I built Sport Keeper - management software for climbing gyms and health facilities
It's close to being launched, but I'm just waiting for Stripe Terminal to be released, as it's driving the point of sale component inside of Sport Keeper.
I'm mostly used to running large subscription systems dealing with high volume customers worldwide. Conversely, Sport Keeper is a low-volume, high-touch B2B software platform. It's designed to work in physical locations with features like bar code scanners for checking in, and public kiosks for new members. There's definitely a level of apprehension to releasing this! It's a big change of pace from what I'm accustomed to.
I'm really big on transparency, and like keeping things simple, with a slight sense of humor (my business name is Great Freakin Software Co L.L.C.), and will be documenting the progress on the product page here on IH.
Here's the home page: https://sport-keeper.com
Happy to be here in the community!
Good luck Nick!
I definitely think that easy management software tailored for small business can be very viable
Thanks Matteo!
Hey Nick, kudos for building Sport Keeper solo, you're right— it does look wayy better than other competing big players in the market right now. I'd love to just connect with you as I'm a developer myself (iOS dev before taking the plunge to work on my biz full time)!
I'm aware of several competitors like TrueCoach & Exercise.com and just by looking at where you are, I really think you've got a shot at making SportKeeper a full time biz.
I'm personally working on a sports fitness app called SuperFit (www.superfitapp.com), but along with coding, I'm also helping a close friend with getting his gym off the ground in New York (www.traintotransfer.com)
Currently, we're getting by with google spreadsheets, Square, cash & check, but I'm really interested in what you've got going on because, if we'd ever pay for anything, we really just need a barebones CRM that checks people in & marks their current package subscription with notes.
I'm curious what range you plan to charge for SportKeeper when Stripe Terminal rolls out next year?
Again, awesome work Nick!
Hey Leo, thanks for the kind words! Your SuperFit app looks really great. Let's definitely connect, because I see Sport Keeper having an iOS app of some sort, some day, and that's one area where I draw the line in the sand as far as development goes.
As far as pricing, man that's the hardest part. Harder than actually writing the code and building the app.
My closest competitors are MindBodyOnline, from $195 (I don't consider the $125 version useable without checkins) to $395 and RockGym Pro at $199 (again I don't consider the $99 version useable) to $399.
Tentatively I'm thinking about introductory pricing at $179 (1 facility, 3 staff) and $299 (2 facility, unlimited staff, $100 each additional facility). That will likely go up some time after launch.
My goal with the pricing is to have only 2 simple plans, cater to new gyms who are just opening up like your friends, while also charging fair rates.
Thanks Nick!
Happy New Years. I think that pricing is definitely warranted. For us right now, it may not make sense to pay > $100 for software since we don't run classes people can sign up for a la carte... yet. I think when we do allow people to jump into morning and evening group fitness classes, we'll look into something like mindbody or SportKeeper!
Good luck with everything and let me know if I can help at all on the mobile end!
Right on man, my wife is thinking about opening a climbing gym in the next year or two, so I signed up to your newsletter to stay in touch.
Hell yes!!! Thanks Keith!
Very cool.. Did you build it all yourself? What did you use to build it?
So looking over this, I'm blown away at what you have implemented in a short time! Would love to hear the story of how and with what.
Thanks Tony! I built it, and designed it on my own in about 8 weeks from start to finish. It's built using Ruby on Rails with no crazy JS frameworks. Just very simple JS ERB, and Action Cable is used for real time notifications.
I've been a developer for going on 10 years, and I work full-time managing a couple of different web apps from ecommerce to education.
Although I did built this in 8 weeks, I spent 2-3 weeks on paper first, mapping out all the migrations and test fitting pieces before I wrote a single migration. I find this helps tremendously when it's time to rough-in a build.
Very cool, I'm starting my project on rails too. It's pretty amazing to see what you built in 10-11 weeks overall. I have so many questions I'm not even sure where to start! :)
So you built this in your spare time around your full time job?
I did! My FT job is an IH dream job. I work for CG Cookie. Fully remote. Results oriented (you get your stuff done, you're cool). 4 day work weeks. They also support and encourage side projects. One hell of an amazing company to work for.
I knocked out most of the architecture over Thanksgiving break, so I was able to get a solid few days of work on it before heading back to the FT job.
I like how the interface looks and works. Several notes on UI though:
I also wonder if you already have customers or just users.
Good luck!
Thanks for the feedback! We do not have any customers or users yet, as we are waiting on Stripe Terminal to launch in 2019 before we can launch.
Looks great! I tried your demo out, really well put together, very extensive.
My only recommendation is to possibly improve the main landing page as it's too wordy and it may keep some away due to the wordiness. I'd include a few screenshots and description of the main benefits of your platform, why sign up, why you.
Check out this cool guide that I came across PH yesterday, it's very comprehensive, provides awesome tips on landing pages, Onboarding, SEO, etc : https://www.julian.com/guide/growth/landing-pages
You've got a very well thought out and comprehensive solution put together. Best of luck!
Thanks for the comments, and for the feedback on the landing page JC! I agree, it's a bit wordy.