The world of clubs goes largely unnoticed. At nearly every golf course, marina, and social club, thousands of visitors enjoy their experience without giving the details a second thought. That’s because dozens of employees are working tirelessly, often on outdated management systems, to provide the most comfortable and streamlined experience for their members. One software startup thinks this system is flawed, and has set out to optimize club management systems. The company, called Clubspot, believes the world of club organization is largely untapped; two Connecticut College alumni joined the team to change the game from the inside.
Based in San Francisco, CA, Clubspot was founded in 2017 as a sailing company for regatta scoring software. The company was founded by Brendan Kopp and Philip Stout, both college athletes, software engineers, and brothers-in-law. They worked in tech after graduating, but transitioned to software development to fill the technological gap they saw in most modern club management systems.
So, they expanded. Clubspot now generalizes in club management software, helping private golf, yacht, country, and other social clubs manage their daily operations. The company is small—operating with only 17 full-time employees—but their business ventures are growing. Clubspot says they’re the “fastest growing platform for clubs,” with more than 300 clubs using their software across the United States.
“We’re a team of sailors, golfers, racquet sports players, skiers, and private club members of all types,” the Clubspot website says. “We built the first ever single, modern platform for club members and staff.”
The club software game is dominated by a company called Jonas Club Software. Founded in 1990, they serve more than 2,300 clubs in 20 countries. In 2003, Jonas Club Software (then Gary Jonas Computing) became a division of Constellation Software Inc. (CSI), a Canadian software company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Since the merger, many Jonas users have cited difficulties using the system. One Reddit user said, “Jonas covers the bases of club management, but it is clunky. Would love to see an integration with a more robust POS system.”
Clubspot is trying to do just that. Bryce Kopp ‘16, brother of Brendan and Head of Product and Onboarding, said the company objective is clear: replace outdated and fragmented club management software with a high-tech, efficient platform to streamline business operations.
“Your stereotypical private club is low-tech, but it is not their fault,” Kopp said. “Clubs need a shocking amount of systems to manage their operations.”
These systems—like point of sale, website builders, event management, accounting, membership billing engines, and event booking—are often run through various individual companies. Even clubs that use Jonas—or other software companies like Northstar or ClubEssential—still often run their accounting through Intuit Quickbooks and their membership billing through EZSuite, for example. While some management companies have attempted to integrate these services, Kopp says their software is outdated and slowing down daily club operations.
“While there are other management software systems that do this, it took them decades to build and as a result they are decades behind on their basic infrastructure,” Kopp said. “Clubspot stepped into the space to provide that full functionality but with modern infrastructure and an experience for staff and members that you would expect in 2026.”
Fritz Baldauf ‘24, joined the team in February as Marketing Manager. A former Editor-in-Chief of The College Voice, he runs the company’s market strategy and communication and writes the online blog. He believes that club management systems require a shift, and is working to put Clubspot’s name on the minds of organizations across the country looking to make a change in their programming.
“The idea is to provide clubs with the sort of software experience that you, and I, and whoever else expects in their daily lives,” Baldauf said. “Similar to signing up for an event, we want to deliver that same smooth experience that you don’t even really have to think twice about.”
Baldauf thinks this can be done using modern technology. The company is filled with young people, specifically recent college graduates with experience in tech. The team is working on developing new technologies to help expedite and smoothen out current management systems—use of AI will become ubiquitous in their product within the next few months. The advantage, Baldauf said, will be in minimizing the monotony of simple tasks, like compiling reports and registering guests for events. He said that because the company is filled with young entrepreneurs, customers can expect this addition to be integrated seamlessly.
“We did the math on this a few weeks ago—the average age of the company is 27,” Baldauf said. “It’s exciting to be this young up-and-coming company in this niche.”
Both Kopp and Baldauf said their experience at Conn helped them join the Clubspot team. While Kopp got involved through his brother, he said it was his educational background in college that helped him get started on software building for the company. As a physics major at Conn, computer science wasn’t his main focus. But the liberal arts environment forced him to learn multiple skillsets at once—an ability he tapped into once he started programming. He also credited his start in business to Career Action funding he received from the Hale Center for Career Development. That money, he said, helped him land an internship in the summer of his junior year, and later a job in tech.
“The niche I had carved out was being able to speak to developers as easily as I could speak to business executives, sales teams, procurement teams—I think having a broad liberal arts education helped with that,” Kopp said. “I would have to go extremely deep into a quantum mechanics problem set, and then also pull back and work on totally different subjects that required different skillsets altogether.”
Unlike Kopp, Baldauf is working in media, like he intended. But club software development wasn’t on his radar after graduation. His time as a skipper on the Conn sailing team embedded him within the world of clubs and introduced him to Kopp, who landed him the job. Even without anticipating working for a company like Clubspot, he said the skills he uses in his work came from his liberal arts education.
“I got connected to the job because I was a Conn sailor,” Baldauf said. “But I think working at The College Voice really refined my skills as a writer and an editor—the writing and critical thinking skills that I learned were invaluable to me.”
Clubspot was named “Best Cloud-Based Club Management Platform” by Boardroom Magazine in 2025—but the company is just getting started. With a young and ambitious staff, an innovative business model, and connections to clubs across the country, the company said it thinks it can continue to expand across the U.S. Eventually, they want to become the first platform that club managers go to when they need to upgrade their operations, which means overtaking hegemonies like Jonas Club Software. Kopp said the key is finding how to integrate Clubspot as smoothly into club management as possible, providing the simplest system for customers.
“At the very onset of a startup you might be looking for the next big thing, or looking for the right problem to solve that no one has cracked,” Kopp said. “We have already found the problem and solved a big part of it, so our job now is learning from our customers and figuring out how to make their lives easier.”
One thing is for sure: Connecticut College has been part of this business since the start. Whether it’s by sailing on the water or typing behind a laptop, these two alumni will keep working hard to bring Clubspot to the top of the club game.
“For now, the goal is to continue to grow and increase our audience and as much as possible, and get people thinking about us,” Baldauf said. “Even if they’re not necessarily looking to change their software programs now, but if they’re looking to change their software in 2, 3, or 4 years from now, you know, we’re on their radar.”
