BACK in 2008, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp had trouble hailing a taxi while on a trip to Paris.
They had a discussion about how helpful it would be to have a phone app which could be used to book a taxi.
The idea became Uber, a company which although perpetually embroiled in controversy, has a value of about $70 billion.
So, if you can hail a cab, sell your house, order your dinner or find the love of your life on a phone app, why not use one to find a player to fill in for that guy who always pulls out of the five-a-side match at the last minute?
That’s not to say Find a Player is necessarily going to become a blessing of charging unicorns, but the app is gaining momentum, and in a digital age where people are looking for effective and time-saving methods of doing pretty much everything, it is arriving at the right time.
Huge credit must go to Jim Law, the Glaswegian behind the business. He has built a team capable of delivering the service, and recruited serious names in the tech world, from former FanDuel chairman Owen O’Donnell, to Steve Oliver, MusicMagpie founder.
The challenge now is to reach critical mass, and then get revenue coming in quickly, before taking the model overseas. Anyone who has been in Mr Law’s position knows those first few years of getting a viable product are not nearly as challenging as building scale.
Scotland has a strong background here however. The likes of Skyscanner have shown that by getting the right product to market at the right time, it is possible to build a £1bn business.
In winning Best App at the most recent Sport Technology Awards, it would seem Find a Player’s product is ready, so following this investment round, Mr Law and his team face the task of recruiting the number of users required to make it a viable revenue-generating business.
And that is almost as challenging as getting 10 players to turn up for a game.
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