Today we’d like to introduce you to Marvin Guelce.
Marvin, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve lived in Atlanta for about seven years now. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, I’ve fallen in love with Atlanta and feel lucky to call it home.
A couple of years into moving to Atlanta, I found myself hanging out with only the same friend group – not really trying to make new friends. So, one day I randomly decided to find a Flag Football league to play in. I played in a few leagues and found that Atlanta Sport and Social Club gave me the best opportunity to socialize with new people.
After a couple of seasons of playing, I signed up to be an ambassador for the company and help with on-site leagues and events. What started out as a part-time gig, turned into a passion for bringing sport-related experiences to Atlanta. Before I knew it, I found myself in a full-time internship, then a full-time entry level job. Fast Forward a little bit and I’ve been the Director of our Sports Leagues since 2016.
Since joining the ASSC team, I’ve watched up grow from less than 10,000 players to over 30,000 players annually with no signs of slowing down. I’ve also watched us grow into an interactive and influential community – that has to be the best part of it all.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. We’ve had our fair share of growing pains along the way.
I think we struggled through one of the most common issues among small but mighty businesses: Growing so fast that you start to lose your handle on the little things.
You know, you get into this industry because of the people. When you’re smaller, you get to communicate with them one-on-one and immediately provide them with what they need. And then as you grow, you find yourself in a space between “wanting to make every process scalable” and “wanting to preserve those one-on-one relationships”. And as we all know, there really just aren’t enough hours in the day to be IN the mix and work ON the business. Before you know it, your decisions make people feel less important than they once felt.
I’m confident enough to say that we do good work for so many of our customers. But honestly, we can’t claim to be champions for our community if we’re not trying to do that same work for ALL of our customers.
Over the last year and a half, we’ve done a lot to calibrate our culture internally and repair our reputation externally. I’m pumped to see how it all plays out this year.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Atlanta Sport and Social Club – what should we know?
Atlanta Sport and Social Club exist for the sole purpose of being the highlight of someone’s week – and the way that we do that is through social sports, events, & experiences.
Whenever we ask, we hear at least one of these reasons as to why someone signs up: 1. new to ATL/want to meet new people 2. want to get active 3. want to scratch a competitive itch. We recognize that at the route of it all, people are just looking to make connections – and we lean into that HEAVILY.
I love technology and what it can do for us. And because of how much smaller technology makes the world seem, we live in this time where people are running to technology to fill that connection void. They’re SPRINTING to technology. And for most people, technology is letting them down.
What we’re good at is effectively shrinking that same world by placing people with other like-minded people, with a better chance at winning connections.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
BIG SHOUT OUT to El Capitan – our President, Kevin Cregan. Since day one, he’s served as an incredible visionary, a supportive boss, and a friend. His passion for this city and the people in it are the reason why we’ve been able to touch as many people as we have.
We’ve got a badass full-time staff running our Sports Leagues, Social Events, Corporate Events, and Sponsorship business units. Our jobs are damn near 24/7 all year long and this team requires a certain kind of person to have that kind of hustle. In the same breath, it’s important to give 10x the credit to the wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, and children that allow us to work this hard.
We staff hundreds of part-time, contract, and volunteer workers to make all of our programming and events happen. Thank you for everything you do.
Most importantly, every single person that’s ever trusted us with their time, money, and effort. Every one of our customers is important to us and without them, we’ve got nothing. Atlanta, you guys are so damn beautiful.
Contact Info:
- Address: 260 Howard St NE
Suite 1 Atlanta, GA 30317 - Website: PlayInTheATL.com
- Phone: 678-869-4690
- Email: Marvin@atlantasportandsocialclub.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atlantassc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AtlantaSportAndSocialClub
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/atlantassc
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