Playeasy co-founders Sean Flaherty '12, Kerri Shields '13, and Ryan Quigley '12.
These days, you can book almost anything onlineāwhether itās a car ride, a restaurant reservation, or an apartment for your next weekend getawayābut as Sean Flaherty ā12 found out soon after graduation, athletic facilities are one massive exception.Ā
Flaherty, a former long snapper on the ĀŅĀ׊”æÉ°® football team, was trying to host a training camp for local youth, but couldnāt find a field to play on. He ended up holding the camp in a parking lot.Ā
āAt the time I was in a tech job so I thought, why isnāt there a better way?ā he recalled recently. āWhy isnāt there an Airbnb or an OpenTable to book athletic space?ā
Flaherty wasnāt alone in his frustrationsāhis friends and fellow student-athletes Kerri Shields ā13 (basketball) and Ryan Quigley ā12 (football) had encountered similar stumbling blocks trying to organize shooting camps and clinics for kids. In 2015, the trio started swapping ideas for potential solutions, and three years later, they launched one.Ā
Sean Flaherty '12 during his football days at ĀŅĀ׊”æÉ°®.
Flaherty describesĀ Ā as the first online platform to connect event organizers and owners of athletic facilities in a way thatās both simple and mutually beneficial. Coaches or coordinators of leagues and summer camps can browse information about facilities available in their area, and then book and pay for them online. Schools and community centers can create free rental listings for their athletic spacesāturning empty pools and baseball diamonds into much-needed profits.
A year after launch, Playeasy features profiles for more than 500 sports facilities, from ice rinks to soccer fields, and has helped organizations like Global Premier Soccer and Zero Gravity Basketball book facilities for their tournaments. But Flaherty, Shields, and Quigley say theyāre just getting started.Ā
This summer, Playeasy was one of 10 companies selected from a pool of more than 500 to participate in the prestigiousĀ , a three-month boot camp that connected promising start-ups with mentors in the sports industry. The program culminated in a demo day, where Flaherty delivered a six-minute pitch toĀ a room full ofĀ industry influencers and investors.
āThis was the biggest stage weāve ever been on,ā said Shields. āIt was a great opportunity to not only share where our product is today, but also our vision for where itās going.ā
Kerri Shields '13 on the court for the Eagles.
In the future, theĀ PlayeasyĀ team sees their platform becoming a "one-stop shop" for amateur sportsĀ and sports tourism, whereĀ athletic facilities,Ā event organizers, and tourism bureausĀ canĀ find, book, and manage every aspect of running a sporting eventāfromĀ schedulingĀ referees and managing teams and participants, to booking travel and hotels.Ā Eventually, the network could potentially provide economic impact data to cities hosting sporting events, allowing them to track the effect of amateur sports tourism on their bottom line.
Both Flaherty and Shields credit their success thus far to lessons learned both as Division I athletes and as students in ĀŅĀ׊”æÉ°®ās Carroll School of Management. In particular, dealing with wins and losses on the basketball court helped prepare Shields for the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur, she said.Ā
āYou canāt build that resilience unless you experience it,ā she said. āĀŅĀ׊”æÉ°® provided me with the support to get through tough times and helped me build the mental toughness you need to keep pushing towards an overall goal.ā
At times, running a young company can feel like a never-ending group project, Flaherty joked, albeit one without a grade or an end-date. Itās one that he, Shields, and Quigley are happy to be partnering on.Ā
āI always had a dream of building my own company but I never knew if Iād have the guts to do it,ā Flaherty said. āThe best part is getting to work with your friends on something that youāre passionate about. Every morning I wake up and feel like I have a real purpose, and thatās just so exciting.āĀ
āAlix Hackett | University Communications