Podcast Ep 319: John Hyland’s Cavan-based start-up ClubSpot serves 500,000 users across four countries, challenging Dublin’s dominance as the place to scale a tech firm from.
When John Hyland was recovering from a football injury during his sports management masters at UCD, he spotted a gap that would transform his life and challenge assumptions about where Ireland’s next tech success stories must emerge.
His Cavan-based company ClubSpot now serves over 500,000 users across Ireland, the UK, US and Australia, managing everything from GAA clubs to soccer teams, demonstrating that global software companies can scale from rural Ireland without relocating to Dublin.
“What do Man United do? What do Real Madrid do? Can we bring an elite level solution to grassroots sports? We always aimed to build the best product with the easiest interface”
“There’s 78,000 people in Cavan, and we had 500 or so contributing through sponsorship or commercial income,” Hyland recalled of his original research into Cavan GAA. “What about the other 77,500? They’re just as big fans. There are meaningful ways they can contribute.”
That insight has evolved into a comprehensive club management platform serving 550 clubs and 32 county boards. The company has raised €2 million in funding, grown to 35 staff, and achieved a 97% customer retention rate.
Solving volunteer burnout
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ClubSpot addresses two critical issues plaguing grassroots sports: unsustainable administrative burdens on volunteers and rising operational costs.
The platform automates membership processes, integrates with national governing bodies like the GAA and FAI, and provides what Hyland describes as “a single source of truth” for club operations.
“The administration burden on volunteers was growing at a rate that probably wasn’t sustainable,” Hyland explained. “I was 22 or 23 at the time, and I was hoping to go back and play, so I decided when my time comes, I want to have a system in place to make this work easier.”
The white-label approach means users interact with their club’s branded platform rather than ClubSpot directly. In Cavan, 25,000 people use the Cavan GAA app, with over 17,000 making purchases through it last year – representing one in three county residents.
“What do Man United do? What do Real Madrid do? Can we bring an elite level solution to grassroots sports?” Hyland said. “We always aimed to build the best product with the easiest interface.”
ClubSpot’s international growth accelerated through Enterprise Ireland trade missions, particularly to Australia during the Lions tour, where the company signed 15 new customers across GAA, running and soccer clubs. The company operates across multiple sports, serving basketball, golf, rugby and athletic clubs alongside traditional GAA and soccer organisations.
The business model extends beyond software licensing. ClubSpot Events, a subsidiary fundraising business, ran 45-46 events in its second year, generating an average profit of €15,000 per participating club.
“We ran two events in the US last year,” Hyland noted. “Even that business we think can be international.”
Rural tech success
ClubSpot’s growth from Cavan challenges the conventional wisdom that Irish tech companies must relocate to Dublin to scale internationally. The company has attracted senior talent from established firms including Statsports and PwC.
“I was always sure there’s brilliant talent in Cavan,” Hyland said. “Look at what Kingspan have done. There’s lots of similar businesses. It’s possible to build these businesses. It might be a little bit harder just to get started.”
The company secured High Potential Start-Up status with Enterprise Ireland and won Overall Business of the Year 2025 for Cavan, along with Irish Sports Business of the Year from the Federation of Irish Sport.
Local support proved crucial in the early stages. “I got the support of a lot of Cavan business people who have been very successful,” Hyland explained. “If everybody looks around their own counties, there’s a lot of people who are actually willing to help you.”
A marathon, not a sprint
Hyland deliberately chose high net worth individuals over venture capital for funding, prioritising long-term growth over rapid exit strategies.
“I wanted people who want us to build a long-term business, not somebody who says build this for three or four years and exit,” he explained.
The company’s immediate focus centres on establishing market leadership in the UK before expanding further into the US market.
ClubSpot’s success demonstrates that with the right support infrastructure – from local enterprise offices to Enterprise Ireland programmeIrish s – rural Ireland can nurture globally competitive technology companies without requiring founders to abandon their home communities for Dublin’s tech ecosystem.
“We want to be that next great business that’s in Cavan,” Hyland said. “We want to provide good employment, high skilled, high paid jobs to people while doing business internationally.”
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Listen to the ThinkBusiness Podcast for business insights and inspiration. Latest episodes are here. You can also listen to the Podcast on:
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Spotify
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SoundCloud
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Apple
