How Daniel Ginsberg Turned Utrain Into a $200K Vertical SaaS Powerhouse for Basketball Trainers
Daniel Ginsberg didn’t set out to build a tech company. He just wanted to stop chasing parents for payments and digging through emails to confirm training schedules. But what started as a personal pain point became Utrain—a sleek, vertical SaaS that now powers over 3,400 trainers and has crossed $200,000 in gross bookings.
This is how a former pro hooper and coach became a founder—by solving a real problem in a space he deeply understood.
From the Hardwood to Head Coach to Hustling SaaS Founder
Daniel’s journey starts where many vertical SaaS stories do: in the trenches. After playing professionally in Israel and the U.S., he became a basketball trainer. Business was booming—but the admin work wasn’t.
Scheduling sessions, chasing payments, managing cancellations, and keeping clients updated—all manually through texts and emails—was eating up his time.
As Daniel recalls, “I was spending more time being an admin than a trainer.”
So, in true founder fashion, he hit Google: “Basketball trainer booking app.” To his surprise—nothing existed.
Scratching His Own Itch: The Birth of Utrain
Utrain began as a side hustle—Daniel teamed up with his childhood friend and developer Daryl Smith, who built the first version to help Daniel manage his training schedule. What started as a one-off solution quickly gained traction with other trainers.
They realized this wasn’t just a “Daniel problem”—it was everyone’s problem.
Over dozens of calls with trainers across the country, the same pain points came up:
- Payment collection was awkward and inconsistent
- Scheduling was a chaotic mess across texts, emails, and spreadsheets
- Double bookings and no-shows were common
- Trainers were tired of paying $75–100/month for generic tools that didn’t serve their industry
That’s when Daniel and Daryl turned their tool into a real SaaS company.
The Core Offer: Everything a Trainer Needs in One App
Utrain simplifies the business side of being a basketball trainer. Here’s what it does:
All-in-One Booking – Set availability, accept bookings, and send confirmations
Automatic Payments – Funds are held in escrow until the session is complete
Refund & Cancellation Handling – Trainers set their own refund policies
Client Communication – Built-in messaging and notifications
Trainer Directory & Discovery – Parents can find trainers via map view and search
Marketing Tools – Each trainer gets a free, shareable booking site
“It’s Calendly meets Venmo, but built for trainers,” Daniel explains.
And it’s free for trainers—clients pay a small processing fee (e.g., $50 session = $51.97 paid by the parent).
No-Code Stack: How Utrain Was Built Without Engineers
After struggling with React Native for the MVP, Daniel pivoted to no-code. The final stack:
🧱 Bubble – Front-end and logic
⚙️ Zapier – Automated workflows (e.g., confirmations)
📊 Airtable – Database and session tracking
💳 Stripe – Payment processing
📱 BDK Wrap – Turned the web app into iOS & Android versions
With help from no-code agency Rapid Dev, they were able to ship and iterate fast.
Real Growth, Real Revenue: $200K in Bookings & 3,400+ Users
Utrain launched in January 2024 and hit $100K in booking revenue in just a few months. As of mid-2025:
- $200,000+ gross bookings
- 3,400+ active users
- 5,000+ sessions posted
- 30,000 monthly website visitors
- 8,000+ Instagram followers
Growth has come from organic social media, word of mouth, and NIL deals with college athletes—like micro-influencers promoting Utrain in their local markets.
Building for Scale: From Trainer App to Platform
Daniel isn’t just building an app—he’s building the infrastructure for all trainer-led sessions. In fact, Utrain is now powering third-party training platforms through a “Powered by Utrain” API partnership with Automatic AI.
This isn’t just about basketball anymore—it’s about being the backend for vertical training businesses.
What’s New: Utrain Pro, Memberships, and More
With scale comes structure. Utrain now offers:
🔐 Utrain Pro ($19.99/month) – Premium features for serious trainers
🌐 Custom Booking Domains
🤖 AI Assistant Coach – Handles scheduling via chat
🔍 SEO Boosted Trainer Profiles
💼 Memberships – Recurring revenue for trainers
💸 ACH-to-ACH Payments – Reduces processing costs
The team is aiming for ~10% margins and a sustainable path to profitability.
The Team Behind the Mission
- Daniel Ginsberg – CEO & visionary, former pro player & coach
- Daryl Smith – CTO, technical co-founder and high school teammate
- Cory Harris – Co-founder, trainer, and Ganon Baker/Stephon Marbury camp vet
- Advisors – Coaches and entrepreneurs like Kade Lemay, Joseph Tooley, and Robert Ponds
The crew is lean but deeply embedded in the sport and culture they serve.
Final Thoughts: Why Utrain Wins
Daniel built Utrain the way all great vertical SaaS platforms start—with obsession over a niche and deep empathy for the user.
This wasn’t some abstract SaaS experiment. It was personal.
By focusing narrowly on the basketball training space, Utrain has done what broader tools like Calendly or Mindbody couldn’t: eliminate admin headaches while driving bookings, reducing cancellations, and making trainers more money.
“We’re not trying to be everything for everyone. We’re everything for basketball trainers.” — Daniel Ginsberg
Learn More / Try It Out
📱 Download Utrain on iOS / Android
📸 Follow @utrain_app on Instagram
🌍 Explore: utrainmobileapp.com
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