Local iPhone developer helps golfers, hits green

As long as there have been golfers trying to edge out the rest of their foursome for bragging rights, there has been a market for stroke-shaving accessories. For a local entrepreneur, that fact has led from winning a college student business competition to landing a top spot in the iTunes App Store.

The AccelGolf: GPS Rangefinder and Scorecard application, available for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android smartphones, is William Sulinski’s answer to the glut of range-finding, score-keeping golf applications on the market, one that goes beyond just giving distance readouts, and helps players improve their game.

“Our competitors are focused on the rangefinder — that’s really not our focus,” said Sulinski. “It’s something we use to lure users, but our systems is really a self-improvement platform, one that comes down to tracking, and making recommendations on the deficiencies you can most easily fix, shining light into your game as far as what skills — putting, control off the tee — really whatever's keeping you from shaving a couple strokes,” he said.

The sales figures so far seem to back up Sulinski’s claims: The product is tracking 1,123,455 statistics for 74,379 golfers across 24,936 courses between the free beta version of the app released a year ago, and the full version introduced within the last few weeks, according to the company’s website.

The AcellGolf app experienced a meteoric rise in the the iTunes store, reaching the number one spot in the sports category within a week, and being dubbed a “featured” app by Apple. The application was introduced with a low introductory price of $4.99, ($9.99 for the BlackBerry) that will soon rise to closer to industry standards rate of $29.99 — still a sight cheaper than gadgets like the SkyCaddie, a $300-plus dollar GPS finder that dominates the digital rangefinder market.

While the iTunes store is inundated with golf apps, Sulinski and application developer Michael DeSouza said that the list of equally comprehensive apps is fairly short. “There are really only two or three true competitors selling full featured golf apps,” said DeSouza, CEO of Tap Tapas, a local iTunes App Store development firm.

Sulinksi said that what sets AcellGolf apart is its ability to track, analyze, and demystify a player’s golf game. “What’s unique is the ability to track your hitting with each club, it’s really shining a light on the performance of various types of equipment,” said Sulinski.

Players dropping hundreds of dollars can see how a new driver is affecting their tee shot, or how that new putter helps their short game, “If you buy a good new Bertha [a $300 driver], does it actually improve your game?” Sulinksi asked.

Sulinski and teammate James Daniels won the annual University of Southern Maine's 2008 Student Business Plan Competition — a joint venture between the Maine Center for Enterprise Development and USM’s School of Business — with a concept called “mCaddie” - since renamed AccelGolf.

The team not only launched their business immediately, but went on to earn further funding through similar competitions and grants, including a first place, $15,000 payday for the team in The Queen's Entrepreneurs' Competition, an event held in Kingston, Ontario and a $240,000 grant from the Maine Technology Institute.

“The SBPC absolutely qualified the idea for us, if we hadn’t won I, think it would have put a big question into our heads if this was a worthwhile endeavor,” said Sulinksi.

But Sulinksi said the real benefit of winning the SBPC was the connection it established between his fledgling venture and MCED’s business incubator, where SBPC winners receive a year residency. Located on the USM Portland campus, the program advises burgeoning entrepreneurs and provides them with office space in an effort to curb the “brain-drain” effects that sees many of the state’s most promising young minds emigrating to more robust, competitive job markets when it comes time to make a career.

“The incubator really gave us credibility, and we were able to quickly put together world class group of advisers,” said Sulinksi. These advisers included Brian Bickford, course manager and golf pro at Cumberland’s Val Halla Golf and Recreation Center, and one of the state’s best golfers according to Sulinski.

“He worked with us on the statistical analysis part of it, the app would not have been the same without him and his support, and support of Maine State Golf Association [run out of Val Halla],” said Sulinski.

Currently the AccelGolf team is focusing exclusively on marketing and improving their current app, and are eager to incorporate new capabilities made possible by the introduction of the fourth generation iPhone and OS4 operating system. The iPhone 4’s high-quality video camera means swing-analysis might one day be incorporated into the app, “the video on the iPhone 4 is phenomenal, but we don’t expect that to be out for a little bit,” he said.

DeSouza estimates that AccelGolf app is the most successful the company has designed thus far. “The reviews are high and it was featured, that is no small feat, something like half of one percent of apps made will ever be featured, so to be in upper percentile is a substantial accomplishment,” he said.

Tap Tapas was founded in 2008 by Maine College of Art graduates DeSouza and Justin Velgos. The team, which has grown to six members, develops their own apps and but does about 80 percent of their business through contract work for companies like Sulinski’s. DeSouza said that Tap Tapas has no immediate plans to expand out of the Apple app development business, where they feel their experience and skill makes the top of the heap.

“There are a lot of really sub-par apps in store, the vast majority don’t meet what we would consider high standards,” said Desouza, who estimates that Tap Tapas, “are in the upper tier of development in Maine — anywhere really,” he said.

“There’s a lot of growth in the sector and it doesn't seem like it’s slowing down,” said DeSouza. The impending expansion of the iPhone to wireless companies outside of AT&T means that millions of new users are expected to become users in the coming years, said DeSouza.

The software improvements of the OS4 give the Tap Tapas team a reason to stay in the Apple app development game, and the hardware of the iPhone 4 brings it all home, said DeSouza.

“[OS4] allows us to do some things that we’re previously off-limits and really opens the door, the iPhone 4 takes it through the door,” said DeSouza. “Ideas have really started to percolate on how to use new features, we’re going to see pretty exciting new stuff,” he said.