A lot of professional sports teams try to steal away each other’s superstars. But what if one franchise tried to snatch its biggest rival’s entire fan base and all their ticket holders?
TeamSnap, a Boulder-based startup, recently accomplished something very much like that.
TeamSnap develops applications to help manage groups such as recreational sports teams. Its Web and mobile apps help keep players, parents, coaches, and league officials informed of upcoming events and schedule changes.
The company announced Tuesday that it recently acquired Weplay’s 2.25 million users and key technology for an undisclosed price.
What is Weplay? A New York City company that develops similar applications for youth sports leagues, along with original instructional videos and coaching materials. TeamSnap gets all that, plus underlying technology and Weplay’s existing relationships with brands such as UnderArmour, TeamSnap CEO Dave DuPont said.
The acquisition is a significant win for TeamSnap, DuPont said. The companies were going after the same customers and it essentially clears the field of a competitor.
“They have a large user base of people that try to do the same thing that our customers do,” DuPont said. “It was an opportunity to double the size of our company.”
With the acquisition, TeamSnap now has 5 million users across almost 200 countries, it said in a news release.
TeamSnap and Weplay share core features, but their growth strategies and trajectories differed. TeamSnap focuses on developing and improving its scheduling software, adding features like e-mail and text message notifications. What it does isn’t necessarily sexy, but it filled a need for families and adults with busy, shifting schedules. User feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, DuPont said.
Weplay raised a lot of money early on, bringing in $15 million within a year of its 2008 launch, according to SEC documents. Its SEC filings list MLB Advanced Media (the digital media division of Major League Baseball) and the sports division of the Creative Artists Agency as investors.
Weplay also had deals with superstar athletes like LeBron James and Peyton Manning.
The difference, according to TeamSnap, was its game plan and execution.
“I think it reflects a different approach to building a business, and
