For the launch of FanCloud, a website for sports fans, the three founders are driving around the country in a van, parking it at sporting events, tailgating and giving away tickets – all on the company tab.

During the 43-city tour, they will attend pro basketball, football and hockey games, and college basketball games while trying to sign up fans for their site. They also will meet with executives for professional teams to explore partnership deals.

While the tour sounds like therapy for a male midlife crisis, Chief Executive Terence Gelke said it was a major reason FanCloud landed $200,000 in seed capital.

“With the tour, our investors felt confident that we would give our full time and attention to this company,” Gelke said. “It doesn’t hurt that it’s fun.”

Based in Woodland Hills, FanCloud compiles tweets and Facebook posts from 2,000 professional sports journalists. A database sorts the comments by team so fans can quickly access the information that interests them. Fans can also post comments and exchange opinions with the writers.

The site makes money by referring fans to ASC Tickets, a Gaithersburg, Md. brokerage for sports tickets and the major investor in the site. Gelke plans to introduce advertising and also hopes to sell the site’s content for display on video screens in sports bars and stadiums. He estimates the company will reach breakeven by the end of 2013.

Gelke and partners Ben Bjurstrom and Bryan Shaw will return to Los Angeles for a break during Super Bowl weekend. They’re looking forward to the big game.

“I know we’ll see a big spike in traffic,” Gelke said. “We’ll have all 2,000 sports writers tweeting about just that game.”