Birmingham, Alabama, April 28, 2021 – Alabama Futures Fund (“AFF”) recently placed an investment in Pretty Marsh Golf, LLC, dba “PINZ”. Based in Mobile, Alabama, PINZ is a next generation global platform for golf. PINZ connects the world’s golfers – amateurs and pros – through competition, community and comparison.
The investment in PINZ represents the twelfth investment made by AFF since AFF was launched in Q4 of 2018.Redhawk Advisory, LLC (“Redhawk”) serves as the investment manager of AFF and advised AFF on the PINZ investment.
PINZ is creating the first competitive social feed and interactive platform for golfers. PINZ will allow golfers to share their individual performance and compete virtually against other golfers. PINZ users will not be limited to interacting only among their friends, but rather, users can compare their personal scores to the scores of other golfers on a particular course, other golfers across the PINZ platform and even PGA Tour professionals based on the user’s stroke play and PINZ Score.
Growth in the game of golf has been strong over the past five years, with the Covid19 pandemic bringing in even more new players.
The total number of amateur golf rounds played in 2020 increased by double digits over the total number of amateur golf rounds played in 2019. Recently released data from the National Golf Foundation shows that this growth in the number of rounds played continued into 2021 with January 2021 up 21% over the previous year. However, unlike other popular individual sports like running and cycling, golf has not yet embraced a platform to make the game more social on a digital level.
PINZ was founded by CEO Mike Stashak. Mike has 20 years of experience building brands and companies. Most recently, Mike led the growth of Wahoo Fitness from inception to over 200 employees. Prior to his role with Wahoo, Mike worked in a strategy role for Equifax’s consumer business. Mike is also a former McKinsey and Company consultant where his practice focused on consumer brands.
Mike is joined on the founding team by Kyle Wiley who focuses on PINZ branding and application interface. Kyle has 15 years of experience building brands and technology products. Kyle helped create Circle, a consumer technology offering designed to protect children online, which was eventually licensed by Disney. Kyle has actively worked with brands including the NFL, Adidas, Wahoo Fitness and Bleacher Report.
“The Alabama Futures Fund is a fantastic resource for any early-stage company or entrepreneur in Alabama, and I am grateful to be part of the founder group. Early-stage funding is lacking in our region, and AFF plays an important role in helping entrepreneurs overcome this barrier to starting a company,” said Stashak. “We believe PINZ is going to transform the way golfers compete and engage with the sport,” said Mickey Millsap, General Partner at Redhawk. “Mike brings a tremendous amount of experience in the space and has demonstrated an ability to assemble key strategic partners throughout the golfing community that are going to make this platform a must-have for golfers all over the world.”
