their performance.

With social media becoming more prevalent by the minute, businesses such as Yeti Coach are very appealing to those looking for easy, affordable solutions to give them opportunities to create eye-catching, memorable content. The platform looks to evolve where users are able to access a whole database of useable content from their ski descents at various slopes, once the infrastructure has been put into place.

Back to the networking skills that come so naturally to Artem – he will continuously need the buy in from existing ski coaches to allow this to help their clients. Especially if the coach is stationed at certain locations. But as we were chatting we naturally dove into some of the frustrations or limitations that he faces regularly:

‘The B2B model can be challenging — but that’s just part of the game. It’s the nature of entrepreneurship: navigating complex decision-making chains, identifying the right people, and finding creative ways to keep things moving. Working with resorts often means long cycles — it can take time to reach the right decision-maker, align interests, and move from interest to action. To address this, we’re now rolling out a new version of our system that removes key barriers: it requires no groundwork or upfront investment from the resort. We cover the installation costs ourselves and simply share a portion of the revenue. It’s a win–win approach that accelerates negotiations, reduces friction, and allows us to scale more quickly – while still maintaining strong partnerships on the ground.

‘People are busy, decisions can’t just be made like that anymore. It’s tough knowing that I put forward my ideas but they have to go through several levels of departments before I can get a definitive answer – all of that could take weeks, if not months too what with everyone’s schedules being so different. This does mean that I can’t progress my business as quickly as I would like. Therefore, it takes a huge toll on myself but also my family who cannot yet join me here in the UK.

The distance is hard but I am determined to stick it out and make my business a success here. I know I’ve chosen this country well and I need to be both resilient and patient if I want to do well here.’

You can feel the determination radiating from Artem – in fact he also mentioned that he’s not here to do things by halves. In fact, to make a real impact he would even go as far as investing in memorable marketing or advertising – like having a giant statue of a Yeti to really get the brand sticking in people’s minds long after learning about the platform or technology. Love that! 

Whilst establishing his brand here in the UK, a lot of Artem’s time is spent on improving and advancing his tech. At the moment they’ve managed to advance the software to detect as many as 12 mistakes from the video uploads for his clients. Plenty to be learning from and starting to get better at! 

A question came to mind as we caught up, so I posed it. Have you met any famous people, including sports athletes whilst building your brand here?

“Yes, of course,” Artem said. “We’ve already connected with several well-known athletes, including some highly respected names in the ski world.” But for now, the team is holding off on involving them publicly, as the product is still in active development. “Once the time is right, we’ll be ready to bring a recognised athlete — maybe even an Olympic champion — to the forefront of the brand.” 

And if anyone is going to make that happen, it’s certainly Artem.

Find out more about Yeti Coach here https://yeti.coach/ and make sure to connect over on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akruchin/