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The racket facilities lacked the
sophistication, the financial wherewithal,
and the capabilities to do digital
marketing, and did more research
and started Quartz app that were
essentially the Expedia of racket sports.
Hey everyone.
Welcome to another exciting episode
of Paddle Smash Academy today.
We're so excited to have
Darren Hornets from Courts app.
So first time we hear about this app.
So why don't you tell us a, a little bit
about you and first of all, you, and then
what, what courts app it's all about.
Sure.
Well, first, thanks for having me.
Very excited to be here.
Um, so I'm Darren Horne.
Um, born and raised in New York.
If you could tell by
the accent a little bit.
Uh, my background originally
is in real estate, real estate
development and investing.
Um, and had the unique opportunity to
buy the Port Washington Tennis Academy.
Which is where the
McEnroe started playing.
And Vitus Ger Tracy Austin, uh,
we converted 17 tennis courts.
We converted four of them to pickleball,
so we started tennis and pickleball.
We have now 13 tennis, 12 pickleball.
And what I found through owning that and
looking at other opportunities in the
racket sports environment, is the racket
facilities lacked the sophistication,
the financial wherewithal, and the
capabilities to do digital marketing.
And did more research and started
courts app that were essentially the
Expedia of racket sports that you could
book courts ultimately ability to book
lessons, get clinics, join tournaments.
So we became a marketplace for people
to do padel, tennis, pickleball, squash,
racketball, badminton, ping pong.
So one stop shop, book a court,
and you don't have to be a member,
you just come in book and go.
So one quick question.
Such an iconic club, the Poor Washington.
Yes.
When are you gonna add paddle?
Uh, so we're evaluating that.
You are evaluating that.
Um, you know, the, I'll tell
you the challenge right now.
Is our tennis program is booming.
We, uh, we brought John back
in, so now it's a John McEnroe
Tennis Academy as well.
Is Patrick Patrick there too or not?
Patrick is, Patrick basically runs ame uh,
academy and John's involved day to day.
But, uh, Patrick's more, you know, really
involved in the programming together.
Um, and the 12 pickleball
courts are booming.
Um, so we're looking at paddle
in other locations that we
have to potentially open.
You know, the challenge is
in New York doing it outside.
Is a challenge 'cause of the weather.
So you want to be more inside.
'cause there we could capture eight
months of indoor season, whereas,
you know, outdoors is only really
four month seasons in New York.
But the club is indoors.
This club is all indoors.
All indoors.
And lemme ask one thing.
So, um, we love to talk to about club
owners and before we go move into
the app, so pickleball obviously is
a cheaper version of paddle antennas.
Yes.
From the revenue aspect.
It's, it's, it's a smart, you know,
sense to have pickleball courts and not
add, you know, more paddle courts to it.
Um, I can't tell you the exact answer
right now, but I'll tell you this.
We, we converted one tennis
court to three pickleball courts.
Okay?
Right.
So that's easy math.
It's a three to one ratio.
The biggest variable right now from tennis
to pickleball is the youth programming.
We have thousands and literally,
I mean, thousands of juniors
from five year, 5-year-old to
eight year olds playing red ball.
Eight year olds to 12 year
olds playing orange ball and
then yellow ball after that.
So the infrastructure is so
deep in the junior program.
Yeah.
That the money is still
flowing through tennis.
Okay.
Pickleball is there and it's emerging.
It's very much the
shoulder periods, right?
It's the 8:00 AM to, you know,
11:00 AM and then four to 9:00 PM We
don't have that robust kid program.
So we started that paddle.
We're evaluating 'cause the price
point is significantly higher you,
but when you own a physical facility
and you have parameters of 200 feet by
400 feet, it becomes a geometry game.
Yeah, right?
You go back to like seventh, eighth grade
when you didn't care about geometry.
Now it matters.
So it's really one, you know, pade
court for one tennis court because
of the size, whereas you No, you
can put two in one tennis court.
Right.
Depends how much face, well, it
depends how much you have on your
width and you know, it depends how
efficient the center was built.
Yeah.
If you're purpose building
it, yes, you could fit two on
what you would ordinarily do.
One.
Yeah.
But right now, you know, a
typical, you know, tennis court.
It could be one 20 by 60.
Yeah.
So you can only fit one in
that, you know, exact box.
And I'm sorry.
Yeah, no, go ahead.
Go for it.
And the club, he's paid to play
or is membership only or both?
Um, it's a hybrid model.
Okay.
Which is what I believe in all that.
You have a hybrid model that pay
a low membership fee depending on
which club you are, a home anchor
and you get preferential rates.
Member rates and advanced booking,
but we let all non-members in.
It's just a little bit more costly
on a court basis or whatever.
Excellent.
So, right.
Okay.
Let's move to the court now.
So let me ask you a question.
What is, uh.
The difference between a WhatsApp
and all the other scheduling, uh,
you know, um, platforms like court,
app Point, play, play to No, you
say WhatsApp Court said WhatsApp.
Oh, I'm sorry.
WhatsApp Court app.
Hopefully with the size of WhatsApp
one day I'll be really happy.
You put that in my brain.
You see that.
Exactly.
But what, what is the, the, you know,
what would you say the difference
is is, is it pretty much the same?
The only thing is obviously in the market.
Uh, you market more or it, it's,
it's actually completely different.
Okay.
And it, and it's a great
first question Yeah.
To start.
Uh, 'cause a lot of club owners,
you know, ask us the same thing.
If you look at Court Reserve, which
is the number one court management
system out there, or a play by
point or a play to, or a pod play,
they're a court management system.
They operate inside the four walls and
manage the club's inventory, the court
inventory, sometimes pro shop inventory,
personnel, credit card processing.
We do none of that.
We're the layer on top of them.
We're a court marketing marketplace.
So we are marketing the courts.
So I gave the early analogy of Expedia.
Think of Expedia.
They advertise hotel rooms, they
advertise airplanes, air routes,
um, rent a cars and excursions.
But what people don't know, a company
like Room Raccoon or Oracle's Opera, they
manage the hotel inventory, they do the
room service, they do the court booking.
So we're another layer on top,
but we're talking to the players.
So we're pushing the inventory out
there where, you know, court reserve,
they do the management, but they don't
do the marketing, which is the key.
So that's my next question.
What's the set strategy?
Because, uh, this, this is something
that most club owners, uh, are going to
want to use because they, they have a
difficulty time, you know, from, let's
say 11 to like four, uh, where it's dead.
You know, and they've been having
difficult time like, you know,
producing, you know, uh, people that
can play battle and renting that spots.
I mean, there's exceptions
like reserve, like you can hear
me, you can't get any courts.
I mean, once in a while you have
these here, but it, it's always spoke.
But the majority, a lot of
clubs have difficulty in that.
So they're gonna, they're
gonna, they're gonna love this,
number one, without a doubt.
Number two, what's the strategy?
Because all these clubs have.
Tried, uh, in many different ways.
Uh, obviously they're not a
marketing company, but, you know,
uh, after time people do know
that the Paddle Club is there.
What strategies do you have to fill
those courts to fill the courts up?
Um, hopefully at that time
where it's not, you know, right.
Well, it, it's funny, you know,
people always talk about time of day
and I own a club, so I, I see it.
Um, but I think that's just a mindset
and we're working to change that mindset.
If you look at other sports, right?
Golf, you only play that during the day.
Yeah.
Right.
Surfing.
But you do business during the
day, usually playing golf, you
know, you get the business guys
there, meetings, you got all that.
Yeah.
But that, but that's happening
across racket, sports, right?
Skiing, I'm just saying.
Yeah.
Yeah.
People play sports and do
activities during the day.
But the mindset is that
you can do it at night.
Has made people play record sports at
night on before or after work, right?
So one, I think it's
changing the mindset of.
Yes.
Let's go play some paddle.
Let's go play some pickleball during
the day and then have lunch at Pur Vita.
But how do you, how does,
uh, court app do that?
So one big thing we're instituting
is dynamic pricing, right?
All pricing during, during
the year is different.
Yeah.
Right.
You have peak seasons and
off peak seasons, you have
prime time off, prime time.
They should be further
discounted during the day.
There's no reason that your court, that's
$150 an hour, right from seven to nine
is the same price, 12 to two now give
the discount price to drive traffic.
Most clubs do do that, and they still
have difficult, I mean, we visited
clubs, we're talking about battle.
We visited clubs all
around the this country.
And so what we do, and they do do
that, and even in play hotspots like
Miami, they still have difficult time.
Filling those courts in.
Uh, so it's more than just
discounting, obviously.
It's, uh, what else do you guys,
uh, do it, it's a combination.
It's significant marketing, right?
So one thing we just did, um, we signed
a partnership with worldpanel, right?
So World Power Rankings,
they're developing an app,
their website, you know, they,
they're doing the, the rankings.
Yeah.
We're integrating our technology
directly into their app and website.
So this way you'll be able to book
a court right through them as well.
So we're touching the players,
where the players are, right?
So it's through all social media.
Um, we're integrating with chat
GPT right now and the other
LLMs, um, we're integrating
with Google and Google Reserve.
Um, so we're taking the integration
steps to be in front of the
players more frequently and
remind them of availability.
I'm playing after this, and I don't know
what it is now, 140 an hour, something
like that, 37, 50, you know, a person.
Not inexpensive, but if I had the time
and instead of going for, you know, lunch,
I could play for $70 an hour, maybe I'll
change my habits and come play then.
So walk us a little bit
how, how the system works.
So let's say I'm a club owner, right?
So now I, I hire court
app to run on the backend.
Yes.
So.
Do I have, let's say
I'm looking for a court.
Do I have to go, let's say
I run Playtonic on my club.
Mm-hmm.
Do I have to run, uh, I have to go
to Playtonic to look for a court,
or I go to the courts app to tell us
a little bit how that process work?
Sure.
So think of Expedia.
Think of Open Table, think of DoorDash.
Okay.
You come in, you don't have
to be a member to sign up.
A lot, a lot of these clubs through
our research have put a gate in front
of the availability and they make
you become a member before you could
even search or sign up on the app
or whatever that you've seen, right?
That's not typical
consumer behavior, right?
If I want to look for an airline seat
on Delta, I don't have to sign up.
I look, see the price, look for the seat.
So we've taken the same approach.
You come on, you type in where
you wanna play, so you wanna
play in Miami, you wanna play
Wednesday afternoon at two o'clock.
I wanna play for two hours.
I hit search.
It brings up all the
availability and all the clubs.
And all the clubs and a map, right?
Okay.
So it shows you the price.
So it's a marketplace.
It could show you reserve
at one 50 an hour.
It could show you paddle
X at one 20 an hour.
It could show you availability and
then proximity to your location.
So all the tools we're used to on other.
You know, aggregated resources.
That's what we brought to
the racket sports place.
I got it.
Um, I have a SaaS company, Rosa
jobs.com is, it's exactly that,
but in a different industry.
Correct.
Uh, it works with different
agencies, grabs the cases
as needed and we market it.
Exactly.
I get it.
Now, uh, now my company's a SaaS company.
How do you generate revenue?
Is is there a fee to the
club or is there, um.
Uh, a percentage that you
guys make off the rent.
So how, how, how is the
revenue create made?
Sure, so we're a free SaaS company.
We give the software right
to the club for free.
It takes about 20 minutes to
a half an hour to onboard.
So we need certain data
to display their courts.
Then we do API links on the backend with
the different management companies, and
then we broadcast the courts and it's only
on performance based, so we only get paid
to the extent we could fill that time.
We're only booking the empty time, right?
So they could cancel at any time.
It's not a long-term contract.
There's no financial commitment.
We're showing inventory and
you can show up in the backend.
As a club owner, what are the times that
I want you to Yeah, they're marketing.
And so these are all the
spots that are available right
now, and this is the price.
Now, do you force the clubs to discount
the price or do they, do they decide that,
and how much, is it a percentage or a
flat fee that you're taking from the it?
It's a percentage.
Okay.
Depending on how many courts
you have, we have a different
range of a commission rate.
We encourage them to discount.
Okay.
And we encourage them to
discount based on time.
So within 24 hours, we encourage
'em 20 to 30%, 48 hours, you
know, 10 to 20% and, and so on.
Um, over time we're capturing all these
analytics and we'll create a dynamic
pricing software tool with AI to tell
you when you should price your courts.
Gotcha.
Because Thursday more crowded than
Monday nights and even Friday nights,
you know, for whatever reason, are
less busy than Wednesday nights.
So the pricing should change and
may change by the weather patterns.
Right.
In New York, it's been so cold, right?
That you have to be inside.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maybe pricing goes up higher.
Like Uber has surge pricing minus high.
So, so let me ask you, let's say
it rained half hour before my court
time that I booked on Quartz App app.
The club shut down all the
courts because they're all we.
So how's that work?
You get the same instant
notification through the API.
Um, that you would get, you know, so, no.
And, and the next question is
that, so me as a club wanted,
because you said this is like a
marketplace, like an Expedia, right?
So I go there and I look for
courts and, and I just, I want a
court in Miami at 4:00 PM certain
day, and all the clubs show up.
So, but I wanna drive traffic to my
club as a, as a, as a club owner.
So how does that work?
Because if I'm, I go with a service, you
know, I wanna drive traffic to my club.
I don't want for my, the
players to go somewhere else.
How, how's that work?
That's a compromise very much, right?
If they, well, it's a compromise,
but listen, we're a business,
we're a marketplace, right?
Google, right?
They have sponsored ratings, right?
Expedia has featured, you know, hotels.
We're gonna have the same
type of opportunities.
So a club like Reserve, if they want to
be higher in the rankings and showcase,
their court will put it forward.
Oh, so they sort of like
a sponsor type of thing?
Exactly.
So we're, we're gonna, we're gonna give
the, the facilities and clubs the tools
to show up where they wanna show up, or
right now we're showing it by discount.
Right.
The consumer wants flexibility
and obviously why pay
more if you don't have to?
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
So that's how we're doing it now,
but over time we're really gonna
also be a data analytics company.
We're gonna capture a
wide set of analytics.
So that was my next question.
What time?
Okay.
What time, what time of day do you play?
Yeah.
What, what, how far in
advance do you book a court?
How far will you drive
to play for an hour?
An hour and a half, two hours?
Yeah.
How often do you replace your paddle if
you play, you know, 15 times a month?
Yeah.
Right.
So we're gonna capture all these
analytics that we're gonna have a
robust set of analytics to share
with our partner clubs and partners.
That's great.
Um, I'm curious to know, um.
The cost.
I know you said there was a scale.
Mm-hmm.
You give me the scale or the average cost?
It, it, it, it would
be for the club owner.
Sure.
So it, it's anywhere from 25
to 35% of the court booking.
Okay.
Right.
But we, we pay for all the technology.
I have a team of, I think we're
up to 27 people right now.
It's fair.
I mean No, it's totally fair.
It doesn't cost, it's a win-win.
Right.
Listen, this is, this is
the story we tell them.
It doesn't cost anything to join.
You could cancel at any time.
All we're filling is your empty courts.
So it doesn't take, you know, a
genius business person to understand.
Yeah, I'd rather have 75 cents
on the dollar than 0 cents.
Of course.
But not only that, you have
the chance to upgrade them in a
membership 'cause they're coming in.
Not only that, you get to meet somebody
new and you get some retention.
Exactly.
You're gonna stay at your, at your club.
So it's, or play in your tournaments.
Right.
Or join the leagues or get a lesson
or buy something in your pro shop.
Now let me ask you, 'cause
you guys been open a year.
Is it just paddle or you, you do,
you're working with Tennis clubs.
Pickle across the spectrum.
Okay.
So how long?
Seven.
Seven Racket sports.
Okay.
So how's it going in Paddle?
Paddle?
It's going actually very well.
Good.
Um, and I'll, I'll tell you why,
but it's interesting 'cause we
have some data points I'll share.
So right now we have 22 paddle clubs.
We have Paddle House, um,
we have Paddle X up in Boca.
Uh, we have replay up in Boynton Beach.
Yeah.
So we're getting some good brands.
Yeah.
Um, and I think more will come.
Um, so we have, like I said, um, in the
low twenties, we have over a hundred
courts, which is, you know, call that
about 10% of the US Right now, we've
only been focused in the East coast
also, so we haven't even gone, um, west.
West or now.
Do you have enough data to show how many,
uh, courts you've been able to fill?
Because if I was a club, right, and
I have like, you know, from 11 to
four, like there's nobody there.
I'm like looking for it.
I'm hoping like, you know, there's Right.
Exactly.
What, do you have any data showing?
I mean, we do, it's early on.
I mean, we, we literally just went live in
December from the beta standpoint and just
started advertising in January for paddle,
for all, ref for, for all rackets guys.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
I mean, it's tennis,
pickleball, paddle squash.
Mm-hmm.
Racketball.
Badminton and ping pong.
Do you have it on your club?
Of course.
How's it working?
It's working great.
Good.
What's interesting, and I was tell the
early data, um, more people are searching
for pickleball and paddle than tennis.
Really, even though tennis is more
widespread, it's the old style,
call the club and return me a court.
You know?
Or they know where the club is, you know?
Yeah.
Where we think there's a
tremendous opportunity for paddle.
Yeah.
Right?
Is that people don't know
where the clubs are yet.
They want to play, they hear about
it, but where, where is the club?
How do I get in?
It's true.
Like even reserve that
was sitting in today.
Absolutely gorgeous.
I, you know, obviously I know now, but
I thought it was a members only club.
Part of the value of having clubs
that are hybrid models is people
just say, oh, it's reserved.
It looks beautiful.
I'm not going there.
But now if they see you on
courts app, they'll come in.
So it makes that availability there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, 'cause we allow non-members
to come in to make it feel more
inclusive instead of exclusive.
Yeah, right.
'cause you don't, you don't wanna
go, you know, call up a place
or be rejected at the orphan.
The member only.
So Darren, um, let's say Play
Playtonic is similar, right?
So you download their plat you love.
And then they have 6,000 courts.
And then you can find, oh, yeah.
You know, depend, depending on your
location, you just, you know, I'm
mean in Spain and all these clubs
in Barcelona that will show up.
So it's sort of like same
thing or not, or That's true.
I they, it's similar but yet different.
Right.
They're not a marketplace, they're
an individual club resource.
So if you go to Barcelona, it
brings up all the clubs, but then
you have to look at each club.
For the time price.
Okay.
So we give a comparative model and
a map view of what the pricing is.
Okay.
So it's a marketplace.
It's really easy.
You just see everything's done.
Exactly.
And all the clouds within, and
the availability and all that.
So in playto, you have to go to
that specific cloud, each club.
Right.
Look for that cord at
the time that you want.
So basically you are just run, stop, shop.
Correct.
Do you, and we cover the, the
biggest thing, and, and this
is where I encourage, right?
So we're talking to platonic, you know,
we have deals with some of the others.
I said earlier.
That we're gonna be announcing shortly.
The biggest value is we're aggregating
across all platforms, right?
Core Reserve and platonic are
not gonna play nice together
and share their information.
Correct.
So then you're getting a third of the
market or an eighth of the market.
We're gonna have, we believe,
a hundred percent of the
market to be a unified system.
Like, listen, I'm a
frequent flyer on Delta.
I go to Delta, but I look at
Expedia for other flights or
other opportunities, right?
Right.
If I'm going to Europe, I don't know
every hotel there, I go to Expedia, right?
But if I only went to Marriott,
I'm only looking at Marriott.
I'm not seeing built in,
I'm not seeing Hyatt.
I'm not seeing four Seasons.
So we're trying to take the place
that we're Switzerland, right?
I just want to be across all these
ecosystems and be the aggregator.
So the consumer.
Has the best optionality and that's
what's gonna drive traffic the same way.
OTAs, right?
OTAs control 50 to 60%
of the travel market.
What's OTAs online Travel agencies.
Okay.
Expedia, kayak, booking.com.
So we, we've studied these markets
and that's what the players want.
And who plays on the courts, the players.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So what would you say to our,
our, our millions of viewers and
listeners, because they always wanna,
and we have two segments, you know,
the club owners and the players.
Exactly.
What would you say to, to the club
owners why they should go to courts
up and what, what would you say to the
players why they should go to court?
Right.
Great question.
Um, from a club owner standpoint,
we touched on it before.
There's no risk at all.
Takes 20 minutes to a half
an hour to onboard a club.
We show your inventory and
we book your empty courts.
If you want to take the chance as
you should and book your courts seven
or 10 days out and give it to us six
days out, we'll show that inventory.
All we're gonna do is fill your courts
and give you 70 to 80 cents on the dollar.
That would otherwise be zero.
The problem is it's a perishable
commodity, and that's what bothered
me the most as a club owner.
It is, it's true.
It's like an airline ticket.
It's like a hotel room.
It's not a consumer packaged
good that you could sell tomorrow
after Wednesday at noon occurs.
It's gone forever.
So get the revenue, get the players
in, and take the opportunity.
We'll be the feeder for you
of other players coming.
Look, the club could also try to market
it and sell, sell that court space too.
If it can't, then they
should somebody else.
Yeah, exactly.
We're not, we're not,
we're partnering with you.
We're not competing against you.
Right, right, right.
And then from a player standpoint,
people want flexibility and optionality.
Right?
So if it's booking a court two days
in advance, we can do that for you.
Um, one of the big attributes we're
integrating is open play and open match.
So I finish work today at four 30.
I want to get on the
court at five o'clock.
Where is an open play for me to jump in?
So we jump in there.
We're integrating a light social network.
We're not gonna be
Instagram or, or Facebook.
But if I wanna play, you know, with my
friends, I'll have my inside friend group.
Hey, outta court at five o'clock today.
You three want to join, we come.
If you don't, I go out to the
outside network, see who's
available, and invite somebody in.
So we're trying to integrate
all the components, right?
You want core time, you want open play,
you need to play with with players.
If you need a pro shop, we could
have sneakers waiting for you.
We just signed a deal.
Um, but we gotta keep it quiet with a,
a big, uh, ball company, so we know.
We won't tell anybody.
Don't don't tell the name any, anybody.
He's not gonna say the name.
That's all right.
I just won't say the name yet.
Yeah.
But it's a teaser, right?
But we're, we're approaching the
market a little bit differently.
We're giving a free can of
balls if you sign up with us.
Okay.
Right.
So save 10, $11 on a free, you're
doing the same thing, but the, the
brand partner wants us to push it
out there to the millions of players.
Gotcha.
So millions of players and listeners
that we have here, they're worldwide.
Mm-hmm.
So right now for what we see, you
are very regional within the east,
east coast of, of the United States.
Let's say somebody, we have a
huge market in Indonesia, India,
and, and Malaysia and all that.
Are you planning to go worldwide?
We are.
We, we'd like to be global.
Okay.
Right.
But I'm, I'm a realist.
Right.
We started in the northeast the same way
Uber started in San Francisco the same
way other companies started in Austin.
You have to, from a business standpoint,
you can't be everywhere for all things.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
So if I wanted the Uber app in a market,
they weren't in that two drivers.
I would be frustrated and walk away.
Sure.
So although we are onboarding clubs
throughout the US and Canada, right
now we're focused on marketing
in the Northeast and we're coming
down the east coast as we speak.
So we'll finish the East coast, we
believe by the end of the first quarter,
and then we'll start wrapping, uh,
through the panhandle of Florida,
Texas, and up the West coast and
fill in the rest of the country.
That's great.
Our, our our, uh, our podcast
is majority is, is here in the
USA, so it's gonna be great.
Our YouTube channel is also
dominates the US but we're also
international there, right.
And all the hotspots of the world.
So when you're, yeah, listen, we could
do a YouTube, we, we could do it.
I mean, listen, I, I'm 58 years old.
I've been, I've been
working building businesses.
I, I intend to build this that we have,
you know, three to 5 million players.
Um, I think by the end of
this right now we have 175
facilities, um, about 1800 courts.
I think we'll finish this year
about 10 to 15,000 courts.
I look at it as a court count, right?
'cause courts is what people play on.
Of course.
Like to say I have X facilities,
it doesn't really matter.
Um, it's the number of courts.
Um, we just signed up, I'll
tell you, but We'll, we're doing
the press release next week.
Um, the US National
Pickleball Center in Naples.
65 courts.
Oh, the fort.
That's the fort, uh, no, the
fort's in Fort Lauder, Dakota.
Yeah.
Oh, we're talking to them.
We're not there yet.
Um, give you a shout
out 'cause we want 'em.
Um, but we got the National
Pickleball Center, 65 courts.
Wow.
Number one pickleball
destination in the world.
So we're gonna be the official court
booking partner for them, um, globally.
So we want to focus on us.
Get widespread.
Get ubiquitous, figure it out.
Then I'm talking to some partners in Asia
and Europe and we'd like to, I would like
to do that with a partner, because I think
a lot of it has to do with the knowledge
and grassroots of being in that country.
You have to be local.
Yeah, you have to be local, right?
Yeah.
So if we partner with somebody who's
local, they speak the language,
they have the relationships.
Like in the US I have very, very
strong relationships across the club
owners, across the federation levels.
And I could get there,
you know, through context.
Yeah.
I start going to Europe or Asia, where
frankly I haven't traveled, you know,
it's, it's a bit of a learning curve.
I'd rather find a strong partner, you
know, to help us accelerate those markets.
Oh, great.
That could be us.
Yeah, let's go.
We too, we have a very strong,
very strong the data, if you want.
Incredible.
At the end of the day, I love what we're
doing, but the end of the day, it's
about growing the games, of course.
Right.
We all love the games.
The more people that play,
it's healthy for you.
Yeah, right.
There's been studies that you play
record sports, you live 9.7 years longer.
So if we could all elevate the game,
get people on the courts and make it
happen, you know, it's a great world
because that's what people wanna do.
Yeah.
I'd much rather be playing,
you know, paddle or tennis or
pickleball then, you know, working.
Yes.
It's fun.
It's refreshing.
It gets you in the game.
Love it.
Great.
Alright, is there anything else you
wanna go over before we end the podcast?
Um, there, there's one
thing we could go over.
Yeah.
Um, I've really paid careful attention to
ai, so not only are we integrating with
chat GBT and others, so you'll be able to
go right into chat GBT and say, I wanna
book a paddle court in Miami in chat gt
it will show up and show the availability.
We've created an AI bot
called Hey Courtney.
Hence the court in Courtney.
Um, so hey, Courtney is a
virtual court assistant concierge
that you could call her up.
We'll have it in our apps in our website.
Um, and equally we believe
she'll be the front desk of all
racket courts facilities, right?
She could work for $20 a day,
not $20 an hour, and could
handle 1800 calls a minute.
Wow.
So just having that backend, so
she's a voice bot that we've created
the technology inside our database.
To then communicate through the
Platos, through the court reserves.
And can he reserve if you decide,
yes, I want, I want to do, oh, okay.
She could reserve it.
She'll have your credit card information.
She could book it.
So all the things like a restaurant,
you can make a restaurant reservation.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
The challenge with racket sports is they
don't have the owners or the proprietors.
Right.
It's a very fragmented.
Right.
Very few companies own more
than, you know, a dozen sites
if even more than one or two.
Yeah.
They don't have the dollars
or the technology or the
know-how to build an AI bot.
To build LLM technology.
Yeah.
So we're taking all the pressure
off of them to build that and
give that to the clubs to help
them book courts and fill them.
That's great.
But I couldn't have that.
My wife would be so jealous.
You know, she likes to
do all those things.
She would not, not, I'll do it.
She's not doing it right.
I, no, she'll do it.
Right.
She'll get you on the court.
But that's great, man.
I mean, that's pretty awesome.
You know?
That's a great technology.
Yeah.
I love it.
I love it.
I mean, uh, we are looking forward
to seeing the progress, uh, and uh,
we're looking forward to have you back
here a year from now with, you know,
if you love it, see what's going on.
And that's you to tell us, Hey,
we wanna go international and we
can partner up and collaborate
and do something there be great.
Congratulations there.
Thank, have a great, thank you much.
Thank.
Appreciate it.
This was great.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.