The best Vertical SaaS companies earn the right to compete based on return-on-investment (ROI) not price. They win business by becoming an essential driver of profitability for the businesses they serve. They charge premium prices for features, functionality, and outcomes not available from other providers. They build a product that is a durable source of competitive differentiation for their customers.

The conventional framing for technology companies is a problem and a solution. But not all problems make sense to solve for a premium offering. Solutions that earn you the right to compete on ROI not price are those that allow businesses to do more with less. For a given level of investment, premium solutions must do one or more of the following: improve user-experience, increase revenue, and decrease cost

At PodPlay, we view our product, and our product roadmap, through the lens of driving ROI for our customers. 

Improved User Experience  

PodPlay is known for creating the best user experience for the customers of the businesses we serve. We build branded apps that employ modern, mobile-first design principles. The natural language of mobile is vertical scroll and quick filters, not grid based calendars that are hard to look at on a mobile phone. 

As described in Your App is Your Front Door we obsess over creating the kind of customer experience for end users that is so good they want to tell others about it. We believe the keys to creating that great first impression are:

• Branding
• Minimal friction
• Mobile-first design 
• Simplicity

The concept of intuitive ease-of-use extends to how PodPlay integrates hardware and software. Customers love video replays. But not if they need to scan a QR code, create a separate login, or pay for them in advance. In Why User-Generated Replays Matter we describe how PodPlay’s game-changing replay functionality is designed to allow players to capture great moments without taking them out of the flow of their game. No more setting up a tripod and mounting an iPhone. No more staging a point for the camera. No more logging into a separate system if players want to access video capabilities. With PodPlay, all you have to do is jump on the court and play the game. And when the magic moment happens players need only press the replay button, and PodPlay captures the moment, replays it instantly on the monitor, stores it in the app, and e-mails players their clips when their game is through.

Increased Revenue

For sports venues total revenues are a function of two variables: utilization and average hourly rate (think of this as volume x price). At $50 per hour, a 10% increase in utilization equates to more than $200,000 a year for a ten court pickleball club. Utilization and average hourly rate are the essential inputs to your club’s revenue equation. Small increases in these inputs can lead to large increases in revenue. 

In How to Bend the Pickleball Club Revenue Equation we described how PodPlay provides tools that allow clubs to bend the curve, i.e. simultaneously drive increased volume and price: 

• Tech-Enabled Courts. Clubs can charge more per hour for technology-enabled courts. We've seen clubs deploy a smart strategy of offering premium technology-enabled courts alongside standard courts, with differential pricing. Offering technology-enabled courts can also increase average hourly rate by opening up opportunities for additional revenue from replay purchases and sponsorships. For more on monetization strategies for tech-enabled courts see How to Monetize PodPlay Pro Monitors.
• Coach Connect. Clubs can increase average hourly rate by facilitating private coaching lessons. For clubs that take a cut of coaching fees, a customer adding a coach to a court booking immediately adds to the revenue generated per hour. The impact doesn’t stop there. Customers who get coaching see themselves improve and start doing more of everything in your club. In The Coaching Flywheel, we lay out data from one PodPlay client showing that the lifetime value of customers who get coaching is 17x the lifetime value of the average customer. Making coaching readily available, and using software to make coaches easy to discover, coordinate with, and pay, is an easy path to increasing both utilization and average hourly rate.
• Algorithmic Court Assignment. When you make a reservation at a restaurant, you pick your time but not your table. It is not hard to imagine the inefficiency that would ensue if restaurants allowed customers to pick their own table! Yet, that is how much of the sports venue world operates. Managing court assignments algorithmically can increase utilization during busy times for clubs by 10% or more. And by making algo court assignment the default, you can charge a premium for customers who want to lock down a specific court. For more on algorithmic court assignment, see Managing Time-Bound Inventory. 

Opening up new lines of revenue that may not be available to competitors gives a business an unfair competitive advantage that compounds over time.

Decreased Costs

According to NAICS data from 2022, businesses classified as Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers spent 32% of revenue on labor. For most of these businesses, rent and labor are the largest cost items. Technology that makes existing staff more efficient or can replace labor entirely can drive significant changes in profitability. Three areas where PodPlay drives cost efficiencies are:

• Maximizing Efficiency Through Intuitive UI/UX. An intuitive system requires less investment of time to learn. Software-only PodPlay clients can be onboarded and trained in less than a month. Features like integrated door access, QR Code Check In, Electronic Waivers, Coach Connect, Bill Splitting, and Self-Serve Membership allow both staff and customers to do more with fewer clicks.
• Support and Training. The PodPlay Academy provides training courses for staff and coaches hosted on Udemy. The PodPlay Knowledge Base includes more than 350 articles and accompanying videos detailing how staff can complete simple and more complex tasks in PodPlay. Our Customer Success team has been so prolific documenting the system that we created an AI Agent to help customers navigate this trove of information. Read more in Introducing Alfie: PodPlay AI Agent. Each of these initiatives is designed to make the businesses we serve more efficient and free up the time of our Customer Success team to focus on the highest ROI requests from our customers.
• Labor Replacement. For the growing number of clubs following the autonomous operating model pioneered by PodPlay, autonomous mode eliminates the need for one or more full time employees. As detailed in What Businesses Become Possible if Labor Costs are Reduced By 66%, we’ve been able to reduce labor as a percentage of revenue by 44 to 83 percent for autonomous clubs. By largely eliminating variable labor costs, these clubs can also drive more revenue by staying open more hours. 

Cost advantages can be retained as profits or re-invested in ways that further competitive differentiation like: better locations, top notch facilities  and equipment, lower prices, or increased marketing spend. 

The PodPlay Advantage

PodPlay gives venue operators all the tools they need to digitally manage a physical space - integrating video replays, automated scoreboards, and autonomous functionality with a reservation engine, event management, coach connect, membership module, and payments. 

Originally built to power PingPod, the network of futuristic autonomous ping pong clubs, PodPlay is now being used to manage venues across pickleball, padel, ping pong, golf simulators, racing simulators, soccer and pool, with more experience verticals to come in the future.

If you’re interested in learning more, request a demo.