Cracking the 'code': CourtReserve's Ashley Owens blazes trail for women in tech

But the lack of technology at our home club meant there was no way for us to see the club’s availability. Our club didn’t even have a phone number. There was no way to sign up for a lesson, other than in person. You had to drive 20-plus minutes to see if the courts were available. And so the only way you ever knew that classes were happening is if you located the flyers on the cork board. We knew there had to be a better way.

Once we built the first iteration of CourtReserve, Tim thought it would be a great idea to just put a couple of Google ads out there to see if it clicked for anybody. We thought we had a pretty good product, but we needed to get it into the tennis world. So we went to a USPTA conference in Palm Desert and we put a six-month subscription to CourtReserve up on the silent auction. Jason Spears from USPTA Eastern came by our booth and spoke to us for a while about our new technology company. He bid $75 on CourtReserve and got it for six months and was our very first customer! That was back in 2016. And today, he’s still a paying customer. 

We just took a chance. We had to take a chance to see if we could get it out there. I had my sales and marketing background; Tim had his background in software development. It was easy for me to be like, OK, I’ll go do this sales and marketing part of it. You keep coding and building it, and then I’ll go and I’ll try and make relationships and see if we can get our name out there, as far as conferences and things like that.

What does it mean to you to have an important role in the tech and racquet sports industries, where men have historically dominated?

I’m grateful that I can be empathetic in my role as a co-founder, but at the end of the day, I just try not to let anything get to me emotionally. I'm really good at relationships, and so I knew the most critical way to deliver education and information was to have a relationship with people, regardless of whether they were men or women. 

To be taken seriously and to have a seat at the table, you need to know what you're talking about. And so there were things that I had to learn to be able to confidently speak to our product. In the early days of CourtReserve, Tim and our now-CTO, Nic Janga, were constantly working together on developing the product. And I was constantly raising my hand saying, “Hey, I need to be a part of this conversation. I need to understand what we are doing.”

I may not be able to write code, but I sure do understand what our product does and how to troubleshoot for our team and our customers.

How have you been able to support other women in the tech and sports spaces?

It’s also been really important to me that, as a leader at CourtReserve, we create a space and opportunities for women to enter tech. A little more than half of our team is made up of women. We have been selective about the people we hire and we just so happened to have had the opportunity to hire and work with some incredibly talented and intelligent women, whom I believe have bright futures in tech and the racquet sports space.

To know we are giving valuable opportunities to women to grow in a space where men have historically dominated is incredibly rewarding and is another part of why I love my job.

Reflecting on the challenges I've faced as a woman, mother and wife, I think there's a shared understanding of the balancing act required to navigate daily life, especially with career aspirations in the mix. It's a journey, but it underscores our strength and resilience. Every woman has it, whether visible on display or quietly tucked away. I am amazed at the accomplishments of all of the women I work alongside.

To learn more, visit CourtReserve's official website.