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Great idea, do you know any teams that might be interested in trying us out? :)

orthoganol 11y ago
You have to pitch tournament organizers. In exchange for a share of the savings tournament organizers mandate that teams use your service (could be hundreds of teams if it's a big tourney). There are a lot of little companies doing exactly this, and tourney organizers are used to being pitched on it. These little companies just put up a cheap Wordpress and use a service like Alliance on the backend, which is basically room blocking & invitations as-a-service. Not a particularly large barrier to entry. However, your site is by far the nicest & obviously has a lot of other advantages by virtue of YC.
- davecyen 11y ago
  Thanks and we will definitely look into this more. If you know of any specific tournaments that you'd recommend targeting, would love to hear from you dave@roomblocker.com
  - orthoganol 11y ago
    I'd recommend googling such team travel sites, they usually list tourneys they work with, and then just make the call & pitch them to switch. I don't think it would be that hard of a sale tbh given the nature of some of these companies. Anyways, enough unsolicited advice from a random guy on Hacker News :) Good luck to you all.
    - davecyen 11y ago
      Great advice and appreciate it!
      - orthoganol 11y ago
        Not sure how serious you guys will be about it, but just know, a big tourney can mean 1k + rooms booked through such a service (incl. rooms for families for younger age group sports), and of course there are a lot of big tourneys every week, across sports & ages, everywhere (in America at least). A site only dedicated to group booking for sports tournaments could probably be it's own successful YC company (obviously with the right team). Just letting you know of this opportunity from someone who used to work in said industry (but has had enough of it).
        davecyen 11y ago
        We're definitely taking this seriously. Sports is a big market and you're right it's totally underserved. We've looked at some of the more specialized solutions you mentioned and there needs to be something much better. One of the things we're working on to better support sport teams is helping with roommate assignments. We've done some of this manually so far and know how painful it can be, so now we're building it into Roomblocker. We'll be doing outreach to tournaments, leagues, and teams - if you have any contacts would be great to connect. Either way, thanks for your help!
noxToken 11y ago
I know an HS basketball coach. I don't know how coaches do room bookings for high schools, but I'll throw your name his way to see if it sticks. Cheers.
- davecyen 11y ago
  Hey that'd be awesome, thanks for helping out! My email is dave@roomblocker.com Random side note: I met my co-founder playing basketball. Good way to test a person's character ;)

You have to pitch tournament organizers. In exchange for a share of the savings tournament organizers mandate that teams use your service (could be hundreds of teams if it's a big tourney). There are a lot of little companies doing exactly this, and tourney organizers are used to being pitched on it. These little companies just put up a cheap Wordpress and use a service like Alliance on the backend, which is basically room blocking & invitations as-a-service. Not a particularly large barrier to entry. However, your site is by far the nicest & obviously has a lot of other advantages by virtue of YC.

davecyen 11y ago
Thanks and we will definitely look into this more. If you know of any specific tournaments that you'd recommend targeting, would love to hear from you dave@roomblocker.com
- orthoganol 11y ago
  I'd recommend googling such team travel sites, they usually list tourneys they work with, and then just make the call & pitch them to switch. I don't think it would be that hard of a sale tbh given the nature of some of these companies. Anyways, enough unsolicited advice from a random guy on Hacker News :) Good luck to you all.
  - davecyen 11y ago
    Great advice and appreciate it!
    - orthoganol 11y ago
      Not sure how serious you guys will be about it, but just know, a big tourney can mean 1k + rooms booked through such a service (incl. rooms for families for younger age group sports), and of course there are a lot of big tourneys every week, across sports & ages, everywhere (in America at least). A site only dedicated to group booking for sports tournaments could probably be it's own successful YC company (obviously with the right team). Just letting you know of this opportunity from someone who used to work in said industry (but has had enough of it).
      - davecyen 11y ago
        We're definitely taking this seriously. Sports is a big market and you're right it's totally underserved. We've looked at some of the more specialized solutions you mentioned and there needs to be something much better. One of the things we're working on to better support sport teams is helping with roommate assignments. We've done some of this manually so far and know how painful it can be, so now we're building it into Roomblocker. We'll be doing outreach to tournaments, leagues, and teams - if you have any contacts would be great to connect. Either way, thanks for your help!

noxToken 11y ago

I know an HS basketball coach. I don't know how coaches do room bookings for high schools, but I'll throw your name his way to see if it sticks. Cheers.

davecyen 11y ago
Hey that'd be awesome, thanks for helping out! My email is dave@roomblocker.com Random side note: I met my co-founder playing basketball. Good way to test a person's character ;)