Connor Van Gilder Brings Design to Golf Technology with Trutee Golf

In this episode of the Tech Caddie Podcast, host Mike Hendrix sits down with Connor Van Gilder, founder of Trutee Golf, to explore the concept of digital hospitality and his mission to reinvent the golf technology landscape. The conversation centers on the philosophy captured by the episode title: The Trutee Golf North Star: Seamless, Considered and Intentional. Connor, whose background is in product design for complex enterprise solutions at companies like Zonos and Entrata, explains why he believes the digital tools surrounding golf—the tee sheet and point of sale (POS)—must be as thoughtfully designed as the golf course itself. Key discussion points: Design as Efficiency: Why great design is essential for eliminating technical debt and driving massive operational efficiency, reducing staff training time, and cutting down on clicks for day-to-day tasks like issuing refunds.1 AI and Modern Development: How Trutee uses a modern tech stack (TypeScript and Next.js) and leverages AI not just for chat interfaces, but for "just-in-time" prompts (like automatically suggesting no-show charges) to help operators work smarter.1 Operational Clarity: The importance of giving operators the data they need—such as learning that 65% of all bookings are coming from mobile—and how Trutee provides critical business analytics that legacy systems often neglect.1 The Open API Vision: Connor argues that a closed platform approach stunts industry growth and advocates for a future where open APIs allow collaborators to easily build new tools and integrations, ultimately giving golf courses the best possible toolset.1 The First Customer: Insights into the challenging, but validating, experience of securing the City of St. George, Utah as their first municipal customer, and how Trutee solved major pain points related to complex reporting and financing that previously took hours of manual work.1 Guest Contact Connor Van Gilder, Trutee Golf: Connor@trutee.app Website: www.trutee.app