BUSINESS IDEA | VENTURE STARTUP

Peloton for Pickleball 🎾 

Let that dink in

Available Domain: Dinktect.com

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

The Problem/Opportunity: Pickleball’s popularity is something of a mystery to me. From an outsider’s perspective it kinda looks like tennis and ping pong got together and had a kid…

But given it’s the fastest growing sport in the USA, and 40m - 50m Americans play pickleball each year, they clearly know something I don’t. And pickleball players are obsessed with it. They join leagues, buy premium paddles, watch YouTube tutorials, and play multiple times a week. But when it comes to measuring improvement or analyzing match performance they’re stuck in the analog world, relying on guesswork or expensive in-person coaching to improve their game. It’s time to change that.

Market Size: There are an estimated 40m - 50m pickleball players in the USA. You’re targeting the “power-users” of pickleball with this product.

2. Solution ✅

The Idea: A smart clip-on device for pickleball paddles that tracks and analyzes a player’s game

How it Works:

• A user attaches the lightweight sensor to their pickleball paddle’s handle, no tools or setup required.

• Using built-in motion sensors (accelerometer + gyroscope), the device captures swing speed, shot types (dinks, smashes, volleys), rally duration, and more.

• The device can connect via Bluetooth to a mobile app for real-time stats, heatmaps, match summaries, and personalized performance insights

• The user also gets AI-powered feedback on their swing and drills they can complete in order to improve their game

Go-to-market: Partner with top pickleball coaches for credibility, then expand to influencers for reach when the device is perfect

Business Model: Sell the hardware for $99–$149 per unit (one-time cost) then a small monthly subscription ($10 per month) for advanced analytics

Startup Costs: You’ll need a lot of cash to get this off the ground, easily $100k+

3. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

Exit Strategy: Sell to a pickleball brand or equipment manufacturer with distribution who wants to get into the hardware space

Exit Multiple: Consumer hardware + SaaS businesses typically go for 3–5x revenue, but this can be higher with strong network effects

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DRUNK BUSINESS IDEA

Micro-Fridge

• As a guy, owning a mini-fridge is something we all dream of. But in this economy who can possibly afford such a luxury?

• Introducing the Micro-Fridge™, the future of hyper-minimalist refrigeration. Expensive, excessive mini fridges are out because the world is moving towards this affordable, one-can-at-a-time cooling experience.

• Fits perfectly on your desk, your nightstand, even in your car. Because refreshment is always just a can away…

Vote

• ✅ This is genius

• ❌ Y’all are trippin

JUST THE TIP

Trend 📈: Board Game Cafés

• In today’s world everyone is looking for more social experiences. And board game cafés provide the perfect platform for exactly this.

• These are hybrid spaces where customers can eat, drink, and play from a curated library of board games ranging from classics like Catan and Clue to modern strategy and party games.

• The trend taps into the rise of digital detox and screen-free entertainment too which have immense tailwinds today, meaning these establishments are only going to grow more and more popular in the future

Business Ideas

• Board Game Café Micro-Franchise: Build a recognizable game café brand and license the model to struggling bars with spare space or low afternoon foot traffic.

• Board Game Subscription Box: A monthly curated box of games for home use, offering discounts or loyalty points for a local board game café.

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THE MONEYSHOT

How Four Friends Made $130m Selling Shorts

Sometimes the best way to see the future is to look into the past.

Take these four friends who looked into the past, revived an old trend, and made $130m in the process.

This is their story.

Kyle Hency (left), Rainer Castillo (no hair), Preston Rutherford (longish hair), and Tom Montgomery (dark blue hat) go way back.

The four guys met in college where they bonded over (among other things) their love of retro short-shorts they found in thrift stores and “borrowed” from their dads and uncles.

After graduating the four guys pursued jobs in different fields ranging from traditional finance to the startup world to corporate retail, but by 2011 (a few years after graduating) they decided to start their own company together, wanting to sell the short-shorts they loved wearing so much. But they needed to see if there was a market for the product beyond just them…

So they created a few pairs of shorts and brought them to an annual Fourth of July celebration at Lake Tahoe to show to their friends. Opinions on the designs were…mixed. Some hated them. Others loved them. They were polarizing…which is how the guys knew they were onto something.

The cofounders immediately sold out of the few pairs of shorts they had brought with them right there on the beach. So when they got home they set up a simple Shopify website and made a couple hundred more pairs of shorts to sell. It was September 2011 and they were ready to go.

They founded Chubbies.

The business got off to a great start with product flying off the shelves. Well, the digital shelves since the brand was exclusively selling online.

They positioned their shorts as a lifestyle movement around weekends, beer, lake trips, and unapologetic fun. Pretty soon the brand took off with college kids and developed a cult following, especially in the South and West Coast.

In October 2012, Chubbies raised some funding from Rothenberg Ventures, but their first major funding round came in 2014 when they raised a $4 million Series A which allowed them to scale inventory and operations. By this time they were doing north of $1m in revenue on their shorts and they also began expanding beyond just shorts into polos, swim trunks, loungewear and outerwear.

Over the next few years the online brand grew and they also started to dabble in retail, opening a few physical stores in major cities like Austin and San Francisco. By 2021 revenue reportedly hit around $50m, which is when the Chubbies team were approached about a buyout.

Which is how in September 2021, Chubbies was acquired by Solo Brands for $130 million, joining their portfolio of lifestyle and outdoor brands. Success.

And it just goes to show that sometimes in business, being polarizing is your biggest advantage. Sure, some people will hate your product. But others will love it. And in truth more businesses die from apathy than from controversy.

So take a stand. In your product, your messaging, wherever you can.

Because that’s what it takes to build a brand that lasts.

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