Steven Warsh: Turning Rehab Into Play
As a certified athletic therapist and VR researcher, Steven Warsh saw the same problem again and again: no one enjoys doing their rehab exercises. While completing his master’s work on virtual reality for pain relief, he started building RECOVR Sports, a company using immersive games to make recovery more engaging and effective for athletes. Today, the Montreal-based startup is developing VR experiences that help users stick to their programs, track progress, and return to sport with confidence.
Steven’s path into scientific entrepreneurship began with the Quebec Scientific Entrepreneurship (QcSE) program, where he learned to reframe his research as a solution for real users and to communicate it clearly to non-academic audiences. He then joined Lab2Market Validate, spending sixteen weeks running structured customer interviews with athletes, therapists, and clinics. Those conversations confirmed strong market pull for a rehab platform that blends clinical rigour with game-level motivation, and they helped shape RECOVR’s first go-to-market experiments.
What sets Steven apart is the way he connects science to the lived reality of sport. He coaches and treats athletes, teaches at the university level, and leads product work inside his company. That mix keeps him close to the problem and fast on iteration. The result is a solution built with and for the people who will use it.
Asked what these programs changed, Steven points to momentum. QcSE gave him the tools to translate research into a clear value proposition. Lab2Market Validate gave him evidence from the field and the confidence to move from prototype to product. Together, they turned a promising idea into a venture with real traction.
RECOVR Sports is growing its community of test sites and early customers while advancing partnerships across therapy and sport. For Steven, it all comes back to impact: make rehab something athletes want to do, and better outcomes will follow.