Student-created app helps you start your pickup game with anyone around
The SportBuddy app helps match people based on their proximity and sport preference. The app was developed by MBA candidate Hatem Tawfik.
Hatem Tawfik wanted a better way to find a squash partner.
The MBA candidate wanted to be able to play the game at any time, rather than be limited by his friends’ schedules.
So Tawfik decided to create an app to help connect him with fellow players.
His creation, SportBuddy, matches up users based on their preferred sport, proximity to other users and time availability.
You can use SportBuddy to search for places to play and buddies to play with, join sport events in the community, find a court, gym or park, and schedule time with a friend or a new SportBuddy.
“I wanted to use this opportunity to my advantage. DeGroote’s MBA allowed me to learn a mix of marketing and entrepreneurship, two things I am passionate about and that I have directly applied to the SportBuddy app,” says Tawfik.
The concept of SportBuddy was created in the summer of 2013. In September of that year, Tawfik began his MBA and wanted to use his business experience to help develop the app further. In an entrepreneurship class he, alongside a team of students, developed a business plan for SportBuddy. In September 2014 the app was launched.
CBC’S NextGenDen Dragons took notice of this app and its detailed business plan. SportBuddy appeared on the program in November of 2014.
“I still use the business plan I developed at DeGroote every day. It prepared me in the development of the app, but more so, for the Dragons.” Tawfik continues to be in negotiations with the Dragons.
For more information, visit the SportBuddy website.
