Hudl hits 5,000 partners in 2011, co-founders reflect on milestone (Video)

Hudl hit 5,000 paid clients — or “partners,” in Hudlese — for the year late last week, and the Lincoln-based startup is marking the milestone with a new video featuring reflections from its co-founders, David Graff, Brian Kaiser and John Wirtz. Hudl, a web-based video and analysis tool for sports coaches, figured to see sales…

Video from hudl.com/blog

Hudl hit 5,000 paid clients — or “partners,” in Hudlese — for the year late last week, and the Lincoln-based startup is marking the milestone with a new video featuring reflections from its co-founders, David Graff, Brian Kaiser and John Wirtz.

Hudl, a web-based video and analysis tool for sports coaches, figured to see sales figures skyrocket after its July acquisition of Digital Sports Video, previously its largest competitor in the space. But hitting the 5,000 mark — which, according to Graff, is a measure of schools that have paid for a year-long Hudl subscription since Jan. 1 and does not include a sizable chunk of schools still using Hudl with subscriptions started in 2010 — at this juncture exceeded the company’s expectations. Graff said the company’s goal for the year was 5,000. To put that in perspective, Hudl had about 2,200 paid partners all of last year. 

“We met our goal for the year early, and it was an aggressive goal,” Kaiser said in the video. “And I think this is quite an accomplishment for the entire company. This isn’t just a business goal or a technical goal; it’s a goal for everyone.”

Graff said Hudl expects to eclipse 6,000 partners in the high school and college ranks within the next two months and that the company will have another 1,000 or so partners in youth sports by year’s end. So there’s plenty of cause for celebration — and an apparent need for recalibration of goals — as the Hudl team gathers in Lincoln this week for its fall retreat. 

“We’ll kind of be resetting our goals for 2012,” Graff said, “kind of reviewing Q3, looking ahead to Q4 and then Q1 next year.”

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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