Tom Furber had a problem.
Playing centre-mid for Civil Service FC (4th team), Tom had accidentally become the de-facto 'stats guy' after volunteering to keep track of the team's results for a season.
It started like this: Every Monday, Tom would update the spreadsheet with the previous weekend's match result. Then, he was asked if he could include the names of the scorers. Sure, why not? But then, it was assists. Line ups. Penalty saves. Penalty misses. The list went on, and Tom kept on recording - because the conversations it created were fun, but also the rest of the team would bug him if he didn't.
Then, he had a bright idea to make his life even harder. What if he took all of these stats and turned them into fantasy points, just like the pros? Sure, he'd have to adjust the algorithm a bit - not many Premier League matches end 17-12. But that could be fun right?
Turns out it was. Every Monday, his entire team would bombard Tom on WhatsApp telling him to hurry up - they all wanted to see whether they'd beaten Big Dave this week in the fantasy points table. The team loved the fantasy points so much that it started to take up too much of Tom's time. It was then he decided to turn to two of his colleagues for help.
Tom was a Product Manager at NHS Digital, surrounded by digital product teams. He approached Rich, an expert full stack developer, and Andy, a UX/UI designer, for help. Could they knock up a website which would help him to keep track of these stats in a faster way, and make it easier to share with the team?
You're now reading that website. Of course, there's been some significant changes since the first, very simple, version. As word of mouth spread, more teams began to use Sentr, and more features were requested: graphics to share on social media, end of season stat packs, tactical insights. It's even been built as an app.
Tom, Rich and Andy are committed to making Sentr a huge success. It's why Ross, an expert marketer, and Gary, a Monzo co-founder and a start-up mentor, have joined the team.
Sentr is about making amateurs feel like pros. Because it doesn’t matter whether you’re playing Champions League or Sunday League. We all want to bask in the glory of victory, or work out what went wrong, and be the best we can be.
Or failing that, we want to sit with a post-match pint, load up Sentr, and prove once and for all that we’re definitely better than Big Dave.
10+ years experience of taking B2B and B2C digital products to market. 25+ years of playing and managing grassroots football teams.
Co-founder of Monzo Bank. Adviser, NED and mentor to start up companies. Venture Partner at Antler. Chelsea season ticket holder. But don't hold that against him.
Co-founder and Head of Product of Stakester, and previously a consultant at Quantexa, two of the UKs fastest growing start-ups. 12+ years experience as a UX designer. FA level 1 coaching badge.
19+ years industry experience as a software developer, including the maintenance of high capacity web systems. Keen cyclist and big fan of Strava.
10+ years experience in digital marketing, including running successful campaigns for clients including Amazon, Samsung and the BBC. 25+ years of playing grassroots football.
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