When Roger Catchpole tried to book a scuba-diving excursion for his honeymoon two years ago, the process was frustrating.
The UF alumnus went through the routine letdowns: unanswered emails, contact information that was no longer in service and user reviews that seemed so overwhelmingly positive they couldn’t be real.
“I realized there could be a better way of doing this,” he said. “I wanted to build a platform where information could be easily shared so people knew where to go and enjoy sports.”
Catchpole created Sportody in November. The local startup, housed in Sun Center West in Gainesville, provides a platform for adventurers to efficiently interact with local sports providers.
Adventurers are free to use the platform to search, review and book services from nearly 70,000 businesses in 100 countries, covering more than 120 outdoor sports activities.
“There are places in Gainesville that I didn’t even know existed that we have on the website,” said Matthew Edwards, Sportody’s 22-year-old director of human resources and marketing intern.
“Their profiles are just currently run by us right now and not the providers,” said Edwards, a fifth-year UF marketing senior. “The idea is that businesses are eventually going to claim their profiles and go on to add content themselves.“
Although Sportody’s services are free, businesses can pay a monthly subscription to supplement current services and boost advertisements.
“The majority of these providers aren’t necessarily larger businesses,” Catchpole said. “They may be medium-sized businesses that perhaps don’t have marketing teams.”
Catchpole said the site offers sports providers an innovative and cost-effective way to reach a wider market. The goal of the site is to streamline the customer experience by offering a third-party tool to book reservations, enabling providers to reduce administrative costs.
The original website offered basic functionality, but Catchpole and Sportody’s team members will unveil a new site on Oct. 14.
Colby Cashion, a UF economics junior, said he believes Sportody could be a great resource for people who are trying to be more active.
“I really like the concept,” said Cashion, 20. “I can’t think of any other service that provides a hub of local outdoor sports like that.”
Catchpole said Sportody plans to expand its services by creating applications for iOS and Android devices by the end of the year. The platform will enable adventurers to use their phones to locate immediate resources.
“It’s an exciting time for our business,” he said.
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 10/3/2014]
