Finding beer, T-shirt shops, and tailgate hotspots can be a challenge at a massive concert or sporting event. And once you do find it, the lines could be too long or the party has moved on.

Image courtesy of Paranoid Fan

Agustin Gonzalez experienced these inconveniences himself as a dedicated Dallas Cowboys and World Cup Soccer fan.

His solution was to develop the Paranoid Fan app, which he describes as Waze for stadiums and concert venues. It maps out stadiums, highlighting points of interest with emojis and other fun graphics to make it easy to navigate.

DALLAS STARTUP PARTNERS WITH NFL, SPORTS VENUES ABROAD

Fast forward about six years later and the Dallas startup is opening an office in Madrid, Spain. More than 80 percent of its user base lives outside the U.S.

“It comes on the heels of our success at the World Football Summit. Our product was featured to all the soccer clubs in Spain,” said Gonzalez, a Dallas native who went to the Air Force Academy and graduated from Southern Methodist University.

The Madrid office will be led by Cristina Morena Sánchez, who previously served as head of business development for the World Football Summit.

Abroad, Paranoid Fan also has partnered with World Cup Soccer venues in Russia. In Mexico, Gonzalez has been in talks with the country’s national World Cup team so the app can show official watch parties during next summer’s soccer tournament.

“We are so slammed for our demand from overseas right now so that’s our focus as we wind down the NFL season.”

Agustin Gonzalez

In the U.S., Paranoid Fan has worked with NFL teams in Washington D.C. and Jacksonville, Florida.

“Working together, we’ve unlocked incredible opportunities to provide our fans with some of the most technologically-advanced and dynamically-built features, enhancing both their content and game day experiences,” said Steve Ziff, Jacksonville Jaguars vice president of marketing and digital media, in a statement about the team’s app launch in September. 

Now that Gonzalez made inroads with the NFL and several soccer teams, his next goal is to partner with NBA and MLB teams.

“We are so slammed for our demand from overseas right now, so that’s our focus as we wind down the NFL season,” Gonzalez said.

PARANOID FAN HAS SECURED $2.5M IN FUNDING

The startup has secured $2.5 million in funding, including a large contribution from beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The partnership with the beer brewer means the app can highlight the Bud Light tent on game day, for example.

The influx of funding has allowed Paranoid Fan to grow from four employees to 16 in just nine months.

The influx of funding has allowed Paranoid Fan to grow from four employees to 16 in just nine months.

“We’re seeing tons of traction,” Gonzalez said.

He wants to put live webcams in places that get congested during events so people can check the line or the crowd in real time. Much like a traffic app helps drivers route around congestion on the road, Paranoid Fan shows concert goers and sports fans the best way to their seat or the shortest line for beer.

It’s not just preset destinations that appear on the app. There’s a social aspect to it as well. A friend could place a geo tag on the exact location of the tailgate party so everyone who was invited can find it.

“We reduce those friction points so you can see things in real time,” Gonzalez said.

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