Matt WardJustin Bryant: Community Manager at Rapsodo
BACKGROUND:
Has been with Rapsodo for three years starting out in Product Development and Testing before transitioning to the Community Manager last summer.
Before Rapsodo, Bryant played college golf at Wake Forest University and played golf professionally as a tour pro for 7 years.
THE BRYANT STORY:
I grew up with a love of golf and was blessed with the opportunity to play competitively on the Wake Forest Golf Team. After graduating in 2012 with a BA in Economics and a minor in Religion, I pursued a career in professional golf with the hopes of playing on the PGA Tour. During this time, I set 2 Tournament Course Records, won 3 times on the Minor League Golf Tour, competed on the PGA Tour Canada, and the Korn Ferry Tour.
After just missing obtaining my Korn Ferry Tour Card at the end of 2019 and with the Covid pandemic in 2020, my wife and I decided it was time for a career change and I was fortunate enough to be connected with Art Chou and Rapsodo.
Being from St. Louis, I was really excited about what Rapsodo was doing in my backyard. I joined the Rapsodo Golf team initially helping with product testing, then product development and most recently transitioned to the Community Manager role last July.
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Rapsodo has been on market for a bit of time now — what is the key element that has made the company successful?
From price point and portability of the product to a new way of experiencing your game, Rapsodo is second to none for those at every level looking to get more out of their game.
What differentiates Rapsodo from other companies competing in the same lane space?
Collectively, Rapsodo is comprised of athletes who have played the game and world class engineers who deliver. Every product in our portfolio is built to deliver the pro-level quality and accuracy you’d expect at the highest levels of play. In addition, every product, product feature, and metric were designed with other athletes in mind.
Who is your customer today?
Rapsodo operates in multiple sports across the world with multiple users including players, coaches, academy owners, parents, golf enthusiasts, and more. To us, our customer is defined as an athlete. But we believe being an athlete isn’t a matter of age, skill level, of experience. It’s about having the right mindset. We see it as the relentless pursuit for more.
When someone says the word “Rapsodo” — what do you want them to attribute to it?
We hope to spread our mission of giving athletes everywhere the tools they need to play like never before.
What specific elements does the MLM2PRO product provide?
The MLM2PRO utilizes a doppler radar as well as 2 integrated cameras to provide 13 data metrics (including spin rate and spin axis when used with the Callaway Chrome Soft X RPT golf balls).
Impact Vision utilizes a 240-fps global shutter camera that provides club and ball images on impact to help golfers better understand the swing path and face contact.
Shot Vision utilizes a wide angle 2k camera with shot tracer technology that maps the flight of the ball for every shot. Not only is the MLM2PRO™ a launch monitor but it is also a golf simulator that allows users to play more than 30,000 virtual courses anytime and anywhere.
Included free with the purchase of the MLM2PRO™ for the first year is the MLM2PRO™ Premium Membership ($199.99 value) which unlocks access to Rapsodo Courses, the Rapsodo Virtual Range, plus other exclusive membership features like the Rapsodo Combine.
How important is getting the right price point for such products?
Our mission is to give athletes everywhere the tools they need to play like never before and in order for us to accomplish that we aim to provide a premium product and an accessible price.
Do professional golfer endorsements matter in terms of product awareness and sales?
Rapsodo Advisors Mark Blackburn and Claude Harmon III are terrific partners as they are huge believers for the use of data in game improvement.
They have tremendous experience teaching the games top talent as well as the average player; they are huge advocates of Rapsodo and how we are leading the way in making technology more accessible to golfers of all levels.
In today’s marketplace — the importance of customer service is routinely mentioned. Define the term and the approach followed at Rapsodo.
At Rapsodo, customer service is a way of life. Our Global Consumer Experience team is growing and operates with a consumer-focused mindset. One of our core values at Rapsodo is to “Be Athlete Obsessed.”
Our team and our customers are all athletes, and our day-to-day focus is centered on improving their experiences and helping them to reach their full potential by playing without limits.
What role does customer feedback play and how is it incorporated into your future product efforts?
We are continually listening to our consumers, delivering a personal touch in each interaction, and constantly working to improve our products and services offered to the consumer. The MLM2PRO is a great example of how we listened to customer feedback and integrated their desires (spin data and simulation) into the product.
There are many small design features that were made with customer feedback in mind. We also launched our Rapsodo Champions program this year which is a tight group of passionate golfers who work closely with our team to engage in activities such as working closely with our product team to provide feedback and beta test.
Biggest challenges, short and long-term facing the company, and what strategies are being implemented to deal with both?
Sports and technology never stop evolving. Whether an elite athlete or weekend warrior golfer, technology and data are enhancing the way people play the game.
At Rapsodo, we can overcome short-term and long-term challenges by putting the athlete first to make sure the tools we provide help them play like never before.