Fairways Lab is an indoor golf facility based in Evanston, Wyoming. Combining world-class simulator tech with custom-built software to deliver year-round play for everyday golfers. Founded by product builder and entrepreneur Manni Martinez Acosta, the company is part of Fairways, a parent organization also behind Fairways OS. Manni’s journey from shelter to startup life is one of resilience, humility, and purpose.
Fairways Lab is an indoor golf facility redefining how the game is played and accessed, in small-town America.
Based in Evanston, Wyoming, Fairways Lab blends professional-grade simulator technology with a lounge-style environment to deliver year-round access to golf for everyday players.
Its mission is both simple and ambitious: make elite-level golf tools and experiences available in places that big brands often ignore.
At the center of it all is founder Emmanuel “Manni” Martinez Acosta a California and Utah native, product builder, and first-generation american/entrepreneur who understands the value of starting small and building smart.
Fairways Lab isn’t a franchise. It’s not corporate. It’s personal.
And it’s powered by the same custom software Manni and his team is building for other operators under the parent company, Fairways.
Manni moved around a lot growing up, born in the Bay Area but later moved to Utah, golf was one of several sports he juggled alongside football, wrestling, and boxing.
Golf was the least he excelled in, claiming the hardest sport he's ever participated in, and still confident that remains true, again, this is personal.
During middle school and high school, he lived in multiple homes and at one point a youth homeless shelter.
By 17, he started his first company in high school. At 18, he built his first app and co-founded Ordereasy, a stadium tech startup that had early traction before the COVID-19 pandemic paused its rollout. Manni is the first to say he doesn’t have it all figured out.
“I built my first business at 17, my first app at 18. And I’ve learned a lot since , mostly from what didn’t work,” he says.
That mindset has carried him through an unconventional journey... one shaped by resilience, early responsibility, and deep curiosity.
It was around that time that he encountered Weber State’s Wildcat Fund, a program that would shape his perspective on entrepreneurship. Through it, he learned to navigate enterprise sales and refine his pitch - all while still learning how to build things that worked in the real world.
His entrepreneurial roots run deep, influenced by his hard working single biological mother, who used to wake him and his younger brother (12 & 13 years old) at 4 am on weekends and some weekdays to sell snacks and concessions as well as clean the Weber County fairgrounds until 6 pm to make ends meet. That early exposure to business economics laid the foundation for a career shaped by resourcefulness, persistence, and community-driven ambition.
Manni describes himself as a lifelong student, not a finished product.
After launching his first business in high school, he spent the next several years building software products for founders, startups, and growth-stage companies. He served on the board of Youth Futures Homeless Shelter, the same youth shelter he once lived in, and is an advocate for expanding access to entrepreneurship for underserved communities.
He also served as VP of Partnerships & Operations at Outcode Software, helping expand the company through international team growth and client delivery.
Later, he joined LoanPro, a Utah-based fintech startup, where he led and helped launch the company’s integrations and partnerships department. That work played a role in scaling LoanPro into a national brand and contributing to its Series A raise of $100M.
Manni eventually founded Launchbridge, a product and development studio built around a simple idea: founders don’t just need code, they need clarity.
Over the last 3 years, Launchbridge helped over 20 startups and solo founders bring their ideas to market - from MVP to full product launches. The team worked across industries, often acting as both technical partner and strategic advisor, guiding clients through product decisions, UI/UX design, integrations, go-to-market strategy, and scale readiness.
More than an agency, Launchbridge became a proving ground for what Manni does best, taking messy unclear, early-stage ideas and turning them into usable, well-built software. Those experiences helped sharpen the playbook now being used inside Fairways.
“We weren’t just building apps,” Manni says. “We were helping people commit to the hard part - building something real and getting it into the hands of customers.”
But Fairways is his most personal venture yet. Unlike client projects or consulting work, this one isn’t just a product — it’s a reflection of where he’s from, what he believes in, and what he’s still figuring out.
“Fairways isn’t about pretending we have everything figured out,” he says. “It’s about building something real, in a place that matters, and learning as we go.”
After years of helping other founders build their ideas through Launchbridge, guiding them through market validation, product strategy, and technical execution, Manni saw a chance to do something different: build something that combined everything he knew professionally with something he cared about personally. Fairways wasn’t an idea born in a pitch deck, it was born from lived experience, shaped by the village that raised him, and designed for people he understood.
The opportunity wasn’t just to create another business. It was to prove that great product thinking doesn’t need to be reserved for Silicon Valley. That small towns deserve world-class tools. That golf, like tech, could be more open, more thoughtful, and more connected, if someone was willing to do the work on the ground.
Fairways is that work.
Fairways Lab is one part of the broader Fairways ecosystem.
Its parent company, Fairways, is building Fairways OS, a cloud-based operating system designed to help golf simulator venues and traditional courses run more profitably. Fairways OS handles bookings, payments, memberships, smart access, and business analytics and it powers every aspect of the Fairways Lab experience.
By operating both the software and the facility, Fairways is able to test, learn, and iterate in real-world conditions creating a tighter feedback loop and ensuring every feature is built with the operator and player in mind.
Evanston, Wyoming is where Fairways Lab was launched .... not because it was easy, but because it was right.
Long winters, a tight-knit community, and limited access to indoor golf make Evanston a perfect test market. The first Fairways Lab facility includes 3 bays, a members app, flexible pricing, and smart lock access. It’s built to work in real life, not just in pitch decks.
The goal isn’t fast growth. It’s sustainability. The team is proving a model that can expand thoughtfully, starting with a community that deserves more.
While this article has focused on Manni’s journey, Fairways Lab was never meant to be a solo effort.... and it won’t stay one.
From the beginning, the goal has always been to build a company that brings together builders, operators, creatives, and community leaders who care about golf, technology, and access.
Fairways is a platform, not a pedestal and the team behind it will shape what it becomes.
A full team announcement, including product, operations, and community roles will be shared in a future article. Some have already contributed quietly behind the scenes: founding engineers, early collaborators, Manni's fiance and her family, and people who believed in the mission before it had a name.
Manni says:
“I might’ve started this, but the people around Fairways are what will make it great. I’m just trying to build something worth joining and just maybe... shave 20 strokes off my game lol.”
Fairways is designed to grow as a team, a culture, and a movement -not just as a brand. And that part is just getting started.
Fairways Lab is scaling carefully.
Future updates include league play, loyalty rewards, lesson booking, and extended community programming.
On the tech side, Fairways OS is rolling out to other operators , with the Evanston facility serving as the core pilot environment.
This isn’t about building a golf startup. It’s about building the future of golf access — brick by brick, round by round, customer by customer.
Be apart of our journey and get early access by signing up to the Founders Club list.
🔗 Weber State Interview (2021)
🔗 Watch Manni's Story – YouTube
