Mike Hendrix (00:00)
Hello, I am Mike Hendrix from smbGOLF And today my guest is Fraser Marriott, Head of Lightspeed Golf. And this is the Tech Caddie Podcast.

Fraser, welcome to the show.

Fraser Marriott (00:26)
Thanks for having me, Mike. I'm excited to be here.

Mike Hendrix (00:28)
Well, we're really excited to have you on. I was just telling you off camera there that we like having people on that we haven't seen a lot on podcasts. it's hard to do research on you because there's not a lot out there. But you've been kind enough to have some back and forth with me. You were helpful as we built out our tee sheet report. So I do appreciate that. Kind of want to publicly.

acknowledge that. But really excited to have you on and learn about you and about Lightspeed.

Fraser Marriott (01:00)
Awesome. Well, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me. I think what you're doing for the industry is very important. So any way that Lightspeed can help support that is great. And I'm excited to chat with you and hopefully your listeners can learn a little bit more about me. And yeah, let's kick it off.

Mike Hendrix (01:15)
So let's hop right into it. For people that don't know, You are somewhat new to the role. When would you say you took the reins, so to speak?

Fraser Marriott (01:24)
Yeah, so a great question. I've been at Lightspeed for about seven years. And basically, as of January 1, I took over the reins of Lightspeed Golf. And prior to that, I was head of our go-to-market strategy and our customer management team. it's kind of a new-ish role for me. I'm very excited about it. I think we've got some terrific partners and people like you in the industry who've been a huge advocate for us.

I'm really excited to momentum and the excitement around Lightspeed right now. So yeah, a bit of a long-winded way of saying it's been about six months.

Mike Hendrix (01:55)
Well, I can imagine you're excited because the numbers back it up. So I do want to just kind of congratulate you on that. And we'll get into those details and maybe in just a bit we'll circle back to you you mentioned that you led the go to market strategy. And I think that that is a great way of kind of positioning that that it's not just sales, right? It's an entire go to market strategy from A to Z soup to nuts, however you want to look at it.

So maybe we'll circle back on that because Fraser people that watch this podcast are basically in two groups. You've got golf course operators that watch it. And honestly, I get very excited when an operator says to me, I'm really glad you had this guy on. We're now a customer. So like, that's a really cool thing, right? Because I feel like we help the operator in that sense. So I love that. But there's this other group of people that watch

that are these builders, these technologists, I like to call them, And they're building the technology for golf that's used today and certainly into the future. And I, you know, for whatever reason, I consult for many of them. And I find myself talking about go-to-market strategy more and more and more with these guys and gals. And so maybe we can get back to that. But before we go too deep into Lightspeed and et cetera, I'm interested in you.

How did you get to Lightspeed? You've lived in Canada your whole life. I mean, give us some background on you and what got you to this space Because again, I don't think a ton of people in the industry know you. And so I'm excited to kind of introduce you.

Fraser Marriott (03:26)
Oh, that's very kind. So I guess my journey here is, mean, I think like many people working in this industry, we started with shagging bags and, you know, working at the halfway hut and working the food and beverage side. So kind when I was 15, that was kind of my first foray into the golf industry. I was working in the bag shop, a Royal Ottawa Golf Club under the tenure of Paul Carruthers, great boss, had to him a shout out here. And so I did that. And originally my aspiration was to become a

PGA of Canada member and become a teaching professional. So I worked in the shop, worked my way up and actually did the PGM program at Niagara College, just about an hour outside of Toronto, an hour and half outside of Toronto. So I did that and then continued to work in the industry a little bit post for about one or two more summers while still continuing my education at Concordia here in Montreal where I studied economics.

Mike Hendrix (04:16)
Did you get your card? Did you get your PGA card?

Fraser Marriott (04:19)
I did not get my card. ended up going back to school and kind of undecided what I wanted to do with my future. I still knew I loved the game, but I kind of wanted to continue my education. So I wanted to be into economics and more of the trading side of things. But always hoping to get back into the golf industry. So after that, I worked at a startup, was kind of an import export business of clothing.

which is great. So we'd import clothing and then you know, ship it kind of throughout North America to wholesalers. So that would be an interesting. yeah, I have a feeling that that it's not as lucrative as it once was with all the tariffs and everything going on. let me

Mike Hendrix (04:53)
This is to be in today.

I've had multiple Canadians on recently because I'm trying my best to keep the relation strong

Fraser Marriott (05:07)
yeah, don't worry. I love our friends in the South, in the US. They're great. I have nothing but positive things to say. I spent a lot of time in the States. I love it there. So we're a big happy family in my eyes. So I did that. And then I kind of cut my teeth in the startup world and kind of had my exit with that company. And I decided to move on and move in. So Fraser, where were

Mike Hendrix (05:31)
you in the, in that company? Like, like what position were you in? Did you found it?

Fraser Marriott (05:37)
I was one of the, guess, I came in just after the founding round. I was part of the, I basically headed up operations and helped on the sales side and the marketing side. And so, yeah, essentially I would consider myself founder. It wasn't the original, but I was part of the main group that had that going. then worked with that and then moved over to Lightspeed seven years ago.

Originally on the retail side and about a year in we acquired...

Mike Hendrix (06:06)
Why go to, you know, what draws you into Lightspeed seven years ago? I think that's important in this journey.

Fraser Marriott (06:15)
Yeah, I mean, originally, was, know, technology was kind of the hot sector to be in about seven years ago in 2018, 2019. So was the initial interest. And I actually had quite a few friends that worked at Lightspeed and it still is and was an incredibly innovative company at that time. I'd met Dax, our CEO and founder, previously.

And he's a great guy and I learned about his vision. I had a passion, you know, being in kind of the clothing industry that we were supporting local retailers in brick and mortar, which I was a big believer in, and the e-commerce portion of it. So coming in, I felt it resonated with what I was doing. I really understood the retail, the brick and mortar side of things. And I felt it was a smart transition to move over to the technology side with.

everything booming. believe the year that I was there, over a thousand companies IPO'd, it was definitely a time when tech was really at its peak, at its apex. So I thought it was an interesting time to come in and learn about it and be the next part of my journey. And I started on the retail side for the first year. And then after the first year, JD, who's actually our president, approached me and said, at the time he was the founder of Chrono Golf and working his way up in Lightspeed. And he said, hey, we'd love

for you to come over and join golf. You think you bring great energy to the team. And I met with David Hope, who worked at Lightspeed and worked there for a long time and was a great leader and mentor of mine to come in. And he was like, hey, we'd love for you to join. I joined in the new business side and about four months in said, hey, we need an account management team. We're not serving these customers as best we can. And I worked with Kurt Albertson and many others in kind of creating it and Matt Welliver and

It just kind of grew from there, started our whole kind of post-sale process, customer management, customer service side of things. And that's kind of where I cut my teeth on the golf side and worked with, you know, with, with our MCOs. primarily the first one I worked with was Landscapes and Scot and Tom and John and Mike and that whole team. And they really have helped me grow into where I am today. I think Landscapes has been incredibly influential in what I've done and them along with Kemper and our other great properties and Pat.

Pat Kelly over at Advance, Bob Witzel, all of them, they've been incredibly welcoming.

Mike Hendrix (08:31)
Yeah, you're saying all those all those names that that that I know, you know, seems like a million years ago, JD and Matt Welliver actually came down to Orlando. We had them on set. We talked about this partnership we were creating. Then if I recall right in some office in Orlando, Welliver just starts up a podcast and I find myself on a podcast with Matt Welliver.

But, so sure. I remember those days and, I know that we specifically said these guys built this in their garage. This, these guys are different. They're thinking marketplace. They were doing stuff that we were doing at GolfNow. So yeah, I, I remember a lot of those, those early days. And it's cool for you to mention like Advance, like I love the guys that Advance Golf Partners. Larry Galloway is from

the town that I'm sitting in right now. So I've had a long for those guys as well. So yeah, it's good to, it's good to hear all those names. So, you get exposed to account management. You, mentioned earlier, go to market. but considering you had been in that startup world before, did you get the sense of how much bigger Lightspeed was getting?

And were you feeling or losing any of that startup kind of energy? Talk about that a little bit. And if that ever presented challenges for you guys.

Fraser Marriott (09:48)
Yeah, I think that's a great question. I think what is the beauty of Lightspeed is that, you know, it does still operate very much as a startup in many ways. I felt like I never really lost, you know, that ability to make quick decisions. You know, if you have the right idea, it's encouraged, you know, that's bring up ideas, try them, fail fast, move on, or if they were, run with it. I think it's fostered a tremendous amount of

amazing people, like a great think tank here, like we're not afraid to take risks. And I think that's what's, you know, attracted me originally to on the golf side, especially is when I came in, we were only at 400 clubs. Now we're, you know, really over 2000. And it's, it's, we've always kept that startup mentality. If someone has a great idea, my office doors is always open and we've started teams, you know, like digital marketing.

kind of started from a little small incubator and has grown into kind of 15, 20 % of our customer base. So it's, I would say we haven't lost a little bit of it. And I think I just spent the last week in QBR meeting with our executive team and everyone's shooting out ideas. How can we be better? How can we innovate and how can we move forward? And we're basically throwing post-it notes up on a wall. It still feels like those days when I was working at a team with

five people and now it's a company of over 3000. it's the beauty of Lightspeed is, how, is how everyone has a voice. and it's really the people. And I think when you foster an environment like that, our differentiator in this industry, both in the retail side, restaurant side and golf is the people that are at this company's and that's all because we fostered a great environment like that.

Mike Hendrix (11:21)
Well, we could go in a lot of directions there. have seen where you all have talked about Europe specific to restaurants and you're going to go boots on the ground big time in Europe. It's kind of that same play that we were so married to at GolfNow. I now, and now we see other restaurant companies, you know, running that, that same play. We knew the benefits Titleist enjoyed by having people on the ground and going into golf shops.

And we wanted to duplicate that. I, and I still believe today that is the superpower of GolfNow, is that they can afford to have that, that big, on the street presence. And it's interesting. I watched the podcast with Lightspeed and with Dax, and it was interesting to hear him talk about how they're going to deploy that same strategy for restaurants in Europe. So, so that's really cool. But

When you were in these QBR meetings, when you were with the senior management, are they noticing golf? Because, Fraser, I'm noticing Lightspeed Golf. I see the numbers here, right? So I'm noticing it, but, I get it. Golf is not a massive, industry is the team at, at Lightspeed global, seeing, what an amazing job you guys are doing with the golf division.

Fraser Marriott (12:29)
I would say we're definitely on the radar, especially in the last two years, we've seen tremendous growth. And I think we're right in kind of the focal point now. We're a high growth part of the business. We're getting major investment, major support. know, under, you know, current leadership, they've been a huge advocate for golf. JD being the founder of Chrono Golf originally, now Lightspeed Golf.

He's always been a huge advocate for us. But yeah, we are in those meetings and we are omnipresent in our growth strategy moving forward. we are an integral part in this company's success moving forward.

Mike Hendrix (13:03)
Good. Well, I don't want you to give up any proprietary stuff. Well, I kind of do, but I counsel you not to. Tell us about why you are, why the data that we're seeing, so this report.

2025 golf tee sheet and booking engine market report. Why are the numbers popping? What are you doing related to go to market that you weren't doing before? Why the, sudden traction?

Fraser Marriott (13:29)
So, I mean, I first need to give a shout out to the team. I think we've got the right people in place, you know, and we've been hiring great talent that has been coming in, that's been making sure that we're supporting our partners is most importantly. And I think that's getting around the industry is what our biggest differentiator is. And I know I mentioned it previously, so I'm not trying to be redundant here, but it is our support, it is our post sale and it is our people.

And I think that's our biggest difference maker. And I think that that has gone out, that we're here to support you. I think we're one of the few companies that can say that if you come into our business, you have a dedicated account manager, a dedicated customer success agent, and we have live support. We have 24 seven phone support. And it's really how we've supported our customers. Now from a in new business standpoint, I think we've learned a lot.

And I think that all that learning has really now quantified into, without giving too much proprietary stuff out there, is we built a major sales engine. But like for me, it's the respect that my team has built within the industry and supporting them and having the success with all of our partners. And I have to give a shout out to Matt Welliver and creating an incredible partner network. You we believe in the best of breed approach and that's, you know, we're not going to be a perfect solution.

I think if anyone says they are, think that you should high tail it and leave that room because no one has a perfect solution, but we find the right partners to ensure that we can create a solution that works for you. And I think that that mentality has really helped us grow at a rapid rate. And a lot of that has to do with the big guy. And when I say big guy, it's because he's seven feet tall in Matt But really creating that partner network and helping us grow.

Mike Hendrix (15:12)
I kind of want to go deep on your whole customer support thing. There's part of me that thinks that way because everyone kind of says that. And I think everyone even kind of believes it. But when you get into the venture capital world, when you get into the private equity world, their, distaste for spend related to customer support is, off the charts.

Right. The P E world does not believe generally speaking. I don't want to label everybody, but they generally speaking don't love pouring money, pouring investment into customer support. So it's interesting to hear you talk about customer support as, a separator and look, let's be honest. There's three big boys in your world right now, right? You're, you're one of them foreUP and GolfNow.

And so for you to talk about support as a separator, tells me that, cause I think you're a smart guy. I don't think you'd say that out loud if you didn't have the backing of, Lightspeed overall. It tells me that you guys somewhere, somehow have convinced the senior leaders to invest in support.

Fraser Marriott (16:18)
Yeah, I think it speaks and is that we look at it as everyone in this team works on a retention model. And that's what our business is based on. And I think that that is proof is in the pudding with how we've grown, because our focus is our partner success. And that's really that's a big belief coming from a top down mandate.

You know, I'm a huge believer in it, but like you said, I can believe in it, but the people at the top might not. And this company believes in the success of our customers. And I think having an entire team working towards unilateral goal is incredibly important. our unilateral goal is retention and customer success. So basically we look at NPS and we look at, you know, kind of our net retention number and that's what we're getting to. And to me, since we've moved to that, you know, about two years ago, I think that's been a complete game changer.

And every person in this team works towards that goal. And it's a big belief and that's what we speak about in every town hall. How are we retaining our customers? How is our organic growth going due to our retainment of customers? And I think if you preach that and you truly believe it, then it does cascade down to the rest of the team. But that's also because we've lucked out from a hiring standpoint, hiring great people that have fully bought in.

Mike Hendrix (17:29)
I disagree with you there. You don't get lucky in hiring. Hiring is a science. I don't think people get lucky when they make great hires. You make great hires because you've built a process to ensure you're gonna make great hires. You know, that's just my personal.

Fraser Marriott (17:42)
Thank you.

Mike Hendrix (17:44)
Let's

this won't be a ton of fun for you. You did lose one big customer and it, it was shocking. Montgomery County did move to TenFore look, everybody's going to lose something was, is that a learning experience? Was there a takeaway there or was it just a, Hey, listen, as we get close to 2000 accounts, that's going to happen once in a while.

Fraser Marriott (18:06)
Yeah, you know, I like the TenFore team, Jonathan and everyone there. I think they've got a great product as well. And I love Keith, Wayne, Ryan, and the team over at Montgomery County. And you know, they've been with us for a long time. You know, I think we definitely learned some things along the way where there are areas that we can improve. I think they made their decision. I encourage everyone to always explore. I do feel, and you can see by our retention numbers that,

Majority do stay with us because I think we'd have a great service and provide a great support system But you know, we learned a lot we learned a lot and and and I think most importantly is that partnership with Keith and Ryan has really sculpted where Lightspeed is today You know, we've got a ton and we kind of feedback how to improve the product how to improve our flows So I would say that relationship is nothing but positive and Keith and I are still close and Ryan are still close and Wayne is an absolute legend and you know, we're

We know we still keep in touch and and and and I have nothing to say but thank you and wish them the best of luck because they were a huge component to where Lightspeed is today. So that's smart.

Mike Hendrix (19:13)
understand what you're saying that regardless, you learn so much through that long run and you were able to apply it to so many other customers that there was a ton of better. So that's great.

Fraser Marriott (19:22)
And I hope that they do the same thing with Jonathan and team, you know, we just all grow together. Like the most important thing here is that everyone if they're providing the best service, then every golf course wins, you know, so I get Keith helping Jonathan improve his product and we had Keith improve ours, you know, like, and we have all these other great partners that we work with, we just need to be working better to have the best solution for our customers. That's what it comes down to.

Mike Hendrix (19:45)
So let's talk about this partner network that, that Matt Welliver has built. Cause it is impressive. and, and I hear so much about it. So I'll kind of like flesh out an earlier podcast, right? So we had Chad Pettengill from The Ledges on and we were talking about Lightspeed and he's a big fan of Lightspeed. And then we got into this conversation about Golf EMS, which is essentially like event.

sign up and registration, a prepayment of events, also a Canadian company. And it occurred to me that, well, I'm pretty sure that Lightspeed Golf has some kind of online store functionality, but you have this really strong partnership with Golf EMS, who is a online store on steroids, right? It's specifically built for golf, tailored for golf. Really the best operators in America.

They use Golf EMS. It's a, a very good platform for doing what they got to do. But I do think that other companies, big companies too, that you compete with could learn from that. It's not, you know, your approach isn't like, well, we can kind of solve that problem. So why would we work with Golf EMS? seems like your approach is Golf EMS will go deeper and deeper and deeper in this small little sector.

and we're going to let them run with it and provide ultimate value for our customers. So talk about that. And was there ever an epiphany moment where you said, this is the route to go, not the, Hey, well we offer an app. So therefore we're not going to work with any other app companies or, know, something along those lines.

Fraser Marriott (21:21)
Yeah, I mean, great question. I think there's so many good products out there and I think any company is naive to think the fact that there isn't a better option out there and we just want to serve our customers, our partners as best we can. So our logic is really best of breed. That's our mentality. So if we have a customer come in and we can fit 80 % of what they do and the remaining 20 % needs to be done through partners, we present everything on a table when they come in. We don't push any specific

part, you know, like the Lightspeed option first, this is our option. This is option one, this is option two, this is option three. And we run them through each one to ensure that they find the right solution. It's really at the end of the day, like we're all about growing a partnership together and longevity. And if you try and, you know, put us, what is it, square peg in a round hole with them right off the bat, it's going to leave a sour taste in their mouth. So I think offering them the entire menu, opposed to just trying to look at a subset of the menu is incredibly important. And I think Matt,

has taught this entire team and his partner network to really double down on that. Like I just think any company that thinks they can do this on their own is not looking at it the right way. I think what's great about golf is it's such a tight network in general. I think working with those partners and having them and creating that network and I learned so much from some of great partners that have helped us grow.

that why not work with them and make sure we have the right solution for the customer. What's important at the end of the day, where I think companies forget, is it is the golf course first, it is not your bottom line first. And we need to figure out exactly what the course needs, not what we need to get to a number.

Mike Hendrix (22:57)
And, you can fit partners into there too, because I do think it's also important to keep in mind if you're going to have a successful partner network, you got to let them also be profitable. You wouldn't want to have a partner network and they're all just barely eeking buy. You want to craft in a way that they can truly be successful too and build a company as well.

Fraser Marriott (23:19)
Absolutely. I think that's incredibly well put. I can't agree with the statement more than that. Like we want the success for everyone to grow together for sure. Nailed it, Mike.

Mike Hendrix (23:27)
I am, I'm also curious. Does the partner network get so big that it's tough for one person to handle it? And you know, we're talking about Matt now, but I, and I don't know, maybe he has a team. I'll give you, an example. I get probably two to three phone calls a week. People coming to me saying, can you make an introduction for me? I want to have an interface with Lightspeed.

And I'm just one little person, right? Like I can only imagine how many requests must come in to join this partner network. And, and honestly, I don't have an answer for this. Like, I don't know how you handle that. I don't know how you process all the requests. I also do think sometimes about like, and how do you make sure it's, democratic or it's fair. How do you know here's one guy building an AI, but

There's three other guys building an AI and we're not talking to them as much as this one. You know, like it seems like there's, there could be pitfalls in the whole partner.

Fraser Marriott (24:22)
Yeah, I think even though I do use Matt in reference because I think he's been the center point, he does have a team below him that helps with that. I'll keep it very simple. I think clear is kind. When we do speak with any of our partners, we're very clear with who we currently work with and we're very upfront with what we're doing. And I think as long as you keep that mentality and everyone's abreast to what's going on, I think everyone can kind of work in harmony. Of course, there can be situations that arise, but

There's as a whole, as long as you're clear, we want to make sure that we're providing the best service of the golf course. So I think if you're being clear with the other partners, everyone understands where they stand, how they're working together. And usually it fosters actually more collaboration between partners. How can we be better together to provide a better complete solution as a group instead of being individualistic? So I think having such a huge network has actually had a lot of our partners start to work together.

and kind of playing that same pond.

Mike Hendrix (25:16)
So is there a process and I'm almost I almost want to get this on tape so I can just point people to it. But is there a process I mean how do you decide who and who not you're going to work with. There have to be people that have come to you where ultimately you've decided not to work with them. So how do you decide.

Fraser Marriott (25:34)
So I think that question I'll have to leave to Matt on that one. you know, like we honestly, truly, I don't know of any that we've turned away. If it's a solution that our team needs and that our customers need and our partners need, then we're going to say it. I mean, I think everyone out there that's come to us has come with great ideas and great options. So I encourage everyone to continue to reach out, reach out to Matt, reach out to our partnerships team.

And you know, I'll say it on the air, send an email, say hi. You have my name now, you reach out to me and we're all for it. We really wanna make sure that we're supporting you guys. It's very tough to start a company and we wanna support the golf course to make sure we have the right solution.

Mike Hendrix (26:13)
Yeah, that's awesome. I mentioned AI there briefly, so let's stay on that subject. I mean, it's just an easy question to ask. How is Lightspeed Golf today thinking about AI?

Fraser Marriott (26:24)
I mean, we're definitely looking at it from a way of how we can help innovate faster, you know, through AI. I think a big one for us has been on the training side with AI is we use a lot of AI training to help level up our customer success agents, as well as our salespeople and our product people. We're using it really from a training perspective.

I think you look at Courserev AI and what Dell and Mana have got going. I think there's some great call center stuff that we've got going on and we're starting to see it trickle into the industry. And we're working on some pretty cool things that are going to be out shortly through some of our partners that I think continue to innovate what we're doing for this business. I we've all been behind the counter and had 900 phone calls. So I think that any way that we can help automate that and allow us to focus on, allow the course to focus on customer experience.

and retaining of their golfers, I think is important. So for us internally, it's been a huge help in helping people level up from a technology standpoint. And then, you know, from an external standpoint, you know, I think I'll keep that a little close to my chest, but there's some definitely cool things coming for Lightspeed.

Mike Hendrix (27:33)
Yeah. You you hear some leaders talk about, saying to the, the company overall, if you're not using AI every single day at work, I'm not sure we're the right place for you to work. Right. There's that group of CEOs and leaders that desperately want their teams to use, AI. And then there are some others that are frankly, you know, Hey, I really want to get involved with this. I don't trust it.

Right. I'm worried about the trust side of it. Personally, in our company, we use it quite a bit. Yesterday, we wrote a blog post for the Ohio Golf Course Owners Association in less than 10 minutes. We fed it a very detailed CSV file.

all about data related to Google. And I do want to congratulate you guys. You went live with Reserve with Google. So good for you guys. And you were in this this sheet that we fed in. But we got some good content out of it within minutes where it would have taken half a day. So it pains me when I hear people aren't using it.

Fraser Marriott (28:33)
I mean, I think it's a very important tool. Like I think there's some happy mediums, we're still keeping that personal touch on some things and having those relationships and the human interactions like we're having right now, Mike, which I think are, you know, omnipresent and important in our world today. But I definitely think from an efficiency standpoint, we can always be better in delivering results faster and more effective for sure.

Mike Hendrix (28:53)
Yeah.

I want to talk a little bit about TAM if we can for a second, because the core of my business is data. We are aggregating a large amount of data about every golf course in North America. We actually have now more than half of Europe completed, but we haven't gone live with Europe yet, but we're, certainly Europe is a big part of what we're doing too.

We, we use a lot of technology to do that, but frankly, in the summertime, when we get access to interns, we really turn up the volume on the amount of data that we can collect because we make phone calls. I mean, we go old school and we call into the golf shops. And one of the things that's come up in the last say 10 days from the interns is how many operators are saying, I understand you want to know the tee sheet software we're using.

It's not that we don't believe in technology or software. What I'm telling you, Mr. Intern at smbGOLF I'm saying to you, we've chosen not to offer tee times. We want people to arrive here, feel like they can play whenever they want and get out on the golf course. And so that's great. And so I hear the interns talk about that and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. When I hear something like that, think TAM, because I wonder,

I wonder if people like Lightspeed and Club Caddie, et cetera. Are you measuring TAM? Are you measuring SAM? Sellable addressable market. Do you think about, do you segment like here's the group of public golf courses that don't even have tee times for sale versus the group that do you, do you think about it in those terms?

Fraser Marriott (30:23)
Yeah, absolutely. I think the most important one is SAM. Yeah, from that standpoint. mean, we definitely look at the component that's non-technology users, how we kind of qualify them. know, the ones that aren't really taking tee times are still pen and paper, which is still a huge part of the business. And I applaud that group for being able to still run a business with pen and paper. I think that's incredible. And I think it does provide that unique golf experience to a lot of them. But yeah, I know we definitely look at the serviceable addressable market.

as kind of our main kind of number that we're working towards chipping away at. Yeah, for sure.

Mike Hendrix (30:57)
And do you have any processes in place where you try to convert the non-tech golf courses to become tech golf courses?

Fraser Marriott (31:07)
Yeah, we do. We definitely do outreach. And you know, I think what we try and do is try and pare down to the simplest offering possible that can help elevate their group and look at it from an ROI standpoint for them. If we can help them get them 10 % more occupancy, 5 % more occupancy, that's a win for both sides. So we really look at it and how we can help elevate them in the simplest form. We don't want to take away from what they've been doing.

a lot of these people have been doing it for a long time and what they're doing is not necessarily wrong. We're just there to help try and elevate what they're currently doing and hopefully increase their revenue. yeah, we certainly do reach out to those non-technology users and see if we're fit for sure.

Mike Hendrix (31:48)
How up to speed, so to speak, are you on the whole Reserve with Google thing? Were you involved with that as you guys were building the integration with Google?

Fraser Marriott (31:57)
I was a part of it that was mainly spearheaded by Matt and the product team, definitely definitely abreast to it. Yeah.

Mike Hendrix (32:03)
The reason I ask is because I think that development puts some of these non-electronic tee sheet companies or golf courses in an even tougher spot. Because now really, we have to, I think everyone should just acknowledge that Google is the search engine. You even get AI results within Google, right? Like people are not going to stop using Google and only use chat GPT for search or something like that. think Google will.

be fine when it comes to search. And now that so many golf courses have their tee times displayed within a Google search result, and frankly, they are actionable, like they are clickable and purchasable right through the Google experience. I'm a guy that worries a little bit more about the non-teesheet people because more golfers now are going to get exposed to purchasing a tee time online.

and of course the guys without a tee sheets are going to get left out of that. I don't know if you want to comment on that or, or if you just want to give some overall thoughts on what Google is doing specific to tee times and golf. Yeah.

Fraser Marriott (33:06)
I think that's a great point because we want to make sure that everyone in our industry wins. It's a finite industry. We want to make sure that the non-technology users, the POS users, and everyone wins. I'd be interested. Do you have any thoughts on how we can help support the non-technology users?

Mike Hendrix (33:22)
Yeah. I mean, I've been banging my head against the wall for that on 20 years. I mean, it is, it is challenging, right? And we've seen other companies that there's a company, Eagle Club Systems who is a, they're a big presence in Ohio. They seem to have found a way to convince paper courses to switch over. and I don't know exactly what their secret sauce is, but, but yeah, I just worry that more courses are going to get left behind. And frankly, Fraser,

I'm not sure they're gonna know why they're getting left behind, right? I don't know if they're gonna even know about these developments, but I think about it. I think about it for sure.

Fraser Marriott (34:00)
Yeah, no, I mean, I think that's a great point. I think if we can work together as a collective in the software space and make sure that we're educating the non-technology users and making sure that they still have that voice, I think that's incredibly important too. Because we don't want them to be left behind because the most important thing is that golf continues to succeed as a whole, whether using Lightspeed or any other provider or pen and paper. So I'd encourage anyone out there who's listening to this that's currently on pen and paper, I'd love to hear from you.

and see how Lightspeed can support you even if you're not a customer to ensure that you're still getting better occupancy rates from that standpoint and that there's been no takeaway. I think it's a great point, Mike. I'd love to know more about that. Maybe you and I can chat offline a little bit more. I want to make sure we're supporting them. They don't have to be a customer to get our support, that's for sure.

Mike Hendrix (34:43)
Sure.

The post that we wrote yesterday, and by the way, this podcast will actually go to the Ohio group first. We're trying to, you know, I've become very, very involved in the Ohio Golf Course Owners Association. I told Mike Zisman, this is a passion project for me, right? I'm passionate about helping this association get a little bit stronger and improving the businesses in Ohio, specific to golf course operations. And so they'll get some of this content sooner, but

in the, in the blog posts that we wrote yesterday, we basically said there were 435 golf courses in Ohio where it made sense to be within the Reserve with Google world. You know, they're not Scioto They're not Canterbury these high end privates, right? Um, and they're also, we also weed out like, you know, golf course has 36 holes. Well, you can only count that as one course. can't count it as two. Anyway, the number whittles down to 435 only 160.

only 160 are available today through Reserve with Google. And so it's going to be interesting as that number gets closer to 200 and 250, is it just become a world of haves and have nots? What if you were trying to sell books or what if you were trying to sell shoes and you were not in the Google architecture, so to speak? I think it would become harder to sell shoes.

And so I just wonder, this, is that same thing going to happen in golf? When we had the Google leaders on this podcast, we talked about, and frankly, they, they, weren't quite sure, but we talked about, will golf courses that have available tee times through Reserve of Google, will they start to find themselves at the top of the page when it comes to search results? And one of the answers we got from Google was well,

the more people engage with specific courses in our search results, the more those elevate. And so, you you start to worry about like, well, what are we going to do about so and so that's not going to get clicked on?

Fraser Marriott (36:43)
Yeah, I mean, I think that's a great point. I think we need to come together as a collective to make sure that there's equity across this industry. So, you know, I'd love to pick your brain more on that. And I think we'll take that back internally to to make sure that there is brand equity across, you know, all booking entrants to make sure that, like you said, there shouldn't be a case where there's have and have nots. need to work together and make sure everyone can at least get an equitable piece of that pie.

Mike Hendrix (37:09)
So, I mean, certainly that was a roadmap item for you guys, right? Finishing off this integration with Reserve with Google. It was a big one. And I've talked to plenty of tee sheet guys, CEOs, leaders that have said, Hey, it's not the fastest thing. And it's not that it's not because we didn't want to go fast, right? We wanted to go fast and we couldn't go fast. And so I, you know, I know that that, that, took some real work, but I am interested to know without giving up too much like

What does your roadmap look like? What is the next big thing that you guys would build out? Maybe not so much with a partner, but that like Lightspeed Golf would develop. What are you guys thinking about today?

Fraser Marriott (37:46)
I mean, we're thinking about bettering the operator experience as paramount to ensure that, you know, everyone get the numbers they need, you know, so we're focusing on reporting and working with some of our partners on that. We're also just really focusing on, the customer experience as well, booking flows, things like that. We're actually going to have a bit of a release coming out shortly. You know, we finalized our new house accounts version. So AR is that much simpler, faster.

one ledger. So there's been, there's a lot coming down the pipe from that standpoint. I definitely think that the most important thing is really data and making sure that we can kind of eat, take that data and digest it and make sure that we're operating our business accordingly. So you're going to see a lot, I think from a partnership level, we have some great partners out there on the reporting side and they know who we're talking about.

that we're working on some big projects there and then some internal stuff too, just to make sure that we're providing the best customer experience. But I think pay attention to our Lightspeed release page. We have a really busy kind of next 30 to 60 days. You're gonna see a lot of stuff kind of coming out of there. Brandon Chetro and Richard Begley who lead our product team have been hard at work. And I think you're gonna see a lot of stuff coming out of the woodwork here in the next little bit. So we're very excited with what's to come.

Mike Hendrix (39:04)
Well, that's, that's certainly exciting. I don't know if you remember a couple of months back as we were really in the weeds generating this report and just trying to like turn over every nook and cranny. We found a booking engine up in Canada that looked that resembled yours, but I didn't think it was yours. And I thought maybe Tee-On is maybe building an engine that's going to look like light. I still actually don't know to this day. I don't know if you were able ever to run that down, but it did inspire a question I had.

So I'm a big fan of Hilton Head, spend a lot of time in Hilton Head that I've got family there. I love to play Harbour Town et cetera, et cetera. Harbour Town, Atlantic dunes, Heron Point, a couple other properties on Hilton head. They use Sagacity for their, but on the front end, you would never know it. In other words, Harbour Town has developed their own booking engine.

They were able to use developers and build kind of like on top of Sagacity to develop their own white label booking engine and, know, provide whatever features they wanted to provide their, their guests, et cetera, et cetera. Can you do that with Lightspeed? And do you have customers today that do that with Lightspeed? Talk about that a little bit about in-house developers and if you can build some cool things on top of Lightspeed.

Fraser Marriott (40:25)
You can definitely build a lot of cool things on Lightspeed. mean, Sagacity has been a great partner, there's also, you know, there we can white label. work with some of our partners from a white labeling standpoint. But yeah, no, I mean, there's we can kind of develop on top of Lightspeed. That's why we have a great partner network. We work with them. So that's definitely a part of what we can do. I mean, from a technical side, I can't get too deep from from there, but there's definitely ways that we can

we can work with you to ensure that you find the right booking engine. And I think we have definitely the best POS in the industry too. So we definitely ensure that if tee times are coming in, they can flow right into the point of sale. So there's ways that we can do it, create a unified experience that the customer sees working with, they feel like they're working directly with the course. So we do that mainly through partners, I would say.

Mike Hendrix (41:15)
Why is your, why do you think you had the best POS in golf?

Fraser Marriott (41:20)
I think we have the best POS in golf due to how the in-depth reporting and then also a complete open API. And if you look at it from a supporting standpoint, use case, we've been through it all. Lightspeed is a massive publicly traded company. We're on the retail brick and mortar. This is a company that's been around for 20 years. We know the ins and outs of how point of sale should work. And I think in addition to that,

You know, our open API has been a differentiator for a long time.

Mike Hendrix (41:47)
Yeah. I think, it's one thing to say you have an open API. I actually think you guys are now enjoying the fruits of that, right? You know, you just have so many people that are participating in it. that it's, really impressive. got a note today about one of your competitors. It's going to start to charge their golf course customers, a monthly fee for access to their app marketplace, which I was really, surprised by. But, but again,

You guys have your own way of doing it and it does seem to me like it's, working.

Fraser Marriott (42:17)
Well, you can't have a best of breed approach if you start charging your people to use it. So our goal is to make it accessible and open to anyone. So we're not looking to bring on that same model that said competitor uses.

Mike Hendrix (42:32)
is talk a little bit if you can, because we didn't get into this. I, in my business, we have more and more private platforms that are now becoming customers of mine. Where is, where are the, the call it the platinum clubs or the distinguished clubs? Like where are the high end privates on your priority list? Is that something, is that a business you want to be a part of, or is that something maybe you'll leave for, for another day?

Fraser Marriott (42:57)
So I definitely think it's something that we would like to be a part of. I can't speak to it now, but we are very close to something quite, I know I'm being very ambiguous here, but it is something definitely on our radar that we're working to have as a part of our business model looking forward. So you have, kind of in the next, would say 60 days, you'll see that like solutions and things like that, that hopefully Lightspeed can provide.

and help with.

Mike Hendrix (43:21)
Interesting. We, one of the, one of the fields, so to speak, that we track is, is member management. And I would say I didn't look it up this morning, but like, you know, we have Chronogolf on there, a decent amount for, for member management. So you clearly have a list of people that use membership tools that you offer. But again, I'm just curious about, the big boys Oakmont, for instance, that, kind of.

Fraser Marriott (43:47)
Yeah, no, I mean, I think from a member management AR perspective, we're great. I think it's finding right partners from front end standpoint for on the membership side and the tee time booking side that we're looking to partner with from that standpoint. We build with a great solution and you know, it's and we have a great fit. Like you said on that list, we do have a ton of great privates that have worked with us for many, many years, high end privates.

And we're just looking to hopefully increase and work with more from that standpoint. We just need to make sure that we have the right partners in place, the right technology in place, which you'll see here in the coming weeks.

Mike Hendrix (44:27)
Very good. Well, I appreciate your time very much. I wanted to make sure we covered off a few of those topics, but more than anything, I just want to congratulate you on the new seat that you're in. You guys certainly are having success. that, you know, congrats to the whole team. Obviously you've got the team rowing in the same direction. You guys are focused and that's great to see for you guys, but to your point,

It's really great to see for the operator because you'll provide, I think, a significant amount of value for the operator.

Fraser Marriott (44:59)
Yeah, and that's what it's about at end of the day is fostering these great partnerships with golf courses and working with them and watching them grow. That's what that means success for us if we're helping them grow. And I appreciate your time today, Mike. You've been a great partner and we're looking forward to continuing these conversations and working together as best we can.

Mike Hendrix (45:21)
Well, that's nice of you to say. For the record, you guys are not a customer. I don't think I've ever generated a penny off of you. I like to make people know that we have everybody on this podcast and we celebrate success, whether they're a customer of ours or not, because I think it's the right thing to do. If you're out there crushing it, you deserve some exposure. And I think there's a story to tell. So I appreciate you making time and coming on. That's Fraser Marriott, Head of Golf

Lightspeed Golf, congratulations on everything and I hope we stay in touch.

Fraser Marriott (45:54)
Absolutely. Have a great day.

‍