TeamSnap sports management app is looking for you after raising $2.75 million

TeamSnap sports management app is looking for you after raising $2.75 million in total funding. They have an online and mobile management communication platform. The innovative sports tech company recently crossed the threshold of having two million users in 195 countries that actively use their sports technology application for communication and scheduling in over 100 sports. TeamSnap is located in Boulder where Ken McDonald, is VP of Customer Acquisition. He spoke with the Sports Techie blog about their newly optimized iOS app for iPad and iPhone, and the companies transition to a mobile development and marketing focused sports business.

TeamSnap

Simple, fun and friendly is the kind of tech they offer. Sign up is free and you can use your Facebook to log in, no problema. Parents and coaches alike are using TeamSnap to adjust schedules, send emails and text messages to the team, pull up contact information for members of the team, and check on player availability. Sending out team and player info digitally is a breeze with their tool. TeamSnap says, “The app increases efficiency and overall play in youth sports.”

Administrators can let parents and coaches of youth sports players accomplish a multitude of tasks quickly and easily wherever you are. Turnover in administration happens on a regular basis for teams and clubs. This software has tremendous value for hosting your data in the clouds so whoever is accessing it can do so quickly and easily via mobile and web devices.

They have changed their business model to a more mobile focus. Ken said, “The Company did not offer mobile access two years ago.” TeamSnap grew from zero mobile users to an 80 to 90 percent user adoption rate over the past 18 months. Two thirds of their customers are using a smartphone or tablet to access data with their two native apps while the rest connect via the web site. This impressive rate of scalability is a major reason why they raised the latest round of investment capital.

Visit web site: TeamSnap

Version 2.1 Feature Upgrades

Users asked for new features and TeamSnap delivered by creating a different look and feel across iOS making things more uniform and consistent for the iPad. iPhone and iPod touch. They launched a Spanish iOS app, allowing Spanish-speaking coaches, players, team managers and parents to communicate more effectively. The app’s localization and language support is optimized for the iPad.

With the new version 2.1, team managers and coaches have more power to manage their teams right from the game. Add and edit everything.  The new split-pane navigation allows users to see the roster in the left pane and details in the right pane. It’s really fast for cruising through lists of people and games. It has a new data entry screens that pop to the front and then get out of your way, a new overview screen, and rotation, portrait and landscape viewing. Plus, the upgrade gives users the ability to choose “All Players” or “All Non-Players” when sending messages.

Features
* Roster information — view and edit information about your players, and add new players right from the app! You can call, text or email them with one click, and add players to your device’s address book.

* Schedule — check the times and locations of all of your events, add or edit events and notify the team of changes.

* Availability — set your availability and make sure you have enough players for the game.

* Messages — send and read emails, SMS texts and message board posts.

* Refreshments – choose to bring refreshments to an event, or managers can assign refreshments.

* Photos — view and upload right from the game. Snap a player photo with the device and set it as their roster pic.

* Maps — to your games, events and teammates.

* Scores — enter results and update your record right as the game ends.

* Push notifications — get notified right on your device when events change and scores are updated.

SportsBiz

TeamSnap is now three years old. For the first two years they worked hard getting traction for their idea that had global reach. Success did not happen overnight, they had to pay their dues as startup businesses often do. Today however they consider the Pacific Northwest, Toronto and the Bay area as super user region and cities. Ken said, “Nearly 100% of the soccer teams in San Francisco use TeamSnap.”

The founders hail from the Portland area and have given their brand a Portlandia sense of humor that ranges from cow-tipping jokes to their recent head gear April fool’s  YouTube video, and beyond. The following quote is from their blogger –“We also no longer support Commodore 64 or TRS-80.” Sports Techie gets the humor in that statement living in 2013 as we do. In honor of their corporate culture and new Spanish app you may have noticed I spelled problem in Spanish earlier in this blog.

Expansion means searching for additional enclaves that exist in other cities and countries. Canada is on the agenda as is a French language version. Ken said the best way to do that is the old fashion way of, “word of mouth.”

TeamSnap moved up into the Top 40 Free iPhone Sports Apps recently on iTunes. They are part of VentureBeat’s Top 10 Boulder Startups to Watch. According to Mashable,”TeamSnap is the #1 tool for soccer moms and weekend warriors.”

Much of their competition is League oriented. What is very impressive to me is how the business was conceived and continues to morph into a more robust platform using a small development team.

Social media wise you can use Facebook to push scores to post automatically, and they have some photo capability in the product. I asked whether Twitter and YouTube are under consideration for business development. Ken replied that each have been discussed, in addition to other social media technologies, because the social interaction part of their solution is very important. I told Ken that I can see video as a nice compliment to their tool down the developmental road.

TeamSnap does not offer customer analytics to third party businesses. Since they are a youth oriented site, they tend to lean towards being very cautious with Privacy and Data issues. Ken said they abide by Federal Law that requires their application user to be 13 years old. It is significant that they are PayPal friendly because most kids do not have a credit card or checking account to pay for a jersey but they might have a PayPal account.

Ken earned a Stanford MBA and an Ivy League BA. His past work experiences include working for Oracle and LifePics. While he is not a huge America’s Cup, Team Oracle or sailing fan in general, Ken mentioned to me how he, “left that stuff to Larry Ellison.” At LifePics, Ken helped scale the user base from 4,000 to 10 million. There is a trend right now with technology companies that hire Stanford alumni or students and how it translates to business success. After speaking with Ken I understand better why that is the case. He was very high-level but able to speak in terms anyone can understand.

“Much of our competition is league oriented,” said Ken when I asked him about their competitors. The TeamSnap.com web site has customer testimonials that are a good source of user feedback to consider should you want to learn more.

Upcoming Features

The next TeamSnap release will have enhanced Payment and Tracking capabilities. Statistics are offered online for sports such as baseball and softball but users are clamoring for stats data on mobile devices so watch for that to happen next. Better Messaging for team level and leagues correspondences is coming that will be extremely helpful when you have to send everyone last minute rain out information, or if you need to know whether your one goalie is going to show up or not. The popular check box feature will be enhanced to let administrators know whether a birth certificate or $50 tournament fee has been paid. An optimized Android app is forthcoming.

Sports Techie, If you have a sports management pain point with communication and scheduling, consider using TeamSnap. Coaches, teams and players who are Sports Techie will love using this app. In fact, it might become a league commissioner or group leaders’ best friend.

Having your team or club data hosted by TeamSnap in the clouds is secure and reliable. Any change to your data happens in real-time and can be instantly queried by the click of an IOS mobile device button or screen touch. If you run an entire Club, TeamSnap is better equipped to accommodate many of your critical and not so critical management needs via their improved and optimized app.

Last year I sure could have used this app as the Redmond high school lacrosse coach. You can download your free TeamSnap app at iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id393048976 and let us know how the free or paid plans works for you via a blog comment or at any of our social media networks accessible below.

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