Local startup scores with football app
Three young entrepreneurs are looking to make their mark on the football industry with an awardwinning app.
Auckland residents Sam Jenkins, Mike Simpson, and Sam Jasper launched MY F.C. (My Football Club) with the hope of creating a digital home for footballers across the globe.
Designed to help teams and clubs organise their players and keep up-to-date statistics, the start-up won top prize for BNZ’s Start-up Alley at Webstock earlier this month, where they received $15,000 and a free trip to San Francisco.
That came just two days after the app launched on Android and iOS on February 14.
Simpson said the award was an amazing achievement, albeit a bit of a surprise.
‘‘They threw us a couple of curve balls really,’’ Simpson said.
‘‘We had prepared our presentation together, but just before going on stage we got told there was only allowed to be one speaker on stage.’’
Jenkins took charge of the microphone and knocked it out of the park, he said.
All three founders grew up with a love for football. Simpson said the idea came about because of their continued frustration with a cluttered footballing world.
‘‘We were all just sick of using about 15 different types of mediums to run our football lives,’’ he said.
The app centres around team management, though Simpson said the $15,000 prize money would be used to help introduce new features.
Teams can organise trainings and games, as well as produce live updates, keep up-to-date player statistics, and even follow other clubs and leagues around the globe. The idea is to make things a lot easier for coaches and managers, but also to help foster competition through sharing statistics and scores to social media.
With their trip to San Francisco, Simpson hopes to grow the company on a global scale.
‘‘New Zealand’s been a fantastic testing market,’’ Simpson said.
‘‘But for us to grow how we want, the end goal would be to base ourselves in a place like San Francisco.’’
The trio have been working on the app fulltime for the past 18 months.
They hope to get 50,000 users before the winter football season kicks off in New Zealand next month.