Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Clay
Hi Adam, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
The idea of Pickleball 901 started as a plan to build a “permanent” pickleball club in Memphis.
This was based on extensive research on the demand for pickleball and using the examples of other companies around the country trying to satisfy the same demand.
The opportunity was clear and we decided to do exactly that – open Memphis’s first and only full time pickleball club in 2023.
After months of planning and building a massive social audience, the timeline to open the club kept getting farther and farther out.
The idea struck to throw a massive pickleball party to keep the momentum going with the public and continue to build the brand.
The event drew hundreds of people on the first day and was a sensation. So we decided to throw several more. All self-funded, all considered a marketing expense.
The events were so successful that we started getting offers to bring the events to other companies’ events, and to get paid handsomely to do so.
And that’s when Pickleball Pop-Up events became a massive opportunity.
We abandoned the permanent club concept altogether and went all in on events in late 2023.
At this point, we thought the company would be purely an events company.
But that all changed when we were asked to do a pop-up event inside an abandoned retail space.
We recognized that if we applied our new capability of providing a temporary pickleball experience inside the space, and then left the courts there until they get a tenant, this could serve as a sort of pop-up club where people can pay a small amount of money and play when they want.
Kind of like a bowling alley – and without the massive investment a permanent club would require.
This is when the Pickleball Pop-Up Club concept was born.
So in summer of 2024, we applied this new capability, building a “pop-up club”, and opened Pickleball 901 in just 14 days.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Ha, not at all. But what business travels a smooth road?
Starting and growing a business is hard. Really stinking hard. The hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
I see all the motivational stuff and all the advice about how CEOs wake up at 5 AM and read a novel and meditate before they go out and do 100 pull-ups while negotiating global deals – and then that makes us think “if they can do it, so can I”
First of all, that’s true. If they can do it, so can you, so can we.
But what’s crucial to understand is that nothing is guaranteed. Nothing is given to you.
Customers won’t do you favors. You’re not opening a charity. You have to earn customers.
And you have to delight them ALL the time. You may have to beg forgiveness sometimes. You will get a complaint. You’ll have to give a refund when you already spent the money they paid. And you learn to take it on the chin.
There are so many things I have taken for granted with companies I’ve worked for.
Cash flow, collections, payroll, budgeting, basically everything finance.
Those things don’t just happen with QuickBooks connected to your bank account.
People are depending on you. You have to get good advice. But ultimately you have to do so much of this yourself before you can afford to outsource it or hire for it.
Things like deferred revenue, AP/AR, balance sheet versus P&L versus income statement, none of this I was prepared for.
Also, sometimes it sounds like getting funding from the SBA or from investors is a snap of your fingers. Who wouldn’t put money into your great idea? Well I can tell you.
Most people won’t. You have to earn that also.
But I’ll say this. When you eat what you kill. When you have rays of sunshine that shine through the clouds, nothing can prepare you for that. In a great way.
Its amazing when you get the wins. When you earn the customer. When they are delighted. When you pay employees on time. When you climb out of the hole that was dug, maybe unfairly.
Because you worked your tale off to make that a reality.
Starting a business isn’t for everyone.
But it’s for me. I love this wild ride.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Before the pickleball business, I came from the B2B corporate world of sales and marketing. Simply put, I made a career of selling “million dollar software to billion dollar companies”. I was really good at it.
After an amazing professional year of 2021, I went on a reward trip for top sales guys to Antigua, where I was introduced to pickleball for the first time.
From there I fell in love with the sport and decided to open a pickleball business.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Oh man – success is waking up in a warm bed, food in the fridge, healthy wife and kids, and a roof over our heads. Everything else is a means to those ends.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pickleball901.com
- Other: https://www.pickleballpopups.com
