RosterBot Raises $1 Million Seed Round from NHL Players to Build Team Management Service

Vancouver hockey goalie Ian Bell launched RosterBot in 2008 as a hobby. He scratched his own itch and built a simple online RSVP system for hockey teams.

Today RosterBot is an advanced team management service designed to reduce or eliminate the tedium and effort required to organize sports teams. And with a 70:1 viral coefficient, he’s got more than a hobby on his hands.

Indeed Rosterbot announced today that they have raised a seed round of “considerably more” than $1 million to evolve the platform that now serves thousands of teams in 60 countries. The seed round was led by Raul Reinhart’s Sora Capital and includes former NHL player Bret Hedican and a number of undisclosed angels

After entering players’ contact information and the team’s schedule, managers and coaches can essentially run their teams on autopilot, eliminating hours per week that organizers typically spend corralling players for the game.

Further, RosterBot has a “complex set of systems” that manage full-time and spare players, assign players to pre-determined positions to make sure no key position goes unfilled, and will soon even collect fees from players (such as registration fees, and drop-in fees), according to Bell. Moreover, RosterBot integrates and syncs with popular mobile and desktop calendaring tools—such as iCal and Google Calendar—using the WebCal standard, meaning players have access to their schedule anywhere.

Rosterbot was co-founded by Bell and Stanley Cup Winner Bret Hedican.  Last year RosterBot was named one of Global Entrepreneurship Week’s 50 most innovative new companies.

RosterBot also announced today that they have joined Vancouver accelerator Invoke Labs.