One fan, 15 players: how Teamy organically grew to 200,000 members

“Every Friday, we had to scramble to find players,” says Wander Evers about the frustration that led to Teamy. He played alongside co-founders Martijn Coevert and Jos Herbrink at GRC Groningen. Every Friday evening, the coach would call other teams for substitutes, and sometimes matches were cancelled. "That was frustrating because you'd keep your whole weekend free to play football."

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Who's coming on Saturday?

The solution seemed simple. "We wanted to know every Tuesday who would be coming. In select teams and among professionals, everything is organized. But in amateur football, simply nothing is arranged. You're on your own and nothing happens until someone takes initiative. Often that's the coach."

"Everyone knows who's coming. People go to the app to check on each other. That was the moment I thought: maybe we have something here." Martijn had the idea first. Jos, the third co-founder, triggered him later to build the app. "We started Teamy in 2019 as a side project."

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Teams started finding us organically. From football clubs in Rotterdam to running clubs in the south. “How can they possibly know about Teamy?

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Two months of building, five years as a side project

All three had technical backgrounds. "Jos and I are full-stack developers," says Martijn. "Wander has a UX and marketing background." Together, they built the first version of Teamy in two months.

There were already some alternatives available, but according to the trio, they were incomplete. What was missing from existing solutions? A simple notification on Thursday asking: are you coming on Saturday? Yes or no. They built this in and immediately published their first version in the App Store and Google Play.

After six months, something unexpected happened. "Teams started finding us organically. From football clubs in Rotterdam to running clubs in the south. 'How can they possibly know about Teamy?' we thought." After six months they had 500 athletes. Then we thought: maybe we have something.

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That cost us a lot of time, but it was also a valuable learning experience and confirmation to continue with our plans.

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The almost-sale in 2023

Teamy was a side project for a long time. Four years after launch, in 2023, came a turning point. Wander spoke with a former financial director. "I told him about Teamy. He said: you have something in your hands, so what are you going to do with it?" They faced a choice: continue or stop?

Through his network, Wander came into contact with someone within a sports tech consortium. "They made us a good offer." They wanted to buy Teamy. "We weren't planning to sell, but the offer and the way the collaboration was structured were so good for the phase we were in that we seriously moved toward a sale."

Ultimately, the deal fell through at the last moment. The consortium couldn't secure financing. "That cost us a lot of time, but it was also a valuable learning experience and confirmation to continue with our plans." It was the point where they said: we have something in our hands that can become big, so we're going to make sure it works.

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A year and a half ago, we put more features in the subscription and lowered the price. Then we saw a big increase.

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From free to freemium

In 2025, Wander, Martijn and Jos decided to work full-time on Teamy. At that point, they had around 200,000 members. 2025 has been mainly focused on full-time building and realizing a scalable business model.

The freemium strategy was trial and error. "First, we only had extra features for coaches. Almost nobody bought that." They analysed which features were used most. At one point, it cost 50% more with fewer features. "A year and a half ago, we put more features in the subscription and lowered the price. Then we saw a big increase."

Now they're smart limitations. "We try to keep the price for the coach, who makes all functions available for the team, as low as possible so that every athlete can use it, and it remains accessible. You can add up to ten players in the free version. That's almost a football team, but we're also active in volleyball, basketball, hockey, swimming, and canoeing. All team sports are possible."

In football, 80% of teams upgrade. Teams are fans of Teamy. They're used to it and want to pay. For other team sports, it's more nuanced. There are more features behind the paywall than just the number of players. That trial and error with pricing ultimately determined making it a serious business model.

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We have 3,000 members in the United States and 2,000 in Australia. Teamy is also already available in six languages.

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Marketing, marketing, marketing

"Last year, 2025, was about validating a good business model," says Wander. "We validated that, but we didn't invest in growth. We hope to do that this year."

Athletes open the app three to four times a week. They're directly connected and see where they stand at that moment. That attracts partners. "Last year we had conversations about placing advertisements. Those deals help us enormously."

This year's focus will mainly be on marketing. Teamy needs to become better known throughout the country. The team is having conversations with influencers. In Belgium, they're working with Sporta-federatie. "We provide insight into sports behaviour and they promote Teamy," Martijn explains.

Meanwhile, Teamy is growing organically worldwide. "We have 3,000 members in the United States and 2,000 in Australia. Teamy is also already available in six languages." Despite this, the strategy remains clear: the focus is on the Netherlands and Belgium, then other countries will follow.

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Bigger than the competition by the end of 2027

Spond, with 3 million players in Europe, is the biggest competitor. "The most significant difference is that they're not trying to be the best team sports app," Wander explains. "They're organized at the club level, with a focus on contributions and finances. We look from the perspective of coaches and players."

Teamy deliberately chooses differently. "With every feature we ask ourselves: is it universal? We think and act from the lower player level. That's where most play." When asked if they'll soon surpass Spond, the duo answers with a resounding yes. "And the forecast is that this will happen at the end of 2027. We're on their radar because we're in contact."

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Top-level sports are already well organized. We look at where it starts; the field where every Friday evening the question arises: who's showing up tomorrow?

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Organic growth as a secret

Wander's advice? "Try to form an oil slick with your product or service. If we have one player who is a fan of Teamy, 15 more players soon join. If you can build a model around that, it grows quickly. Then you need to spend less on advertising."

"Where will we be with Teamy in five years? Honestly, I have no idea. We want to expand in Europe first. This year we're going to win our first foreign market and then move on to seven other EU countries." The focus remains on amateur sports. "Top-level sports are already well organized. We look at where it starts; the field where every Friday evening the question arises: who's showing up tomorrow?"

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Interview & tekst | Lars Meijer