Scott Dunlop coincidentally shares a name with a famous, international tennis equipment company, but he’s hoping to make his tennis brand an even bigger hit online.
Vancouver lawyer Dunlop is co-founder of Juump.com, a social networking site that connects tennis players seeking others for training or playing. On Juump, they can sign in free via Facebook or Twitter and use Google Maps to find tennis partners who enjoy the same community court. Yes, that’s Juump with a consecutive “u.” Just like vacuum, which is something Juump Sports Interactive aims to fill.
“People who play tennis stop because they can’t find anybody to play with,” Dunlop said. “They play more when they can find someone to play with. We used that as the foundation for Juump.”
Juump has 10,000 members listed in Atlanta, Austin, Texas, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Singapore, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, D.C. and Winnipeg. Each player’s profile includes his or her skill rating and court of preference.
Dunlop wants to quintuple Juump’s users to 50,000 and eventually generate enough revenue to reach 100,000. He hopes to monetize via transactions for value-added memberships, lessons, camps and competitions and court bookings, advertising and sponsorship and tennis-playing data. Dunlop, who practises with Davis LLP, played on Canada’s Junior Davis Cup team and at Princeton University and spent a year as a touring pro in Europe. He was on Tennis BC’s board for a dozen years, including 2002 to 2005 as its president. In that position, he realized that tennis organizations were not doing enough to foster the game on the recreational, community or school levels. Dunlop and Juump co-founders Alan Albert and Ken Yang pondered how to capitalize on the market of 32 million tennis players in Canada and the United States, because 85% of them were “outside what you’d call regular, organized tennis,” Dunlop said.
As with anything online, the domain name is everything.“We were hunting for a name that would invoke the idea that you can take action, you can find people to play your favourite sport or activity – the idea that you could meet to play or play to meet,” he said. “Juump popped out of a list that was for sale. We liked it because it was singular, short, easy to read and unique.”
The consecutive u represents “two ‘yous’ that want to play,” he explained.
Dunlop said Juump can ideally expand to be a platform for other social, non-team recreational sports, such as sailing, cycling, hiking, fishing and golf.
The company began in September 2008 with $175,000 in seed capital, and its opening service was in June 2009. It also had grants from the Canada Media Fund ($135,000) and NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program ($100,000). The rewards could be huge.
Since Juump’s launch, targeted social networking has exploded with business-focused LinkedIn as the leader. When its $45-a-share initial public offering launched May 19 on the New York Stock Exchange, LinkedIn had a valuation of $4.3 billion. Prices remain above $100 a share.
“There’s going to be a waterfall effect from that,” Dunlop said. “It’s legitimized the social media business.”
The Abbotsford Heat remains the American Hockey League affiliate of the Calgary Flames after the Vancouver Canucks hitched up with the Chicago Wolves.
Fraser Valley hockey fans would prefer to watch the Canucks of today for free on TV instead of paying to see the Flames of the future in person. Taxpayers are expected to absorb the Heat’s $1.2 million loss from 2010-11, certain to be an issue in the fall civic election.
The Heat, however, have a new president with Canuck ties and a new message aimed to win the hearts and pocketbooks of skeptics.
On August 2, Ryan Walter replaced the departed Tom Mauthe.
Walter played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), including his last two as a Canuck. He was an assistant coach for two seasons under Alain Vigneault until general manager Mike Gillis fired him last summer. His key message on Day 1 was that the team is stocked with future NHLers who might not be Flames for life, but could someday be a Canuck by trade or free agency. Walter is an engaging speaker and author. His devotion to Christianity will no doubt help in a market sometimes called B.C.’s Bible belt.