We began monthly updates in July after doing weekly updates that ended in Week 18, and are shifting to monthly updates. The monthly update is meant to give stats that are useful to the endurance and nonprofit communities we serve, but also to bridge the gap between our Quarterly Business Updates, and our Monthly Newsletter. We also published […]
We have always eagerly studied Eventbrite since they are a company with a business model very similar to ours – earning money based solely on processing fees for events (and for us nonprofit donations). During their Q1 report, we learned how COVID-19 was impacting their business. And we have been awaiting these numbers as we […]
We had been doing weekly updates on the numbers we are seeing since the pandemic began. We ended that in Week 18, and are shifting to monthly updates. The monthly update is meant to give stats that are useful to the endurance and nonprofit communities we serve, but also to bridge the gap between our […]
Wanda Sports Group announced the sale of Ironman to Advance, a New York based investment company known for owning media and entertainment companies like Condé Nast and Stage Entertainment. One of the interesting things about the sale was occurring during the middle of the pandemic. The original sale price of $730 Million was announced in […]
We kept getting the same question of whether RunSignup and GiveSignup can work together – so we decided to make it very visual with our new combo logo you may have noticed on both websites. Just like those old ven diagrams you learned in school, RunSignup and GiveSignup share the same foundation with a single […]
We got a number of questions about our Q2 report regarding our estimate that 2021 was going to be much like this year. Our expectation is that normal running of races will not happen again until 2022. There will be some real races this year and in 2021. And the number and size will probably […]
This is our first full quarterly report during COVID-19. As we have discussed over the past several months, this has impacted our entire community, and certainly RunSignup/GiveSignup negatively. You can review past results here: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, Q1-19, Q2-19, Q3-19, 2019, and Q1-20. Summary Numbers As expected, the numbers are all down […]
Wow! Eventbrite said yesterday that transaction volume in March was down 90% and was still down 85% in early May, 2020. Before we get into the analysis, here are the links: Q1 Earnings Press Release Q1 Letter to Shareholders Earnings Call Transcript The news they shared was simply extraordinary, and made us feel good about […]
We usually do a Race Registration Market Analysis twice a year. We usually include a bunch of stats from different sources to compare the various registration platforms and track general industry trends. Usually, we publish the spring one in March. This year is obviously different because the Coronavirus really started impacting normal life in the […]
A bit late for this past quarter, but we have been busy adjusting to the Coronavirus crisis as we have been helping the endurance community find solutions to postponement, cancellation, going virtual, and finding ways to make money and save money. But we want to make sure we continue to record what is happening as […]
We wanted to take time to document what has been happening inside RunSignup since the Coronavirus started. We have seen lots of different speculation from all sides – that we are small and therefore will be crushed by far larger competitors to speculation that we have all this money and are stealing from races by […]
Every event organizer is trying to figure out how to generate revenue right now. Here is an overview of ways to can use RunSignup to potentially make some money. We also have a sister blog for ways to Save Money with RunSignup. Here is a quick list: New Virtual Race Replace/Extend Your Race with Virtual […]
It has been a full month since we shifted into Full Coronavirus Mode on March 9. At our core, we are a technology company. We have been in hyperdrive mode this past month on a bunch of different fronts and wanted to take a moment to give an overview and some depth of insight on […]
As we talked about a couple of months ago, Tough Mudder did go to bankruptcy court and ended up with a settlement deal. Spartan will acquire Tough Mudder for $700,000 plus assume debts of $10 Million including honoring prepaid tickets. According to Obstacle Racing Media, Spartan is brining back a number of Tough Mudder employees, […]
We have attempted to put together the Largest 100 races that were timed from 2019. We have been accumulating this list for a couple of years (here is 2018). While we try, we may have missed some races, or we might not have the numbers exactly right since this is a manual process. So if […]
Enmotive announced today that they have acquired imATHLETE. This follows on the heels of Gatehouse acquiring Enmotive last year. Gatehouse Live also acquired Rugged Maniac in 2018. Gatehouse was a small division of New Media Investment Group, which owned 150+ newspapers nationwide. New Media acquired Gannett in 2019, which also owned over 150 newspapers including […]
We heard a disturbing story about a race who is going to be moving their registration platform, and their former vendor has locked them out of the system. So they are now fighting with that vendor trying to get access to their data. Ouch! While most races want to find a system and then never […]
Bloomberg reported that Tough Mudder creditors are trying to put the company in bankruptcy. “Signs of distress have been hovering, with CEO Kyle McLaughlin departing the company. The company’s website says ticket sales have been suspended. Creditors are attempting to push the organizer into bankruptcy over $855,000 they say the company owes them.” Bloomberg OCR […]
We have been issued a new Attestation of Compliance for PCI. This is our yearly report issued by an independent auditor that does an annual (and quarterly) multi-dimensional audit of our system and processes to ensure we meet the highest levels of compliance with the credit card industry standards. RunSignup spends considerable effort, and we […]
Justus Fee is joining the RunSignup team as a coop student software developer in the Moorestown, NJ office. He’s a senior at Rowan University pursuing a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and is the first of many Rowan students working with RunSignup as part of the Cooperative Education Program. His programming passion is to create tools […]
A recent article in the NYTimes, Short-Term Thinking Is Poisoning American Business, talks about the short term focus: Public Companies: “being evaluated by investors on their ability to produce immediate financial value, almost always in the form of value-extracting activities such as cost-cutting, price increases, share buybacks or other forms of financial engineering.” Private Companies: […]
A Decade. Yep, RunSignup has officially been around for a decade now. In the beginning, we did not really know what to expect. But it is safe to say we greatly exceeded the expectations of customers appreciating what we built. Our very purpose for existing is to provide technology to our endurance and nonprofit customers […]
Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the Internet, announced the Contract for the Web today. RunSignup has endorsed the contract and pledges to live up to the ideals of a better web. Much of the founding principles of RunSignup came from Open Source principles that are essentially the same as what Tim outlines. We felt […]
Our industry consolidation continues. Asics has acquired Race Roster. This is good news for Race Roster’s investors. As we have been vocal about the limited valuations of race registration providers, they likely were paid a good profit. This is also good news for Race Roster employees as Asics does have a commitment to this market […]
We do a quarterly update on how things are going with RunSignup (2016, Q1/17, Q2/17, Q3/17, 2017, Q1/18, Q2/18, Q3/18, 2018, Q1/19 and Q2/19). The good news is that more races, timing companies, and nonprofits continue to recommend us. And we keep putting out great technology our customers seem to like! Q3 is always busy for us with our annual RunSignup Summer Symposium where 293 people […]
Being the open company we are, we do not express political points of view, and we respect a diverse set of beliefs among our employees, partners and customers. We also say “No” to events and donation websites on RunSignup and GiveSignup that are for the benefit of a political organization. This means that 527 Groups, […]
We do a US Registration Market Analysis every 6 months: September 2015 March, 2016 September, 2016 March, 2017 September, 2017 March, 2018 September, 2018 March, 2019 We try to improve on it with your feedback (so feel free to send suggestions or corrections to bob.bickel at runsignup.com). We do this as part of our own […]
We will try to provide information as directly as possible, but remember that RunSignup does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. RunSignup makes no representations, warranties, or […]
We held a Sales Tax Webinar on August 21, 2019 to review the status of our Sales Tax implementation work, expected to complete by early October. We had hundreds of people attending and this is a list of the questions asked (trying to remove similar questions). We will try to answer your questions as directly […]
Do you… Have a passion for the race endurance and nonprofit industry? Love working with the latest and greatest technology? Want to bring technology solutions to thousands of races and clients in the endurance and nonprofit market? Want to work with a dynamic and cutting-edge tech company that’s using the art of technology to make […]
Jen Miller’s NYTimes weekly newsletter contained some more “bad news” about the state of races: “Triathlons appear to be facing the same kind of participation slump that hit running in the mid-2010s: U.S.A. Triathlon’s membership dropped about a quarter over a five-year period. And that’s not all — on July 26, Wanda Sports Group, which owns, among […]
This is Bob. I’m getting a bunch of “Congratulations on your 10th Work Anniversary” on LinkedIn today. At our Symposium, Allison and I talked about this being our 10th year in business and what we have planned for the next 10 years (more of the same in Endurance and, of course GiveSignup for nonprofits). But […]
We do a quarterly update on how things are going with RunSignup (2016, Q1/17, Q2/17, Q3/17, 2017, Q1/18, Q2/18, Q3/18, 2018, and Q1/19). The good news is that more races, timing companies, and nonprofits continue to recommend us. And we keep putting out great technology our customers seem to like! Our annual RunSignup Symposium is less than a week away. We are happy […]
Wanda Sports Group, the owners of IRONMAN, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Cape Epic and more endurance events, has filed to go public. This gives a rare public view into the largest event company in our market, with lots of interesting tidbits of information and potential lessons to be learned. We will look at the various components, […]
This is Bob. I’ve had the advantage of being a part of a number of successful venture backed companies either as a leader, a board member or both. RunSignup is different – we’ve structured ourselves as an employee owned company with a profit sharing plan. We aren’t looking for a headline grabbing “Exit”, but a […]
Time flies! We are in the middle of our 10th year. A lot has happened since our inception – growing from 0 races with 0 registrations with $0 of transactions to over 20,000 races with 6 Million registrations and $250 Million expected in our 10th year is amazing. It is a tribute to our employees […]
We are pleased to welcome Jonathan Farrell to the RunSignup development team. Jonathan will be working from our Moorestown office and from his home in northern New Jersey. Bob first met Jonathan 7 years ago when visiting the Rockland Road Runners Club. Since then Jonathan has been a RunSignup user from a club and race […]
Eventbrite reported first quarter earnings yesterday to general disappointment. Net Revenue growth had slowed to 9% totaling $81M for the quarter with Gross Profit of $50M and a loss of $10M. These were below expectations, and expectations for Q2 also disappointed – resulting in a drop of about 30% in stock price this morning from […]
We do a quarterly update on how things are going with RunSignUp (2016, Q1/17, Q2/17, Q3/17, 2017, Q1/18, Q2/18, Q3/18 and 2018). The good news is that more races, timing companies, running stores and runners continue to recommend us. And we keep putting out great technology our customers seem to like! RunSignUp Numbers Our numbers were great for Q1 with 17% […]
We do a US Registration Market Analysis every 6 months: September 2015 March, 2016 September, 2016 March, 2017 September, 2017 March, 2018 September, 2018 We try to improve on it with your feedback (so feel free to send suggestions or corrections to bob.bickel at runsignup.com). We do this as part of our own internal market […]
One of the Guiding Principles of RunSignup is Learning. We are at RunningUSA down in Puerto Rico for the next couple of days and have already had a bunch of wonderful opportunities to learn from others. We figured it was also a good chance to do a little audit of if we are helping provide […]
Make a minimum $50 tax deductible donation to Filmmakers Collaborative, a 501c3 not for profit, and support acclaimed marathon film director Jon Dunham in creating his new film Partenope: Finding A Lost City. You will get arguably the best three marathon movies ever made, including BOSTON, which the RunSignup community supported creating. Donations can be […]
Do you… Have a passion for the race endurance industry? Love working with the latest and greatest technology? Want exposure and experience with an organization that interacts with thousands of races and charities in the endurance industry? Want to work with a dynamic and cutting-edge tech company that’s utilizing the art of technology to make […]
We have assembled the Top 100 Road Races in a consolidated list and will be maintaining this along with our RaceTrends Report and bi-annual Registration Market reports on a continuing basis. This helps us understand the market better, and we hope it helps others as well. Since this is our first time, we are sure […]
We get a lot of questions about why RunSignup is employee owned and if we intend to sell or get acquired. This comes from three angles: First, our customers and prospective customers have a strong desire for stability. They want to make an investment in a technology platform that will continue to grow and get […]
We are preparing our yearly Race Trends Report for release at the RunningUSA conference. One of the stats is a comparison of races that happened in 2017 and 2018 where we could measure growth or decline. The Top 1000 Races has a decline in participants of 2.5%, falling 44,589 to 1,777,344 participants. We also track races […]
We announced a set of integrations that we are working on with Active a couple of days ago and there has been confusion and concern. First, this is a technical integration. There are a variety of customers with a cross set of technologies. For example, there are dozens of timers who time thousands of races […]
We are looking to hire a summer intern software developer to help RunSignUp continue to provide great web services and mobile apps and cutting edge technology to the running and fundraising communities. This is a great opportunity to understand what a real development environment is like, do some good development, work with some very bright […]
Knock on wood, but it was the third year in a row with 100% uptime – zero downtime. We actually just completed a migration to the newest version of PHP that as you can see from the graph below saved about 15-20 milliseconds: We had several highlights from the year on the positive side: Major […]
Amazing how time flies – we are heading into our 10th year! It reminds me of a Bill Gates quote: “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” We never thought we would be processing over $210 Million of money for races and non-profits […]
