Portland tech startup lines up investors, phone apps
Photo/Courtesy AccelGolf
AccelGolf CEO William Sulinski (right) and Mike Nelson, a developer, prepare for their presentation at the Queen's Entrepreneurs' Competition in Kingston, Ontario, in late January. AccelGolf's business plan won the competition.
William Sulinski has only just begun playing golf, but he's pretty good at handicapping. As CEO of AccelGolf, he likes his odds of impressing a panel of well-heeled investors in Boston Thursday, the finale of a summer spent refining the mobile golf applications for smart phones that he and his four partners developed for their technology startup.
"I think we've done very well," says Sulinski, who spoke with Mainebiz from Cambridge where he and the rest of the AccelGolf development team have been working as participants in TechStars, a highly competitive, mentor-driven incubator program throughout the summer. "Technically, I think we have the best game ... it has clearly generated the most buzz."
Sulinski, AccelGolf's CEO, spent Labor Day weekend refining his PowerPoint presentation for an audience of 150-200 angel investors for Thursday's Investors Day -- the culmination of the three-month TechStars program. The startup, which has already won $250,000 in seed grants from the Maine Technology Institute, hopes to line up more financial backing before returning to Maine and setting up shop in Portland where AccelGolf will work on its next generation of applications. AccelGolf, formerly known as mCaddie, already has 30,000 people using its first two apps, Rangefinder and Scorecard, programs designed for golfers to use with their iPhones and BlackBerries, says Sulinski. Using satellite technology, Rangefinder lets a golfer track progress toward each hole, and Scorecard replaces the traditional paper scorecard while allowing a golfer to record his performance at each hole. The information gathered by the apps creates a personal database, so each golfer can see where to improve his game and how he fares against a similarly skilled golfer for a particular course or hole.
Sulinski says the TechStars program is the latest in a series of encouragements for the startup. In addition to being a finalist in the New Technology of the Year category by TechMaine and winning a Libra Future Fund grant, their business plan won the Queen's Entrepreneurs' Competition in Kingston, Ontario, in late January.
Both Rangefinder and Scorecard are free for now, so AccelGolf intends to generate revenue with a new app that offers discounted tee times through affiliated golf courses. The app, still under development, would also find and book golf partners for that discounted tee time who are assessed at similar skill levels.
"About 80% of golfers are not members of private clubs," says Sulinski. "But let's say someone wants to play Saturday. It's a pain trying to find someone to play with. But using an app, you can join into a foursome at a particular course, with a specific tee time," he says. AccelGolf would keep 8% of the booking fee.
The development team is also working on an app that would advise a golfer on which club to use on a particular hole. By analyzing the accumulated personal performance data, the app can suggest the best club for a specific hole and situation. Sulinski says once that app is ready for market, AccelGolf will sell the service for about $30 a year. He and his partners are talking with the Maine State Golf Association and other golf organizations and businesses to line up affiliations.
The five founders -- Sulinski and his twin brother, James, of Bar Harbor; James Daniels of Eastport; Sky Mayhew of Hampden; and Mike Nelson of Minot -- are all graduates of the University of Maine or the University of Southern Maine. The group is looking for Portland office space to begin the next generation of golf apps and lay out a plan to turn a profit.
Sulinski says AccelGolf got its 30,000 consumers without any formal marketing. But one of the big draws of Investors Day -- aside from the potential to land millions in private financing -- is the coverage the event gets from the mainstream technology press and, perhaps, the opportunity to claim some bragging rights.
"One of my personal goals in coming to Boston and representing Maine was to lay an impression on people that Maine can build a technology startup, too," he says. "When we got here, we didn't know what to expect, but everyone pretty much is from MIT, Harvard, Sloan ... I think we've held our own."
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