Our 25th Episode to wrap up the Year!
Check out Bart’s company here:
https://www.teecontrol.com/en
Follow our journey at Handicaddie here!
#golfpodcast #golftech #golfersvideos #golf
So hello everyone welcome back to another episode of the future of golf podcast uh this is episode 25 where I speak to people who are innovating in the golf industry every week uh in this episode I have a person that I met in the PGA show uh when I went across this
Year uh we have Bart Jansen who is part of the team at T control who in your opinion Bart could be building one of the most modern Dolf te- sheets in existence um so yeah really looking forward to diving in Bart to find a little bit more about your journey and
The mission uh that you guys are on and take control um but first of all how are you doing today I’m doing fine great good to be here love it love it um so yeah B maybe if you want to take us back just to begin this in terms of what your
First uh experience was like with the game of golf um maybe before you actually made it a career like what what like how did you actually get into the sport yeah um that’s that’s uh a bit of a long story I’ll try to keep it I I’ll
Try to keep it brief um at some point I’ve been invited just for a clinic to play some golf um at the Harlem M here in the Netherlands and um the the sports just grab me um I love it I like it I still like it I still love it and um um
With playing more and more becoming a business Club member at um at priso here in the Netherlands um um made it a part of my kind of business Behavior to to be on the golf course meet people etc etc so golf has been really good for me um
In in in from a business point of perspective um and um as a kind of a parallel story um I do have a software company and in that software company we build a p of software for the home building industry um we were firstly we were very orientated on more Project
Based uh projects and um we at some point we decided to become a more license-based uh company um and then we started with one of the company which is a company that’s called home DNA um uh a huge workflow for the home building industry that we licensed out to home building companies
Um and The Good the good part of that is that we build a huge platform which has been adapted by like let’s say 50 60% of all the home builder uh companies home building companies in the Netherlands and at some point about three years ago a um Amsterdam
Investment Company um reached out to us and within a half year the company had been sold to this Investment Company and there the story crosses with the with the golf part um I had yeah a little bit spare money left and um my hobby playing golf and also having a
History in uh working for golf courses trying to develop different parts or different software products or projects for golf courses uh we always ran into the issue problems with tet system golf Management Systems Etc with inconsistent data uh not open not cloud-based etc etc etc so with the experience of having a
SAS product um being able to sell that having a bit of spare money and uh let’s say a bit of frustration about what’s happening in the golf industry uh everything came together and I said some point if I want to do something special uh extra in my life then it it is
Something to do really disrupt everything which is going on in the golf management or t she business and that’s how we uh started up uh T control um and um we’re we’re two years ahead now and it’s a it’s a really exciting story fantastic it was kind of seems like the
Perfect storm for you so you had the experience of software products financially you were in a good place and then also you had a golf membership so you’re passionate about that project as well so that seems perfect yeah it’s funny actually so uh since I’ve I’ve
Actually moved to Lisbon recently as I I mentioned to and uh while I’ve been over here I’ve met a lot of Dutch folks so I I ran into a guy from utre just outside Amsterdam yeah and he runs a mobile app agency um so he works with a lot of
Dutch companies he actually worked with a Dutch power company um and his co-founder came across just the other day and he says that he spends between 20 to 30% of his time going out and playing golf and meeting new clients yeah so that I I was jealous of him
First of all I would I would love personally for more of my job to be on the golf course um but is is that quite a a normal thing in the Netherlands for business to be done on the golf course yeah I always um see it as a as a kind
Of a a not natural thing um it’s not that I go to the golf course to do business um it is um I I yeah like back in the days like I I probably more than 20 years ago I met another um um CEO of another company and he at some point he
Told me and I was just in the beginning of playing golf and he said oh I’m always going to the golf course and I can drive my business just by playing golf etc etc and I was like yeah he’s crazy that’s that’s that’s never gonna
Happen and now 20 years later um I can bring like at least 80 90% of all my connections in the business world back to playing golf and and that is also because if if you just go play with your friends it’s probably a little bit different but um being part of a
Business Club being invited by little tournaments Etc and in the end um I have I’ve had the luck to be at prow golf where we uh met somebody uh who was related to blue green in France so that’s how we moved to do projects to do
For blue green um then we got in uh Sweden uh we got in with the um MCO uh golf star involved and Al together um yeah it builds up builds up build builds up and um so it’s it’s beside the general business I’ve always I’ve also also had let’s say the
Luck uh to uh to get in involved in in golf related um companies and golf related persons and that gave a lot of Direction in in in the end to uh what T control now in the end has come about yeah I think you’re being humble there
Bart I think you’re you’re a hardworking so I’m sure the luck has came to you through uh through hard work and perseverance um but yeah I I’m really intrigued actually because you mentioned there before that you’ve obviously had experience with you know interacting with people in the golf industry and
Then your curiosity for technology LED you to um kind of analyze the systems that were present in the golf clubs and you mentioned there uh maybe a few problems that existed in the t- sheet World um so do you want to maybe talk about like the current te- sheet land
Landscape um and kind of where your solution is is aiming to help golf clubs in that in that sense yeah okay okay well what what what we see a lot in the in the Tish business is that many of the products available are either nationally based or International products all the
National based products are um strongly related in let’s say nine out of 10 to the Federation in that specific country and um even in some of the countries those uh tis systems are either directed or financed directly by the Federation and what we also see there is that most
Of those systems are like 15 20 years ago um going back in development and um yeah one of the downsides of that that period where software has been developed is that a lot of those systems have become kind of Legacy systems um with all the software all the
Structures etc etc and I I even can’t really blame those companies who did that because it’s it’s something which uh was a kind of a natur naturally caused by the time those pieces of software have been developed um and then on the other side we have like uh more International
Systems um and those systems uh are mainly based us systems some there are some European system but a lot of them are us-based systems and if you compare Gulf in us um to uh golf in uh Europe you see that golf in the US um is what
We say um in general a lot easier than it is in in Europe um in us a lot of people play 18 hols um being charged on a credit card um and having a beer and a burger um on the course and that’s it’s generalizing um and what we see here in
The Netherlands that we have like multiple clubs on one course um an enormous variety of memberships uh the enormous iy of Green fee rates etc etc so on one side if we look at the national um uh TSH providers you see that um there are generally
Older systems um which were built in a time where Gulf was done in another way um you had one membership um everybody was member of the club uh the club manager knew exactly who were um but nowadays with all the variety etc etc those older systems um
Don’t really match to what the needs are today and if you look at the more General system international systems uh that a lot of those are not really um let’s say focused on what we what we have and do um in in Europe um so there is kind of a a gap yeah
Yes that is exactly the Gap that we tried to to um yeah to to change so yeah so you mentioned the difference between the US and the European side um do you want to talk a little bit about that in terms of like the I guess the cultural
Difference and what has led to like the the difference in uh the systems used because uh I guess people in the software world you know they’ll see the same four or five names that are used in Country Club across there um why why do you think there there is like most of
The big players would be in the US well um the US market is is huge um just to compare we have like in the Netherlands we have 250 270 golf courses with 16 thou 16,000 um uh in in the us alone not included Canada um that’s not to compare
So if if you just look at the volume of the Market it is um quite clear and and and easy to explain why there are a lot of players and those players are um a lot larger bigger than than here in in the Netherlands or in Europe in general
Um and what I mentioned before is that a lot of those more local systems are um in in many cases related to the Federation in that country and we do have a lot of language differences uh across Europe um so a lot of those systems are also built on that language
Or those habits in those countries and that’s exactly what we wanted to wipe away and build a fully International System um which is built with um the modern the most modern technique the most modern architecture available um as a fully International um system uh which can work either for private course um or
A pay andplay course and with the enormous amount of settings and possibilities that we can have uh adapted to that course with that count in that country which has that specific needs and I think that is one of the things that makes de control very special um compared to let’s say I would
Almost say 98% of the the main majority of what’s available in the in the golf Market in the t- sheeet uh SL golf Management Systems um and that is um and and it’s um it’s it’s it seems to be um that we’re we’re let’s say we finding out at the
Moment that um with the courses uh coming to us um that we we somehow um yeah we we we we touch we touch something I I’m interested as well because so we met at the PGA show Bart and uh obviously you’d made a good bit of
Progress to that point but it seems like since the PGA show you’ve made a lot of progress yeah so do you wanna maybe go back um so obviously you had the Curiosity for solving the problem do you want to talk about the first club that you interacted with about your idea and
Kind of how that whole experience was of speaking to your first club and uh yeah their experience with your platform yeah I think I think we have two main first clubs that we um what we that we used kind of a pilot and um I I have to name
Them anyway because um I really appreciate the fact that they have been helping us and have been really openminded to um to do something and and lit be the kind of the pioneers of all the things we invented and and thought about which is PRI though in in the
Netherlands and Blue Bay on curau in the in the Dutch Caribbeans uh those have been those two have been the first two to use uh T control and um they have both of these have been really helpful um in in getting this project uh better and
Better and getting it to a level where we can say now that we have a fully operational product which is um which has like an enormous amount of functionalities and functions um and that is one of the the the big advantages that we have is that
The development Pace that we have is so huge that each month we deliver a uh from a Sprint we deliver a new release and um it is like yeah it’s almost crazy what’s happening in a month and and if I compare that to a lot of other products in the market is that
They the development is relatively slow um and that is and and we have had to go back to to those two clubs um yeah you always go to a process where you have the idea uh you present your first um your first layouts um then the
First working model etc etc and then at some point um it’s it’s going live and um then you have you have to work and and then that’s something something that we have to realize that it is a product for a golf course which is like business critical um if that TI doesn’t
Work um there’s there’s not happen happening nothing um so um alt together um it it has been an exciting Journey um we have had the help of some great golf courses um and um yeah in the mean meantime I can say we’re we’re full grown uh T sheet system with um a huge
Amount of function functionalities um even I can even say with a lot of function functionalities that no other system has in the world right now that’s fantastic and I’m always curious part as well because often golf clubs that I’ve spoken to in the past they basically want a system that is
All-encompassing so what I mean by that is like integrated with everything it’s just like one seamless um system that combines like point of sale t- sheet um pretty much everything in one um and at least what I found when we went across to America in January was that the big
Players in each industry they were very open to collaborating with other brands in order to provide that really seamless experience um so I know me and yourself have been in talks and on how things could happen but have you have you thought about that in terms of how you
Would provide that like seamless experience or I guess openness to Integra with other other Golf software companies I’m I’m I’m totally convinced that this Market of software has changed so so much in in the past let’s say five to 10 years uh was like 10 years ago a connection to another on another
Software and integration was like an exciting Adventure um nowadays we do like two in a week um so yeah what I told about the Home Building uh the home building software that we have before we have like 47 Integrations with other um with other software parties and um that
History that that also formed my idea here um the funny thing is that um the workflow the the huge workflow and and it goes too far in detail to explain that all but the huge workflow of Home DNA we came at some point and then um some of the home builder companies asked
Us can you also make a planning tool than integrating with that specific product and there is a really good um planning system available in the home building in Industry software so at some point we said yeah why are we going to try to rebuild that and not try to
Partner with this um ideally perfectly working planning system and when this whole project project started with the with the the golf industry um the the the strategy has there been based on what happened with the with the home building industry said why can’t we be the best the very very best planning
System for golf in the world um there are so many other companies and other pieces of software which are so specialized and focused in their area take tournament software take POS systems uh they the uh take accounting systems and if if you also see in those areas or markets that there
Are also very good specialist which are also based on Modern structure uh with apis available etc etc and then make a a specific fit for that specific Market or that specific country of that specific Golf Course um so that’s literally what we do so we have a very what we What’s called
The best of breed strategy that we literally literally combine the best pieces of software either for that area either for that specific type of golf course and that makes it much more flat scoll than a huge W allinone system um where there’s much less focus on each of
The specific elements while we can just focus on everything around the planning and organizing of the golf course and I can tell you we are with a team of eight people now and we have our hands full on that um so um and being just able to say
Hey we if you’re talking about tournament systems we’re now integrating with two uh two other tournament system one of them is is go genius um and use a huge party as go genius ju go genius has has like 80 developers only working on tournament software at um that’s 10 times more than
We have at the moment so yeah I I you’re mentioned there that it almost seems like a requirement to integrate as opposed to um something special and like I’ve I’ve definitely seen that and that’s certainly one of our goals for this year is to collaborate with a lot
More companies specifically in the te- sheet space because that’s where the most energy is um for us for sure um I’m curious B obviously You’ you’ve probably got to travel to some cool places doing this journey of they were in Florida together do you get the opportunity to
Go out on the golf course and actually play the sport much during this or is it all just hands on deck no no no no yeah it is there’s happening a lot um but in the end it’s it’s it’s still and that’s one of the benefits of being in this
Industry to uh to be let me put on the light again yeah sure thing if I sit too still the lights goes off every five minutes in the podcast there and there’s not too much sun outside so um we have to do it with artificial light um but coming back to
Not that I think that is one of the the the the extra specials of being in this industry is to being to be able on on beautiful courses meeting uh people uh that give you access to courses you probably otherwise never play um so that that’s the nice combination of having a
Nice job and having a hobby and being able to combine that together so uh that makes it extra special yeah absolutely and it’s something I don’t take for granted either I I try not to abuse my reach with that but um yeah once every so often it’s really fun to get I I
Always make I always I we I always make sure that I have my goal set back in my car if I’m driving somewhere and if somebody then says hey don’t you want to play then I okay now I’m here yeah I I’m guilty for that as well
I’ve definitely done that a few times um and Bart I’m curious um this is the first time I’ve I’ve spoken to you in a little while so maybe if we go ahead to maybe a year in advance from now and you’re kind of looking ahead to the
Future is there any kind of like intermediate goals that you’re setting for yourself um obviously your vision there is to be the best t-u provider in the world and provide modern infrastructure yeah um is there any particular regions that you’re planning to expand into or is it just continued growth
Yeah of course of course contined growth but it it’s um you have to deal with a company which is new in a competitive market um it’s not that we are the first t- sheet and we bring something uh new in the sense of it is organizing a golf course has been
Done 100 times before so what we have to do is to be extra special in specific areas um like fun specific functions uh specific functionality ities that really can help the golf manager or the player to have an extra good experience um that is one and and that is like something
That you have to have uh before you can enter or conquer any part of the market um next to that um if you talk about midterm goals um we started with like the first two three four five golf courses then you go to a process where
You can really start to prove your case in like uh going growing to a kind of 25 courses and also showing that you are able to work not only in the Netherlands but also in other areas so that is literally the growth path that we have
Is to in chunks um uh grow in in specific areas um and yeah I have to be I have to be um uh Fair one of our main goals is the US um uh because of the size of the company the the the the size of the of the
Market there but also because I I love the country um I love to be there um and I think there is a lot to win um and what I mentioned before um what I see in the US is that um I think there is a there there are some areas to improve
And help golf courses to earn and organize their organization in a different way and that is something that can be helped by um by by software and and a little bit of consultancy about the software um so um I think that within a year um we will be uh in other
Areas um around the world uh I think the Caribbean is one of the areas that we’re making a a huge progress at the moment um there are some specific countries here in Europe and um that’s a little bit um the those are the first steps
Then to make and try to make a move to the US awesome awesome um yeah it’ll be interesting by the time I see you again over in the PGA show to see how um your progress is coming on but it sounds incredibly promising um just for anyone
That’s listening to this that um maybe wants to learn a bit more about you or a bit more about t control is there any online that is best for them to check out uh happily we do have a website um no you ww tont control.com um is the
Website uh it is in a Dutch and an English version um and um uh if anybody has any questions um don’t hesitate to give me a call or an email awesome well Bart that was a fantastic episode and uh yeah really interesting insights from your transition from uh like pure software
Engineering to then uh taking that passion to the golf industry um so thank you so much for your time and uh yeah it was a pleasure having you on the latest episode of podcast so thank you so much thanks very much for having me
