A little about the history and my plans
September 2020... I had just finished a round of golf playing our usual 18 with a couple other five-somes. I was playing Captains with polies, snakes, and skins with a two-person team playing other two-person teams from all the groups. Oh, and then there were the individual Nassau's, 2-downs and team 3-Ball games.
Mid round, my buddy trying to keep track of the Captains score had a few tasty cinnamon whiskey shooters. A few holes later the maths got a little sideways. He ended up concentrating on fixing the scorecard more than his golf game. It affected our fun time and our bottom line.
After the round, another 30 minutes were spent on figuring up team winners, Nassau winners, and 2-Downs.
As a software developer of 24 years, I knew I could solve this problem...well, all of these problems... and have fun with it.
I was working for a company that needed me to learn a new programming language. That same language would allow me to create the score-keeping web app for our club. It took about a year to get everything working and to learn everything I needed to get it out on huckleback.golf. It did a lot of what we needed, but more wants and cool stuff popped up as we went along.
After a few months of use, it was time to get it into production for greater use...maybe get it into the stores. Great idea, and the proof of concept was already done, but I'm a one man programming show and a web app wasn't going to cut it. It would have to be a mobile app.
- I tried to get investors...they wanted to own most of the company.
- I tried to contact celebrities and professional athletes that I knew golfed...no response.
- I even tried to recruit others with the promise of shares of the company...nobody had the time or wanted to take the risk. Everybody wanted money up front and that's not something I have enough of.
What was the answer?
April 2023 - I made the decision to learn the new languages I needed to create the mobile app for iOS and Android. I created the company. I trademarked Huckleback. I went to work.
Nearly two years later and the app is ready to go. Four years of carrying around a laptop to my sons' baseball games and practices, taking the laptop on vacations at the beach or to ski resorts, and staying up late and working weekends to learn and create when I could. FOUR YEARS!
Was it worth it? Did I want to quit many times? Yes and yes.
I don't know what is in store for this little business, but I know I thank my wife and kids, family, and friends for supporting me along the way.
I have some big plans for Huckleback. It's a scoring app for golf. What more can it do?
Obviously, there will be merchandise, but what can it do that golfers would like to have it do?
Some of it is a secret. A number of competitors have popped up since I started this adventure/venture and you need to have differentiators. Huckleback is different already, but there is more to come:
Tournament management...
Statistics...yeah, pars, birdies, bogies, ETC. but how do YOU stack up against your friends?
Group management...got a regular game, build it and schedule it with the pro shop.
...AND much, much more.
I hope you enjoy using Huckleback as much as I do. Thanks for the support.