Mac Lackey writes beautiful, honest email on KYCK’s pivot

Mac has founded and led multiple companies – InternetSoccer.com, Mountain Khakis, and ettain group to name a few. He’s also a good guy who is willing to meet with other entrepreneurs. I’ll never forget meeting him 3 years ago in his South End office and the genuine interest he took in my life. He doesn’t keep a super high profile, but he’s there.

I signed up for KYCK.com a few years ago and I’ve gone back to the site several times since, just to monitor the evolution.

Then I received this email from KYCK yesterday at 3:03 pm.

Mac, if you’re reading this, thank you for taking the time to explain the situation and candidly share the journey. And, good luck with the smart pivot!

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Subject: A Letter from our Founder & CEO

After a long career in startups, including my first foray into technology and soccer in 1999 with InternetSoccer.com, in 2012 I reentered the intersection of soccer and technology with a mission of building a soccer-specific social network called KYCK Social. An early adopter yourself, you were one of our first users, and for that our team is very grateful.

We launched just prior to the start of the 2012 Euro Tournament with a mobile app and website, and during the tournament we exchanged great friendly banter about the sport we all love with all of you. As a community we knew that interaction about the sport online was going to change and that there had to be a better way than online forums and closed email chains with friends.

The path for the vast majority of startups is winding, and KYCK‘s story was no different — while we had some great early success with KYCK Social, and while we (still!) believe there is a place for it in the market, we saw some other immediate opportunities for the application of technology in the sport, so we turned our attention to those opportunities (mainly online registration in youth soccer) and partnered with US Club Soccer and Soccer.com to attack that part of the industry — a part we are now disrupting in a very necessary way for the growth of our beloved sport.

We didn’t go away. Far from it.

As our company’s earliest ambassadors — with whom we have done a poor job of communicating since our pivot, for which I apologize — I felt it was important to update you on our current focus. I suspect that many of you are involved with soccer on a daily basis as coaches, parents of players, or team managers, and if so, we are still in the market to help you.

While we set KYCK Social aside for a time, it was gratifying to see many of our early product features implemented by Twitter during the World Cup last year. While it was frustrating to see the conversation on Twitter as opposed to KYCK, it was validating that we are seeing trends early and clearly, and it’s encouraging that we are applying our strength of vision to the bureaucracy slowing down the development of youth soccer.

If you run soccer camps or clubs, or know people who do, please contact us at registration@kyck.com to learn more about our current services. Together we can change the game for the better.

Warmest Regards,
Mac Lackey
Founder & CEO

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Photo via KYCK.com