YSBR sat down with Michael Hutner, CEO and founder of SPiN (Sports Profile Network), to talk about what it takes to build a network for youth and amateur sports, why integration beats replacement, and the data problem holding the entire ecosystem back.
Key Takeaways
- SPiN is building a network layer that connects existing youth sports tools rather than replacing them, following an “integrate first, build second” approach.
- Hutner brings 25 years in enterprise software and experience scaling a fintech company past $300 million in ARR to the youth sports ecosystem.
- The platform eliminates public commenting entirely, relying on approved private connections to maintain a non-toxic environment for families.
- SPiN is in active conversations with multiple National Governing Bodies about aggregating participation data across their ecosystems.
- The company closed a Seed round in 2025 led by KB Partners, a venture capital firm focused on sports and technology.
A Structural Problem, Not a Feature Problem
Michael Hutner didn’t start SPiN because he thought youth sports needed another app. He started it because he was a parent juggling five or six of them.
“I couldn’t believe how hard things were to manage, despite tech and apps being used to schedule, communicate, register, track game day stats,” Hutner told YSBR. “With 25 years in enterprise software and having run a fintech company that grew to over $300 million in ARR, I knew enough to ask this important question: is this a feature problem or a structural problem?”
The answer, in his view, was structural. The individual tools were not the problem. The problem was that nothing connected them. And every new platform that entered the market positioning itself as an all-in-one solution only added another silo.
“Every company ends up competing for market share while the actual experience for parents and clubs keeps getting worse,” he said. “We decided from day one to do the opposite: stay agnostic, connect what already exists, and not compete with the tools organizations depend on.”
That conviction became SPiN’s founding philosophy: integrate first, build second. Rather than asking organizations to rip out the systems they already rely on, SPiN positions itself as the hub that sits on top, connecting the tools organizations already use into a single experience for families and administrators.
Going to Market Through Organizations, Not Individual Users
SPiN’s go-to-market strategy is B2B2C. The company is not trying to acquire families one at a time. Instead, it partners with clubs, leagues, and organizations, each of which brings its entire community onto the platform when it joins.
Hutner described a deliberate decision to start small. SPiN began working with smaller clubs to understand their actual pain points before scaling.
“The best way I’ve learned to solve problems is by being a great listener and starting small,” he said. “Get close, understand what’s actually hard for them, and build until you’re confident you’ve solved something real.”
For organizations, that translates to less time managing disconnected tools and more time on athletes and programming. SPiN integrates into existing workflows, connects those tools, and gives organizations the option to layer in vetted third-party tools at their own pace.
Hutner said the company is now confident enough in that foundation to begin scaling up to larger organizations, leagues, and National Governing Bodies. The approach, he emphasized, stays the same at every level: solve problems first, then scale.
“If we do right by the organizations, they will happily recommend SPiN to their community of parents, athletes, and fans,” he said. “The organizations know the experience today is far from ideal for families, so they’d love to have a solution to recommend.”
Navigating Integration With Incumbent Platforms
SPiN’s value depends on connecting with tools like TeamSnap, SportsEngine, and LeagueApps, platforms that may not have an obvious incentive to integrate with a layer that sits above them. Hutner acknowledged the dynamic but said the conversations have been largely productive.
“One thing is consistent across every conversation we have: everyone in the industry acknowledges the fragmentation problem and would love to see it solved,” he said.
In practice, SPiN integrates through its customers. Clubs and leagues request that their tools be connected, and SPiN works with them directly to make that happen using the mechanisms those platforms already support. The club stays in control of its own stack.
Hutner noted that larger platforms have been more cautious, which he described as understandable. But he said those conversations have started to shift as SPiN builds relationships with some of the largest organizations in youth sports.
“When they see we’re not trying to replace them, the conversation changes,” he said. “They do acknowledge the real benefits of a more connected ecosystem.”
The Lifetime Profile ID and the Data Problem Beneath It
At the center of SPiN’s long-term vision is the Lifetime Profile ID, a persistent sports identity designed to follow athletes, parents, coaches, and organizations across every team, season, and sport. Hutner described it as the data foundation that makes everything else possible.
“We’re aggregating, connecting, and standardizing data across the ecosystem so everyone can benefit from it,” he said. “In tech terms, we’re building the rails.”
Athletes and families control what data enters their profiles. Integrations add structured data over time, and the Lifetime Profile ID grows with the person it belongs to.
On the privacy side, Hutner was direct: the parent is SPiN’s first customer. Parents create and control their child’s profile, and nothing moves without their approval. He framed that not as a regulatory compliance measure but as a core design decision.
“That’s not a compliance checkbox. It’s a core design decision and another founding conviction of SPiN,” he said.
A Sports Network Without Public Comments
SPiN describes itself as a non-toxic sports network, a deliberate distinction from traditional social platforms. Where those platforms rely on open public engagement, SPiN takes a different approach. Hutner’s answer to how SPiN maintains that standard was blunt: there is no public commenting on the platform.
Interaction on SPiN happens only through private connections where both sides have approved the relationship. The result, Hutner argued, is an experience grounded in real relationships rather than the open-forum dynamics that define traditional social platforms.
“When your network is made up of people who actually know each other, the experience stays grounded in real relationships,” he said.
Being sports-only also narrows the context. Content on SPiN is shared with people who care about what’s being posted, whether that’s a game highlight, a team update, or a season recap. AI-powered moderation runs in the background to flag content that falls outside those boundaries.
Revenue, the Marketplace, and Why SPiN Doesn’t Pick Winners
SPiN’s revenue model is built around distribution. When a third-party vendor in areas like livestreaming, player development, or apparel reaches a club or family through SPiN, the company earns a share of the value that new distribution creates. In some cases, the sports organization shares in that revenue as well.
Hutner said SPiN surfaces the top two or three options in a given category and lets clubs choose. The company is not trying to build the winning tools itself.
“The economics follow the value, they don’t lead it,” he said. “Competition is good, innovation is good. We believe our model ultimately benefits organizations and families the most, because tech platforms will have to keep delivering more and more value to their customers year in and year out to stay in the game.”
Active NGB Conversations and Two Paths to Adoption
Hutner confirmed that SPiN is in active conversations with multiple National Governing Bodies. The problem, he said, is consistent across all of them: NGBs may have a general sense of how many athletes participate each year, but they lack a detailed picture of who those athletes are, where they go between seasons, or how participation trends are shifting.
He described two paths to adoption. The first is bottom-up. Clubs and leagues contribute data because they understand it helps the broader ecosystem grow. The second starts at the top, where NGBs become advocates within their own ecosystems and drive adoption down to the club level.
“It’s a natural fit because we’re a neutral party that isn’t competing with any of the tools their organizations already use,” Hutner said.
What the Next 12 to 18 Months Look Like for SPiN
SPiN closed its Seed round in 2025 led by KB Partners, a venture capital firm focused on sports and technology investments. Hutner said the next 12 to 18 months are focused on growth: more organizations on the platform, an expanding roster of third-party partnerships, and continued buildout of the Lifetime Profile ID.
When asked whether SPiN plans to focus on a specific sport or region first, Hutner pushed back on the premise. Families don’t live in one sport, he said. Kids play across organizations, seasons, and tools. Narrowing too tightly would risk recreating the same fragmentation SPiN was built to solve.
“If we narrowed our focus too tightly, we’d risk becoming another app that works in some circumstances but not all,” he said, “and we’d be right back to contributing to the fragmentation problem we set out to solve.”
Source: YSBR Interview with Michael Hutner, CEO and Founder of SPiN (Sports Profile Network), March 2026
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