How PlaySpots Expanded Globally

About this episode

In this episode of The eCom Show, host Shan A Salam sits down with Shamnas Thattoor and Amjad Ali O N, co-founders of the sports-tech platform PlaySpots. The founders recount how they launched PlaySpots in Kozhikode in 2018 to solve scheduling conflicts and booking inefficiencies for artificial turf owners and players. Starting from a basic listing app, they quickly incorporated venue management tools and online booking, later expanding across Kerala, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India, and into the Northeast. They explain how they survived extended lockdown shutdowns during COVID-19 by introducing in-app gamification, maintaining team continuity without layoffs, and pivoting towards a comprehensive B2B SaaS management platform. The discussion covers pitching to venture capitalists, understanding total addressable market, rejecting early undervalued acquisition offers, expanding to Dubai, and scaling up to support new sports like padel and pickleball.

Key takeaways

1. 1Building software by physically visiting venue managers and resolving operational scheduling conflicts creates a sticky B2B product.
2. 2Targeting Tier 2, Tier 3, and underserved regions first allows a startup to build defensible dominance away from metro-focused competitors.
3. 3During severe business downturns, maintaining open communication and keeping the core team intact preserves long-term execution capability.
4. 4Adding gamification or light interactive features can sustain app user engagement when core transactional business is halted.
5. 5Transitioning from pure consumer marketplace booking to venue management SaaS and in-app point of sale tools unlocks recurring revenue.
6. 6Understanding total addressable market and strategic industry alignment is critical when evaluating venture capital or acquisition proposals.

Chapters

1. 00:00Introduction
2. 02:42TURF Trend in Kerala
3. 10:23From Turf to All Sports
4. 13:55All India Expansion
5. 15:47COVID -19 (Hard Time)
6. 20:32Internal Team Management
7. 22:29Acquisition Offers
8. 27:50Expansion to Dubai
9. 30:38Funds, Investors and VCs
10. 34:13Pivot to SaaS
11. 35:57Total addressable market (TAM) & New Features
12. 38:51PlaySpots needs help!
13. 40:14Conclusion