Interview: Jim Law on the idea behind his Find a Player app

When Jim Law moved from the South Lanarkshire town of Strathaven to Glasgow in 2010 he was on the look-out for more than just a place to live. A keen sportsman, he was eager to keep up his regular routine of playing several games of five-a-side football and a few badminton matches each week.

Keen sportsman Jim Law believes his Find a Player app will allow more Scots get active by helping them find sports clubs near their homes. Picture: Contributed

But he faced a problem familiar to anyone in a new city who has to balance work with outside interests - how would he find a group that met at a time convenient to him? That question led to Law embracing the world of start-up technology and eventually developing a free app, Find a Player, that recently secured a six-figure investment.

“I knew a lot of people in Glasgow and was being offered five-a-side games - except they were all at the wrong time,” Law explained to The Scotsman. “I began to notice the organisers of games were effectively spamming their friends on social media by regularly posting appeals to make up the numbers. Players were always looking for games and organisers were always looking for players. There was a real disconnect.

“In my naivety, I thought: ‘I’ll just build an app!’ That was the core idea. I then just had to meet the right people to execute it.”

Fast forward to 2017 and Find a Player now employs 10 staff and is preparing a major promotional campaign. It’s been a good year for the business. Last week it was announced the app had received a cash-injection from Manchester-based property and technology investor Michael Sacks.

It came just months after the Glasgow-based tech company beat a number of global brands including Arsenal, the New York Marathon and the German FA to win the prestigious Best App award at the Sport Technology Awards.

Law, a former junior Scottish badminton champion, believes there are too many barriers which stop people from organising or getting involved in sport.

“Ultimately, this investment will help us boost the number of users and games on the platform,” he added.

“With Michael we not only secure crucial funding, but more importantly, a new member of the team who can help take our company to the next level.”

As a former Manchester United youth player, Sacks appears an ideal fit for Find a Player.

“Michael was looking for opportunities and said that ours jumped out immediately,” Law continued. “We were invited down for a meeting and got on very well. I think we shook hands on the deal around a month after we first met.”

For Law, it’s the right investment at the right time.

“The money that has come in has allowed us to strengthen two key areas - staffing and marketing. We now need to start getting the product out there. The early signs have been extremely positive.

“We wanted to make sure the product was absolutely right before we started to try and scale it. If you put your product in front of big organisations before it’s right, you could really damage your credibility.”

It’s quite a career change for Law, who admits he did not have the technical skills required to bring his idea to life.

“I went out and spoke to a number of agencies in Glasgow but couldn’t really find anybody to take it on,” he added. “I ended up outsourcing it abroad and had a bit of a nightmare - it was a money pit and we were not getting the results we wanted.

“I then joined Entrepreneurial Spark, a business accelerator, around four years ago and they introduced us to some reputable developers who loved the idea and became part of the team. We realised we had to rip-up the app and start again, so that’s what we did.”