During a tennis hitting-session with an up and coming screenwriter, Mike learned about an innovative tech company called ThinkingCap which was led by a guy named Dr Dave Romano-Critchley. Intrigued by what ThinkingCap was up to, Mike gave them a project to build a web-crawler to help power then European pay-per-click leader eSpotting. This was a very competitive space back when Yahoo, Google, AskJeeves and eSpotting were battling for supremacy in the European market for PPC solutions. We all know who won that battle. ( Google 😉 )
eSpotting went on to be sold to a US-based pay-per-click network, but Dave and Mike kept in touch.
In 2006, Mike & Dave decided to start a real-estate search engine called Zoomf. With Mike's digital ad background, and Dave's extensive engineering chops, they decided there was a good opportunity in the real estate space to create a next generation search engine for property. They raised $2.3 million in funding for Zoomf which was then competing against leads behemoth Rightmove. After 2.5 years, Zoomf was sold to the Trinity Mirror publishing group to be part of their digital property portfolio.
Mike moved back to the USA in 2010. Dr Dave and Mike always knew there would be second act to their partnership. In 2019 they decided there was an opportunity in the racquet space and DMP was born. This was after a lengthy discussion about why it would NOT be a good idea to go into the crypto space. Good choice.
That’s the short version of the history and the birth of DMP! It's a 2nd act for Dave & Mike in an industry undergoing phenomenal growth and change.
Our Goal
There are 2 rules we live by :
Bring real utility to the players
Bring revenue (not subscriptions) to the organizers
This bifurcation is our north star. Simple and to the point.
Utility + Revenue = Success
Our Strategy
Focus on the player POV
Focus on creating alignment between sponsors and organizers
Innovate every month
Ignore the noise from social media
Use the ai tools that actually work
Have fun
Below is a timeline of the significant milestones reached by the DMP team.
Oct 2019
Company formation
Jan 2020
Engineering and product work begins on DoubleMatchPoint (DMP) platform
Sep 2020
App Store and Play Store approve the very first version of the DMP app (milestone)
Oct 2020
First version of DMP used by tennis teams in Durham, NC and Cary, NC (milestone)
Mar 2021
Agreement with USTA North Carolina to be the 'tournament app' for 7 State Championships across the Adult League format
May 2021
55+ State Tournament (USTA League)
June 2021
18+ State Tournament (USTA League)
Sep 2021
Singles (USTA League)
Oct 2021
Tri-level Hickory (USTA League)
Oct 2021
Mixed Asheville (USTA League)
Nov 2021
Combo 1 Wilmington (USTA League)
Nov 2021
Combo 2 Wilmington (USTA League)
Feb 2022 (major pivot)
Engineering begins build of event-driven architecture (backend)
Apr 2022
Dynamo DB integration (backend)
Sep 2022
Improved messaging front-end launched (product)
Jan 2023 (major pivot)
Padel and pickleball added (product)
Feb 2023
Elias Power Tennis (coaching)
June 2023
Stonebridge Country Club
(tennis & fitness)
Oct 2023
UTR Men’s 4.5+ (UTR League)
Nov 2023
CCTA Men’s Doubles (league)
Nov 2023
Naples Pro League (tennis)
Jan 2024
Spring Mixed (USTA League)
Feb 2024
les Grande Dames
(Miami Tennis Tournament)
Apr 2024
Minto US Open of Pickleball (volunteers)
Apr 2024
Mixed 9.0 (USTA League)
May 2024
Testing begins with ENO Community Tennis Association (CTA)