5 Interview Questions for the
Founders of Homefans

"Since 2023, you have achieved impressive growth in revenue and traveler numbers. Where will Homefans stand in 5 years in terms of international coverage, community size, and market position? Will or has Homefans become the global 'Airbnb for sports experiences'?"

Our ambition is to become the leading global platform for authentic sports experiences. When someone travels to a city and wants to experience the local sports culture, we want Homefans to be the place they go whether that means attending a football match with local fans, experiencing an NBA game in New York, or discovering a sport they hadn't initially planned to see.

The “Airbnb for sports experiences” comparison helps explain what we do, particularly because our local hosts are such an important part of the experience. But ultimately, we want Homefans to build its own category and brand around sports experiences.

Over the next five years, that means building much deeper supply in the world's major sports destinations, expanding into more sports, and growing an international community of millions of travelers and tens of thousands of local sports fans.

Has Instagram contributed to your growth?

Definitely. Sports are incredibly visual and emotional, which makes Instagram a natural channel for us. It allows people to see what a Homefans experience actually feels like — the atmosphere, the local fans, the stadium and everything around the game.

It has helped us build the Homefans brand internationally and create a community around what we do. At the same time, our growth comes from a broader mix of channels, including search, partnerships, travel platforms, word of mouth and repeat customers.

"The sport tech sector is moving fast from fan engagement tools to AI data. How does Homefans position itself within this dynamic? Do you see yourselves primarily as a community-driven fan tech platform, or more as a logistical tech enabler for sports travel?"

I think we're somewhere between the two, and that's what makes Homefans interesting.

The technology solves a very practical problem: bringing together sports inventory, local hosts and travelers on one platform and making those experiences easily bookable. With our new platform, we're increasingly able to integrate ticket inventory and availability directly through proprietary technology as well.

But technology alone isn't the product. The “In Real Life” community and local expertise around sports are what differentiate the experience. We don't just want to help someone obtain a ticket; we want to help them experience a sporting event through the eyes of the people and culture surrounding it.

So technology enables us to scale, while the community creates the experience. A perfect blend. 

"The modern traveler is increasingly looking for authentic, local experiences rather than 'standard city trips.' How is Homefans adapting to trends in the broader travel industry, and how do you ensure the authenticity of the local sports culture is preserved as you scale further?"

This trend is one of the main reasons Homefans exists. Travelers increasingly want to experience a destination rather than simply visit its landmarks, and sport can be one of the most authentic ways of understanding a city or neighbourhood.

We are also building a new vertical within travel allowing sports to have a seat at the table of the travel experiences. In the same way you think of a culinary or adventure experience, we provide the largest global inventory of authentic sports experiences across 100+ destinations. 

Our challenge as we scale is to avoid standardizing away what makes those experiences special. We therefore provide the platform, technology, distribution and access, while local hosts bring their own knowledge, stories and traditions. But in between we make sure that these sports experiences remain as authentic and unique as they can be. 

A matchday in Buenos Aires should feel completely different from one in London or New York. That's a feature, not a problem we need to solve.

How do you drive repeat purchases, and are you already seeing this happen?

Yes, we're already seeing customers come back and book another experience.

The interesting thing about sports is that the potential for repeat purchases is enormous. Someone might initially discover Homefans through football in Buenos Aires, but their next experience could be basketball in New York or another football experience somewhere in Europe. Or baseball in Tokyo. 

That's why expanding the breadth and sports categories of bookable experiences is so important. The more relevant inventory we can offer across destinations and sports, the more reasons customers have to return to Homefans.

"With the launch of the new platform, a solid foundation has been laid. Which specific functionalities, technologies (such as AI matching or gamification), or product categories do you personally want to add in the near future?"

The new platform gives us a much stronger technological foundation, so the immediate focus is on making significantly more sports inventory bookable and easier to discover.

A particularly important development is connecting ticket and inventory partners directly into Homefans through APIs. That allows us to combine scalable inventory with our host-led experiences rather than having every experience depend entirely on manually sourced supply. 

We will also distribute our curated itinerary across multiple partners and vendors, even with a white labeled option so anyone in the travel industry can enrich their offering by adding highly unique and curated local-led experiences, ticket included. 

Over time, AI can also play an interesting role in personalization and discovery. If we understand where someone is traveling, which teams and sports they follow and what kind of experiences they enjoy, Homefans should increasingly be able to recommend the most relevant sports experiences automatically.

I also see opportunities around community, gamification and rewarding customers for discovering sports in different destinations, but our priority today is getting the fundamentals of inventory, discovery and booking extremely strong.

"Football has been the main driver so far, but the world of sports is much broader. Will we soon see Homefans expanding at scale into other sports (such as Formula 1, racket sports, US Sports, or rugby), and what does that expansion require from the platform?"

Absolutely. Football gave us the ideal starting point because it has an enormous global fanbase and very strong local cultures, but the opportunity is much broader.

We're particularly excited about US sports. A city like New York illustrates the opportunity well: a traveler could potentially experience the Yankees or Mets, Knicks or Nets, or Rangers,  and many other sporting events during one trip.

Over time, that can extend into racket sports, motorsport, rugby and other categories. The important thing isn't simply adding as many sports as possible. We want to build meaningful supply where there is a combination of traveler demand, strong sports culture and experiences where Homefans can genuinely add value.

Are you seeing gross-margin improvements from the new platform?

I would be careful about claiming this already because the platform has only just launched.

The new platform creates the infrastructure to improve our economics as we scale, particularly through better inventory connectivity, automation and more direct bookings. But it's too early to attribute a meaningful improvement in gross margin specifically to the platform.

For us, the important thing over the coming months is demonstrating that the technology allows us to scale bookings and inventory more efficiently.

"Besides the US and Europe, which other regions do you see as key growth markets? Are you considering Latin America (given its intense football culture), for example, or fast-growing sports markets in Asia and the Middle East?"

Latin America is already very important to the Homefans story. Markets such as Argentina and Brazil have some of the strongest sports cultures in the world and have shown us how powerful the combination of tourism and authentic local sports experiences can be.

Longer term, Asia and the Middle East are also interesting. Both are investing heavily in sports and attracting more international sporting events.

But we're deliberately focused on depth rather than putting pins on a map. We'd rather become highly relevant in a smaller number of major sports destinations and build from there than launch dozens of markets without enough quality supply or demand.