Det finns en ny fotbollstjänst som utvecklats av två danska killar – Tonsser. Tjänsten riktar sig till fotbollstokiga killar och tjejer som vill dela med sig av sin talang till omvärlden. Med statistik, poäng, bilder och videoklipp skapar användaren en verklighetsbaserad version av Football Manager. Tonsser är ett resultat av två passionerade, unga och skarpa hjärnor, Simon Hjære och Peter Holm. I den här artikeln får du läsa om deras liv som startup.
Varje vecka utser Tonsser Team of the Week och Player of the Season för varje årgång och distrikt.
Tonsser i korthet:
– Tonsser fungerar som ett skyltfönster, där du kan berätta för omgivningen om din talang och dina prestationer.
– Du kan scouta dina motståndare inför en viktig match, du kan analysera dina egna prestationer och spara dina personliga resultat säsong för säsong.
– Du kan kolla in din liga och se vilka som är dem bästa spelarna, bästa målgörarna, flest assists och se spelaren som fått flest matchens spelare.
– Dessutom kan du kolla in din liga och se vilka som är dem bästa spelarna, bästa målgörarna, flest assists och se spelaren som fått flest matchens spelare.
– Chef för Skandinavien är Mattias Lindström, före detta spelare i Helsingborgs IF.
When were you founded?
Tonsser was officially founded February 2014, as we raised our first angel investment. Let’s call it the point where Tonsser transformed from an idea to a company. Prior to that we (Simon and I) were students at Copenhagen IT University, where we spent the majority of the time in the field, speaking to football players and studying the behaviorism and driving forces of football players. I wrote my master’s thesis in two weeks in my parents summer cabin, so we could wrap up our degree and get to work.
Who are the founders?
Tonsser is founded by Simon Hjære, Peter Holm and Jeppe Curth. We are all football players but on a slightly different level. Jeppe has been named U17 Player of the Year in Denmark, has scored at Old Trafford and has been top scorer in the Danish Superliga. Simon also had the talent to go pro while I was no where near. But we have all shared the same dreams, passion and love for football.
When did you launch?
In August 2014 we launched Tonsser beta as a desktop version with approximately 5.000 danish youth players before launching our iOS app in Denmark in March 2015. One year later we are now live in also Norway, Sweden, Italy, Spain and France.
But we have taken a quite behavioristic and execution heavy road to where we are today. During our studies in late 2013 we gathered a league of 8 senior teams, 150 players and their coaches to test a super early product from where we wanted to extract as much possible about what drives football players to perform in matches, train hard and stay motivated. After each match the coaches would forward the data including starting lineup, minutes played, goalscorer and votes casted for man of the match. We then utilized that data to create various presentations of data for the players, the opponent teams and weekly awards. 6 months later after we had finished our studies, we tripled the amount of test users, but this time on youth players and we immediately saw the difference. They loved the recognition, the professional environment and the improved spotlight we could give them. From there on we have just kept digging deeper and deeper into creating a highly motivative ecosystem for football players.
How are you funded?
We raised our first angel investment from Phil Chambers and Kasper Hulthin (co-founder of Podio, Peakon). Most likely our most decisive move as they provided us with a tight learning framework and taught us to keep focus. In November 2015, we raised a seed round of up to €2.5m from Wellington Partners, SEED Capital and angel team including Arthur Kosten, former CMO of Booking.com, and Guillaume Durao, Investment Director at IDInvest and board member at Happn.
What problem are you are trying to solve with Tonsser and how do you solve it?
When I was a young and hopeful 15 year old football kid from Vadum, a small town in the Northern part of Denmark, the maximum I could achieve if I played a good match or scored a goal was going into the local newspaper. A two-page black and white newspaper, only read by the senior population. Then my mom would cut if out and put it into our scrapbook. That was it. Just like any other young football player, what I really wanted was the ability to get noticed and showcase my performances and achievements to the right audience such as opponents, teammates, coaches, scouts or maybe a future club. Those who matter.
Things haven’t changed much since I were a kid. Now Tonsser is refreshing football by creating a motivational playground for football players packed with stats, awards, insights and recognition. A vertical social network empowering football players in a real-life version of my favourite game, Football Manager.
Building an ecosystem where players are succesful and reaching their dreams, will also provide other important changes to football. For too long football has been a clouded industry run by the wrong people. By creating transparency in the football World from top to bottom, we believe that Tonsser can democratize football and put the players back in the driver’s seat of their own career. I don’t even want to speculate in how many talented players that have been lost because their fate has been determined by individual gut feeling. Tonsser is here to help football players unlock their potential.
Another growing problem is keeping players motivated to come to training each week, when teenage distractions comes into play. We have already seen how Tonsser as a playground creates new competitive and refreshed motivation in a club, a team and a league.
Typical user or customer?
Most Tonsser users are between 14-19 and playing from top to lowest level.
Here’s an overview of the most common personas:
The dreamer – who wants to become a professional at any cost and loves the attention from clubs, scouts etc.
The individualist – who wants to keep track of his own career/stats as a quantified self tool but also taking the next step in his career (improving as a football player
The captain – who wants to compare himself with others and see who he’s facing the upcoming game (which player scores all the goals, creates goal scoring chances, gets a lot of bookings etc.)
The team player – the guy who loves the team spirit and being part of the team – like social recognition but also spends time checking out the network and team mates videos/photos.
Who are your most direct or main competitors? What makes you different/better?
Most football products today are focussing on club administration, team management, logistics, internal scouting tools or networks with no value proposition. None serving the main actor in the sport. Tonsser is reversing those models by creating an ecosystem with the player in the middle and utilizing the presence from scouts, clubs and brands to motivate the player.
How do you make money?
We are making money, but so far just to prove that we can.
The football industry is massive, which is a major reason why investors find Tonsser so appealing. Football players are attractive consumers, top talents are an almost priceless asset to clubs, scouts and agents while the global brands are desperate to find cool new ways to engage with their youth segment. And of course being the platform that helps players become successful and professionals is highly valuable. In the end Tonsser is a data-game, where the knowledge and data we generate are extremely powerful and positive to everyone in the value chain in football.
If there is a global industry with room for European leadership, it is football.