TeamSnap has added to its roster and raised new money, and now it is ready to add to its base of 5 million users by focusing on features for mobile users.
TeamSnap is a Boulder, CO-based startup that makes software that helps coaches of youth and adult sports teams as well as league officials manage schedules and send and receive updates from players.
The startup recently closed a $7.5 million Series B round and added the Foundry Group as an investor and Foundry Group managing director Jason Mendelson as a board member. Existing investors Torstar, Trinity Ventures, Toba Capital, and Harris Barton also participated in the round.
The round brings the total raised by TeamSnap to nearly $11.9 million, vice president for customer acquisition Ken McDonald said.
News about the round emerged last week when the company filed its required paperwork with the SEC, but until today the company had been quiet about the deal.
TeamSnap will use the new funds to boost its staff, improve its mobile product, and go after new customers, McDonald said. TeamSnap has about 35 employees and plans to double in size over the next year, he said.
About 5 million people and 400,000 teams use TeamSnap, McDonald said, which is available on a freemium pricing model. While they’re predominately sports teams, TeamSnap is trying to sign up any type of club or group that needs to organize events and coordinate schedules.
That approach, as well as giving away free trials, has worked well for TeamSnap.
“Once people try it, we get a very high percentage of people who end up using it. About 80 percent of people will end up using and paying for the product,” McDonald said.
McDonald said that while the company is among the leaders in its niche, there’s still plenty of opportunity for growth. One reason why is that TeamSnap’s biggest competitor might be plain old e-mail and whatever methods coaches, players, and leagues have cobbled together to stay in touch with each other.
TeamSnap’s effort to consolidate and modernize team management is what attracted the Foundry Group’s attention, Mendelson said in a release.
Key features include the ability to sync games, practices, and events across users’ personal calendars. Users also can receive reminders through e-mail and last-minute text message notifications of schedule changes.
As the company continues to refine the product, a lot of attention will be paid to the mobile features, McDonald said.
“There will be even more focus on mobile. That’s really been the thing that’s helped us, and we’re going to continue to really invest in that area and make sure it’s the right tool [for users] when they’re out with their teams, wherever that may be,” he said.
Mobile has been a game changer for TeamSnap and its competitors. Parents taking kids to youth sports or activities need updates, and so do the active adults who participate in recreational sports.
“People have been in this general space for 15 years, but really mobile was the breakthrough,” McDonald said. “People are out on the field, they’re out on the court. They’re not sitting in front of a computer.”
Mobile features were not initially something TeamSnap focused on but it quickly became a differentiating feature, CEO Dave DuPont explained in a story back in May after his company bought rival Weplay.
