In a recent episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, Ben Borton joined the host to discuss the remarkable trajectory of PodPlay, a comprehensive software and hardware company that evolved from managing physical sports venues into serving hundreds of locations worldwide. Borton detailed how internal operational hurdles within PingPod—a network of autonomous table tennis clubs—prompted the team to develop bespoke tools for court reservations, facility access, video replay, payment processing, and venue management. What began as an in-house remedy for day-to-day logistical challenges soon attracted the attention of independent sports facility operators facing the exact same operational bottlenecks.
The conversation explored the foundational growth strategies that propelled PodPlay forward, highlighting founder-led sales, organic search engine optimization, customer referral loops, and innovative video distribution partnerships. Furthermore, Borton explained why PodPlay remains committed to publishing authoritative, opinionated industry content, even as shifting artificial intelligence search mechanics alter how prospective clients discover, evaluate, and purchase software solutions in the modern marketplace.
Turning an Operating Problem Into a Software Company
Ben Borton’s entrepreneurial journey spans approximately two decades, beginning when he managed a venture capital pool dedicated to seeding startup hedge funds. He later transitioned into a partner role at one of those firms, successfully helping scale its assets under management to several hundred million dollars. Eventually, this financial sector experience steered Borton and his long-standing business partner, Max Kogler, toward ventures where they felt a more direct, tangible connection to the end product. Kogler subsequently founded PingPod, an innovative network of autonomous table tennis clubs, with Borton stepping in as the company’s inaugural outside investor.
PingPod opened its flagship location in New York City in February 2020, only to be struck by sweeping COVID-19 pandemic closures a mere month later. However, the unique architectural and operational design of the business unexpectedly positioned it to navigate the crisis effectively. Featuring contactless entry, zero on-site staff during standard play, socially distanced activity layouts, and meticulous digital tracking of every visitor, PingPod managed to reopen safely in May 2020. This reopening occurred well ahead of many traditional recreational and fitness businesses that relied heavily on conventional, labor-intensive staffing models.
As PingPod expanded, the underlying technology grew increasingly sophisticated to handle the automated demands of the clubs. Soon, operators of pickleball facilities and other racket sports began inquiring whether they could license the proprietary system for their own venues. These persistent market inquiries catalyzed the creation of PodPlay as a distinct corporate entity. Borton joined as a co-founder in 2022, and PodPlay officially debuted as a wholly owned subsidiary of PingPod in the summer of 2023.
Expanding the Product Beyond Court Reservations
Today, PodPlay functions as a robust, centralized platform for managing modern, technology-enabled sports venues. Its software suite encompasses the core operational pillars facility owners rely on daily, including automated court scheduling, membership management, event coordination, secure payment gateways, and coaching administration. The company has experienced substantial market adoption, signing up 290 locations to its platform and servicing more than 1.8 million end customers.
A key differentiator for PodPlay lies in its integrated hardware ecosystem. More than 60 percent of PodPlay customers utilize hardware-enabled tiers that incorporate smart court monitors, interactive iPads, automated replay cameras, and secure access control systems. Currently, PodPlay powers more than 60 fully autonomous locations spanning pickleball, billiards, golf simulators, and other recreational activities.
Borton views automation not merely as a mechanism for reducing labor expenses, but as a strategic advantage that allows club owners to reallocate resources toward community building, customer relationship management, and specialized programming instead of stationing a receptionist at a front desk throughout every operating hour. Additionally, automation unlocks economic viability during low-traffic windows, enabling clubs to offer early morning or late-night access without incurring the heavy staffing overhead that traditionally accompanies off-peak hours.
Using Founder-Led Sales to Build Early Trust
When PodPlay entered the sports management software market, it faced entrenched competitors that had established a seven-to-eight-year head start. This created a formidable credibility gap that a polished marketing website or an entry-level sales hire alone could not bridge. Borton addressed this challenge by spearheading a founder-led sales model. Prospective operators evaluating software from an emerging vendor naturally harbor concerns regarding system reliability, technical support, feature depth, and corporate longevity. Engaging in direct dialogues with a founder who has personally operated 20 sports venues fostered a fundamentally different, trust-building dynamic compared to standard, scripted sales pitches.
Securing the first ten customers proved vital, as sports venue software relies heavily on geographic social proof. An entrepreneur launching a new pickleball facility inevitably observes the software choices made by successful clubs operating nearby. CityPickle emerged as one of PodPlay’s foundational reference customers, operating high-profile, highly visible pickleball venues in New York City, including courts situated in Central Park. This prominent client provided PodPlay with undeniable market validation that prospective operators could witness firsthand.
Furthermore, active founder involvement granted Borton immediate, unfiltered exposure to client objections and feature requests. This direct feedback loop allowed product development teams to iterate and deploy solutions far faster than would have been possible in a traditionally structured enterprise where multiple organizational layers separate the sales force from the software engineers.
Measuring Growth Through Sales Efficiency
PodPlay adopted a disciplined capital allocation strategy, investing heavily in research and development while maintaining lean sales and marketing expenditures. Borton measures this financial efficiency by evaluating the ratio of recurring revenue generated against every dollar allocated to customer acquisition. At various stages of growth, PodPlay generated up to four dollars in recurring revenue for every single dollar spent on sales and marketing. As the enterprise expanded and matured, that metric stabilized closer to a target of two dollars in recurring revenue per dollar spent.
Borton contrasted this performance with publicly traded Software-as-a-Service companies, where customer acquisition efficiency often hovers around fifty cents of recurring revenue per dollar spent. His underlying premise is not that every emerging business should replicate PodPlay’s specific expenditure model, but rather that securing low-cost acquisition channels affords a company the financial runway necessary to invest aggressively in core product innovation.
Turning Customer Video Into a Distribution System
Video production represents the critical intersection between PodPlay’s software product and its organic marketing strategy. Athletes naturally want to capture memorable rallies, humorous miscues, and exceptional shots—a desire that traditionally required positioning a smartphone precariously against a fence, enlisting a bystander to record, or lugging a tripod to the court. PodPlay largely eliminated this friction. Because the management system already recognizes which players have reserved a specific court, and because automated cameras are continuously recording, participants can effortlessly secure a high-quality video replay without creating separate user accounts or disrupting the flow of the game.
This capability led the company to explore secondary distribution opportunities for the generated media. PodPlay began transforming individual customer clips into recurring digital content series, establishing a dedicated "Best of Pickleball" format and subsequently supplying professional-grade footage to established pickleball media brands boasting massive existing audiences. These strategic distribution partnerships generated substantial visibility, with PodPlay reporting more than 24 million views derived from replay-related content. Notably, six million of those views materialized during a single quarter, demonstrating the viral potency of user-generated sports media.
Making Content Submission Part of the Product
As the repository of captured video clips expanded past two million replays, PodPlay encountered a logistical hurdle: manually sorting through immense volumes of footage to identify highlight-worthy content became increasingly unmanageable. To solve this, the company engineered a "Go Viral" feature directly into the user interface. Players can now submit their personal video clips for broader social media distribution, input their social media handles, grant publication consent, and even suggest engaging narrative hooks.
This functional integration streamlined content aggregation, ensuring a steady, automated stream of authentic amateur pickleball footage for major media partners who would otherwise struggle to curate comparable volumes of niche sports media independently. Borton’s broader strategic takeaway emphasizes the importance of identifying unique assets a growing company can supply to larger industry partners who command superior distribution networks.
Building Search Content Around Genuine Expertise
Beyond video distribution, PodPlay has invested significantly in producing authoritative written resources designed to attract entrepreneurs researching the logistics of constructing and operating modern sports facilities. One of the company’s most successful organic assets is an exhaustive guide detailing how to launch a profitable pickleball business. Recognizing that existing search results were saturated with superficial advice, Borton and his team leveraged their firsthand operating experience across 20 physical locations to supply concrete financial models, operational frameworks, and actionable data.
Operating entirely without paid search advertising, PodPlay relied strictly on organic search optimization rooted in genuine industry authority. This deliberate strategy has yielded strong visibility within modern discovery channels, including prominent placement in Google’s AI-generated search summaries for queries concerning pickleball business planning.
Using Content to Pre-Sell Prospects
Search traffic remains a primary driver of demo bookings for PodPlay, a critical metric given that the company historically converts approximately 40 percent of booked product demonstrations into paying customers. Borton attributes this unusually high conversion rate to the comprehensive educational journey prospects undertake prior to their sales calls. By reading detailed articles, watching instructional videos, and examining active customer case studies, potential clients frequently arrive at sales demonstrations already well-versed in the platform’s capabilities.
This phenomenon fundamentally transforms the nature of the sales conversation. Instead of dedicating valuable time to introducing the company from the ground up, sales representatives engage with prospects who already possess contextual understanding and a pre-existing intent to purchase.
Scaling Beyond Founder-Led Sales
While founder-led sales successfully carried PodPlay through its formative stages, Borton eventually confronted a strict physical constraint: the limits of his own calendar. Prior to securing a Series A funding round, sales remained predominantly founder-driven, supported primarily by inbound interest, organic content, customer referrals, and word-of-mouth advocacy without the aid of outbound prospecting teams or heavy conference attendance.
Following the capital injection, Borton transitioned a significant portion of sales responsibilities to Ryan Weinbach, an executive with deep, established ties within the pickleball community. This strategic hire allowed PodPlay to preserve the authentic, peer-to-peer rapport that defined its early sales interactions. The company subsequently integrated additional sales talent possessing similarly specialized industry backgrounds, enabling Borton to dedicate more time to content strategy, product vision, and advanced AI-assisted research and development.
With nearly 300 signed locations, millions of active end users, and tens of millions of video views, PodPlay’s ongoing expansion illustrates how firsthand operational expertise, rigorous product quality, and scalable organic distribution can compound powerfully over time.
