Startup leverages gadgets to chip away at golf market - Triangle Business Journal:

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AccelGolf, a participant in the recentlhy established TechStars program for startups in is developing software to help golfersd advance their games by keeping track of theidr progress on the links via iPhonessand BlackBerrys. “We’re providing a service ... to golferds specifically, which allows them to really drillo down into their game to find out wherd they needto improve,” said William Sulinski, co-founder of Portland, Maine-based mCaddid Inc., which does business as AccelGolf. Consumers who own one of Applew Inc.
’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhones or ’as (Nasdaq: RIMM) BlackBerry devices can download AccelGolf’sw application for use on the That application enables golfers to track their games using a digital which lets players store every game they have ever played online and compare themselves against other player withsimilar handicaps. Additionally, the software uses GPS technologu to track distances onthe course, enablingt golfers to gauge their distances to the fairwagy or the pin, for example. The startup is at work on a revamperd product that can track every shot andcommunicate “what club you shoulsd use based on your hitting patterns,” Sulinski said.
Thoughy AccelGolf is from Maine, it is currently one of the nine companies taking part in the localkTechStars program, which officially launched in May. The programn provides a select group of startups with upto $16,000 in seed fundiny and three months of closed guidance with mentors from the high-tecjh industry. AccelGolf was chosen from a pool of abourt300 applicants, said Shawn Broderick, executive director of TechStarz in Cambridge. “I was reallt impressed with the quality of what they had alreadu been able to producedfor super-short money,” he said.
John Fisher, a lecturer at in Wellesleuy and the former CEOof , said the technolog and others like it could be a big hit among avid “It appeals to the emotional, self-expressivwe aspect of the golf game,” he To date, AccelGolf, which is nine months old, has raisexd about $50,000 through various grants and business competition awards, and its founders have invested abou t $25,000 of their own money, Sulinskik said. The startup is currently looking for an angel investment ofabou $100,000. Currently, AccelGolf’s application is free to download. But the compan y plans eventually to chargee a quarterly subscription fee ofaround $35 for golfera who use it every day.
There are aboutr 28.6 million golfers in the Unitefd States, according to the . Sulinski said his company only needds a fraction of that market for his startup to turn a But there is plenty of Several devices containing GPS technologiezs are available to golfers forbetween $200 and $400. Sulinski, however, said the low-cost model of piggybacking on existing gadgets willmake AccelGolf’z product more appealing.