Building a Golf Startup: The Story Behind TRAQ

But, uh, actually a really good point that we had the event yesterday and why I wanted to talk about today's main topic, which is what is Track? Right? So I thought I'd give us a little bit of a pass because, you know, this, this podcast is more about everything going on in golf, some of the more interesting conversations, and we don't really plug ourselves a lot, although this podcast is spon-sponsored by Track Golf.

But we don't actually talk about what we've built, what is the company, what is the product.

So to get our listeners a little m- bit more acquainted with what we actually do, I would love to actually talk about what is Track, what are some of our products.

But more than that, just hear, Charles, why did you start the company, right? Like, where did this come from? You know, I think you have such interesting stories about what led you here, um, and then, you know, as, uh, for myself, having joined the company, you know, it's been such a cool ride getting to start a golf company, right? So I, I thought our listeners would enjoy a little bit of behind the scenes of what is it like to start a golf company from scratch.

Yeah, it's, it's definitely been a lot of fun, and I think even my wife would say that there's, like, a different level of excitement, uh, even when I'm dead tired, uh, especially now that I have a nine-month-old and losing a lot of sleep.

But there, there's still a lot of excitement in working on it because I am passionate about the sport.

Um, it really started, I think, with a very frustrating, uh, thing that I was feeling, which I think is pretty universal, which is the fact that most golfers spend a lot of time and money at the range, at lessons, and we're not getting good at the pace that we think we should.

We, we talked about it in previous episodes about, um, you know, different handicap levels where we were stuck in, and I mentioned that I was stuck in, like, the teens for the better part of a decade, and I felt like I wasn't improving and able to get through that plateau.

And the genesis of the Track spray was one day, I was at the range very early, at 5:30, and it's very rare that here in Southern California you get frost on the range mats, but that day there was frost.

And so I was hitting my normal, you know, practice warm-up shots before my round, and I noticed that because there was frost on the mats, it was showing impact patterns.

Uh, and I, and I was hitting everything chunky about three, four inches behind, but the ball flight was perfect.

So that was kind of the eureka moment and the point where I was like, "Why isn't there any sort of marking that can show where your impact is?" Because that day, I think I played one of my best rounds, you know, in, in that era of my golf.

Um, so yeah, that was kind of the beginning of my Track journey.

But that idea stayed in my head for almost a decade 'cause I was like, "Someone else is working on this problem and solution, and so I'm not gonna start when someone else has a head start." So I just waited and waited and waited [laughs] for almost 10 years before I finally said, "I guess no one's working on it.

Let me take a stab at it."

So the, I, I think that's so interesting that you say, you know, somebody else is working on this, because one of the comments that we get most from people who don't really know who we are, have never really tried our product, uh, especially on socials, uh, you social media warriors out there, um, is, "Hey, this is just foot spray." Right? Which, yeah, we obviously tried that, right? [laughs] Like, we, we would not make a product if you can literally go buy something off the shelf and it'll do exactly the same thing.

Yeah.

Um, what were the other products, including foot spray, that you tried and, you know, why didn't you just say, "Oh, okay, I'm just gonna use that thing over there and it gives me exactly what I want"?

Yeah, you know, foot spray is the first thing that I tried because a lot of golfers already use foot spray to spray, like, your driver head, and it shows you exactly where your ball makes an imprint.

And it's great for your club head or your, your club face, but it doesn't work well on the turf.

It will show a mark, but the mark, the impact marking is actually not clear.

Maybe it also depends on the brand, but I did play around with, like, three different foot spray brands, and it also stains the mat.

But the, the worst thing for me was there are ingredients in foot spray that is not very healthy both for humans as well as animals to inhale, and so I wouldn't wanna use it.

And actually, when I do testing f- for some of our earlier content, um, uh, we actually did a side-by-side Track versus foot spray, and I did it in my garage, and the foot spray gave me a horrible headache.

I mean, you shou- you should be able to spray it on your feet indoors, right?