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Meet Jeff Kassen of GO Kickball

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Kassen.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
GO Kickball was founded in 2006 as a way to create an active, fun, social outlet for young professionals. While the sport of kickball seemed elementary at the time, it was the perfect activity to blend co-ed social adults looking to hang out with their friends and meet new people in a sporting experience — and one that you can play regardless of your athletic-ability or even no ability at all.

My three partners and I viewed kickball as a “tool” to bring people together to be active, be social, and be outdoors. Whether hanging with friends or looking to meet new people, GO Kickball provides the atmosphere at the fields, at the league bars, and at our season parties and theme weeks to enjoy life together. We wanted to create a premier sport and social experience, hence our tagline “Atlanta’s premier social experience”!

With this intention, my partners and I developed a business model that was scalable across Atlanta, as well as, nationally. From identifying and implementing scalable business processes to developing relationships with parks and recreation to building our own sports management system to launching the business and marketing the product around Atlanta, the first 6 months was an extremely intense time where it took our drive, tenacity, and a good bit of patience to get our first season in Spring 2006 off the ground.

The good news is that the first season was a “home run”, so to speak, and we grew quickly from there. People really enjoyed the comfortable, non-threatening atmosphere that was engaging and designed to meet new people in a sporty yet casual environment. Within the first two years, GO Kickball Atlanta had over of 2,000 players playing each season and that continued to grow to upwards of 4,000 each season. Within those first two years, I left my position as a Product Manager at a supply chain software company to lead GO Kickball full-time with the focus on growing our Atlanta market and replicating our model nationally.

In the years that followed, GO Kickball became a popular and recognized brand across many metropolitan cities such as Birmingham, Charlotte, Dallas, and Denver to name a few, reaching upwards of 40 markets nationally with over 30,000+ co-ed adults playing GO Kickball each year. GO Kickball’s home office is based in Atlanta where 12 years later the sports and social networking leagues continue to be strong with 18 leagues around Atlanta playing every week. And we look forward to continuing Atlanta’s premier social experience for many years to come!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As I have learned in life as with GO Kickball, achieving successful results is never a straight upward right line. There are always challenges every step of the way, but it is how you respond to those challenges, your determination, your tenacity, and your perseverance that determines your success or failure.

For GO Kickball, after the initial couple years of great growth we faced several challenges along the journey. From adverse weather conditions to scaling operations to manage upwards of 40 cities to managing over 30,000 players annually, there were many strategic and tactical times to get there.

One of the main challenges in any business is finding good people, and GO Kickball is no different. Finding good people that can help build the company at a corporate level, but also having good people leading our markets was very challenging to find. We tried several different approaches before realizing that our first approach actually worked best. Our lessons learned helped us create a “crank” that allowed us to scale-up to our size today, but we would not have gotten here without failing on a few things only to learn from them to determine the best way forward.

The good news is that I have an amazing team of people helping me lead the organization from our home office in Atlanta to our GKB Atlanta team of over 65 people delivering a very well run experience to our Market Directors in each city successfully implementing our business model across all markets.

We measure several key performance indicators that keeps our team focused on delivering the best product, and we love to celebrate our victories. One victory the team has celebrated almost every year being in business is that our Net Promoter Score — a great measure of customer experience and a good leading indicator of business to come — is 92+% say they “Will Play Again” and 94+% say they “Will Tell Others to Play”. Our team works hard to deliver on those numbers, and I am thankful to have such a great team around me.

GO Kickball – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
GO Kickball is an award-winning co-ed adult sports and social networking organization that uses the tool of kickball to bring people together in a relaxed, non-intimidating atmosphere to be active, hangout with friends, and meet new people. GO Kickball is focused on delivering a more broad social experience through sporting where young adults with any athletic-ability or no ability at all can play and have fun, hence our tagline “Atlanta’s Premier Social Experience”.

Since spring 2006, GO Kickball has successfully operated our sport and social networking leagues every season in Atlanta and has grown to upwards of 40 markets nationwide with over 30,000+ players participating each year — approximately 12,000 of those in Atlanta alone.

As a company, what sets us apart is our attention to detail, very sound operations to provide the best experience, and always doing right by the customer. One thing we are most proud of is our Net Promoter Score in which 92+% of players say they “Will Play Again” and 94+% say they “Will Tell Others to Play”. Those are amazing numbers for any business, and it’s a testament to the great team we have across the GO Kickball organization.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment in starting and growing GO Kickball over the years is two-fold — first, is the start-up of each market, and second, is building the team around me. By far the most difficult part of any business is getting it off the ground — and we have had to do that upwards of 40 times as each new market is like a new business. There is a gut-check moment every time, and working through the stresses, challenges, and obstacles are different each time.

I am most proud of the tenacity and perseverance it took to launch each market when many times it would have been easier to quit for a good reason, and secondly I could not have done it without a great team around me. While there were some obstacles to finding and hiring the right people for this business, I got there through leveraging past experiences and some lessons learned. I am proud to work with the team around me, and thankful we are in this journey together.

Pricing:

  • GO Kickball is played each season in Atlanta and the cost is $65 for the entire season, which includes 8 weeks of games plus a season-ending Atlanta City Championship tournament. Additionally, the price includes a t-shirt for your uniform, all costs for field space, field managers and referees, equipment, seasonal parties and theme week, league bar experience with very good discounts on food and beverages, plus a whole lot more to round out the experience. Basically, everything is taken care of for the player — they just show up each week and have a great time!

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