Posted 04.01.2010
Tech startup: TeamSnap
By Eric Peterson
COMPANY:TeamSnap Inc.
INITIAL LIGHT BULB: Nearly a decade ago, Matt Triplett wanted to manage his soccer team online and developed a basic tool that did the trick. Over the next five years, Triplett and his co-workers at Portland, Ore.-based Web developer Sparkplug fleshed out his tool and launched a public beta in 2007.
Last year, they connected with self-described “grizzled IT industry veteran” Dave DuPont, formerly of Hewlett-Packard, LeftHand Networks and other companies. The Boulder-based DuPont convinced them to focus on the concept full-time with him as CEO and subsequently organized a new venture in TeamSnap Inc. with offices in both Boulder and Portland.
IN A NUTSHELL: DuPont says TeamSnap solves the all too common problem of “getting the right people to the right place at the right time.“
“We’re the Evite for ongoing activity,“ he says, noting that the application works as well for sports teams as it does for book clubs, religious organizations and other groups. “This is all about making people’s lives easier.“
TeamSnap employs a “freemium” business model, where the basic features are available with free accounts, but more advanced options – such as stat-keeping – require a monthly subscription fee of $6.95 to $9.95 a month. Additional revenue comes from commissions collected from approved partners selling uniforms, trophies and other relevant products to TeamSnap’s user base. “The list (of cross-marketing opportunities) is pretty long,“ DuPont says.
Since TeamSnap’s incorporation last May, monthly revenues have doubled to more than $30,000 as the number of customers has grown by more than 40 percent to 20,000. Plans call for more integration with social media websites. “We’ve been rabid about meeting customer requests,“ DuPont says.
Greg Ostravich, a CDOT programmer and Highlands Ranch resident, has used TeamSnap for several of his sons’ little league and soccer teams. “The parents love it,“ he says, citing integration with Google Maps and online photo galleries as the favorite features.
Ostravich also cites the capability to text or e-mail the entire team and create a calendar of games, practices and other team events that you can sync with mobile devices. “Everybody I’ve shown the site is just jazzed about it,“ he adds. “I’m one of the fanatics – I feel like I’m a TeamSnap evangelist.“
THE MARKET: DuPont defines the potential market for online group-organization tools to be $500 million a year, and thinks TeamSnap could realistically capture double-digit market share. The market is global, he adds: There are TeamSnap users in more than 80 countries with almost no advertising outside of word of mouth.
FINANCING: “We’ve raised a little bit of outside capital,“ DuPont says. “We’re mostly bootstrapped.“ He said he’s looking to close on about “a few hundred thousand more” in funding this year, but no more, noting, “Money’s never free.“
WHERE: BOULDER |FOUNDED: 2009 |WWW.TEAMSNAP.COM
“I CERTAINLY DIDN’T DO EVERYTHING. WE’RE A TEAM. NOTHING HAPPENS BY ITSELF.“
- TeamSnap CEO Dave DuPont on the company’s growth since he joined forces with the development team a year ago
Denver-based writer Eric Peterson is the author of Frommer's Colorado, Frommer's Montana & Wyoming, Frommer's Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks and the Ramble series of guidebooks, featuring first-person travelogues covering everything from atomic landmarks in New Mexico to celebrity gone wrong in Hollywood. Peterson has also recently written about backpacking in Yosemite, cross-country skiing in Yellowstone and downhill skiing in Colorado for such publications as Denver's Westword and The New York Daily News.
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