Small Business Summit Center

Doug Donaldson, PlaySportsTV

[Doug's business is PlaySportsTV, a website loaded with how-to videos for young athletes (sample below). The videos are free to watch; advertisers provide revenue, and they've just launched a premium tier for coaches. Like many online startups, Doug's team is scattered all around the country.]

AB: Your virtual team is all over the map - tell me how you found them and how you all stay on the same page.

DD: I have always been a relationship guy. I have a past history with almost everyone on the current team. I needed to know from the start that I could count on this group to make this thing work. With a CFO in California, a webmaster in Pennsylvania, an editor in Maryland, and a senior writer in Colorado, it was critical that we have tools in place that ensure a consistent line of communication. We ended up integrating 37Signals’ Grouphub product to manage workflow and dialogue. It’s the perfect product for us. We can share files, calendars, and contacts to maintain efficiency.

AB: What marketing tool worked the best for you in 2007?

DD: That’s a good question. My hunch is that Google’s Ad programs (while certainly not that sexy) will be one of our best long-term solutions. Some of our key word combinations are converting at over 6%. The challenge is in sustaining the budget that they suggest is optimal in terms of results. It’s a real balance for us initiating programs on the national level and also locally. If I walk up to parents on a sideline in NJ, where I am, and show them the site, they instantly get it and understand its value. If I could somehow replicate that scenario throughout the country, we’d generate the local buzz that will be the tipping point for us.

We’ve also had some very positive feedback from recent StumbleUpon campaigns. The average time on the site dropped with these users, but, overall, we are at a 90%+ approval of our content from users that rate our site.

Another obvious tool has been YouTube. Our videos have been watched over 300,000 times in the last three months. We try to make sure we offer new content frequently, pulling older videos off every couple of weeks…and all of the content has a video footer promoting the site and additional content that can be found there. We want to attract new, interested users without cannibalizing our core site.

Finally, since we own all of our content, we’ve had success syndicating content through other general interest and sports-centric sites. This is great free marketing and we often see advertising revenue from these deals. A recent deal with PodCastGO has helped us prove that the content is perfect for portable and mobile devices as over 50,000 users have downloaded files in less than a month.

AB: Running a small business for the first time means lots of new challenges. What part of entrepreneurship have you worked hardest on?

DD: Taking advice. As an entrepreneur, it’s so important to believe in your idea 100%. The challenge, though, is in not drinking your own kool-aid, particularly in the early stages of the venture. I have to temper my own belief in the idea with a practical sense of skepticism to always challenge my own assumptions about the idea and the overall business model we’ve established. I am meeting with folks all of the time and I’ll hear both positive and negative feedback on different parts of the site. I’ve had to become both thick-skinned and more open-minded about what others feel works or does not work as well as they think it can. I now try to get as much advice as I can in order to make the site better.

I’ve also had to gain a lot of patience. Everything takes more time than you expect, from site development to funding.

AB: What would you do if you weren't in business for yourself?

DD: I love the start-up phase. When I finally got PSTV cranked up, I was worried I’d get distracted in some way. Fortunately, I continue to learn new stuff and feel that the start-up phase of this venture won’t be complete until the business is sustainable and we attract interest from the right suitors. If I weren’t doing this I’d be developing other ideas – both television and new media – and working with other clients to help them make their ideas come to life. It probably sounds cheesy, but it’s true.

I’m lucky enough to also have a great relationship with a company in DC – TEAM Group. I run some consulting revenue through them and have been helping them launch a wine-related web channel. It’s great because I can share the practical experience I’ve gained in building PlaySportsTV. Having their support has helped me lower the monthly burn rate for PSTV.

Of course, I still want to be a professional surfer, a world-class rower, and a top runner….but I think I’ve missed the boat on those ideas….

Business Bio

PlaySportsTV is a broadband channel dedicated to youth sports coaching and instruction. The site—designed for use by parents, coaches, and kids—offers detailed video tips and drills that feature leading coaches, instructional guides, feature articles, expert blogs, and training tools for all major youth sports.

PlaySportsTV is one of only 34 sites honored in 2007 as a Great Site for Kids by the American Library Association.

I was a TV guy and had been nominated for a Sports Emmy for a Discovery Channel project in 2006 but I was not really thinking I’d soon be the President of a start-up.

I honestly had no idea that this was going to be the direction I’d take when I signed up two years ago to coach my son’s 2nd grade basketball team. On the way to the first practice, I was thinking about box and one defenses and alley-oop passes and these guys needed someone to teach them to simply dribble the ball. I quickly went looking for age and skill appropriate materials so that I could teach to their level but nothing existed. Further research told me that over 100 million kids participate in non-school related youth sports – everything from soccer to skateboarding to lacrosse. I thought I might be on to something so I enlisted the help of a local videographer and shot some proof of concept pieces (that have yet to make it on the site, thankfully) that I showed to folks I knew at Yahoo, AOL, and MSN. The response was really positive and the idea was born.

Over the last year, I’ve met so many parents that have the exact same story in terms of coaching kids. It’s an incredibly rewarding experience and our goal is to level the playing field so that any parent can participate as a coach or assistant. I’m a three-sport coach for my son and actually found myself watching some of our lacrosse videos last week in advance of an indoor clinic.