New technology from startup ventures is transforming the global sports industry. This Startup Series has introduced over 200 startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience by allowing Founders of promising new ventures to tell their story and pitch their idea. Feel free to submit your startup’s answers to the below questions or contact us if you know of a startup that should be considered for inclusion in this series.
Company name: 18Birdies
Founder(s): Eddy Lui
Headquarters: Oakland, CA
1. What is your elevator pitch?
18Birdies is a state-of-the-art integrated mobile social golf platform built to enhance the golf experience. 18Birdies aims to inspire golfers of all ages and skill levels by managing their games and tournaments, challenging and motivating them through competition, and sharing their experiences with other golfers.
2. Problem & Solution
Problem: Since 2007, golf participation has been in a state of stagnation/decline, especially with Millennials who are declining at a faster rate than other demographics. In order to grow the industry, golf needs to find a way to attract Millennials back to game that aligns with their preferences and behaviors. Every aspect of the golf experience needs to be reimagined, from the way golfers interact with the course to how they play tournaments. There is a lack of technology being used in the golf industry that aligns with Millennials’ dependency on their smartphones to manage their everyday lives. Golf technology is highly fragmented with apps that have basic functionality such as having a GPS or the ability to book tee-times, but there is a major disconnect between golfers using technology and the actual golf course.
Solution: 18Birdies is addressing this lack of technology and was built specifically for mobile and social, bringing a robust set of features that will help bring golf into a new era that will attract Millennials back to the game. We align ourselves with Millennials’ tendencies to embrace technology, value social interactions and be competitive. Our top features that cater to these characteristics include:
- Tracking of all of your scores, round history and personal statistics
- Side-game bets such as Skins, Nassau, Vegas, Dots and Rolling Stroke
- GPS+ rangefinder powered by Google Maps that covers every course in the U.S. and most courses globally
- Social Feed that lets you connect with friends and courses to share comments, photos and videos
We also recently introduced Tournament+, that lets users create and manage tournaments (Scramble, Best Ball, Team Best Ball, Individual Stroke Play and Skins) and provide a live leaderboard within the app to give the tournament a professional look and feel. In addition, tournament participants can also share photos, videos and comments to the rest of the field to add a social element to the tournament. Being able to do all of this in one simple easy-to-use app does not currently exist in golf, and we are excited to bring it to golfers worldwide.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
18Birdies is attracting tech savvy and young golfers, people competing in tournament play and golfers looking to improve their game through technology. We partner with a number of organizations and governing bodies in the golf industry including Nextgengolf, MGA, NCGA, NCPGA and NCGOA. In addition, we are working with golf courses to develop our course software and tournament organizers to extend the reach of our Tournament+ feature.
4. Business Model – how do you make money?
18Birdies is reviewing various revenue models currently, and we will be releasing that information in 2017. We are currently partnering with courses throughout the US to improve our platform and offer services to them as well.
5. Management Team – with titles
Eddy Lui, Founder and CEO
Susan Song, Chief Marketing Officer
6. Anything else you want the audience to know about your venture?
Since our official launch this past January, we have experienced user adoption at a rapid rate, having surpassed 200,000 users in just 10 months and 18Birdies has consistently ranked top 40 among all sports apps in Google Play and iTunes. Our Tournament+ software, which was released this past July, has already been used by a number of organizations and companies including Patriots Honor, Loudmouth, and Salesforce to score their tournaments. We’ll be adding even more features in this upcoming year, so stay tuned!
We believe that mobile is the future of the golf industry and we see our technology as being a big part of the future of the consumer golf market. Our technology will further help the golf industry by providing big data on consumers that will help courses and the golf industry better understand their customer needs and preferences and provide a more personalized experience.
We expect to be the one-stop app that will bring a younger tech savvy generation back to the game of golf and help grow the sport.
If you’re an investor, startup founder or influencer, we recommend you check out ProInfluence, a platform that is uniting sports entrepreneurs and leaders to form mutually beneficial business partnerships.
