Comments on: Use RosterBot To Manage Your Kids’ Little League Team http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/ Startup and Technology News Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:44:58 -0800 hourly 1 By: WePlay Takes $1.87 Million, Wants Rights To Kids Videos Before They Are Stars http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-2051737 WePlay Takes $1.87 Million, Wants Rights To Kids Videos Before They Are Stars Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:53:51 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-2051737 [...] they have in various forms. TeamSnap, Rosterbot, EasyTeamManager, SportsVite, RedZone Leauges and YourTeam.ca. Ah, but kiddies are going to want to [...] [...] they have in various forms. TeamSnap, Rosterbot, EasyTeamManager, SportsVite, RedZone Leauges and YourTeam.ca. Ah, but kiddies are going to want to [...]

]]> By: Joe http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-2029780 Joe Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:46:52 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-2029780 I've been using Team Cowboy (www.teamcowboy.com) -- it is free, easy to use, and has most of the features I need. I have also looked at TeamSnap but found that although it has more features it isn't as easy to use for day-to-day team management. -J I’ve been using Team Cowboy (www.teamcowboy.com) — it is free, easy to use, and has most of the features I need. I have also looked at TeamSnap but found that although it has more features it isn’t as easy to use for day-to-day team management. -J

]]> By: Joe M. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1998577 Joe M. Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:01:45 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1998577 @Ian I didn't say you need salespeople but you do need a league option. This makes your product much more viral. If you have a league option, then the leagues will tell their coaches to use team option. Plus, coaches could setup a team and then tell their league how great your site is to use and suggest using the league option. There are 2 dominant players when it comes to team websites and they are League Lineup and Eteamz. Both have league functionality. I can't think of one website that has just team functionality that is a dominant player. There are 10 team sites that have been mentioned in the comments already and I haven't heard of any of them. Also, neither League Lineup or Eteamz have salespeople. @Ian

I didn’t say you need salespeople but you do need a league option. This makes your product much more viral. If you have a league option, then the leagues will tell their coaches to use team option. Plus, coaches could setup a team and then tell their league how great your site is to use and suggest using the league option.

There are 2 dominant players when it comes to team websites and they are League Lineup and Eteamz. Both have league functionality. I can’t think of one website that has just team functionality that is a dominant player. There are 10 team sites that have been mentioned in the comments already and I haven’t heard of any of them. Also, neither League Lineup or Eteamz have salespeople.

]]> By: Chris http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1997835 Chris Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:45:41 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1997835 I've been using Teampages (http://www.teampages.com), which works quite well. It's overkill in many cases and RosterbBot may well be something simpler. I’ve been using Teampages (http://www.teampages.com), which works quite well. It’s overkill in many cases and RosterbBot may well be something simpler.

]]> By: Bob Grant http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1997705 Bob Grant Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:51:01 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1997705 ooops thought it would make it a link - guess not. quick link: <a href="http://www.tennispoint.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.tennispoint.com</a> ooops thought it would make it a link – guess not. quick link: http://www.tennispoint.com

]]> By: Bob Grant http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1997703 Bob Grant Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:49:13 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1997703 I manage my son's tennis team with TennisPoint.com. (http://www.tennispoint.com). It has google integration for all my directions and the kids (ok parents) can put in their availability for the matches that up coming. It makes it really simple for me to make up our "tennis teams" for matches. The kids also can put up their photos! It even shows them great stats! Very impressive! I manage my son’s tennis team with TennisPoint.com. (http://www.tennispoint.com). It has google integration for all my directions and the kids (ok parents) can put in their availability for the matches that up coming. It makes it really simple for me to make up our “tennis teams” for matches. The kids also can put up their photos! It even shows them great stats! Very impressive!

]]> By: Ian Bell http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1996992 Ian Bell Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:48:31 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1996992 PS - Enjoy those Kenny Chesney ring tones! PS – Enjoy those Kenny Chesney ring tones!

]]> By: Ian Bell http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1996990 Ian Bell Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:48:13 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1996990 More bugs fixed! I understand the market quite well, I think... and I see companies getting mired in selling to leagues, as I pointed out earlier. It's a business model that's valid for others but which I have zero interest in at the moment. I think we can solve a problem quickly and easily directly for teams. I don't want to hire sales staff and create unnecessary overhead when I think there's a way to propagate this (and there are a lot of us who play sports regularly OUTSIDE of leagues) virally that's far cheaper in terms of acquisition cost. All of which is quite important since as you'll see there's no charge to use RosterBot. It's a big market. Lots of room to play and lots of different approaches will work. We'll see how well Google gets their eye in on content matching for the ads. If they can't, well, we have other options waiting in the wings. -Ian. More bugs fixed! I understand the market quite well, I think… and I see companies getting mired in selling to leagues, as I pointed out earlier. It’s a business model that’s valid for others but which I have zero interest in at the moment.

I think we can solve a problem quickly and easily directly for teams. I don’t want to hire sales staff and create unnecessary overhead when I think there’s a way to propagate this (and there are a lot of us who play sports regularly OUTSIDE of leagues) virally that’s far cheaper in terms of acquisition cost. All of which is quite important since as you’ll see there’s no charge to use RosterBot.

It’s a big market. Lots of room to play and lots of different approaches will work. We’ll see how well Google gets their eye in on content matching for the ads. If they can’t, well, we have other options waiting in the wings.

-Ian.

]]> By: R Morecook http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1996896 R Morecook Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:46:19 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1996896 I tried to send them feedback but their feedback email address is dead. Also they misspell simple words in their emails and remove the capitals in names. Unprofessional appearance. R Morecook I tried to send them feedback but their feedback email address is dead. Also they misspell simple words in their emails and remove the capitals in names. Unprofessional appearance. R Morecook

]]> By: Thad http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1996770 Thad Mon, 18 Feb 2008 02:12:54 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1996770 I too am a fan of TeamSnap. Using it right now and it is pretty good. From the screenshot in tis post, I like teamsnap better on that front by a mile. Plus, no adsense! I too am a fan of TeamSnap. Using it right now and it is pretty good. From the screenshot in tis post, I like teamsnap better on that front by a mile. Plus, no adsense!

]]> By: junker http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1996769 junker Mon, 18 Feb 2008 02:11:18 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1996769 I like it. Nice and simple. It has a couple of features still missing from www.myezteam.com (google-map and calendar integration). But from what I could tell, it would only send out 1 email per event. With myezteam, you can have emails sent at many intervals based on conditions. For example, if 2 days before the event you only have 8 players and need 11 for a full-team, you could have it send out an email to the sub-list asking for players as well as to any regulars who haven't responded. I like it. Nice and simple. It has a couple of features still missing from http://www.myezteam.com (google-map and calendar integration). But from what I could tell, it would only send out 1 email per event. With myezteam, you can have emails sent at many intervals based on conditions. For example, if 2 days before the event you only have 8 players and need 11 for a full-team, you could have it send out an email to the sub-list asking for players as well as to any regulars who haven’t responded.

]]> By: New Fast Browser http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1996465 New Fast Browser Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:36:11 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1996465 Well..this is great. The Web 2.0 , wave is reaching the kids now. http://www.jhatak.com/Buckler/BucklerHomePage.htm Well..this is great.

The Web 2.0 , wave is reaching the kids now.

http://www.jhat...lerHomePage.htm

]]> By: iguide http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1996403 iguide Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:25:51 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1996403 great new blog http://www.i-guide.ro/blog/Ro/en/ great new blog
http://www.i-gu....ro/blog/Ro/en/

]]> By: Matt B http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1995773 Matt B Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:59:43 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1995773 Don't forget to check out Redzone Leagues. Free signup and looks full featured. http://redzoneleagues.com/ Don’t forget to check out Redzone Leagues. Free signup and looks full featured.

http://redzoneleagues.com/

]]> By: Joe M. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1995724 Joe M. Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:09:24 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1995724 I don't think Ian understands his market very well. I work for one of those companies he talks about and the reason they go for the leagues is because that is where the money is at. The way you truly make money in this space is to get his customers to buy the ads off the sites. Teams aren't going to do that. All they care about is using it for free. Maybe he is already thinking about it but building in league functionality that intertwines online registration is the key to winning in this space. I don’t think Ian understands his market very well. I work for one of those companies he talks about and the reason they go for the leagues is because that is where the money is at. The way you truly make money in this space is to get his customers to buy the ads off the sites. Teams aren’t going to do that. All they care about is using it for free. Maybe he is already thinking about it but building in league functionality that intertwines online registration is the key to winning in this space.

]]> By: John S. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1995635 John S. Sun, 17 Feb 2008 04:53:46 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1995635 I'm clearly bias towards league web sites over individual team sites because I've seen all the benefits they bring to a league. RosterBot is onto the thing that is so key about these web sites whether they're for teams or whole leagues: communicating from the top down. The use cases are simple... When's my next game? It's raining out, is my game canceled? We need a sub this week, anyone got any ideas? We built SnapLeague to handle the most important aspects of league communication. We've tried to keep it intentionally simple and focused on communication for now. The last thing we want to be is the cluttered disaster that is eteamz. Even though we've tried to keep SnapLeague simple, some of those those "big ticket" features like scorekeeping can go a long way to increase participation. We've been doing stats for 7 seasons now on a site I built (www.nscsl.org) and in that time we've nearly doubled in size (and we have a waiting list every year). A lot of this comes from guys who play, get their stats online and then email it off to their friends who want to get involved in a league so they can have their stats up too. I’m clearly bias towards league web sites over individual team sites because I’ve seen all the benefits they bring to a league. RosterBot is onto the thing that is so key about these web sites whether they’re for teams or whole leagues: communicating from the top down. The use cases are simple… When’s my next game? It’s raining out, is my game canceled? We need a sub this week, anyone got any ideas? We built SnapLeague to handle the most important aspects of league communication. We’ve tried to keep it intentionally simple and focused on communication for now. The last thing we want to be is the cluttered disaster that is eteamz.

Even though we’ve tried to keep SnapLeague simple, some of those those “big ticket” features like scorekeeping can go a long way to increase participation. We’ve been doing stats for 7 seasons now on a site I built (www.nscsl.org) and in that time we’ve nearly doubled in size (and we have a waiting list every year). A lot of this comes from guys who play, get their stats online and then email it off to their friends who want to get involved in a league so they can have their stats up too.

]]> By: Brett http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1995594 Brett Sun, 17 Feb 2008 04:15:25 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1995594 Get rid of the google adwords on all the pages...how is 'how I lost 55 lbs' or 'bulldogs ringtones' or 'hsfootball combine' relevant to my beer softball team? It's not. Google adwords aren't a monetization strategy unless google can provide relevant links, which means a lot of content. This site isn't a content site it's a web tool, which is fine, web tools are great, by google adwords are just annoying on web tools. I play poker on my iphone and the entire time there's an google ad for kenny chesney ringtones. Exact same thing. Get rid of the google adwords on all the pages…how is ‘how I lost 55 lbs’ or ‘bulldogs ringtones’ or ‘hsfootball combine’ relevant to my beer softball team?

It’s not. Google adwords aren’t a monetization strategy unless google can provide relevant links, which means a lot of content. This site isn’t a content site it’s a web tool, which is fine, web tools are great, by google adwords are just annoying on web tools.

I play poker on my iphone and the entire time there’s an google ad for kenny chesney ringtones. Exact same thing.

]]> By: Ian Bell http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1995564 Ian Bell Sun, 17 Feb 2008 03:28:15 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1995564 That's a good idea, Oliver ... my bad for being lazy and leaving the ads in the signup template... removing them now. That’s a good idea, Oliver … my bad for being lazy and leaving the ads in the signup template… removing them now.

]]> By: ZiZi http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1995544 ZiZi Sun, 17 Feb 2008 02:49:17 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1995544 Paris Hilton uses teamtexting.com? are they joking? I cant tell. http://teamsnap.com/testimonials.php Paris Hilton uses teamtexting.com? are they joking? I cant tell.

http://teamsnap...estimonials.php

]]> By: Sachin http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1995500 Sachin Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:40:07 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1995500 http://www.teamtexting.com/ This one is simple and cool. http://www.teamtexting.com/
This one is simple and cool.

]]> By: colin http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1995497 colin Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:38:06 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1995497 i like TeamSnap too. I have been using it for a while now. One of the only downsides i see from it is it doesn't offer a league version (although they say they are working on one). Its good though overall. i like TeamSnap too. I have been using it for a while now. One of the only downsides i see from it is it doesn’t offer a league version (although they say they are working on one). Its good though overall.

]]> By: Oliver http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1995495 Oliver Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:33:26 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1995495 Tip #1: Don't bombard your visitors with advertisements from the get go. http://www.rosterbot.com/signup That page shouldn't have two seperate sets of advertisements. It dettered me enough not to sign up. Not to mention that if people are clicking on ads from your sign up page, it hurts your end goal. Tip #1:
Don’t bombard your visitors with advertisements from the get go.
http://www.rost...rbot.com/signup
That page shouldn’t have two seperate sets of advertisements. It dettered me enough not to sign up. Not to mention that if people are clicking on ads from your sign up page, it hurts your end goal.

]]> By: Shawn http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/comment-page-1/#comment-1995427 Shawn Sat, 16 Feb 2008 23:55:17 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/16/use-rosterbot-to-manage-your-kids-little-league-team/#comment-1995427 I like TeamSnap http://teamsnap.com I have been using it for almost a year to manage my adult softball team. They have all the features that I would want. I like TeamSnap http://teamsnap.com I have been using it for almost a year to manage my adult softball team. They have all the features that I would want.

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