Six years ago a young banker named David cornered me at a WeWork with what I can only describe as a fever dream:
"Picture this: ping pong pods scattered across the city. No employees, just tables, an app, and windows so people can see how cool we look. It's called PingPod!"
My answer, “Great idea but it’s never going to work.”
A 37-tab spreadsheet begged to differ.
I spent two days trying to destroy his idea with logic. Instead, the spreadsheet destroyed me. Turns out we only needed 17.37% capacity to break even? Not only did David convince me, but I started seeing pods everywhere, including in cloud formations and the lower east side.
When we told Ernesto, he literally shouted, "This is the most amazing thing I have ever heard!" No spreadsheet required. Just pure, unfiltered enthusiasm. (Must be nice.)
And before we knew it we had a VR rendering (thank you StudioMDA, who took a chance on us working for equity in a business that didn't exist).
Our first location opened in February 2020…
While the world was hoarding toilet paper, we were installing ping pong tables. Peak business genius.
26 locations later, we now have a full franchising business, a second vertical in Sharks (Pool Club) and over 200,000 customers whose lives we have touched.
We have heard from countless people who started playing because there was a PingPod in their neighborhood. We heard from couples that found love at PingPod, And we know of many that snapped out of depression during the pandemic because they found a place and a community to belong to.
We built a team that built:
PingPod has made a difference.
When we absorbed Sharks in 2023, we created a Sharks branded app with Sharks business logic, all based on the PingPod infrastructure. Sharks became the first client outside of PingPod. This was the forcing mechanism to build a system that would allow us to not only run PingPod but other venues with the same code and yet have them run as a stand-alone, branded experience.
And the crazy thing… It worked.
Not only did it work but we found out that overlaying our integrated technology stack and ripping out the point solutions Sharks was running on, allowed us to significantly increase the economics of a business that was already doing well. And… we had our multi-tenant set up.
PodPlay was born.
It was just a matter of time until a number of pickleball aficionados figured out that they could get their hands on the tech that PingPod runs on!
First in: NYC Pickleball! Eric and Ray, who founded the vibrant NYC Pickleball community, were first on PodPlay. Both steeped in technology and pickleball, they gave us lots of invaluable feedback as the first beta testers of the PodPlay software.
Shortly after that Steve Kuhn (the founder of MLP) and West Shaw (now JDC and JOOLA) came to PingPod, experienced our tech, and signed on their location in Arizona called Picklemall.
And finally, David (Silberman) decided that CityPickle really should have our tech as well. After all, it's the most iconic pickleball location in the world, right around the corner from PingPod’s flagship location in Central Park. He convinced CityPickle’s founders Erica and Mary to come to PingPod and “experience” the technology in person. They did, and CityPickle became one of our premier launch partners.
CityPickle was now on PodPlay.
By 2025, we were running PingPod, Sharks, PodPlay, and a franchising operation. Our org chart looked like something designed by M.C. Escher. The lawyers started speaking in acronyms. The accountants developed a twitch. Our daily meetings had sub-meetings. PodPlay had grown to serve 100+ locations and needed its own... everything.
After approximately 37 legal meetings (our unwavering Consigliere Generale, Joseph and our tireless counsels at LegalScale, you deserve(d) hazard pay), we made the call. David and Ernesto would shepherd PingPod as co-CEO’s. I'd lead PodPlay together with Ben and Ilya. PodPlay needed to be on its own. And I needed to be with PodPlay.
On 8-8-2025 the split was completed.
Sniff.
Here's the thing about building something from nothing with people who become family: the success metrics don't capture the 3 AM crisis calls, the victory high-fives, or Ernie and Davis on the ground cutting flooring.
They can't quantify the pride of watching something impossible become inevitable, or how our team grew from 3 people to a community of 150,000 lunatics (this game is bringing the best crazy out of people!)
I intend to keep my top-5 customer ranking at PingPod. Not because I need to prove anything, but because some habits you don't want to break. Some places you need to keep coming back to. Some people you carry with you, even when the org charts say otherwise.
The tables will be there. The pods will hum with life. And somewhere, someone will fall in love over a serve they'll remember forever.
Thank you for the crazy. Thank you for the impossible. Thank you for making me cry.
I'll see you on T1.
✌️Peace and ❤️Love,
Max
PS: To the Many Beliebers - Oscar Speech 🫶
Through the years PingPod garnered many followers including true believers who put their hard earned work on the line, who supported the dream by just believing in us. A deep thank you to those of you and an apology to those who I cannot mention. (think Oscar speech right now with the orchestra playing shooing me off the stage.)
Most of all though, thank you to the PingPod team. Trite and cliche, but you did it all. Mike, Mati, Katie, Russ, Esther and everybody else. Thank you!
Memory Lane:
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