Social Leverage Saturday - New Investment 'ParFour'...Golf Is Growing Faster Than Ever

Good morning…

We recently closed a lead seed round investment in Parfour which has just launched a modern software platform for golf clubs, tournaments or anyone running leagues or wanting to throw golf events which is a surprisingly massive market.

My son Max helped us work on the deal and fell in love with the product instantly as Ethan Andrews (the founder) demo’d it to us on a Zoom call. Max has worked summer internships at great golf courses around the country and he and everyone he has worked with has had the same complaint…Golf Genius blows. Ask anyone really…

A few weeks ago, I joined Max (who is now working in sales for the company) and Ethan at the PGA show in Orlando and we ran around the floor demoing the product to golf course professionals, influencers and potential partners. The reception was great and courses are quickly signing on.

The industry has been dominated by a company called GolfGenius. GolfGenius is a legacy software platform for golf courses and tournaments that is hated by customers on both the professional side and the player side. Their domination is part laziness on the club side and a testament to incumbent power in a rip and replace software world. There is little incentive to switch as golf professionals have learned to live with the overpriced product.

What success will take today is having the best software with the best pricing, a lean cap table, light capital structure and a unique go to market. There is no room for error. In the software enterprise heyday that ended in 2023 and is in a terrible bear market today, none of this really mattered. Everyone was buying software and trying new products.

We have invested in a similar solution for the ‘studio’ industry via HelloWalla which has had great success growing quickly in a category dominated by a private equity riddled clunky software platform called MindBody (which is also universally hated by it’s customers and consumers).

While the investment world pivots to chase AI solutions, real world complications still exist where software as a service and consumer software platforms are still in huge demand.

If you want Max to demo the product for you or you have course introductions (I know you do because everyone hates using GolfGenius), fill this out here.

PS - Here is Ethan Andrews announcing the product launch and investment in his own unique way …