Clubmodul: The Danish Startup Bringing Solutions For Sports Clubs

Clubmodul provides an original product. Could you describe it in 50 or less words?

Clubmodul is a one-stop shop for all the tools needed to manage a sports club, including the development and online management of the website, member sign-up, scheduling, communication (email/text), bookkeeping and payment collection processing. We give the administrators of sports clubs a way to overcome their antiquated approach.

Why did you decide to pursue your own dreams rather than someone else’s?

I like to make my own path. I am better at working for myself rather than working for someone else.

Describe your typical working day from coming to the office to leaving it.

I switch between my office in Kolding, Denmark and the office in Hamburg (I’m there most of the time). The days right now are filled with German bureaucracy: it’s a lot of paperwork! There are many letters back and forth between, lawyers, bank, notary and German administration.

Also I am spending a lot of time looking for candidates in both sales and support. Luckily we do get some good applications and now I am interviewing some of these candidates. In between, I am very involved in finding leads and promising new clients, and of course going through our software to make sure there are no bugs and everything works smoothly.

In what ways do you measure your success and how do you make sure you don’t lose track?

I measure my own private success by looking at my life and see how I changed as a person and as a father. The more success I have in my business the more I look at myself as a whole person. Its very important to me to leave a footprint in the way I do business and the way I live my private life. If a client doesn’t want to use my service or pay us anymore, we don’t force them to: we part ways without any questions asked. So in a way I measure our success in the number of happy clients rather than income. I really do not like all the negative energy associated with an unsatisfied client.

We keep our focus on what we are good at, and we are good at building software for sports clubs. In Denmark over 2000 sports clubs and their almost 1 million members are using our services, plus we get contacted a lot by other kinds of organisations asking us to build solutions for them. We very often say no if these requests stray away from Clubmodul’s core business, simply because we don’t want to lose focus on the sports clubs and their challenges.

Speaking about clients: how are they using your services? Did you expect this way from the start?

We did not pivot, customers are using it the way we wanted. But we see the need to add more and more features to the product. For example, when we started with Clubmodul, there were no CMS’ because we didn’t think that it would be relevant for the clubs, but it turned out that the website and its management is very important to them! So we added CMS and even hired a fulltime web designer that now produces unique web designs for each club.

Bootstrapped or financed: What fuels Clubmodul now and what will in the future?

We started out in Denmark with no funding and bootstrapped to the point where we had to sell our cars and get cheaper models. Fortunately things are better now. In Germany we went along with a small group of investors. And we are in a very good market were the churn is very low, so it won’t be long before we are financing ourselves.

With ferocious competition and a booming trend to build new companies: How do you make sure you don’t get lost in the shuffle?

We are in a niche market, the competition is not that big. Besides that, we are very good at what we do and we do have a many years of experience in building and running companies, so we can hopefully stay clear of the pitfalls.

What do you look for in team members & why would a talent join your team?

We look for a great personality. Skills we can teach, but the attitude and the mindset have to be natural.

Why they should join us? Well, I bring a Scandinavian relaxed job atmosphere and a high respect for each individual. I don’t pay a talent for the hours spent at the office: I pay for the value I get. So if that requires only 5 hours or only 4 days a week, that’s fine by me. We work by the dogma “liberty under responsibility” meaning that each employee has the freedom to do almost anything as long as the job is done responsibly.

In 7 years from now: How did Clubmodul change the world?

We are in it to create a healthy company with many paying clients and happy co-workers, and we wish to change the way sports clubs run their clubs and the way members and clubs communicate… not the whole world!

What was your most memorable moment so far?

I have 3 children, so I have 3 very strong memorable moments.

What advice would you give fellow founders for their startup?

Take some chances, follow your instinct, don’t be afraid to hire new members and don’t be afraid to let some of them go again. And always have a written agreement between your co-founders!

 

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Photo Credit: Youth Soccer Indiana