2025 Year in Review + 2026 Preview

PAT:

Hello everybody. We are live with our 2025 Year in Review and of course our 2026 preview. Just to make sure you all can hear us, drop something in the chat and let us know where you’re tuning in from.

Normally I’d give this a few minutes for any stragglers, but we have a lot to talk about today, so we’re going to dive right in. Any latecomers are just going to have to arrive when they arrive.

A couple quick reminders. As usual, there will be a recording of this session. Whether you’re tuning in live or if you have to leave early, that recording will get sent to everyone who registered. So keep an eye out for that afterward if you want to revisit anything.

The other reminder is that we’re doing something a little special on this webinar today. We’re giving away a free month of software to one of you.

Now there is a caveat of course — we are only giving that away to someone who tunes in for the entire session. We’ll be keeping an eye on attendance, and one of you will walk away with a free month of software on us. We’ll alert that winner after the fact, so keep an eye on your inbox.

So as we get into it and start talking about this past year and looking ahead at next year, I think the mantra is that we didn’t just move fast for the sake of being fast — we moved forward.

We made real progress. We learned real lessons. We had real momentum as a business and for you as customers.

One way to look at it is we didn’t take shortcuts. We didn’t try to build artificial hype. Instead, we focused on doing the right work, learning as we went, and steadily improving.

As you all know, sometimes things work really well, sometimes you learn lessons, but along the way it makes you stronger. That was our year.

Collectively at Kicksite, we’re really excited about the momentum heading into 2026.

This is our third year doing this webinar, and especially as Ryan gets into our software updates, I think we’d all agree this was probably the most exciting year we’ve had at Kicksite in terms of product development.

Our foundation is solid, our direction is clear, and we have a lot of exciting opportunities ahead. That’s what we want to talk about today.

Now it’s not just me today — we’ve got a whole group of folks from Kicksite here.

You of course know Jason, our CEO. We also have Ryan Troxler, our CTO, and Cody McGru, who is our Success and Support team lead.

They’ll all be chiming in today to talk about what we built in 2025 and what’s coming in 2026.

With that, Jason, I’ll hand it over to you.

---

JASON:

Cool. Thanks, Pat. Thanks everyone for being here. Hopefully you can hear me okay.

We’re excited about today’s session. As Pat mentioned, we’ve been doing this for several years, but this year in particular we have a lot to share.

In my humble opinion, this has been the best year we’ve put together yet.

I do want to apologize for not being on camera. I think everyone is probably relieved they don’t have to look at me.

But I do have off-site commitments I’m in the middle of, so I’m not able to be on camera today. Still, I’m looking forward to a great discussion.

So I want to start by setting the stage on the state of the industry, and really speak in terms of three core forces that are shaping everything right now.

The first is economics. We can’t ignore it — all of us operate inside it. Growth is still happening in our industry, but it’s more intentional and disciplined.

The second is AI. It’s no longer theoretical. It’s actively changing how schools market, communicate, and operate.

And the third is private equity. I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about it, because it is very present in our industry right now and shaping competitive dynamics.

These three forces matter because they directly inform the decisions we made this year and the momentum we’re building.

So let’s start with economics.

In 2025, the US economy grew modestly overall. GDP growth was around 2%, with a spike in Q3 reaching 4.3%.

But what really impacted our industry was unemployment. Historically it hovered around 3.3%, but we saw a noticeable rise this year.

And when unemployment rises, discretionary spending gets impacted — and martial arts training often falls into that “non-essential” category for consumers.

So we did feel pressure as an industry.

Overall, industry growth was modest at about 1.1%.

What that means is we all have to be more intentional — about retention, operations, and customer experience.

Now let’s talk about AI.

We’re excited about it, but we’re also very deliberate in how we approach it.

Kicksite has always been a very calculated, strategic company. We don’t chase trends recklessly.

We’ve been around nearly 20 years, and that longevity comes from discipline, not speed.

So yes — AI is exciting. But we’re implementing it carefully, where it actually adds value.

You’ll see it both in the product and in how we operate internally.

But one thing I want to make absolutely clear — people first.

Our industry is deeply personal. School owners are invested in their students in a way that is rare in business.

That’s what makes this industry special.

And as a technology company serving this industry, our goal is never to replace that human connection.

We want to enhance it.

So if and when we use AI, it will be to help us spend more time in front of customers, not less.

Now the third topic — private equity.

Let me define it quickly. Private equity firms are outside investment groups that acquire companies with the goal of growing them and eventually exiting at a profit, often on a 3–5 year timeline.

Now you might ask — why does that matter to you?

It matters because it changes behavior in companies that are acquired.

Over the past several years, we’ve seen multiple major software providers in this industry acquired by private equity.

And while there can be benefits — capital, scale, growth — there are also tradeoffs.

Those tradeoffs often show up as cost cutting, reduced support, or price increases.

And in some industries, we’ve seen companies weaken over time after acquisition.

I bring this up not to create fear, but to educate you on what’s happening in the market.

At Kicksite, we’ve made a very deliberate decision to remain independent.

Why? Because independence allows us to focus on long-term relationships, product quality, and customer success — without pressure for short-term exits.

That alignment is core to who we are.

Now, moving into 2025 product updates.

This was our most productive year in company history in terms of releases.

We rebuilt and improved core systems based directly on your feedback.

Ryan is going to walk through the specifics, but the themes are:

• More flexibility
• Better usability
• Stronger automation
• Less manual work

Ryan, I’ll hand it over to you.

---

RYAN:

Thanks Jason.

We’ve been focused on listening to feedback and rebuilding parts of the system to make it more flexible and powerful.

One major area was financial tools.

We added:

• Partial refunds
• More flexible discount structures (military, first responder, promotions, seasonal offers like Black Friday)

We also redesigned landing pages.

The goal was to make them more flexible and support better signup flows, while also improving things like guardian information collection.

We also added multi-location improvements, allowing users to switch between locations without managing multiple logins.

Next, class check-in improvements.

We added check-in restrictions, allowing schools to decide what matters — such as unpaid balances, expired memberships, or missing waivers.

We also added name-based search at kiosks instead of relying only on PINs.

We improved scheduling tools to make class setup easier and faster.

One of the biggest projects was a complete overhaul of the prospect experience.

Previously, the system was rigid — lead → appointment → trial → student.

Now, you can fully customize stages based on how your school operates.

You can add stages like contacted, follow-up, outreach, or remove steps you don’t use.

This gives you full visibility into your pipeline.

We also launched two-way texting.

This allows real-time communication between schools, students, and prospects.

You can now respond instantly to inquiries, follow up on trials, and get notifications when new messages come in.

This is part of a larger communications overhaul coming in 2026.

---

CODY:

On the customer experience side, we made major structural improvements.

We combined website services, onboarding, and support into one unified team.

This eliminates confusion, reduces delays, and improves consistency in responses.

We also added proactive outreach, including website performance check-ins and customer experience reviews.

On the website side, we improved:

• SEO capabilities
• Style guides and user manuals
• Design flexibility for pages, headers, and call-to-actions

This helps schools better understand how to manage and optimize their websites.

We also continue to improve the overall website platform to better support both design and performance.

---

PAT:

From a marketing perspective, SEO has changed significantly.

It’s no longer just SEO — now we also deal with AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) because of AI-driven search.

That includes Google AI overviews and tools like ChatGPT changing how people search.

To stay ahead, we hired an in-house SEO specialist with over 15 years of experience.

We also added copywriting support so websites are not only optimized technically but also written effectively.

A major new initiative is local SEO management.

This includes:

• Google Business Profile optimization
• Cleaning and distributing business listings across directories
• Ongoing tracking and reporting

Early beta results showed:

• Nearly 50% increase in Google Business Profile views
• Nearly 30% increase in website visits from Google profiles

This will officially launch in 2026 as a new service.

---

JASON:

To wrap up, everything we’re building is centered on long-term commitment.

We are continuing to invest in people, product, and infrastructure.

We’re expanding our team and moving into a significantly larger building because we’re not slowing down.

We’re building for longevity, not exit.

Thank you all for being here today.