Goodbye DashTag, let's go exploring!

What started with an idea in 2014, quickly turned into a business model, a name, and finally a company with a hardware product and employees in Rotterdam and the United States.

DashTag was perfect for me: For the first time in my life, I could combine my know-how as a sport scientist with my experience in (event) marketing. Just enjoyed every second of it. Seeing soccer players use the Dash - something we invented - for the very first time (imagine kids and young adults run like a Usain Bolt over the pitch to capture their stats) gave me every single time a huge boost of energy. Time for guessing was over, for the first time soccer players actually knew what they were doing.

No Stats, No Glory

In 2017 the slogan ‘No Stats, No Glory’ was born. I truly believe that players of all ages, gender, and level will benefit from objective stats. Being more knowledgeable, playing harder with the right competitive spirit, or just to giving that extra layer of fun will give every athlete their unique glory. And they loved it: from training sessions in Grand Rapids to tournaments in San Francisco and from the Surf Cup in San Diego to the DA showcase in Florida. Everywhere we got the same beautiful reaction.

One of my personal highlights was the opening of our office in San Francisco last year. Just wow! To have your ‘home’ across the globe and inspire people with our idea 9000km away is hard to describe in words. It felt like a young boy’s dream that turned into reality. Heck, it wás a boy’s dream that turned into reality. Going to work in the City and live the life was incredible. I’ve enjoyed the hilarious moments with my team in SF, and often take a look at the picture of me and the love of my life Marleen running the Golden Gate Bridge together.

Let's go exploring!

But it ends here for me. The last four years have been a real rollercoaster ride for me as the founder of DashTag, with a quadruple corkscrew and several loopings these last months. But I realized that other things in life are valuable beyond everything. And with my beautiful family that soon will be expanded with a baby girl, I’ll run into my future with full confidence. 

I want to thank everyone that made this journey happen, my family & friends, the shareholders and the players & coaches that gave DashTag the lifeline all along the way!

I wish Epco and Cliff all the best to live on the DashTag dream and realize everything we worked so hard for. I'll always cherish this awesome period we had. I'm not sure what lies ahead of me, but I’ll find my new challenge real soon, I always trust on my trust that things work out well, and that won’t be any different this time.

Let me end with the quote from the last comic of Calvin and Hobbes: "It's a magical world, ol' buddy, let's go exploring!" 

Cheers,

Dirk