Pinseeker Aims To Become The Biggest Golf Game Since Golden Tee

Sean Breslin, founder of Pinseeker, an app that facilitates closest to the pin contests on networked golf simulators, is not a golfer but was drawn to the sport’s inherent stickiness factor.

“I have a lot of friends that are golfers and I’ve always been intrigued by frankly how into it and ate up they are by it psychologically,” Breslin explains.

The Orlando based company aims to replicate the level of success of Golden Tee, the 30-year-old barcade staple by piggybacking on the growth of commercial indoor golf facilities where players rent time on simulators to practice or play virtual courses in addition to at-home systems. Pinseeker works on E6 connect software—a cross-platform system compatible with 25 devices including Flightscope, Full Swing, and Trackman launch monitors.

Players looking to try their luck, simply cue up a contest, take dead aim at the virtual flagstick and compete to win cash prizes. Entry fees range from $2 to $46 and Pinseeker also offers a free version of the game where top finishers are rewarded with polos and other golf swag. They have underwritten the free play side of the business themselves but the plan is to eventually tap corporate sponsors to monetize that piece of the business as well. Currently there are anywhere from 8–12 tournaments going on at any given moment with individual contests lasting from three days to a week, a duration Pinseeker plans to shrink as the game becomes more popular.

“We are putting together the largest network of golfers in the virtual world. Within three years we should have over 300,000 machines networked into Pinseeker—we are well over 100,000 at this point in time. Golden Tee is a privately held company but the most that I’ve seen them advertise as far as number of machines out there is around 80,000 or 90,000 and they’ve done well over a $1 billion [in revenue] over their lifetime,” Breslin says.

Fundraising has long been an integral part of golf’s story with $4 billion raised annually in the U.S towards charitable causes. Pinseeker taps into the game’s goodwill by providing a new avenue for nonprofits to generate donations through virtual events played on simulators across the country.

Through their partnerships Pinseeker has donated over $125,000 to charities since their beta launch. They’ve raised funds for groups such as the American Cancer Society and the Justin Thomas Foundation as well as smaller charities that they’ve carefully vetted. By year end Pinseeker projects to raise in the ballpark of $200,000–$250,000 for charitable causes and they forecast topping $25 million by 2025—an ambitious growth trajectory.

“You only need to be working with a handful of the top ones to get to those numbers. Our goal is to help these organizations raise money more efficiently moving forward into the future. With the network that we are building we offer them the highway, market together to their people and we write them a check back for 80% of what is collected,” Breslin explains.

The initial version of the app running solely on PC-based golf simulators debuted in July of 2021 with an IOS compatible version released last month. Pinseeker is not Breslin’s first foray into software development. His holding company’s portfolio of active businesses includes Fit By Katy, a strength training app geared toward women. Pinseeker cofounder Rob Guilfoyle, who will be taking the reigns as company CEO moving forward, comes from a fintech background. He developed Abe AI, a white-label chatbot solution for the banking industry which was sold to Envestnet three years ago.

Earlier this month Pinseeker signed on CBS Sports personality Amanda (Balionis) Renner as a brand ambassador. The sportscaster rang in the partnership by hosting an event in Dallas at a PGA Superstore benefiting her Puppies & Golf charity.

“Moving forward we will integrate Amanda’s personality and her voice into the actual app as well as in future onsite events with our cause groups,” Breslin says.

Pinseeker is in the planning phase of a real life invitational tournament at a notable course in 2023 where players who have won the most in the game’s flights and leagues will compete. They’re currently in talks with Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky to host.

“Some of our players play our cash game every single day. Some play two or three times a week. We want the people who have been champions and been the best in their flight to come and play with us,” he adds.