01
Problem
The Problem
Sports clubs were managing operations across WhatsApp, Google Sheets, cash payments, and paper.
No existing platform served this market. Professional solutions cost £2,000+/month — overkill for grassroots clubs.
How we built a live SaaS product with no external funding
We identified a gap in sports management tooling for grassroots clubs. We designed, built, and launched City Rosters from first commit to 1,200 paying users across 5 countries with zero external funding.
Sports clubs were managing operations across WhatsApp, Google Sheets, cash payments, and paper.
No existing platform served this market. Professional solutions cost £2,000+/month — overkill for grassroots clubs.
We ran 40 discovery interviews across UK and Pakistani sports clubs. The core insight: these users needed everything integrated.
Architecture: Next.js, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Stripe, and a custom AI scheduling engine built with constraint satisfaction algorithms.
Months 1–3: Core platform, auth, roster management. Months 4–6: Payment processing, multi-currency. Months 7–9: AI scheduling engine. Months 10–12: Analytics, mobile optimisation. Month 13: Soft launch to 50 beta clubs. Month 17: Public launch. Month 18: 400+ clubs, 1,200+ users.
City Rosters has operated for 3+ years at 99.9% uptime. Processes payments across 5 currencies. Club managers report saving 8+ hours per week. The AI scheduler has resolved 12,000+ scheduling conflicts.
BY THE NUMBERS
Before City Rosters, managing our academy across three sites was a full-time job just in admin. Now I can see everything on my phone.
Discovery calls are free and no-pitch. We'll tell you honestly if we can deliver results like this for you.