Teeing off | With mCaddie, the winners of the University of Southern Maine's business plan competition are bringing cell phone technology to the fairways
Kurtis Petersons' idea for a business started out as a dream — literally. Last December, the 25-year-old hedge fund analyst at Citi in Portland learned that his office would be relocating to Columbus, Ohio, in June, and he traveled there to scope out condos near golf courses, thinking he might pick up the sport. Later, he dreamt he was standing in the middle of a fairway, and his cell phone was telling him how far he was to the hole and feeding him game stats. Unsure if he would relocate with Citi, he decided to see if the idea could make a business. "I woke up, thought it was cool, and logged onto my computer and started looking into it," he says.
Petersons and his business partner, University of Maine junior James Daniels, took that dream and founded mCaddie, which brings mobile technology to the the long-established sport of golf. Last month, the duo wowed the judges at the University of Southern Maine's annual Student Business Plan Competition, winning first place and taking home $10,000 in cash and $15,000 in consulting fees to get their business rolling.
Petersons, a 2005 UMaine graduate, used the social networking website Facebook to find a qualified tech person to help develop his idea, and landed on Daniels' profile. Impressed by his experience in creating his own freelance Web design business called MarginLeft, Petersons floated the idea to Daniels, 22, and the two joined forces.
Since January, they've been working to develop mCaddie, a mobile application that allows golfers to track and analyze statistics on their cell phones and their computers. Golfers can use the GPS technology in their cell phones to track their progress on each hole, and they can analyze their shots and even get club suggestions. The beta version, released late last month, works on the Apple iPhone, but Petersons and Daniels are planning to develop a version for Google's Android mobile phone software platform, which is expected to launch this summer.
Petersons and Daniels also are developing a "virtual clubhouse," as Petersons calls it — a social networking website, www.mcaddie.com, where users can see how they stack up against their golfing buddies. The pair hope to launch the site by June. "We're taking a lot of things that exist and pulling them together in one application," he says.
The pair worked in tandem to get the business started, with Petersons using what he's learned from an extension course on entrepreneurship through the University of Maine at Machias, and Daniels pulling from his experience launching MarginLeft. Petersons collected industry and market research while Daniels developed the technology. They also reached out to the Maine Center for Enterprise Development in Portland, which helped them focus their business plan, and formed a board of advisors that includes a UMaine professor, a PGA golfer and an ex-Silicon Valley executive, Petersons says.
The fledgling company's 30-page business plan earned Petersons and Daniels a spot as one of six finalists in the USM competition, and their half-hour presentation and demonstration won them the competition on April 9. Daniels says he wasn't surprised by the win, given the judges' reaction during their presentation. "I know one of the judges will be one of our first customers," he says.
Along with the prize money, the pair were awarded office space in the MCED's business incubator, which they'll use this summer to tweak the recently released beta version of mCaddie. Peterson hopes to have about 15,000 users by the end of the summer and 150,000 by next spring, and has a first-year revenue goal of roughly $2 million.
The pair, neither of whom play golf, also plan to hit the links this summer and learn the sport. "We're definitely going to get our game up," Daniels says.
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