Skillest Brings Golf Amateurs and Pros Together in the Best Way

Taking a Swing

Golf is my favorite sport. There is nothing better than teeing it up early on a Sunday morning.

But here’s the problem. I’m pretty bad. And unless you’ve put in an enormous amount of time to develop your game, you are probably pretty bad too.

Golf is an incredibly technical sport that requires expensive lessons and equipment to improve. (If you want proof that pure “athleticism” won’t make you good at golf, check out NBA great Charles Barkley’s swing.)

Despite the difficulty of the game, golf’s popularity is skyrocketing. In 2020, the number of golfers in the U.S. grew by 2% — the largest increase in 17 years. And by the end of 2020, there was a 14% increase in rounds recorded — the highest gain since 1997.

Golf has also attracted a whole new demographic of players, particularly Gen Z. A recent study showed that Gen Z and younger millennials make up 27% of new golfers every year. The generations that grew up with smartphones and social media are picking up golf in droves.

Capitalizing on this shift is Skillest, a remote golf-coaching app with hundreds of qualified coaches providing high-quality video lessons.

Using Skillest is simple.

First you filter for coaches through the app’s search tool. You can select coaches who are based near your location or in a different country. You then send a recording of your swing to your coach.
Your coach will respond with a screen recording of your swing, drawing lines and indicating where your swing issues lie.
Your coach will then film themselves on the range showing you exactly what drills you need to be working on and what you should be feeling in order to improve.
You record yourself working on the drills and post them back to the app.
Your coach will then message you on whether you are performing the drill correctly or need to tweak it.

I got a lesson from Keith Bennett, a golf coach from Scottsdale. And I can confidently say that I have found my lifelong coach. My swing has improved DRAMATICALLY, and I’ve never felt better about my game.

I can testify that this app is phenomenal from a customer standpoint.

But do coaches like it?

In short, absolutely.

Most of the coaches on the Skillest app are PGA professionals. This means that many of them have coaching jobs at country clubs. So users get to learn from trained professionals who teach golf for a living. And Skillest allows coaches to make thousands of extra dollars per month with little additional effort. And the best part? Coaches can set their own prices.

If a coach is just starting out on Skillest, they can set low prices to attract new golfers. If a coach is well known or has a large social media following, they can set higher prices.

This freedom has led to something remarkable. Without any nudging from Skillest, coaches are promoting Skillest to their in-person clients and social media pages.

My coach has a very active Instagram page with more than 100,000 followers. He is constantly posting and promoting Skillest to his following and continuing to draw in new customers. Coaches are acting as the sales force for Skillest, and the benefit for Skillest is enormous. Coaches are providing close to $5 million in free advertising per year.

Without spending much on marketing, Skillest is projecting its customers will spend more than $4.5 million on the platform in 2023. Last year platform spend was $2.7 million. There are more than 200 coaches on the platform who have at least one paying customer, and this number continues to grow. Between 2,000 and 3,000 new users make an account on Skillest every month. And platform spend by Skillest customers has been growing steadily year over year.

So how does Skillest make money?

It takes 15% of the fees from each transaction. Additionally, coaches are charged $49 per month for using the platform. Given how much coaches make on the platform, they have not pushed back whatsoever on being charged this nominal amount.

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