The Next Era of Whistle

 In 2018, I entered Teamworks HQ to meet with Zach Maurides. We discussed the future of collegiate sports technology and the complications of college recruiting, and compared the battle scars earned when launching a business in sports. I left motivated and excited that our visions aligned, and was optimistic that someday Whistle Recruiting would join forces with Teamworks.

That day is today. 

On behalf of myself, my co-founders Tony and Larson, and the entire Whistle team, we are excited and honored to share that Teamworks has acquired Whistle Recruiting.The next era of recruiting technology starts today.

Whistle Recruiting was born out of necessity to combat the 16-hour workday consumed by disorganized messaging strategies, content calendars managed on spreadsheets, and unreliable sources for upcoming game schedules. Meanwhile, I noticed my counterparts in other departments operating like a well-oiled machine, collaborating effortlessly with intelligent and innovative technology that streamlined travel, practice schedules, and communications with our coaches and players - Teamworks.

After three years of battling inefficient processes with outdated technology and spreadsheets, I rolled the dice and started Whistle Recruiting. 

As Teamworks continued to thrive in the collegiate space, we closely mimicked the blueprint to their success. After proving our concept with a simple  SMS and Twitter direct messaging application focused on football programs, we quickly evolved to iMessage, media distribution, and high school score and schedule aggregation. Through it all, we kept it simple and focused, creating a great product, and servicing the hell out of clients. That simple strategy fueled Whistle Recruiting’s growth from three football programs to representing half of college football and began to attract the attention of coaches in basketball, volleyball, cross country, and track and field.

This success presented us with a new challenge: how do we take Whistle Recruiting to the next level? As I saw it, we had two options: expose our teams to the growing pains we would soon encounter, or partner with a company that has established itself as the benchmark in collegiate and professional sports software.

Our integration into the Teamworks organization will be an absolute game-changer for our teams. With increased resources focused on implementing, educating, and gathering customer feedback, we will accelerate our ability to innovate at the speed the recruiting market is changing.

I want to thank Zach Maurides and James Coffos for playing a pivotal role in our success as mentors, friends, and investors; and Stephen Schmalhofer, Thomas Lehrman, and Teamworthy Ventures for putting rocket fuel in our tank last summer. Most of all, I want to thank the teams and universities who have stuck by our side during this journey and trusted us as we pioneered the path in recruiting communication.

Together with Teamworks, we are focused on building the future of recruiting. The best is yet to come.

Luke Pitcher