Making Golf Tech Easy — David Clark, Founder/CEO of Easy Tee Golf
Episode 38

Making Golf Tech Easy — David Clark, Founder/CEO of Easy Tee Golf

Mike Hendrix talks with David Clark, the founder of Easy Tee Golf. David shares how his product background at Capital One and Amazon shaped Easy Tee’s UX, why 50% of his customers are nine-hole courses, how Reserve with Google already drives ~13–14% of online bookings, why he shipped Waitlist before “squeeze times,” and what “default alive” meant for going all-in as a founder.

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David Clark

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52min

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Description:

Mike talks with David Clark, the founder of Easy Tee Golf—an Easy-to-use, Square-integrated tee sheet and booking engine born from a weekend project and now a growing, bootstrapped business. David shares how his product background at Capital One and Amazon shaped Easy Tee’s UX, why 50% of his customers are nine-hole courses, how Reserve with Google already drives ~13–14% of online bookings, why he shipped Waitlist before “squeeze times,” and what “default alive” meant for going all-in as a founder.

Chapter timestamps

  • 00:00 — Intro: Mike + David
  • 01:40 — Product roots (Capital One, Amazon, PM → UX focus)
  • 03:25 — Payments experience & PCI thinking
  • 04:25 — Why Square (POS + processing)
  • 05:16 — From hobby to first customers
  • 08:27 — The Square seller community post that sparked demos
  • 09:01 — “The weight of the customer” moment
  • 11:54 — When David went all-in (Paul Graham: default dead → default alive)
  • 14:09 — Bootstrapped vs. raising money
  • 15:24 — Ideal customer profile (9-hole skew, Square-friendly)
  • 17:58 — Will Easy Tee integrate beyond Square?
  • 20:50 — Roadmapping as a solo founder (three buckets)
  • 22:31 — Why Waitlist shipped before squeeze times
  • 24:27 — How Easy Tee Waitlist works (phase 1)
  • 28:36 — Reserve with Google: adoption + analytics (~13–14% of online bookings)
  • 33:15 — Booking engine analytics (GA support) & SEO observations
  • 35:20 — Reporting, churn, and customer stickiness
  • 37:32 — What’s next for Waitlist (texts, auto-booking)
  • 39:06 — RwG “chips” (v2) on the radar
  • 39:45 — Winter roadmap (simulators, sale season readiness)
  • 41:00 — Tee Time Summit & industry guardrails
  • 49:13 — David’s vision: “The easiest golf software to work with”
  • 51:15 — Wrap

Key takeaways

  • Product DNA: David’s PM/UX background drives a “reduce cognitive load” philosophy across golfer and staff workflows.
  • Square-first: 100% of current Easy Tee courses run on Square; modular architecture could support future POS integrations.
  • Early traction: First two green-grass courses came from a single post in the Square seller community.
  • ICP patterns: ~50% nine-hole courses; many first-time online booking adopters; Square interest is a common trigger.
  • Waitlist v1: Submits desired date/time window, party size, and minimum-notice window; email alerts with direct-book link. v2 concepts include SMS and auto-booking.
  • Reserve with Google: Currently ~13–14% of online tee times for Easy Tee operators—strong conversion channel even when it bypasses the course website.
  • Analytics: Native GA support; funnels tagged end-to-end. In some cases, the Easy Tee booking page outranks the course site—often a signal that the course website needs modernization.
  • Founder ethos: No contracts, 30-day free trial (no credit card), rapid support response target (<1 hour), and a focus on being “default alive.”

Notable quotes

  • “My vision is to be the easiest golf course software company to work with.” — David Clark
  • “One Square community post led to demos and my first two green-grass customers.” — David Clark
  • “Waitlist is live one week and already driving real bookings.” — David Clark
  • “Reserve with Google accounts for about 13–14% of online tee times across our courses.” — David Clark
  • “I should have to earn a golf course’s business every day—no contracts, 30-day free trial, no card required.” — David Clark

As Promised:

Briardale Greens in Euclid, OH "Overview"
Briardale Greens in Euclid, OH "Tee times"

Magic Clips:

Making Golf Tech Easy — David Clark, Founder/CEO of Easy Tee Golf

Mike Hendrix talks with David Clark, the founder of Easy Tee Golf. David shares how his product background at Capital One and Amazon shaped Easy Tee’s UX, why 50% of his customers are nine-hole courses, how Reserve with Google already drives ~13–14% of online bookings, why he shipped Waitlist before “squeeze times,” and what “default alive” meant for going all-in as a founder.

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David Clark

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52min

GolfNow founder talks about selling his business and building again

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Brett Darrow

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60min

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Mike Terrell

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Zack Enriquez

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45min

Fraser Marriott, Head of Lightspeed Golf

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Fraser

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James Cronk

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Paul Sampliner

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52min

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53min

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Jake Gordon

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55min

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Nick Anderson

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Martin Ort

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Bodo Sieber & Craig Kleu

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Jason Wilson

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Chad Wright

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50min

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Chad Pettingill

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Jay Snider

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Robb Smyth

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1hr 11min

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Colin Read

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Scott Mingay

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Menno Liebregts

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Kevin Fitzgerald

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Jon Schultz

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35min

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Kevin Fitzgerald, Aaron Gleason, Matt Holder

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54min

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Aaron Gleason

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29min

Kevin Fitzgerald from Southern California Golf Association

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Kevin Fitzgerald

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43min

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Matt Holder

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29min

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Don Rea Jr.

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48min

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Del Ratcliffe

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1hr 6min

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Mogan Kimmins

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42min

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Dave Vanslette

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51min

Brendon Beebe formerly foreUP CTO

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Brendon Beebe

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51min

Allison George Toad Valley Golf Course

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Allison George

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55min

Dathan Wong Noteefy

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Dathan Wong

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36min

Tyler Arnold Eagle Club Systems

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Tyler Arnold

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35min

Transcript:

00:07

Host

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

00:43

Tyler Arnold

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

01:34

Host

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

01:50

Tyler Arnold

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

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