In sunny Southern California, it may be laborious for golfers to schedule tee occasions on their favourite programs. Whereas spots are coveted, if tee occasions are canceled or open reservation occasions aren’t seen, golf programs can lose out on a considerable quantity of income.
Enter Noteefy, a tee time-reservation and reserving platform that has skilled a major quantity of progress since launching final yr. The Woodland Hills-based firm’s first official consumer was Simi Hills Golf Course. It initiated a brand new partnership final week with Landscapes Golf Administration, which companies and helps a number of programs. It additionally launched with Chambers Bay, a Washington state course that beforehand hosted the U.S. Open. Noteefy has additionally signed up three giant purchasers up to now month: the Touchstone Golf Basis in Berkeley, the Bobby Jones Golf Course in Atlanta and the Event Gamers Membership, which is owned by the PGA Tour and operates a big chain of private and non-private programs.
Whereas there are related firms that primarily serve golfers looking for obtainable tee occasions, Noteefy’s chief government officer and co-founder, Jake Gordon, mentioned that Noteefy’s enterprise exists extra to assist golf course operators. After beginning to play golf as an grownup, Gordon seen that it was very tough for him to seek out tee occasions and thought that course operators have been doubtless losing manpower constantly answering calls from gamers seeking to ebook reservations.
“I assumed, what if, as an alternative of me having fairly actually 9 tabs open of my 9 favourite golf programs and smashing the refresh button, we will one way or the other automate that total course of?” Gordon mentioned. “Which, if we did it efficiently, would assist me get the tee time and assist the golf course operator fill a doubtlessly unfilled tee time?”
The corporate formally launched in October and Gordon mentioned that Noteefy has signed up greater than 50 golf course operators, with 1000’s of open appointment notifications going out to golfers each day. Partnering course operators embody the Southern California Skilled Golfers’ Affiliation of America and the Nationwide Golf Basis.
“It’s loads like an airline the place, if that seat goes unfilled, (the income) is gone,” Gordon mentioned. “We’re completely centered on operators and bringing expertise to golf programs versus different (firms), who I believe try to monetize the golfer.”
The corporate mentioned its software program is akin to a mixture of the flight-tracking device from Google LLC and the reservation service OpenTable. Golfers can entry a course’s schedule or seek for which programs of their space can be found at a given day or time, after which reserve tee occasions by way of Noteefy’s software. If nothing is offered, the person indicators as much as be alerted at any time when a tee time frees up, often as a result of the reservation is cancelled. From there, the obtainable time goes to whoever will get the alert and books a reservation first.
“We used to obtain what looks like 500 calls per week from golfers asking about our tee time availability,” Simi Hills Golf Course common supervisor Brian Reed mentioned. “Now I ship our golfers to Noteefy’s automated assistant, and everyone seems to be happier.”
Whereas this does serve gamers seeking to golf, Noteefy’s actual aim is to assist course operators recoup income that could possibly be misplaced on cancelled reservations or free occasions that will go unnoticed. The corporate claimed that its purchasers are seeing a median of $50,000 in web incremental income per course, per yr with Noteefy’s platform.
“We actually see ourselves as business-to-business, bringing our software program to course operators at scale,” Gordon mentioned. “There’s a shopper factor, the place golfers can come to us to seek out occasions, however … operators are the primary stakeholder.”
Gordon mentioned that Noteefy is in “hyperscale” mode and, after elevating about $500,000 in pre-seed funding from household and buddies, is presently planning a seed funding spherical with traders.
“We really simply filed a patent on our demand-matching software program and algorithm, and we’re fairly excited in regards to the work that’s gone into constructing that,” he added.
Noteefy’s expertise was developed in-house, and the unique platform was constructed by Gordon’s co-founder, Dathan Wong. Wong, who now serves as Noteefy’s chief expertise officer, beforehand labored as an engineer at firms together with Microsoft Corp. and Santa Monica-based Contain.ai.
The platform is obtainable as a month-to-month subscription that integrates right into a course’s web site, with two tiers and pricing relying on the profile and wishes of the consumer. The primary tier, which Gordon mentioned prices just a few hundred {dollars} a month, is akin to a white labeled model of the software program and is hottest amongst public programs. The second tier features a concierge service and costs nearer to a thousand {dollars} per thirty days. Purchasers on the second tier are mostly resort programs, with purchasers that embody Streamsong Golf Resort and Sand Valley Golf Resort. The platform is free to golf gamers.
“It’s thrilling to be a founder within the golf tech house,” Gordon mentioned. “There’s loads of startups and lots of different verticals, however to have the ability to form of convey innovation and expertise and assist clients on each side is tremendous thrilling, and I believe the market has been very receptive.”
Originally posted 2023-08-14 07:02:38.