Transcripts - Episode 10: How a Simple Idea Became a Golf Training Aid

Narrator:
The Birdie Board podcast is brought to you by the Birdie Board app, the easiest way to track matches, scores, and handicaps with friends.
Now, here’s your host, Corey, with another episode of the Birdie Board podcast.

Corey:
Welcome back to the Birdie Board podcast. Exciting episode today. This is the second time I’ve interviewed someone on the podcast, but also what’s exciting, and I don’t know if Steve, if you knew this, this is actually the 10th episode of the Birdie Board podcast. You have quite the honor to be on the 10th episode here.

So that means I do an episode a week. So what’s that, like two and a half months of this already, a quarter of a year. So we’re going to try the momentum, keep going, episode of weeks. So this one’s pretty excited.

So Steve is with me. He’s the creator of a product called PathPow. And I reached out to him, I think a couple of weeks ago, just randomly on YouTube. Well, I found his channel on YouTube and then I was like, I want to reach out to this guy. It’s pretty interesting. So I went to his website and I went to his privacy policy on his website to figure out how I could contact him. And I reached out to him on here. He was super receptive.

We hopped on a call and he kind of explained the story. And the story to me was super interesting. So that’s where I’m at today. I invited Steve on to kind of share the story of PathPow.

So before we get into that, I got Steve to write me up a little bit of an intro for himself. So I’m just going to go ahead and introduce him.

So Steve is the founder of PathPow Golf. He brings years of strategy and consulting experience, along with time leading AI initiatives at Koch Industries, which is pretty cool. PathPow started from his own frustration at the weekend golfer, practicing on turf, where most training aids simply did not work. So he built his own solutions, beginning with alignment stick holders designed for modern practice surfaces. Today’s products are used and endorsed by more than 20 golf digests, recognized instructors. PathPow has grown into a smart practical line of training tools built around real problems golfers face every day.

All right. That’s Steve. Let’s start with this, Steve. Where did your idea for PathPow come from?

Steve:
Certainly, Corey. And I appreciate the honor of being on the podcast here. Yeah, number 10, big honor. We’ll see if it’s worthy of number 10. If not, just delay me a week.

Corey:
Yeah, exactly. You’ll be 11. I’ll dub overhead. This is a blank 11 and then go into the podcast.

Steve:
Oh, boy. So we’re now.

Corey:
Yeah, exactly.

Steve:
So yeah, so Corey, so the whole idea came about because of a personal problem that I faced. So I have been getting lessons because like everyone who’s listening to this or who finds this is we’re trying the endless search to improve our golf game. And I have been getting lessons on and off from a top rated instructor out of Pine Tree Country Club in Kennesaw, Georgia, by the name of Chad Phillips.

And for me, my personal issue is at the top of my backswing, I end up getting steep and I swing out to end. And in an effort to try to shallow my swing out, Chad would always use alignment sticks. And he had this contraption. It was actually made out of a stand that you would use like from Mike at a fan camp. And he had a pool noodle on it and all that sort of stuff. And that was his little alignment stick holder, right.

And for me, like, okay, I bought my Home Depot alignment sticks and when we were hitting off of brass here in Atlanta, I’d be able to put it in. And I had no idea if I was one hitting the right angle that he had it in because I couldn’t remember by the time, you know, writing, asking lessons to practice.

But then the big problem came about when half the year, when it’s kind of a little bit colder near the grass growing season, isn’t there, you have to hit off a mats, right. And surprise surprise. When I’m getting chapped into a grass and somebody got, you know, some of the buckets we had the balls and I can get it in there, but I can never get it at the right angle. And it’s just really awkward.

And so cut to my daughter being born. And I had a personal goal for myself because I’ve always wanted to start my own business being entrepreneur. I was like, I’m going to dip my toes in the water. My company was, I was very fortunate, the company I was working for at the time had a 12 week paternity leave.

Corey:
Nice.

Steve:
And so I was like, boom, I am going to find some sort of a product, something I can do to list on Amazon and therefore create just some passive revenue for myself. And I started thinking like, okay, what problem do I have that I could solve? Because it’s going to be easier to think of like, what do I do on a day to day basis that I can just make my life easier.

Not only to that, but when you do get to marketing, you got to be passionate about it rather than just some Chinese made product that you’re just trying to resell for a 3 percent markup. And that is that would be a big help. I’ve been in consulting for 12 years and I’ve had to become passionate about things I don’t really care about. I can get some passion for some things needed. But for long term sustainability, I completely agree with you.

And I started thinking like, okay, where’s that passion at? Where’s the pain at? And it brought me back to that memory of my pain of trying to figure out how to improve my golf game and not being able to really practice half the year. So that’s where really the idea came from is how do I go about solving a problem that I had which prevented me from really being able to practice year round?

Corey:
Yeah. Yeah. So what were some of your like, how did you approach solving the problem? So did you like start sketching it out? I know you mentioned to me like you had a 3D modeler at one point. Like how did that even, like take me back to even before you started doing anything.

Steve:
Certainly. So I realized, okay, this is an area that I have a pain. And so let me see online. Is there a solution to this? So I just started on Amazon, typing in alignment stick or right. I mean, pretty simple. And I looked at what was on there and there was a handful of them. And it was pretty basic in terms of design. It was a metal sheet that had just an angle that would go up and down and you picked an angle and stuck an alignment stick in. And then half of them would have like some sort of like a tube on the bottom, then you can stick an alignment stick for the alignment part on the base.

Well, the problem, I was reading the reviews. I’m like, okay, well, this is one half those tubes. Didn’t work for a left hand or not left hand. And so I’m like, okay, it’s kind of pointless for me. And then I would read the reviews and some products were like, oh, the angles are incredibly sharp. I cut myself. Someone else was like, you know, having to carry a wrench with me just to adjust the angle.

Corey:
Oh, yeah, that’s annoying. I’ve lost it already, my one from Home Depot or Lowe’s.

Steve:
So there’s a lot of pain out here. So there is something, someone has tried to solve it. They’ve done a pretty poor job. And so just kept doing some research like, okay, well, what are there any other things that are out there that are on Amazon? And that was by basic market research, right, because what else is out there.

And then for me, so I had this sort of philosophy, if I’m going to do this, I want to be able to do it in a way that stands out, does or offers something that no one else in the market does. And so to do that, I started looking at and I built a repository on Google Docs of every single alignment stick drill that I could find. I watched countless YouTube videos, scrolled through just, I don’t even know how many hundreds of TikTok.

Corey:
Right.

Steve:
And I just got lost in the sauce, right. How this massive list I had, photos of like, okay, here’s what it looks like. I had descriptions of, okay, here’s the angles. And from there, I just started to like, okay, categorize and group everything together. And I was like, okay, this is the set of drills that are used for alignment sticks. If I want an alignment stick holder, it needs to be able to support a golfer or an instructor to do each of these known and proven alignment sticks.

Corey:
That’s an awesome way to go about it.

Steve:
Yeah. Because like, here’s the thing, I’m not a golf coach. I didn’t play in college. You know, I don’t have a YouTube blog channel teaching people how to do golf or anything like that. I’m just a guy who can solve a problem, like a guy who wants to get better. And so what am I going to do. I’m going to look for things that are known and proven and very, very common. And how can I make it better.

And that was my approach. Like an alignment stick is every lesson I’ve ever done, whether it was from chatter before, somehow, someway, it can cooperate. And so that was, I was like, okay, how can I make this tool more versatile and useful for golfers. And so that was truly the start of it, was collecting, you know, this whole repository of all these different drills.

Corey:
Yeah.

Steve:
And from there, I honestly started to kind of sketch out like what could it look like, what might it need to have. And I actually have somewhat of an early sketch, you know, interested in seeing, but, and I also don’t know how well this thing will come across.

Corey:
Yeah.

Steve:
This is the original version, like one of the original versions that I had all this sketched out.

Corey:
I mean, what is that, just like a Microsoft note or something that you just get things out.

Steve:
On my iPad. I just had a pencil or a little apple pen or whatever.

Corey:
Oh, yeah.

Steve:
We’re drawn it out.

Corey:
That’s so cool.

Steve:
And it’s like, okay, I want ground alignment tunnels that are personal for both both sides, you know, left ear writing.

Corey:
Which is so important. I mean, I know you left these are the ones who are always forgotten about too.

Steve:
I know. I know. Like any instruction video, even the ones on my website, I’d mentally have to turn and flip my head when someone’s like, you have to, I think you have like a mirror option. Now you just have to watch everything mirrored.

Corey:
I know. I know it’s really should, it should auto swap with AI.

Steve:
Yeah.

Corey:
Right.

Steve:
So it’s auto switch to left and make my life.

And so I had the concept of the device of what I wanted based on what I’ve the market of research and everything. Then the question for me is, okay, I want to get a prototype made so I can see it, get my hands on it, and then validate it in the market. Way I was going to go about validating was to try to take it around to a bunch of golf instructors and like, Hey, tell me what you think.

So, so the first problem was the first part of the thing was like, okay, how do I get this drawing in this concept into a CAD design, computer aided design, right, what someone was going to need to build it.

Corey:
And I’m guessing you don’t have any CAD design.

Steve:
I surprise.

Corey:
Yeah, right.

Steve:
Not at all. So okay. How do I go about doing this. And I went on a website called Upwork. And Upwork is just a fantastically useful site. I’ve used it multiple times since, where you can find freelance people or anyone with an any sort of expertise and hire them for projects. And so I started looking for someone that had product design expertise and you computer aided design. And I interviewed several, found, well, this gentleman overseas, his name was Ash.

And Ash and I really partnered up for several months, take this design and really get it to the point where it was near market ready.

Corey:
So he did, he was doing, I guess you would feed him ideas and then he would turn it into a CAD design.

Steve:
That’s exactly right. So I showed him my sketches. I showed him the research because he wanted to understand as well because what was special about Ash was that he didn’t just do what I said.

Corey:
Right.

Steve:
And it that can be taken a different way.

Corey:
Yeah. No, I mean, sometimes you get back with free lancers and you want someone to be collaborative with you, not just someone like, okay, I’ll do what you say, give me the paycheck, never talk to me again, like until you need another project.

Steve:
Exactly. And that’s what honestly, that’s one of the things that I appreciated when I was interviewing people is Ash kind of, you know, very respectful of the whole thing, obviously, but it was really respectful of challenging me and pushing me on the design. And I mean, his knowledge of 3D printing and CAD design and what would work or wouldn’t work really, you know, shown through on the interview. And that’s why I ultimately chose him.

And that collaborative spirit carried through. So I would show him his design. We did the market research. He did his own as well just to make sure that he understood it. And from there, he’s like, got it, understand it. He offered a couple of design tweaks from like the original super original sketch and got it built out. You know, we had to tackle some, you know, material decisions and some trade offs with how are we going to go about building him.

And from there is, okay, how do I get this prototype built. I want to get my hands on it. And so I looked online and started to search all over the place. And ultimately, I was looking for like a little 3D, like I thought that libraries, you can do 3D printing. That’s what I thought I heard it around the land is some of the libraries and 3D printer. And I’m going to try that route.

Didn’t really have any luck, but that searching led me to Georgia Tech.

Corey:
Do they have like a makerspace or something?

Steve:
They do and Georgia Tech itself is just such a sound engineering school. And like they have something there. And they actually had this big like engineering group that did 3D printing as sort of a club. But I reached out to them and they said, well, we don’t let people from the outside use, you know, our printers are for students and only your faculty. But we have a graduate who has a company that.

Corey:
Oh, awesome.

Steve:
So 3D printing. And here’s the contact information. And so I reached out and turns out it’s a father, some company, the father.

Corey:
That’s cool.

Steve:
Former veteran, they actually have contracts with NASA Air Force.

Corey:
Awesome.

Steve:
The sun actually is working for NASA doing 3D printing design and everything. I mean, I don’t know how lucky I could have been. I mean, I had a lot of lucky situations throughout this entrepreneurial journey. But at the same time, like this fell in my lap and like how great is this. And so I reached out and built up that relationship and they printed out some design.

Corey:
So did they just send it to you?

Steve:
Yeah. I met up since they’re somewhat local, actually.

Corey:
Oh, yeah. I guess they are.

Steve:
It’s north of where I’m at, at least the father is. And so I just met him up to met up with him and got it. I mean, this is the original version. It’s, you can see it’s a little bulky.

Corey:
It’s kind of a, kind of horseshoe shape too.

Steve:
It is. So the original version, the original name was going to be called the ray because it, because it kind of looks like a man array.

Corey:
Yeah, a ray without a tail.

Steve:
Yeah. But would you have all the alignment sticks in. It’s also like raised shoe now. I was like, it’s kind of a cool name.

Corey:
You know, it is bulky though. You couldn’t fit that in like a golf bag. You maybe if you’re a big golf bag.

Steve:
Yeah. I mean, if you have those like staff bags, maybe, but I mean, it’s actually really light to carry everything. Because of the design, it’s, it’s, it’s simple, but it’s not portable.

So that’s the first one you picked up. The first design. I’m curious. You said you met this guy, you picked up the design, was the first thing you do, do go to the driving range.

Corey:
Oh, absolutely.

Steve:
Yeah, I would have to. I mean, I was, I was like a puppy with a bone.

Corey:
Oh, I bet.

Steve:
Yeah. I mean, it was, I’ve here I am. And it was also kind of an emotional time, right. I mean, just to be honest with you, I, for the first time ever, my entire life had something that I thought of. I sketched out. I took the initiative to go find.

Corey:
That’s awesome.

Steve:
You know, this find a manufacturer and get this. And this is the first physical representation of an idea that’s so cool.

Corey:
You must have had so much pride in that moment.

Steve:
Oh, yeah. I mean, absolutely. And then my, my wife came with me because we met up with them.

Corey:
Oh, yeah.

Steve:
We just kind of took the time and, yeah, while I was talking, it was just, it was really a cool experience. And yeah, there’s been so many of those times where I’ve just kind of sat back and. And to have just reflected on the journey and how far I’ve come. And this was right.

And getting it. So I got the, you know, the products in hand, went to the range. I was like, holy crap, it works.

Corey:
Yeah.

Steve:
It was. It was.

Corey:
Did you find anything, you didn’t, of course, you probably found things you didn’t like a lot, but what was like one of the first things you, I assume you found something the first time you went to the range.

Steve:
It was bulkier than I thought.

Corey:
Yeah.

Steve:
Really, that, that was kind of the biggest thing is the size.

Corey:
Yeah.

Steve:
You know, when you see it on the screen, it doesn’t seem as big.

Corey:
I mean, it looks like it’s as big as your head.

Steve:
Got to get to Excel size.

Corey:
Yeah.

Steve:
That’s right. So it was large. And that was the biggest thing that I saw on first go round.

Corey:
Yeah. So let’s talk. So you have the product hand. I want to talk about that gap between getting the product in hand and getting it to production for like the next five minutes. Like, how did you start testing it. How did you make iterations and improve on it.

Steve:
So it was important for me. Once I got it, I needed that real life feedback. And so I immediately went around and reached out to a lot of the directors of instruction in Atlanta, especially those that were rated on golf digest as best in state. And there were six top rate instructors and one who’s a real good friend of mine, who’s assistant coach at Morehouse College.

So I reached out to Jason Kuiper at Bobby Jones, David Pots, Country Club of the South, Sean Coach at Atlanta Athletic, Jacob Tillen at Anseling, Cody Carter, Jude Hills, and John.

Corey:
And a lot of big names.

Steve:
Yeah, real big names. And I was like, I want the best of the best to look at this and give me their feedback. And they did. And I was so thankful again, so thankful that the golfing community has been so open and helpful for me in this journey that they went through and gave me feedback. And they told me some things that change and like what angles to keep or not keep or what angles.

Corey:
That’s great feedback.

Steve:
And so I took that and I went back to the drawing board. And one of the things, so as I see it, I start to really understand my philosophy, my product philosophy that I wanted to incorporate into the design. And it was really important for me to start to solidify this and it’s somewhat hard to do when you first have it conceptually. But then once you start to go through, you start to understand what truly matters.

And for me, versatility and flexibility were really big principles that I wanted to embody in this product. And part of that came with, okay, diversity of being able to carry it in your bag, diversity of doing as many drills as you could with the angles and the flexibility of whatever the instructor of the student wants to do, you should be able to do it.

And so I took that sort of philosophy that I was starting to develop and went with Ash and we redesigned it into something that changed from array to something that looked like, you know, I was like, I jumped with my wife, I was like, I think I’m gonna have to call this thing the eel now because it went from this nebulous sort of shape into like a long or rectangle.

But the benefit of the shape was it allowed me the opportunity to split it in half. And when I had that sort of realization of if I can split this in half, I can now have it placed in two different ways because nothing in the market, like a two in one feature, anything that comes close and there’s only like one in that sort of comes close, it’s really two of the same exact product. You know, it’s just you’re buying two at the price of one.

Corey:
Right.

Steve:
And we want to think about it as, but this is the only product that is really one product that has the opportunity to split in half an equal decision into it.

Corey:
Yeah, that the one of the things I saw on the website is how you can even use it for putting as well, which I thought was really unique because a lot of people, including myself, I’ve had done in this now, that’s so cold in the area. But you know, go to course, you hit the range and what do most people do right before they leave, hit the putting green a little bit, you know, maybe try to get 10 minutes to putting and it’s cool that you could like take this tool and use it on both surfaces.

Steve:
Yeah, absolutely. So this, so now they mentioned it. So when I moved to that rectangular shape and I moved to being able to turn, I split it in half, that opened up. What can I do now that I have this longer surface and what I have this shape. And I had the realization of like, Oh, I can maybe do something putting with it.

And it came about, I think I don’t remember how I came across it, but there’s another training made out there and all it is, is it’s a piece of metal that’s angled at 70 degrees and the angle of 70 degrees is the standard lie angle, roughly for a putter. If you on that particular product, if you move your putter back and forth on it, it still permits a slight arc, but it helps you zero out your path and your putter.

And so to make you put you need three things, you need the right speed, the right direction and you need the right read. And this by doing that gets you that right, you know, starts off at the right direction that you want it to.

Corey:
Yeah.

Steve:
And then I’m like, okay, well, if I had that 70 degree angle on part of my product, boom, that’s like an 80 dollar product that you don’t need and it’s incorporated into this. And then I’m like, okay, well, if I have some markers on it, now you can work on backstroke length consistency. So you can now work on speed. So I’m like, okay, well, I can’t help you green, but I’m sure so I can help you do two of the three things you need.

Corey:
Right. Right.

Steve:
And so, you know, that’s how, you know, this, I mean, this is the shape, right.

Corey:
Yeah.

Steve:
I mean, looking at from where it was at before to where it looks.

Corey:
And it looks more like a normal, just rectangular golf aid.

Steve:
Yeah. 100 percent it is. And I mean, it’s super easy to take apart. And this is, you know, you could see that putting angle. It’s just so simple to put in there and, you know, have this flat edge. I’m like, man, you can just remove it. Have it be a putter game.

Corey:
Yeah, that’s incredible.

Steve:
Yeah. And you know, part of my thinking too, is that, okay, well, you can use a T on a green, but there’s two things. One, if you’re going to be inside and you’re practicing, like if I’m going to practice in my garage with those like well putter mats.

Corey:
Yeah. That’s what I, that’s what came to mind for me too, is because I have one of those that I’m going to set up in my basement and yeah, I kind of stick a T in it.

Steve:
Yeah. I mean, you can use golf balls. But every time you hit the golf ball, now you have to set it up and fit the right disc. This is not going to move if you hit it with the ball.

Corey:
Yeah.

Steve:
And at the same time, you know, there’s this whole concept of avoidance training. So that’s what it was for, you know, it’s exactly stick. But the other, it’s a larger object. You have to mentally work your way around. But now when you’re looking down, you have to hit your, you know, either your putter through this or your, the ball through this.

Corey:
I love that. I love that type of training. I never heard it called that before, but I love that.

All right. So let’s, let’s, I want to touch on, we don’t have a ton of time left on this episode, but I want to touch on a topic I found really interesting. You give me a couple minutes just, how did you go about taking this to manufacture and actually getting it created.

Steve:
So the, the, the father son team that I found that was just north of town, that did the prototype. They told me that they, they manufactured goods for those, you know, the three big contracts I, I told you about the National Force and army. But they also have other people that they contract with and produce. And so for me, I had a decision to make.

One do I do injection molding, you know, overseas and all that sort of stuff. And from a business perspective, it’s a cheaper per unit cost.

Corey:
Right.

Steve:
After you do that, but it’s like a 15,000 dollar investment to get the mold.

Corey:
Yeah.

Steve:
Or do I 3D print it. And you know, 3D printing has come such a long way. It’s incredible. It’s actually more durable than, you know, a lot of the plastic that you get. There’s also the opportunity to have different types of plastics and also different materials at the same time.

And so I, especially in the beginning, wanted to do 3D printing because there were going to be things I knew that would come up that I would have to change the design on.

Corey:
Right.

Steve:
Feedback comes in despite, you know, circling around Atlanta, getting a lot of really good feedback and calling a lot of people too and getting feedback and having call, zoom calls and showing the product and talking about it. I got a lot of feedback, but I knew that more would come with real life testing. And I didn’t want to commit to such a capital investment when I knew that would come.

And so 3D printing offered me the opportunity to have an extremely durable product at a pretty even cost is higher, but at a commitment level that allowed me quick iteration.

Corey:
Right. Which is so important because, and we talked about this, just getting that feedback from the users, you wouldn’t want to commit to tens of thousands of dollars of product and then find out there’s this one little flaw. And now you’re stuck with it until you get through that quantity or you just, I don’t know, trash it and get a new batch out. But for the working man, that’s not really an option if you don’t have like a multi million dollar business backing you.

Steve:
Not at all. I know one of the other companies out there does train the AIDS and I think that the sort I’ve heard is the owners of former hedge fund like and this is what he does. I mean, he obviously has a lot more money than I do to be able to write sort of stuff.

And the only downside about 3D printing, if you want to call it that is just, you know, you can maybe see the lines of it. That’s kind of only a cosmetic thing. And I truly kind of like the design of it. I’ve run over to this thing with the truck.

Corey:
Exactly.

Steve:
It is durable.

Corey:
It’s durable.

Steve:
It’s durable.

Corey:
Yeah.

Steve:
It’s a vibe that Bobby Jones, this, the new design with get beat up by beginner golfers and stuff like that. I’ve had to learn a lot. I’ve had to make changes because of feedback of being, you know, in the field, so to speak. But yeah, you know, that’s how you do it.

Corey:
You know, that’s awesome. Well, awesome. We’re going to start closing it out in it here. So Steve, where can people find out more about path battle.

Steve:
The best place to find me is if you go to my website, pathbaldgolf.com, you know, that’s where you can find not only the path battle. I’ve also got, and I can tell you the story is another time I have a product called True Strike, which is a phone block with a ballistic nylon wrapped around it. That’s a portable version, so to speak, of an impact mag slash.

Corey:
Awesome.

Steve:
Here, I have a lot of stuff like all in one in that. I’ve also had padded alignment six that are collapsible. The only one in the world that’s a padded, foldable alignment stick. So check out the website there.

Also on Instagram, it’s pathpal underscore golf. You’ll see everything there. And definitely check out the website. I’ve got over 40 drills that are on there and I’m adding more on a regular basis and they’re all recorded, not me. But that’s how I found you.

Corey:
And because I was like, I, before it, I always try to vet the people. You know, I haven’t interviewed a ton, but I check out the videos a little bit. I’m like, okay, I want to make sure this is somewhat legit. And I like at least what you were curating. I thought it was a good set of videos you were putting together. I liked how it complemented your product and everything. So it stuck out well to me.

Also to the listeners, I am going to put links to all this in the show notes as well. So you don’t have to memorize it or if you’re driving, don’t stop and write it down or anything. You guys can find it later. But I want it Steve to actually share it for us too.

Any last remarks, Steve, before we end here.

Steve:
Definitely look forward to reach now. You know, whether or not you want to talk golf, you want to talk to the product or through your journey. I mean, I’ve mentored many MBA students and still do. I enjoy this. I enjoy the business aspect of it.

I’m going to the PGA show in January. So that’s extremely exciting. I think I’m going to be published here within the next month on a very major online golf publication that does reviews and very excited about doors that open up from there. So I appreciate the opportunity core to come on here and talk about Path Bell on the journey.

Corey:
Awesome. Well, that’s it for this week’s episode of the Birdie Board Podcast.

Narrator:
Thanks for tuning in to the Birdie Board Podcast. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and share it with a friend who loves golf as much as you do. And before your next round, grab the Birdie Board app, free on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and let it handle the scoring while you enjoy the game.