Kite flying high for FC grad
June 21, 2022 at 7:51 p.m.
Parents and coaches who log extraordinary mileage transporting children for the growing travel sports craze may want to pay attention to the latest business venture of one Scott Selm, a 1995 graduate of Franklin County High School.
Selm, with what he calls exceptional business partners Matt Ferguson and Rose Hulman Ventures and seasoned entrepreneurs that make up the company advisory board, has developed and launched – as of May 1 of this year – a smartphone app named Kite Sportz.
The free app essentially enables players, coaches and instructors to create their own unique profile to positively summarize and advertise their experience. Additional features, says Selm, allow players to advertise their playing availability to coaches and searches can be done for specific players, teams, tryouts, substitution openings, camps and instructors. In more techie jargon, it empowers users with data, focused and flexible search criteria filtering, and event management creation with workflow functionality.
“The idea came about when searching for a new travel team and tryouts for my daughter,” reveals Selm, who resides in Fishers with wife Jeni and girls Makenna and Aubrey.
“This was founded to solve a problem … navigating through the travel/rec sports experience and specifically the ability to obtain information efficiently and effectively about (personnel) and related events in order to make informed decisions,” he adds. “The app allows you to do just that within a few clicks.”
The budding entrepreneur, son of Ed and Donna Selm of Blooming Grove, equates decisions made in the travel sports world to more traditional life decisions everyone faces.
“When you look for a new job, house or car, do you typically decide based upon 30 minutes of interaction?” he asks. “Some might but most don't. Why? Because you will live with this decision for enough time that you want to be confident it is more than likely a good fit.”
“Players, coaches and parents spend more time together than ever before and it is beneficial for all when it's a good fit all around.”
An accountant by trade, Selm majored in accounting and earned a degree from then-Marian College in 1999, minoring in finance and business administration. While at the Indianapolis campus, he pitched for the Knights' baseball team.
The former Wildcat embarked on a corporate accounting career, where he compiled over 20 years of experience in leadership positions for multinational public firms and had been a vice president of Internal Audit at a billion-dollar international transportation company until he left to focus on launching the app. Which is not his first stab at ownership – he owns a real estate investment firm launched in 2004.
The venture certainly did not spring up overnight, as Selm attests to.
“It required a lot of time, patience, market research and many discussions with travel softball and baseball parents, coaches and college coaches to validate the perceived need as a true market need,” he states.
Funding was obviously a vital step, though no figures were shared.
“Design and development of a complex mobile app can be very costly,” notes Selm. “Along with personal investment, I was very fortunate to have received investments from friends and family that were instrumental in successfully launching he app with the necessary features.”
Further describing the startup, Selm says the process of identifying and selecting the software development company was very thorough and one that allowed him to personally complete design work to help reduce costs.
Initial focus is on baseball and softball where coaches can create events like roster openings, tryouts, camps, team substitutions and scrimmages for players and other coaches to search and apply.
“The experience profile is very beneficial when it comes time for matchmaking,” touts Selm.
New features for future release can be expected soon. “We plan to roll out a couple features in the coming months that include in-app messaging and the ability to upload videos,” says Selm.
The company makes the most of social media for promotion, currently on Facebook (Kite Sportz), Twitter (@KiteSportz), Instagram (kite_sportz) and LinkedIn (Kite Incorporated).
“As we grow – currently over 2,000 users in 33 states – we will look for other promotional avenues,” says the CEO.
To learn more, visit kitesportz.com. The app can be downloaded from both the Google Play and Apple stores.
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Parents and coaches who log extraordinary mileage transporting children for the growing travel sports craze may want to pay attention to the latest business venture of one Scott Selm, a 1995 graduate of Franklin County High School.
Selm, with what he calls exceptional business partners Matt Ferguson and Rose Hulman Ventures and seasoned entrepreneurs that make up the company advisory board, has developed and launched – as of May 1 of this year – a smartphone app named Kite Sportz.
The free app essentially enables players, coaches and instructors to create their own unique profile to positively summarize and advertise their experience. Additional features, says Selm, allow players to advertise their playing availability to coaches and searches can be done for specific players, teams, tryouts, substitution openings, camps and instructors. In more techie jargon, it empowers users with data, focused and flexible search criteria filtering, and event management creation with workflow functionality.
“The idea came about when searching for a new travel team and tryouts for my daughter,” reveals Selm, who resides in Fishers with wife Jeni and girls Makenna and Aubrey.
“This was founded to solve a problem … navigating through the travel/rec sports experience and specifically the ability to obtain information efficiently and effectively about (personnel) and related events in order to make informed decisions,” he adds. “The app allows you to do just that within a few clicks.”
The budding entrepreneur, son of Ed and Donna Selm of Blooming Grove, equates decisions made in the travel sports world to more traditional life decisions everyone faces.
“When you look for a new job, house or car, do you typically decide based upon 30 minutes of interaction?” he asks. “Some might but most don't. Why? Because you will live with this decision for enough time that you want to be confident it is more than likely a good fit.”
“Players, coaches and parents spend more time together than ever before and it is beneficial for all when it's a good fit all around.”
An accountant by trade, Selm majored in accounting and earned a degree from then-Marian College in 1999, minoring in finance and business administration. While at the Indianapolis campus, he pitched for the Knights' baseball team.
The former Wildcat embarked on a corporate accounting career, where he compiled over 20 years of experience in leadership positions for multinational public firms and had been a vice president of Internal Audit at a billion-dollar international transportation company until he left to focus on launching the app. Which is not his first stab at ownership – he owns a real estate investment firm launched in 2004.
The venture certainly did not spring up overnight, as Selm attests to.
“It required a lot of time, patience, market research and many discussions with travel softball and baseball parents, coaches and college coaches to validate the perceived need as a true market need,” he states.
Funding was obviously a vital step, though no figures were shared.
“Design and development of a complex mobile app can be very costly,” notes Selm. “Along with personal investment, I was very fortunate to have received investments from friends and family that were instrumental in successfully launching he app with the necessary features.”
Further describing the startup, Selm says the process of identifying and selecting the software development company was very thorough and one that allowed him to personally complete design work to help reduce costs.
Initial focus is on baseball and softball where coaches can create events like roster openings, tryouts, camps, team substitutions and scrimmages for players and other coaches to search and apply.
“The experience profile is very beneficial when it comes time for matchmaking,” touts Selm.
New features for future release can be expected soon. “We plan to roll out a couple features in the coming months that include in-app messaging and the ability to upload videos,” says Selm.
The company makes the most of social media for promotion, currently on Facebook (Kite Sportz), Twitter (@KiteSportz), Instagram (kite_sportz) and LinkedIn (Kite Incorporated).
“As we grow – currently over 2,000 users in 33 states – we will look for other promotional avenues,” says the CEO.
To learn more, visit kitesportz.com. The app can be downloaded from both the Google Play and Apple stores.