Get fit or quit
“Get fit or quit, loser.” We had to all laugh when my brother, Chris, spurted that out in our recent slogan head-jam. Can you see it on caps and shirts? Just joking, but it does stir the competitive juices and implies that Sports MatchMaker® membership can improve your health.
No false advertising there, wouldn’t all our lifestyles improve if our cell phone became our sports matchmaker, automatically alerting us of perfect matches to be played after work with sprite contenders? With a simple “join” reply you’re in the game - all you do on the phone is reflected on the website!
Serious competitors: time you widen your competition
Couples: there are more of you than singles…get out with the lively ones.
Singles: you’re sporting, not dating…unless you want to ;).
Teams: practice, practice, practice. Managers email/SMS all teammates with a click.
Companies: help your workers play together & stay fit - can search by company. Learn more
City/Gov: allows staff to network, set up matches with each other, stay healthy. Learn more
Sports/Athletic Clubs: allows your members to match-up with locals & bring to your club. Learn more
Fitness Centers: allows your members to match-up with locals & bring to your club. Learn more
Hotel/Resorts/Time Share: allows your guests to set up matches & play at your facility. Learn more
Sports Pub/Restaurants: allows your customers to challenge others at your establishment. Learn more
Students/Colleges: networking & notification whenever anyone/group does anything. Learn more
This is our first post as founders of this site. The concept for Sports MatchMaker® (SMM) was actually hatched many years ago in connection with a non-profit, youth sports academy we co-founded. The academy needed a player-development tool for setting up regular matches for its members with others in the community at defined levels of ability.
Realizing the concept was novel and needed, we redesigned and expanded it, including all sports/activities people engage in (users expand our activity list). SMM is now a hybrid of matchmaking and social networking. It is open to all, regardless of marital status, with all the standard online social networking tools, plus users can efficiently create and join offline matches with each other. Therefore, virtual networking expands real-life networking, and vice versa.
It’s more efficient than the standard online matchmaking services, as the purpose for matchmaking on SMM is NOT limited to “dating” for singles, which understandably requires a digital courtship period before a “date” is considered safe or acceptable. Except for the fortunate few, many who have been through this process know that an extended virtual crush can quickly end in disappointment in the first offline (real) meeting. Tired of repeating the same ‘ole, expecting different results?
SMM offers singles all they need, and more, by simply changing the purpose of meeting offline from dating to engaging in healthy, sporting activities. For this purpose, we all can meet immediately at a public facility, either in group or private matches, with nothing more than a review of a profile and one click of a “join” button. Whether or not there are sparks on the court - you just had a healthy workout, did some sweating, and improved your game for your next match, right? Isn’t it the magic of interaction that really holds the promise for a lasting union? Reality vs. ‘Virtuality’: which do we really want?
We were pleased to see the NY Times tech writer, David Pogue, reviewed SMM and expressed his appreciation for the site concept. It was the first national media publication that received SMM information from us, and it was an honor to receive Pogue’s recognition, realizing how many services and products must cross his desk routinely. He didn’t like our 8-character registration password and the prose leaving SMM open for a subscription (pay) business model in the future.
We took Pogue’s password advice and changed (at least for now) our required length to 5 characters. Maybe we did this because we’re more concerned with user-friendliness than security, or perhaps to prove that we don’t take ourselves too seriously, as he suggested. Could that mean we’re too sensitive and insecure? Dang, maybe we DO need more security.
Concerning the free/pay models, we fully agree and have designed SMM to give the “infinite components” of SMM (primary matchmaking/social networking services) away for free, with the intent of charging for the “scarce” ones (advertising, sports products, ancillary services, value-added services…). That said, however, our business model also includes the possibility of entering a type of strategic partnership, which could require a change in subscription policy. The best we can guarantee is a Free Lifetime Membership for all who get in before any such partnership is consummated.
The NY Times article can be found at: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/a-new-site-to-find-sports-buddies/ .
Many of our proprietary features are unique and essential for efficient sports/activity matchmaking. The SMM home page has a full listing. We hope you enjoy them all and feel free to contact us at anytime with your thoughts and suggestions on how we can further improve the site.
Get fit or quit, loser. 
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