Making Matches on the Golf Course

SAN DIEGO – Greg Lipper says there’s something “strangely powerful” about the game of golf.

“The best and the worst thing about golf is that it takes 4½ hours,” Lipper said. “And that’s bad from a convenience perspective, but from a relationship development perspective, where else in American society today do you get 4½ hours of quality time with somebody?

Without bosses, phones, spouses, children. No interruptions… and you’re in the great outdoors. There’s something about being in nature that just physiologically helps us bond.”

Lipper is the founder, CEO and “Chief Tee Officer” of PrimeTimes.Golf, a business golf networking platform where people can grow their company and career by playing golf with intentional groups and pairings.

Like a matchmaker, PrimeTimes.Golf connects businesspeople with synergistic or symbiotic potential – for a round on the golf course in a unique, upfront and personal introduction shared through common interests.

Lipper worked overseas for more than three decades and has had a career encompassing a variety of industries, including B2B SaaS, business development, information systems, software, sales and marketing.

He left his job as VP of Sales for a local software solutions company in April of this year, three months after launching the golf networking business with his own investment of $50,000.

Through more than 30 years of selling software, technology enabled services and software development services globally, Lipper said he realized he had three passions: Connecting people, starting and growing businesses, and golf.

Creating a global business golf networking platform lets Lipper combine those passions in one project.

“I was in Japan for 12 years, in Singapore for 20 years and the U.K. for a few years, and I know that golf is a global thing,” he said. “When I came back to San Diego, I went out looking for this and wondered, ‘How does this not exist? How is it that somebody hasn’t created this already?’ Because there’s such an obvious benefit to it from my perspective. When I couldn’t find it, the entrepreneur in me said, ‘Well, go build it!’”

Membership and Growth

PrimeTimes.Golf has nearly 180 members, but Lipper said he needs 1,000 members for the business to be sustainable. He said he hopes in time to build the business to 2,000 members across Southern California for it to generate $40,000 a month in membership fees and be cash flow positive.

“Then I want to cover the top 20 cities in America and cover the entire U.S.,” Lipper said, “and then the rest of the world.”

PrimeTimes.Golf members range from people in their early 20s to those in their mid-60s, Lipper said, typically people who are building a business, fractional executives or working in a sales or marketing capacity.

“They also like to play golf,” he said. “They’re trying to build a business or a career and they want to marry the two.”

He called his business model “very simple.”

“We have only two sources of revenue,” Lipper said. “We charge a $20 monthly membership fee, or $200 for the year if you want pay for the whole year, and a $20 platform fee for each event that you join.”

Golf for Executives, and More

Golf is played by an estimated 123 million, including 45 million Americans over the age of six, both on- and off-course, according to the National Golf Foundation. The NGF also reports that 3.4 million people played on a golf course for the first time in 2023.

Additionally, Forbes reports that 90% of Fortune 500 CEOs play golf and that 80% of executives say playing golf.

“In America last year, 42 million people played 531 million rounds of golf,” Lipper said. “And you know those 42 million people were not 42 million unemployed people!”

Lipper said he’s about helping start business relationships and that “we do things a little bit differently.”

When someone joins PrimeTimes.Golf, Lipper puts that person into groups that would be a good fit, although sometimes people ask to be put into specific groups based on industry, role or gender affinities. Members can also fill out an “ideal client profile form” to be connected with ideal prospects for a round of golf.

He also creates events, which he calls “golf outings, not tournaments,” of four foursomes of four, or 16 players, which he says is the optimal number for networking. All players who are signed up are able to check on the PrimeTimes.Golf site to see who else is playing.

During the event, there’s what Lipper calls a “PrimeTimes shuffle,” which switches up the foursomes and gets players mingling. After the golfing is done, there is an open seating table at the course’s clubhouse for more conversation.

“Then the next day everybody receives an e-mail with the contact information of everybody that played that day,” he said. “It’s really about using golf, using the bonding power of golf, in an intentional, strategic, targeted, repeatable way, as opposed to just serendipity.”

Unlike other sports, golf, he said, is a game that allows people to see how others respond to frustrations, see who’s a risk taker, “and you’re laughing at each other’s shots, you’re encouraging each other. It’s all very collaborative.”

Early Returns are Par for Course

Lipper said while PrimeTimes.Golf has been officially going since March, he knows of three jobs that have been landed and several business deals that his company has helped make happen.

“I can already see that it’s working,” Lipper said.

Shawn Washington has been a CPA for 40 years and has owned an accounting practice for more than three decades. He and his wife, Tamera Washington, an engagement partner with the firm for 22 years, developed an app called Mileage Quest to help their clients with documentation on mileage deductions.

Washington became a PrimeTimes.Golf member in July and said he has already had more than 10 introductions since joining.

“I have been able to get in front of people in related industries or industries we’re focusing on and have been given the opportunity to meet decision-makers, CEOs, CFOs, controllers, accountants, payroll specialists, you name it!” Washington said. “The meetings and connects are growing every day.”

PrimeTimes.Golf
FOUNDED: 2023
FOUNDER AND CEO: Greg Lipper
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego
BUSINESS: Golf concierge
EMPLOYEES: 1
WEBSITE: primetimes.golf
CONTACT: [email protected]
SOCIAL IMPACT: Founder and CEO Lipper said 30% of his members are Black.
NOTABLE: Replace with: Founder and CEO Greg Lipper and PrimeTimes.Golf contributes 50% of its revenues to the nonprofits it partners with.