Groundwork Player Payment System Gets its Start in Baseball

Bill Lennon, co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Groundwork, said his company does just one thing: payments. And “we do it the best.”

“We live and breathe making this process easier for teams and clubs and strive to give everyone a delightful experience,” Lennon said. “PayPal and a spreadsheet don’t cut it.”

Started in 2015 in travel baseball when Lennon and co-founder James Bergeron saw the direct hassle of constantly writing checks for travel baseball and forgetting to get checks where they needed to go, Lennon says the old-school process was inconvenient and frustrating, both for the parents and team managers.

“We saw the team spending so much time trying to collect money just so they could enter a tournament or pay coaches,” Lennon says. “We knew there was a better way and as two technology entrepreneurs we could build a solution.” 

Using input from parents in travel baseball, Lennon, who holds a PhD in theoretical neuroscience and a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering, and Bergeron built Groundwork to offer a solution for clubs that didn’t need massive management solutions that often weren’t flexible anyway. 

When parents sign into the system, teams can collect one-time or recurring payments throughout the season, record and track offline cash payments and award scholarships and discounts on a per player basis. The program automatically notifies parents about upcoming payments, accepts credit card payments and offers reminders.

“When teams adopt Groundwork and move all their payments online, it’s transformative to the club experience,” Lennon said.

With time spent on collections cut down to minutes and a predictable stream of payments coming in, Lennon said managers and coaches can focus on the important aspects of running and coaching a team. Plus, parents love it because of the convenience. Made with a pricing model exclusively for nonprofits, Lennon said they have put a focus on ease of use.

“I was looking for an option to help keep all of our transaction organized,” says Monty McMullen, president of baseball operations with Mississippi’s Golden Spikes Baseball. “Not only has it been organized, but also easy for our parents.” 

Tim Newcomb covers gear and business for Baseball America. Follow him on Twitter at @tdnewcomb.