Overview of Practical Founders Podcast — Episode #212 with Jay Maharaj
In this episode, Greg Head interviews Jay Maharaj, founder and CEO of TeamLinked, a youth sports management platform built for teams, clubs, leagues, and associations. The conversation focuses on why TeamLinked chose a payments-driven model instead of traditional SaaS subscriptions, how the company has scaled to millions of athletes and thousands of organizations, and why Jay believes practical, aligned capital is a better fit than venture funding for this kind of business. They also discuss growth strategy, AI-driven product development, and lessons learned from building a durable software company outside a major tech hub.
What TeamLinked Does
TeamLinked helps youth sports organizations manage the full operational workflow, including:
- Registration and payments
- Scheduling and availability
- Team and league communication
- Rosters and reporting
- Websites and parent/player engagement
- Scores, standings, photos, polls, and live updates
It is used across a wide range of sports and org sizes, from individual teams to large associations and even national structures.
Who It Serves
TeamLinked is designed primarily for:
- Youth sports administrators
- Coaches and volunteer organizers
- Parents and players
- Clubs, leagues, and associations
While youth sports is the core focus, the platform is also used in adult rec leagues and other groups like dance, gymnastics, cheerleading, band, chess clubs, and even family calendars.
Business Model: Payments-Driven, Not Subscription-Driven
A major theme of the episode is TeamLinked’s pricing approach.
Core Model
- No SaaS fee for the core platform
- Revenue comes mainly from a small markup on payment processing via Stripe
- Organizations can choose whether to absorb or pass through transaction fees
- No per-player fees
- Some add-ons exist for more specialized needs, but the core system remains free for organizations
Why It Matters
Jay argues this model aligns TeamLinked with customer outcomes:
- Organizations pay only when they collect registration payments
- The platform helps reduce administrative burden
- As customers grow, TeamLinked grows
- It creates a “net zero cost” feeling for many customers
This is positioned as a better fit for grassroots youth sports than expensive enterprise-style software.
Growth, Scale, and Traction
TeamLinked has reached meaningful scale while staying relatively lean.
Current Scale
- 3,500+ organizations
- 3 million+ athletes on the platform
- 600,000+ monthly active users
- 30+ employees
- Revenue is described as pushing C$4.5M this year
- The company is growing at around 2x year-over-year pace
Go-To-Market Motion
TeamLinked grows through:
- Organization-level adoption, then expansion to teams/parents/players
- Virality from coaches and families inviting others
- Sport-specific and region-specific playbooks
- Self-serve for smaller orgs, assisted sales/onboarding for larger ones
Funding and Capital Strategy
Jay explains that TeamLinked explored venture capital, but it wasn’t the right fit.
Capital History
- Early investors included local backers and family offices
- A Canadian VC participated in a pre-round
- In 2024, TeamLinked raised $6M USD from Growth Street Partners
- Jay took a small amount of money off the table, but mostly remained fully invested in the business
Why Venture Was Not the Path
Jay felt venture capital demanded:
- Unrealistic growth expectations
- A much larger exit profile
- Misalignment with TeamLinked’s practical growth model
Instead, Growth Street Partners provided:
- A minority growth-equity structure
- Strategic support without taking control
- Alignment around efficient, customer-driven growth
What Changed After the Growth Equity Round
The funding was used to strengthen the company’s foundation rather than to “spend aggressively.”
Main Uses of Capital
- Hiring leadership in key areas
- Building out sales, product, finance, and go-to-market functions
- Improving structure and discipline
- Increasing efficiency through AI tools
Relationship with Investors
Jay describes the investors as highly involved but not controlling:
- Frequent Slack and direct communication
- Monthly strategy syncs
- Biweekly conversations with team members
- Supportive, challenging, and data-oriented
- Helpful in hiring and candidate evaluation
He frames them as “Google Maps in the backseat” — helpful navigation, but not taking the wheel.
Market Position and ICP
Growth Street helped TeamLinked sharpen its understanding of its ideal customer profile.
Best-Fit Customers
- Grassroots and community-driven sports orgs
- Organizations that prioritize registration, scheduling, and communication
- Mid-market groups that need a strong core system, but not a premium niche product
- Teams and clubs that benefit from a low-cost or free platform
Not the Best Fit
- Very large, premium soccer organizations willing to pay for highly specialized enterprise software
- Customers that need deeply specialized, best-in-class niche features at high annual contract values
Jay is intentionally staying in a lane where TeamLinked can deliver strong value without overextending.
AI’s Role in the Business
AI is becoming an important productivity and product lever for TeamLinked.
Internal Uses
- Using Claude to accelerate development
- Surfacing and acting on data
- Improving internal workflows
- Creating velocity across engineering, product, and support
Product Uses
- AI-powered scheduling assistance
- Chat-based interfaces for actions that used to require menus
- AI website builder for organizations
- Support staff can validate bugs and create PRs through Slack/Linear workflows
- Goal: let non-technical admins do more through conversation
Jay’s view is that if a user can do something in the interface, they should eventually be able to do it through conversation.
Key Challenges and Lessons
The business has had to navigate several real-world challenges:
- Strong competition and market noise
- Seasonality in youth sports
- Different buying cycles across sports and regions
- Canadian vs. U.S. differences in sports organization structure
- Building without over-hiring or overspending
A major lesson: don’t let the noise of funding rounds, acquisitions, or competitors distract from product and customer value.
Jay Maharaj’s Advice for Founders
Jay’s practical founder advice centers on alignment and revenue discipline:
- Revenue solves a lot of problems
- Don’t spend too much time chasing venture money
- Find capital and partners that are truly aligned with your model
- Understand your CAC by channel early
- Get your books and metrics structured so you can scale intelligently
- Build for efficient, sustainable growth rather than hype
Bottom Line
TeamLinked is a strong example of a practical software business built around a real operational pain point. Jay Maharaj has created a platform that helps youth sports organizations save time, improve communication, and handle payments without charging traditional SaaS fees. The company’s growth-equity-backed, payments-driven model is deliberately aligned with customer success, making it a compelling case study in practical, durable SaaS growth.