Perhaps the only downside to building a golf-focused startup is that it leaves little time to play golf.
Dane Renkert will take that trade off, for now, as he works on something he says will change the way people play and interact with the game.
Renkert is the founder and CEO of Barkie, a Bellingham, Wash.-based app that aims to be a true AI caddy for every golfer — one that tracks scores with just a voice, solves betting games automatically, and rarely requires the golfer to look down at the screen.
Renkert is no slouch as an athlete and golfer. A graduate of Washington State University, he played professional baseball for the Milwaukee Brewers before moving on to technical and sales leadership roles at Docugami, Komiko, and the Ben Kinney Companies. As a competitive golfer, he placed 13th in the 2009 World Long Drive Championship and now has a handicap.
The company’s name is a nod to golf terminology – a “barkie” is a reliable, hard-fought piece that is kept after a golfer’s ricochet hits a tree.
The inspiration for the startup stems from Renkert’s frustration with existing mobile golf apps, which he says have worked like digital spreadsheets for the past decade. Participants like 18 Birdies, The Grint, and Golf Genius require constant manual data entry during the round, Renkert said.
Noting that seven out of 10 golfers still use a paper-and-pencil card because they like tradition or want to avoid the distraction of a screen, Renkert began building a platform based on a simple philosophy: “keep your head up, not down.”
To translate that concept into software, Renkert first met in 2025 with founder Zubin Wadia, an MIT grad he worked with for five years at Docugami, a Bellevue, Wash.-based AI startup. Wadia remains Barkie’s strategic advisor.
In order to achieve an “intuitive” experience, Barkie differentiates itself by introducing a voice user interface that completely eliminates manual typing. Using standard gear such as an Apple Watch or AirPods, golfers can simply speak the score of a hole to update the digital card on the back.
According to Renkert, Barkie is the first to market an AI-native, voice-first caddy that allows for natural, fluent speech on the course rather than forcing players to scroll through menus and hit arrows to log data.
“The voice thing, in particular, I believe is a big lift technically, but it’s a big lift on the user experience side,” said Renkert, adding that the platform is designed to seamlessly enhance the culture of the game rather than disrupt it.
Under the hood, Barkie relies on a patent-pending two-layer system to prevent the app from making mistakes or manipulating numbers. A large secure language model handles the end of the conversation — interpreting natural voice requests, answering rules questions, or trading friendly banter.
A unique, rules-based engineering backend manages all points, hit points, and betting statistics. This classification ensures that even though golfers can talk to the app like a human, the actual bookkeeping remains completely accurate.
When the betting service comes online, the same effect will settle real-money side games – Nassau, skins, wolf, hammer bets – instantly when the round ends, saving golfers the pain of hustling who’s owed on the 18th green.
Barkie’s easy-to-use case needs no voice at all. With a feature called ScoreShot, golfers can take a photo of a paper scorecard. The app digitizes and pushes data directly into GHIN, the USGA’s official handicap system, which Renkert says gives Barkie access to course-specific data like slope rating and tee box selection. Golfers without a club membership or GHIN account can still generate a handicap through the app, which is calculated according to the World Handicap System guidelines.
Either way, the result is hole-by-hole performance data that Renkert says no other golf program currently offers — allowing players to see which holes they’re strongest on and weak on, and, he added, which holes they should pressure their friends on.
Barkie is available for download on iOS (optimized for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch compatible setups) and Android devices through the App Store and Google Play Store.
The app offers a free version that includes GPS mapping features. The premium tier unlocks unlimited hand tracking, advanced Strokes Gained stats, Barkie Betting Engine, and full GHIN integration. Limited-time pricing is available for $4.99 monthly or $29.99 annually.
Barkie attracted seed funding from friends and family and notable investors, including Rob Gough, a businessman and collector perhaps best known in outside tech circles for his record $5.2 million purchase of a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card. According to his LinkedIn, Gough is also an investor in Jeff Bezos’ AI startup, Prometheus, which raised $12 billion in Series B funding last month.
“I invested in Barkie.ai because I believe they are building something that brings real value to golfers, not just another AI demo,” Gough said in a statement. “Big companies have an unfair advantage, and Barkie has just that: an inventor with deep background expertise as a golfer who truly understands the game, combined with a world-class AI team recruited from companies like Meta, Google, and NASA.”
Barkie’s cap table also includes former Seattle Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu, who serves as an advisor to the company.
Armed with top-notch funding and a team recruited from tech giants, Renkert isn’t shy about his ambitions to disrupt space-focused players.
“I want those in charge to know that I have a lot of support, and I’m coming because of you,” said Renkert. “I’m not trying to compete with you, I’m trying to take you.”
For now, taking over means grinding behind a desk instead of the fairway. Renkert admits that building a startup significantly reduced his time on the course this past year — even leading to a tough showing when he tried to qualify for the US Amateur.
But grinding is the point.
“I’ve done a lot of good things in my life, but this is the hardest thing I’ve ever worked for,” said Renkert. “I believe, I hope, this will be my coat of arms.”
