We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Drew Danzeisen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Drew below.

Drew , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

At the time, I was an addict. It started out with 3 times a week, went to 3-5, 5-7, and then full-on 7-days a week. I lived a mile and a half from one of the best public parks in the country for competition. As a former high school tennis player, I was getting whooped for a couple of months but learning the game. I was playing pickleball every day and became obsessed and turned it around to start beating the people that were beating me. Whenever I would travel, my paddle was in my backpack and no matter what, I had to find the courts. A few months later I got the itch to get back into the sports industry from a career perspective and was trying to come up with ways to start a business in pickleball. Then it clicked. I’ve been in events my whole career and creating an event property was the way to go.

When I bought the domain for thepickleballhouse.com I couldn’t sleep that night. It was straight adrenaline driven by the thought of how strong of a brand name that could be and what I was going to do with it. I was calling friends and going on long walks to get fresh air and to process what I just spent in a 12 hour period to register the LLC, trademark, and startup costs. I knew that I was going to create a unique, invite-only, pop-up experience where pickleball meets networking at major sports and entertainment events.

The craziest part of the story wasn’t just starting the business. It was starting the business and saying “Hey Super Bowl is in 3-weeks, we’re gonna launch The Pickleball House there…in 3-weeks”. I was coming into pickleball with no background in the sport, no network, and drove from San Diego to Phoenix, which happened to be the first event of the year for Major League Pickleball (the top league in the sport). Same city where the Super Bowl would be in 3-weeks. I was the guy people thought was crazy, who went to everyone that looked like they were working there or had affiliation to the league, including the owner, and said “I’m launching The Pickleball House in 3-weeks at Super Bowl, would you like to be involved?”

I’ve worked in the sports industry over the last 10 years and have been fortunate to work around the largest events in the world including the Olympics (Rio and Pyeongchang), Super Bowl, NBA All-Star, MLB All-Star and several multi-sport games. Around these major events are what’s called “satellite” events that are put on by brands, organizations, and agencies while everyone is in town and a common name is to have a title associated with “House”. The Heineken House is the most talked about experience at the Olympics and FIFA World Cup, Red Bull House, House of Hoops, Founder’s House…etc. Soho house is a premier brand name because of it’s affluent member base and exclusivity. I wanted to put all of these together, but have pickleball be the centerpiece.

Pickleball is a sport in a league of it’s own. The fastest growing sport in America. A sport that brings people together no matter the age, race, or gender. You can play from 5 years old to 95. There is no other sport that has this spectrum of accessibility that’s also very widely played by current and former athletes from other sports, creators, executives, and business leaders. Golf has traditionally been a networking sport, but when people are in these cities with major events, they don’t typically have 4-5 hours to spend out on a golf course, also with just 3 other people.

Here’s where The Pickleball House comes into play. It’s a small enough footprint, where you can fit 3 courts in the size of a basketball court, you only need 30 minutes to 1hr. to get a solid workout in, and you’re around people you want to shake hands with that weekend.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a former collegiate baseball athlete who transitioned from playing to working in sports. At San Diego State University, I led a student organization called the Sports Business Initiative, for students interested in sports industry careers. From there I started volunteering, working events, and building a network towards being involved in the international sports industry, including the Olympics. I’ve always had a passion for sports and see the power it has of bringing people together from all walks of life to curate memories and experiences on top of health and fitness.

The biggest opportunity and challenge is creating new ways to bring people together through sport and that’s what I have enjoyed doing.

If I were to come up with one thing I’m most proud of, that would be being Good Crazy. And I’ll leave that story for another time. ;)

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The biggest conversation piece across many industries right now is pickleball. It’s the word featured in all of my email subjects, first sentence in messages, ice-breaker, etc. Everyone has heard of it. They either play, want to play, or are interested in marketing their brand around the sport. If you have a value add such as an event property that brings people together combining fitness and business then you have something of interest. Meeting people on the courts is a way to add new clients. As a startup doing it all organically, other way is sending out a billion LinkedIn requests and cold emails inviting people to your events or seeing if there’s interest from them to sponsor or be involved.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

What helps build a reputation in the market is doing what you say you are gonna do and then some more on top of that. Under-promising and over-delivering seems a bit cliche but it is very true when it comes to reputation building. The other key is continuing to be there in-person at events in your industry and building those relationships. It is quite the investment and commitment to do this but if you’re truly invested in what it is that you are doing, you need to show up and be there to make things happen. Sometimes you will have doubts about going, but you really never know what could happen unless you show up.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thepickleballhouse.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepickleballhouse_/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewdanzeisen/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thepickleballhouse

Image Credits
The Pickleball House LLC