Tech firm playing in the field of smaller sports
While studying marketing and economics at the University of Pittsburgh, David Vatz also happened to play men’s Ultimate — well enough, apparently, since his team qualified for Nationals every year.
Colloquially known as Ultimate Frisbee, the sport combines the adept pacing of soccer with football’s ultimate goal of scoring in an end zone. Mr. Vatz, 31, takes his passion for the game to Founder’s Field in Cheswick, where he captains a semi-pro Ultimate franchise, the Pittsburgh Thunderbirds, that’s been around since 2014.
He has also brought his sports savvy into his day job as chief finan-cial officer for Uptown-based sports management startup TopScore.
Mr. Vatz knew that while Ultimate’s particular style of self-refereeing fouls was mostly consistent and efficient, the sports management field — especially in niche areas — did not always run as smoothly as the game itself.
Since 2014, TopScore, a self-proclaimed “sports solutions” service, not only has been helping to streamline team registration, membership and event management but also assisting specialty sports teams in modernizing by getting them online and managing their software, content management systems and e-commerce.
Industry giants have also edged into the sports technology field. Early last year, Findlay-based Dick’s Sporting Goods announced its Dick’s Team Sports HQ, a collection of online services for Little League Softball and Baseball. The services’s website even refers to
itself as “the only all-in-one service that equips and supports youth leagues with everything they need to succeed.”
While Little League has a vast pool of potential players and Dick’s is a national chain, Mr. Vatz isn’t worried about the competition because TopScore is primarily targeting underrepresented sports, like Ultimate and rugby, in both youth and adult formats.
“Smaller sports don’t get as much attention ... so we’ve been able to own the market by filling that need,” Mr. Vatz said.
To date, some of TopScore’s more impressive clients have included leagues such as USA Ultimate, USA Rugby and USA Water Polo.
While the company is not in need of immediate funding, Mr. Vatz said the startup is engaging in a round of equity crowdfunding through capital fundraising platform SeedInvest. Through July 15, donors of all income levels may buy equity in the private company, starting at $500.
With a minimum goal of $150,000 and a maximum of $500,000, Mr. Vatz said even the lower end of the fundraising goal could help expand the company’s ability to create sports-specific site features as well as hire more full-time salespeople.
According to SeedInvest, TopScore generated $384,000 in total revenue in 2016, up from $211,000 in 2015 and $117,000 in 2014. The startup generates revenue through a 3 percent flat transaction fee, a 10 percent commission on all apparel partner sales, and a credit card processing fee of about 3 percent.
The current TopScore staff — made up of nine fulltime employees spread from Calgary, Canada, to the San Francisco Bay area — features four Pittsburgh employees, including Mr. Vatz and chief operating officer Vivek Devaraj.
Jeremy Kauffman, chairman of the board, and Alex Grintsvayg, chief technology officer, co-founded the company at the start and have reduced their roles since, Mr. Vatz said. TopScore’s current CEO Christian Jennewein gives the startup its juice.
Mr. Jennewein, who previously worked as head of engineering at European ride-sharing service BlaBlaCar, brings expert coding skill and also fosters European sales. He lives in Burgundy, France, and is awaiting a visa to work with his Pittsburgh counterparts at their co-working space in StartUptown.
Although TopScore’s team is spread out across the globe, it’s still easy to collaborate, Mr. Devaraj said, and that distance also allows them to expand their client base.
No matter the location, it all goes back to Ultimate, though.
TopScore’s most frequent clients are Ultimate teams, and one of the startup’s first clients was Pittsburgh Ultimate, a nonprofit sports organization. Mr. Vatz once served as a member of its board of directors but left his position in March.
The Pittsburgh Ultimate league consists of about 2,000 players, Mr. Vatz said. Since the game relies on spirit scores, the league’s website has a space devoted to those standings.
Spirit scoring — which players use to self-referee their own team as well as their competitor — allow teams to rate each other on a scale of 0-4 in areas such as self-control and avoiding body contact.
In rugby, which trades “points” for “tries,” websites are similarly responsive.
It’s all the same software but with sport-specific applications, Mr. Vatz said.
“Everybody in our company is an athlete or an organizer,” he said. “That gives us a unique insight into the solutions.”