Behind the Golf Brand Podcast with Paul Liberatore

Ep #35 - Arccos: Sal Sayed (Founder and CEO)

February 23, 2021 Paul Liberatore Season 2 Episode 35
Behind the Golf Brand Podcast with Paul Liberatore
Ep #35 - Arccos: Sal Sayed (Founder and CEO)
Show Notes Transcript

We made it to Episode 35 of the Behind the Golf Brand Podcast.  In this week's episode, I interview my friend Sal Sayed the founder and CEO of Arccos.

Arccos Caddie is golf’s first Artificial Intelligence platform. The award-winning Arccos Caddie app seamlessly syncs with Arccos Caddie sensors to provide golfers with Automatic Shot Tracking, Smart Distance Club Averages, A.I. Powered GPS Rangefinder, Strokes Gained Analytics and Caddie Advice for any hole on earth to help golfers of all skill levels make smarter decisions, improve faster and shoot lower scores.

In fact, the average new Arccos Caddie member improves their handicap by 5.02 strokes in the first year!

Support the show
Speaker 1:

Today we play golf. Let me show you how we do it in the pros. Welcome to behind the golf grand podcast. I've never missed with the seven nine a conversation with some of the most interesting innovators and entrepreneurs behind the biggest names in golf. My friends were the golf clubs. I lived on the golf course. I lived on the driving range from pro talk. You should learn something each and every single run to fun from on and off the green. Why would you play golf? You don't play it for money. Just let me put the ball in the hole. This is behind the golf brand podcast. With Paul libertory behind the golf brand podcast is sponsored by OnPoint. The revolutionary three-dimensional dome golf ball. Marker on point provides a recognition as small as a degree of inaccuracy from the planned course of the putt face angle endorsed by Jim Furich us open champion and 17 time PGA tour winner on point alignment technology has been proven to increase putting performance and help lower your score. Visit OnPoint golf dot U S, and be sure to use code[inaudible] for a 10% discount on point, make more putts

Speaker 2:

What's up guys, Paul from golfers authority. Welcome to behind the golf brand podcast. This week. I have my good friends, South side, South side from our coasts, probably by far, one of the smartest people at that on the show. I've got some smart ones, but I think Sal is probably going to take the cake on this one. Yeah, yeah. He's taken his head back down and I'm like, Oh yeah, you're smart. But a lot of you guys probably have it our coast, or if you don't, you should is probably one of the coolest tech that's out there right now in golf. They've blown up over the last couple of years. Um, I start taking notice of them public three years ago, maybe four when they start off with Cobra. And technology's amazing. We're the stowing where they're going right now is, is though again, change the game of golf. Uh, so I'm really super excited to have him on the show. Just kind of let you guys know about who they are and who, who salads. Right. Cause he's been the captain of the ship and it just amazing. So welcome to the show. Thanks, Paul. I appreciate you having me and let, not Paul fool. You I'm definitely not the smartest, but I do of that. I have really smart, a lot smarter than, I mean, I've got the smart guys on the show and I mean, I just love tech. So what we're gonna go back in time. This is how the show is. Uh, I don't think you might, if you may have, may have not heard it, but like I always asked, like, okay, what's your first memory of golf, but what, what did you start playing golf? Because are you originally from Pakistan? I am. Yeah. So I, I grew up in Pakistan. My dad is a golfer and he introduced to the game and I have a first memory. And I, like, I remember like, I really like, I play tennis all the time. We belong to a country club and he would go golfing and I'd be playing tennis. And I watch him watch his friends playing yo this game, like,

Speaker 3:

Doesn't look fun. Like people are walking, like I'm over here running around. And he convinced me to try it one time. And I remember like the third hole, I hit a five iron tour and I was like, wow, that felt so good. And all of a sudden, like I would say, um, I realized when you're inside golf, it's very different. Like when you're playing the time, the four hours go by so fast, versus if you're outside looking at your dad's finishing around, it looks like a long time. So I, I was fascinated by that. Like how, you know, that, that time just kind of flies when you're golfing. And that five round got me hooked that one drive,

Speaker 2:

The shot happens. It's like a shot. It's like a drug, right? It's like,

Speaker 3:

What's interesting about that is I like when we were starting, our, it goes in the early days we're interviewing, um, some of the design firms to help us. We ended up going with IDEO. Um, but I remember it. I had this conversation, uh, with one of these designers who equated. He was like, he didn't know about golf and he was like, let's discuss golf. And so we did, and I described golf and he's like, you know, it's, it's the same. I understand why golf is. So like, why I don't want to use the word addictive because I don't think that's the right description. But, um, Y like absorbs you so much. It's because it's like, he's like, that's the same thing we do in angry birds where the pain from, like, when you take an action to the outcome is between five and seven seconds. And apparently there's like research that shows like that's kind of the optimal time where you, all you do is just are focused on that shot. And like now, now that I've shared it next time, uh, when you hit a golf shot, like you literally won't know what's happening around you all. You'll be like, I hit that shot. I want to see where the ball ends up. And that's what you're zoned in. And that's kind of the hook had a great one, your zone and even more.

Speaker 2:

It's interesting you say that too. Cause I haven't really thought of it that way. Cause there's not many sports where there are like that where your zone, you know, like you're just, I can't think of anything really. I mean, maybe it's probably been less time, right? Like in baseball or like football or basketball, it's like, there's probably you're talking seconds, like a millisecond. Right. But in golf, it's like the whole setup, the approach, you know, like you're swaying your shot waiting to see where it lands. You know, this, this problem solving. I think the word is addictive. I would agree. I mean, I think most people who start playing are like, I mean, I think everybody, unless they,

Speaker 3:

It has a negative connotation to it and enlarge brings like really positive outcomes in people's lives. Whether it's from the exercise, mental health competition, all these standpoints. Um, so that's why I tend to not use that word.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It's like a stigma stigmatization, stigmatization towards it or something like, Oh yeah. It's bad. So when did, so you played, how old were you when you first played in this

Speaker 3:

13? When I hit that 12 or 13 in that kind bucket? I, I did. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So did you, so did you play then in Pakistan before you move to the United States? Or like me with my

Speaker 3:

Dad and his friends, I didn't really have any other, I mean, there were like a couple of friends or younger. Like my age would play like older people and, but I played, I still continue playing like tennis and cricket and I also play ping pong.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. They have the bolus sports do crickets massive. Right. India, Pakistan. It's huge. It's huge.

Speaker 3:

I mean like when India and Pakistan play each other in a cricket match, 1 billion people watch it on TV. Really 1 billion people watch it on TV. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

The whole sport, the watch, I think a couple of weeks ago by side, a little league practice. And there, there was, you know, a bunch of men playing cricket, like on a field by themselves. And they said all up and it was very mesmerizing, like watching it. And you're like, I don't even understand the game, but it was like, Oh, this is pretty cool. You know, those big old knee pads and stuff.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. That's only thing is the first ever international cricket match was USA and Canada and like 1848 or 28 or something really the first step we're one. In fact, I think the first time England, which kind of like the originator of the sport played an international match was against United States. And it was on, in Manhattan, like was a cricket stadium or we're going to St. George's or cricket flour or something. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I'm surprised that they really pick up.

Speaker 3:

So cricket baseball came out. Um, and that stipend. So we basically, I say we, my guess, I mean, I haven't studied enough history and I think there might've been, um, we really don't want to be very much like the English in some sense, like we like coffee better than like degree.

Speaker 2:

They kick their in a couple of Wars. So

Speaker 3:

We had some issues, you know,

Speaker 2:

Like, Oh, it's like, it's like your parents. Like, I don't want to be like my parents. Right. So you're just like, I'll do that. I'll just make my own version.

Speaker 3:

We did keep balls though. There was like big conversations that Scottish probably why? Cause they're like, Oh, it's not British army. Like basically. Yeah. That probably is why it read the books. Like the 19 hundreds or late 18 hundreds. When USU, as we being formed, there was a lot of talk about making sure that the two rules stay in sync and lockstep. And so there's always been this like RNA and USDA kind of semiformal relationship in terms of compromises and keeping both parties happy so that it will stay the same

Speaker 2:

Neutral, like completely neutral, like we'll be Switzerland. Like what is the, so when did you, like, when did you come to the United States?

Speaker 3:

I was 18 when I came. Um, I went to

Speaker 2:

Or college or did your whole family immigrate neighbor for college?

Speaker 3:

Came here on my own, went to Ohio Wesleyan, which was a small liberal arts college in Ohio. And I actually was the tennis, uh, captain of the tennis team over there. I played more golf. I was fortunate, um, that the women's tennis coach, her family owned the golf course and they would just let me play. So that was really, really awesome. Thank you. If you guys are listening, thank you very much.

Speaker 2:

I will send you a free articles,

Speaker 3:

Arco sensors around me, but in fact, you know, her, um, family was, I don't know if you remember Ben Curtis, he won the British open and it was his grandparents that owned the golf course and yeah,

Speaker 2:

That's really cool. So wait, so you came by yourself and did you, what was your degree in

Speaker 3:

Computer science and mathematics? So

Speaker 2:

When did you want to do, when you grew up, did you want to work?

Speaker 3:

I want to do, when I came to America, I wanted to, I came like, I love the idea that in America you could actually do anything you wanted. And it really, I would say has held true for me. Like if you, to me, this is the one country where it gives you the biggest opportunity to start. I mean, lets you take a risk and reward it appropriately or better than any other place in the world is the system or the society we have it's accepting in that sense, the risk appetites there. Um, and the acceptance off, uh, entrepreneurs, uh, like I would say like probably no other culture. And um, I always felt like I wanted to build things and do my own thing. And this would be the place where I would do it. I don't know why, but something right. That's what I like building stuff. And this is where I should come to bill. And um, I majored in computer science and mathematics because I was, I grew up with computers as fascinated by them. I felt it would be something like tech related that I would do. And I was always good at math growing up. I actually, um, there was like my one like best mathematician in the country or something like that kind of war, university of Cambridge does like exams A-level exams, which is like equivalent, like high school. And we have it Countrywide. And so I knew I was good at math and tech and I wanted to build stuff and this would be the place to come and do it.

Speaker 2:

So what year did you graduate college? Like 99, 2000.

Speaker 3:

I graduated 2003.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah. See, I'm older than you. Ah, I'm just kidding. I graduated from 2000. That's fine. So after you got out, then what was your, like, what was your first job working for a tech company or your work engineer?

Speaker 3:

I actually, um, with my tennis coach who was a consultant at Arthur Anderson, we tried to start, uh, electronic health records company. So we worked on that. I worked on that for like about a year before college or before graduation and six, eight months after it. And then that was like the time they do post.com. There's not a lot of funding going in. It,

Speaker 2:

There was nothing going on. Right. Cause the bubble had burst it in like 2000.

Speaker 3:

Well, yeah, but we couldn't raise any money. So I ended up, um, joining like a pharmaceutical company, um, doing software development and I did that for like two and a half years and I've realized, you know, I like miserable. Yeah. I was like, I want to be in the side.

Speaker 2:

You're like I was in corporate America and I realized like I was, this is not the right place for it. Like I've done that too. It sucks. I was in a cubicle all day and I was like miserable and I was like,

Speaker 3:

Yeah, exactly. So then, so then you're working there. Then I joined a startup. I was like, all right. I'd like, let's take the plunge and the risk. I mean, for me it was honestly like at that point I was like, um, I couldn't start a company because, um, I had like basically either a company's got to sponsor me when they say like, Hey, this guy is smart and talented enough that we want to sponsor H1B work visa. I couldn't just go start. And so I had to have a job where the company where I would, my kind of skills were in demand at which point, like there was scarcity in terms of like, there were more engineers want it than were available in America. And so, uh, but I ended up joining a startup because as they start, it's going to be a lot more fun, which it turned out that we liked this. What was that like? What were you living? The East coast or West? This was Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh considers itself, East coast. However, it's like only two and a half hours from Columbus, Ohio. And so I always like when I got to Pittsburgh, I was like, Oh yeah, the Midwest and people get really offended. So I quit.

Speaker 2:

No we're Pennsylvania. Okay. You know, Pennsylvania is a big state and it goes East and West.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So it was like to me, like a phone book, I love Pittsburgh by the way, like, uh, it's still probably might still be my favorite city in the U S. And so I was there for four years doing software development, data architecture. What kind of,

Speaker 2:

What kind of startup was it? Like, what are they doing competitor

Speaker 3:

To salesforce.com. So was a CRM system. What's it called? It was called now it's called campaigner CRM. So we were acquired by G2 global, which is a public company in the Bay area. Um, but the cool thing for me was if I program bad stuff, we would get like, cause we had a bunch of customers, so you'd get like a CD emails, like, okay, this is not working in that. Like the, so it was rewarding in the sense when you build cool stuff, you're getting feedback. This is awesome. If you're making mistakes, you're getting feedback. This is not good. And

Speaker 2:

No, it's cool. It's like, cause you're not working in a bubble. Right. It's not like, Oh, I'm programming this, we're making this. And then six months later it goes to production and you're like,

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Yeah. So it was cool. Just being on that you felt like, I felt like I was in the front line making an impact, like the things that I was doing, people caring about using or not using, depending upon the quality of the,

Speaker 2:

So then what happened then? You got married. Sorry ladies.

Speaker 3:

I mean, I met my wife in Pittsburgh and it was so at that point I think like, yeah, actually I would say like, my marriage was a really, really important moment in my life because it gave me like, like talking to my wife, it gave me the confidence to like, all right, let's

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Support too. Right.

Speaker 3:

What system? And I was like, okay. So for me to start a company, I felt like I needed to gain a little bit better understanding of business and also to build my resume. So it'll be easier for me to raise financing. Um, and so I applied for two business schools. I was fortunate enough to get accepted by Yale. And I actually was optimizing on a golf course. It was like, sort of like a dude. Um, and then I ended up picking Gail, um, because my wife wanted to go to like us to move to Galen and Connecticut instead of Duke. So those are the compromises. However, like that was going to be my choice. Anyway, cause that golf course is incredible. And actually two years to business school, I'm going to go somewhere where I can golf a lot. And I sure did that.

Speaker 2:

Then I got better, but not good enough. No, that's that whole thing. Right? That's the drug it's like always trying to, uh, get better, figure it out. So then you got, so you went to Yale and then you got your masters MBA.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I got my MBA. That's right. And I played, I would guess probably in the two years, between 220 to 270 rounds of golf.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. He's married. You could tell I had a really supportive, did you guys have kids then? Or you have kids now or

Speaker 3:

One baby girl now she's like, but no kids, dad then. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So it's like young. Yeah. It's like those early years where you can just like in business school. I mean business school was a lot of work

Speaker 3:

Flexibility. Like I could like if there's a golf course right there, like I'm just optimizing my time.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. Oh, that's be tell yourself that was like me, me. I was in law school. I know it was the same thing. It was like a lot of readings, like mouse, your priorities. And for me, like, I'm always

Speaker 3:

Like, my wife knows it. Like I like I'm happiest when I'm able to golf, like mental health. But I also like I'm in the happy state when I'm able to evolve and winter. Like the thing that keeps me happy right now is I know golf around the corner. It's like two months away.

Speaker 2:

It's like, yeah. It's like, I don't know. It's like, it's like the euphoria you feel after working out, you know, or you feel like complete like your brains kind of chill, you know? So then you graduated from Yale with your master's and then what did you do?

Speaker 3:

So I was actually working actually with a co-founder of mine, Clinton. Uh, we started working on like, uh, the concept of, you know, tracking data and stats for golf that summer. I was a fellow at the Yale entrepreneurial Institute. Um, got to know. So basically like what Gail now it's called center for innovative thinking at Yale. So they rebranded it. They picked like 10, um, student team, student slash professor as well, uh, teams across the, all the schools in the university. And then we'd go through a summer fellowship. And that was an amazing program. And I got introduced to a lot of people, ended up becoming investors in the business. And so basically the idea at that time was how can we track stats and data in golf? And that's where we started, but we quickly, um, well I got introduced to, uh, the CEO then CEO of Callaway, George fellows, who had shared that, um, gal was working on a similar technology and they're like basically close to launch. And I realized, I was like, well, if they're close to launch, then maybe my thinking is a little behind times. Cause if a big company is doing it and that means I wasn't thinking far enough ahead and turns out, I mean, there's like so many interesting things that happened, but should I keep going? Yeah. So we organized. So like as they already have Calvins, join us, what else can I do in golf? And um, a bunch of us, like 10 of our students came up with a plan where like, you know, abandoned dunes, we should go to Bandon dunes.

Speaker 2:

I play golf.

Speaker 3:

So, so we convince Yale, um, to pay for it. But in return, what we did was you organize literally a full-on golf summit. Like they're talking about the future of golf. We invited some of the leading minds, whether like there's Jim or binos, like we're core architect or McDonald's uh, Bandon dunes was there. Uh, we invited the head of R and D at Calloway on Hotmail. And then there was like business school professors who did a case studies on, we created case studies on the future of golf and took me into this amazing, like 60, 70 person summit around the future of golf. And over there, I got to know the head of R and D of Callaway on Hotmail. Well, and eventually, I mean, at that time, Cal was kind of struggling and, um, chip, when he came in, he's like, you know, we're going to put chip brewer, CEO now of Calloway, um, said, we're going to put everything non-core on the shelf. And they reached out to me and they were like dealing with, to license this technology. And we said, yeah, we'll do a yeah. Hell yeah, I do. Yeah. Although that technology, we don't use any of that attorney. It wasn't like we had to kind of scrap it and basically build everything from scratch

Speaker 2:

The initial framework. And uh, I mean, you can't, you gotta, this is going up there with like running my brands is that you'd have to go head first and do it and that things break and figure it out. And so it'd be like, well, you know, and you just gotta do it. Might not be happy with what you have, but it's like, well at least it got me going. Right. And then redeveloping it. So what year was that? Like 2012.

Speaker 3:

13. 13? Yeah. 2013.

Speaker 2:

So is that kind of like the foundation then for Arcos in the very beginning was like, when that occurred, you're like, okay, this is, we can really do something with this. Like my idea, because no one was doing any AI stuff or any data driven. There's zero data-driven anything.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I mean basically like it, to me, it was, you know, when you look at golf, like everything you buy, like, like the clubs you're buying the lessons, you're taking the fitting, you're going through the walls. You're picking all that stuff has to translate to your scoring. That's why you're doing it so you can score better. But nobody was even right now it's scale. Isn't really us is tracking what's happening on the golf course. Are you actually performing better based on the decisions you're making. Um, and so to me, I was like, you know, like that is the end all be all like in the end, we're trying to perform the best on the golf course yet. Nobody is figuring out what the heck's happening on it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. You got to spend the time. Yeah. You're not, you don't know what happens when you're out. There you go out a couple of good shots and blah, blah, blah. Here's my scorecard. And it's like, well, that's not, I'll tell you anything.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Scorecard just tells you like, it doesn't give you the why it gives you like, okay, you played well or not. Do you have no idea?

Speaker 2:

Give me a grade. Oh, you have a, you have a, you're a C minus player. They're like, Oh, okay, well bro, go practice some more.

Speaker 3:

Yes. Not doing a diagnosis. So, so like we, like, our belief always has been that one, like what's happening on the golf course should be getting tracked and analyzed properly. But then the decisions that are going to be made off, like this is the data that's going to inform and drive the best decision making. Whether it's you as a golfer, how you should warm up what lessons you should take, what stuff you shouldn't buy. But even beyond that, uh, like your fear and OEM, like paying just mentioned. I mean, I'm not speaking out of turn because they've already shared this, but I'm looking at, um, Arcos data. Their engineers now do fitting a little bit differently for their, a wedge, like the 58, 54 56 degree registers because they're like, you know, 60% or they can, the average trip distance is 40 yards. So that's what they should be fitting from to optimize that. And 60% of those shots are taken from the rough. But before that, like, I mean, when you go to the house

Speaker 2:

Hypothetical, right. When they're doing it originally like, well,

Speaker 3:

Perfect. Like a lot of times, like a lot of fitting could be happening. So yeah, because that happens a lot. Right.

Speaker 2:

When you're, when you're a horrible golfer, you're actually on the, where you want to be. So that's crazy. So then, I mean, you guys are doing a lot of stuff. So your initial, initial product, and was it the smart sensors? Was that, is that kinda what got you in, like what was the first product you brought to market? Yeah.

Speaker 3:

You know what I mean? Yeah. So it was like, so like we had an awesome actually team, like the early team of Ahmad and for breeze, they're like two of my, still my very close friends, um, engineer, like for base, one of the top engineers, Evan, who's still like, awesome. Like, so we had this and Colin, another guy, um, we had this amazing cool group of people and we built the interesting thing was we were doing Bluetooth sensors at that time. And this was Bluetooth, low energy. Cause we had the, to make the sensors last, a number of rounds, like 40, 50 rounds before you place a battery. And to do that, um, it wasn't really, I mean, Bluetooth, low energy wasn't even where we need. So we hacked Bluetooth, low energy, and we had to basically connect and disconnect 14 sensors with your smart phone. But I remember like we had a demo with, uh, Apple, uh, cause I taught, like we got two Apple stores. It will set a quality market. Also hold us to like, cause it's hard, really, really hard to get into Apple stores super hard. Right? Yeah. Like they only have like 10 outside non-Apple products, so products that are in the world, but the odds are minimum minimal. But I thought like if we, um, that's the goal we set, it'll push us towards building a better, better product because to us, to me, Apple kind of sets the standard and greatness industry for sure. And so we did this demo and they were like, wow, like Apple, Apple, Apple folks were like, how the hell are you guys connecting? Like this many sensors with like, we didn't know, like our phone could do this and we'd actually forget, like our engineers were so smart. They'd figured out a way to make 14 sensors connect. And like,

Speaker 2:

So it's like beyond Brill, it's like so smart. It's like

Speaker 3:

Fascinating watch and blows. It blows

Speaker 2:

Your mind. You're like how in the hell?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I mean, it really is. I mean, when you take, like, I think like the creation process of a physical sensor and like the digital stuff, like ether, like messages from going through the either, I mean, it's amazing how it all works hands awesome. How these like engineering minds, great minds are able to conjure up like amazing solutions where like, I mean, all looks lost. I mean, those were, those are interesting, fascinating days, which we had a lot of early on this, none of this had been done. So every we're like, Oh, we don't know if this is even possible. Like, can this be done?

Speaker 2:

You're bridging the gap. Right? The gap that no one ever tried. So it was you're literally the front tee is the frontier. Like you've, you know, using technology it's available

Speaker 3:

Advanced Bluetooth, low energy exploiters in probably the world at that point, which was fascinating because there were no answers like what these guys were doing agenda. There was no, there was nobody not even Apple that could help us with that. So we had to figure it out ourselves. It's just fascinating.

Speaker 2:

So then why did you guys first come to market that year? What year was that? 15?

Speaker 3:

That was 2014. So we raised our first round of financing in June of 2013. And then we launched the product in Apple stores in November of the holiday season 2014, which we were really very proud and excited.

Speaker 2:

So you launched the sensors and then the app,

Speaker 3:

Right? Yeah. Sensors of the app. So basically, uh, at that time it was much simpler analytics because like we actually had really advanced analytics behind the scenes. But what we were exposing was very simple because, um, even on the PGA tour, like the only thing that talked about from a actual correct stats was strokes gained, putting didn't you have like the other stroke scan, driving approach off the teeth, all that stuff like around the green, they didn't have that BGO tour didn't have that. And so we knew and the strategy and putting was also in its infancy. I think it had just been rolled out, uh, that year. And so what we were doing from an analytics standpoint was behind the scenes. We're going all the strokes game calculations, but we were converting it into a handicap. So we've given you a handicap for each facet, like you're driving like a 10 handicap or you're putting like a five handicap, which was really powerful information because you start getting a sense of where your strengths and weaknesses lie. But we knew that strokes gained is always going to be richer because it's translating into how many strokes can you get better by it? Cause that's the direct improvement you're going to see in your score.

Speaker 2:

So how many, how many products do you guys have now?

Speaker 3:

I would say if we look at our products, like there's the beta tracking site,

Speaker 2:

Cause you guys are doing some cool stuff. I mean, I didn't like I was on the site yesterday and I was like, Holy crap. They were actually building smart grips. Now I'm like, that's brilliant. Like I want to screw it into your club. Like it just, you could skip them.

Speaker 3:

So you have, so we have like, you're basically on the sensor side, which is to capture the data for your shots. Um, you can either have where smart buyer, smart sensors. Um,

Speaker 2:

No, it's like a, you screw this plug, I guess supposed to have saying it in the top of it, into the top. Right. You'll ever notice you don't see it, but it's like, it, it stays in the grip the top. Right. And then that was the initial design. Right. And they still sell that. But now it's like, they've moved past that. Now they're doing like stuff with like it's actually incorporated into the grip, right? Like,

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So now it's like, so you can add to, you can get either version so you can get the smart sensor or you can get smarter as the sensors embedded. And we have golf bride in Lampton grips, uh, for that. And, and so that's kind of on the census, you can buy smart sets, which already have so, um, paying Cobra there, like all their new lines, like[inaudible] just being launched right now. Uh, rad speed, uh, with Cobra, they have, uh, articles already installed in the clubs

Speaker 2:

It's already Milton was, it was the first brand to do that with you. Is that was that Cobra, but that with the F eight F nine or before that,

Speaker 3:

What are the drivers drivers? And then the FAA, it was like across the line. And since then it's been in every class,

Speaker 2:

That's the first remember hearing your guys's name? Cause like it was like, you know, with Arcos and I was like, what's Arcos, you know what I mean? Like that's cool. So that was,

Speaker 3:

And that was a very important partnership for us. Um, and it still is. And we've done awesome things together. We've connected so many golfers together and led to a lot of improvement. Yeah. So you can either buy so on this and society can either buy smart sensors or grips or smart sets. And what they're doing is they're connecting to a GPS receiver, which can be your phone. So it can be your Android or iOS phone. It can be your Apple watch. If you're one of those

Speaker 2:

I saw that that just came out right. You guys are releasing it now with the Apple watch,

Speaker 3:

You're coming out of beta and it's right now, it made us going to be coming out of beta in one month, or you can get link, which is a device you can clip on to your belt. Um, if you don't want to play with a watch or your phone, uh, and it's specifically that link is designed by us and that's recording combination of the sensors and blink or Apple watch or, um, your cell phone is recording the location of every shot you're taking in a bunch of parameters around it, where you started, what hole, what club you used, if the shot ended up five yards into the ROV, do they end up in the bunker? How far did it go off?

Speaker 2:

That's cool. So if you don't want to, if you didn't have an Apple watch or a phone on you and you just want to play golf, you can have that the link, right. And that will record it so that when you're back home or wherever, then it will just talk.

Speaker 3:

As soon as you come back within range with your phone, you'll download automatically download all the data to your what's so awesome. It's very, I mean, it's actually amazing piece of technology. And then the, so th that's on the data capture site, it gives you a bunch of different options, depending upon your preferences, both on the sensors and the cell phone link watch. And then on the software side, the data analytics side, we have an amazing app. We have really phenomenal designers and engineers who build like beautiful things. Um, and so, so I think you, like, what you get is like the kind of insight that honestly like even PGA tour pros don't necessarily get from the PGO to a website actually just, it's not the best, greatest, uh, uh, visualization and, uh, uh, strokes, you know, the PGO to herself.

Speaker 2:

Cause that's a lot of the, I mean these other everyone else, or, you know, a lot of people, brands, companies, we want to call it, like they're not spending the money on the technology or on the design. They're just, it's like a throw away to them. It's like, Oh yeah, we have that. But it's like, they put no into it. So that's what you get, right?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, exactly. And for us design is very, very important. It's central to what we do. So we spend a lot of time designing the right interfaces. So, um, it's giving you effectively in the most effective and visually appealing way. The most effective, I would say the most important pieces is information. You need to know about your game to get better. And that's why our average user and their first year, last year, like if you were a first time user in the Arco Sisco system last year, your average improvement was 5.02 shots, which that's something we track. I mean, it's, but it's, it's not surprising to us anymore, but it is better

Speaker 2:

As it as it's gonna get better over time. You know what I mean? Cause that's gonna, that's your first year. I mean, you're still gonna get better each that's just your initial gain.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So it's a, I mean basically, and then we have, we give you information stroke, skin analysis about your game. Um, we give you like what the skin analysis, without giving too many details does, is it like pinpoint exactly what you should be working on? Where are you losing strokes might be for you, it's from maybe all your shots from 150 to 200 yards. Cause you're hitting a lot of them that plus, um, it might be putting from 10 to 25 feet. And so we really pinpoint and target exactly what your weaknesses are. Um, and then the other thing, and I think that's fascinating that we do is we give you a real accounting of how far your clubs actually go. Um, so that you make better decisions and what that results in. I mean, I think like we have had a bunch of people at our company who have had holes in one recently over the past three, four years, and now say this, like this rate of holes in one, like we're a small company, too many people. Like, we're not that good in terms of

Speaker 2:

This is not the Yale years. Okay baby and working full time.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So we did a study of like, uh, like basically how many of our users are getting holes in one and you're a five times more likely I think 5.6 times more likely to get a hold on one with Arcos because when you step up to the tee box, now, you know, you're eight, aren't goes 142, not 150. So you're going to get, yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's not like it's like a reality check, right? Like it's 700, 175 yards, like. You hit it like one 40,

Speaker 3:

You hit it one 50, maybe like one times out of 10. Yeah. But that's,

Speaker 2:

That's what you remember. It's like, Oh, I'm on 50 out. And you always hit it short, you know, or whatever it's cooler because tour players know whether it's what, they're, how hard they, what the hit, how far they hit it normally, you know? But like people like you and me don't we have no idea. We think we know,

Speaker 3:

In fact, like, you know, what's funny is, uh, when you talk about tour players, so Bubba, Watson's Katy, Ted Scott, he actually used it. I mean, he's a big Arcos user, but he also will go like we have this AI range finder, which takes all the wind elevation, all that stuff into account to give your distances. And so he'll utilize that to map courses beforehand. Cause like during the round he can't use Arco scatty, uh, which I would say like, they shouldn't be able to do it because it's the same thing. They're writing it down beforehand, but that's how he does it. And like all these guys. So, um, it really is like great insight into how does wind affect your wall? Like if it's coming 20 miles an hour in your face, but at a, say a 30 degree angle where we can figure it out. However, these, your tour pros can because they spent a lot of time. They, they, they have all of this literally written down. Like when you look at their like Bryson D shamble is, are next to the bag, like they're like how much wind is coming and what the impact is. Uh, but that's does, that's their full-time job. Like that's what Bryson and his caddy do all day. That's what Ted Scott and Bubba Watson do all day. But as an average golfers, we shouldn't be expected to get those printouts and stuff like USDA should let us use this technology. My, I love

Speaker 2:

It. I especially love what you guys are doing

Speaker 3:

By the way, just to be clear, we have a conforming version of the app and nonconforming, there's just a toggle. And the only thing that the only difference is in the non-conforming version, you get, we give you rangefinder recommendations based on taking live weather data, into accounts and elevation and all that stuff.

Speaker 2:

Fricking cool, dude. I'm sorry. It's just so cool. Like I, I love tech, but when you hear it, like, I, I didn't know to what extent this could do. I knew it. Did you know what I mean? But when you start telling me, I'm like, Holy crap. It's like, it's cool. And you're always developing it. Right. You're always making a book.

Speaker 3:

I would say we're like 5% of probably where we want to be in the next few years. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And what's cool is like, you're not, you still treat it as a startup. You know what I mean? Like your team is what, 20, 30 people, right.

Speaker 3:

We're maybe like, well not counting people in the factory manufacturer and probably like 50 ish.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So you're still, you know, you still treat it as a lean. Your startup that's like is, is a, is a real disruptor. Right. If you think about it, like you think about these drawers and in the, in the game of golf, but also just in technology-wise that, I dunno. Imagine what's going to be like in five years, right? Like, look how far you've come. And in the last five years, imagine the next five years is going to be,

Speaker 3:

Yeah. We're very excited about it. And like, I think like we view ourselves maybe. I mean, we don't like to use the word disruptors, uh, internally. Uh, we think we are actually, um, a net like add to the entire industry because like, what we're doing is allowing the existing structures of golf to get smarter and more efficient, whether it's R and D for OEMs or, um, like the core superintendents, having heat maps, uh, so that they know where people are walking and taking their shots from which will lead to 40 to 70% savings in irrigation, according to the USDA, if they have Arcos or Arcos like data. So, because I think we view ourselves as bringing data in like, meant to golf, which will help all of us perform better. But it's the golfers, the golfing.

Speaker 2:

Well, I just think it's amazing what you guys are doing. I mean, I'm excited to like, be working with you guys cause I'm like, Oh, this is awesome. Like, I've been a fan from far away. Right. And then, but I got like a, we were talking before the show and they sent me some stuff to test and I can't wait to do it because I've always wanted to see what this could do. I just haven't had a chance to sit out. So I mean, you guys are amazing stuff. Like, honestly, I don't see that that often, like, or even, I don't know. I'm just excited, honestly. This is really cool. You guys have to check it out. I mean, first of all, the tabs, you know, sound on the show is, you know, tells busy, but they're like, no, all the things that's happening behind the scenes and like how they're growing. And it's just, I don't know. This would be, I think this year's gonna be a huge year for you guys. Honestly, I bet lash. It was massive, right. Because it was for everybody pretty much. But now it's like, I'm seeing it now in the tech space, especially when it comes to golf equipment because people are stuck at home. So it's like people are Jones into play golf because we have all these new players. Right. And if you think about the new generations that are coming into the game, they've never played. Right. They're between the ages of like 20 and 40, let's say they're already technical, typically savvy. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, they want some tech that help them get better.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Or average user though. I mean, whoever they've been redesigned, we designed for, if you have like generally when new tech comes in, generally the younger demographic, that's kind of like leading the charge and then it goes up the age scale. But our average uses 55 or 54, but that's partly like our OEM partnerships. We're a golf sets, but yeah,

Speaker 2:

The sales, right? Like it's because you're with the OEMs and now their people are, I mean, it's a brilliant move. Right. So if you guys weren't with the OEMs, Daniel was, it's a bigger Hill for you guys to climb because you would have to, you know, how are we going to sell products? Yeah. I mean, that was massive, right. Once you got in the OEM's hands, like, Oh, nice. But now with the grips, right. I think that's another thing too, because a lot of people don't go out and buy new drivers every year clubs. Right. Cause they don't afford it. They can't afford it. They don't care, whatever it might be. But now you have almost like three options. You can get a new one new club, you can get the grip through golf, pride or Lampkin, or you can get the sensors like the original way. So, well thank you for being on the show. I'm going to be, I'm going to have you come back. I have more questions. I have more questions for you, but I know you're a busy man, but thank you for being on the show. I'm really excited to work with Arcos. I have a lot more questions, but even so for the next time I'm going to, you might even, you can build a new best friend. Um, and so check out Arcos you guys it's arcos.com, right? Argos golf.com. A lot of you guys already know what it is. So, um, if you don't check it out, we will be reviewing it on the site and I'll be doing an unboxing video. So I'm super excited about that. But thank you for being on the show today. Sow a real pleasure if I get to meet you or to doing more stuff with you guys. So yeah. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to another episode of behind the golf brand podcast, you're going to beat me, like stay connected on and off the show by visiting golfers authority.com. Don't forget to like subscribe and leave a comment. Golf is always more fun when you're winning, stay out of the beach and see you on the green.