The Virtual Pickleball Revolution

Have you ever wondered what the future of pickleball training might look like? Wonder no more. PlayKout, a revolutionary pickleball simulator, is changing the game by blending high-intensity training with addictive gameplay elements—creating what founders Sean Edwards and Jorge Guerrero aptly describe as "the TopGolf of pickleball."

During our visit to their Dallas headquarters, we experienced firsthand how this compact system (just 11' high x 11' wide x 4' deep) delivers an impressive workout while making practice genuinely fun. The concept is brilliant yet straightforward: a ball machine feeds pickleballs toward players who aim at targets displayed on a projection screen. Players can enjoy games like Tic-Tac-Toe, Connect Four, and target practice while hitting up to 40 balls per minute. The cognitive benefits are substantial—you're simultaneously tracking the ball, selecting targets, and executing shots, mimicking the split-second decisions required in actual match play.

What makes PlayKout particularly revolutionary is its dual focus on performance and entertainment. Unlike previous simulator attempts that emphasized just technical training, PlayKout creates an engaging experience that keeps players returning while simultaneously improving their skills. Professional tennis player John Isner described it as "dangerously fun" after trying the system—a sentiment we enthusiastically echo after our own sweaty session.

For facility owners, PlayKout represents an opportunity to monetize underutilized "dead space" by essentially adding another "court" that can generate revenue comparable to court rentals. The system is already heading to Dave & Buster's locations, Dill Dinkers franchises, and is being considered for cruise ships, corporate wellness programs, and even residential installations. The founders are even exploring virtual tournaments where players can compete across multiple locations.

Ready to see the future of pickleball training? Check out PlayKout on Instagram @PlayKout or visit their website at letsplaykout.com to witness this game-changing technology that's bringing virtual reality to the pickleball world.

Saddle up and have a listen, you'll be glad you did!

Looking for a fitness app specifically designed for Pickleheads? Download the Aim7 app today. Use our url to get a 25% discount and try the app for a free trial before committing. https://www.aim7.com/?via=blazing-paddles

Special thanks to Crown Pickleball for their support and sponsorship! Don't waste money on balls that break, Crown pickleballs rarely crack, are more visible and have a higher spin rate than the competitors.
Use our link to receive a discount on your next purchase! https://crownpickleball.store/blazingpaddles

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
you know cause you're not just hitting a ball Now
you're, I mean that can reallyhelp a player go to the next
level.
Cause you're, you have to think, you have to.
You're doing two things reallyquick.
I'm watching, I'm looking atthe screen, watching the ball
trying to hit the target, whichis.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
what you need is, when you're playing matches like
you have to use that cognitiveside of it.
You can do all the physicalstuff you want to.
How quickly is your mindthinking?
One, where's this ball comingto, where am I going to hit it?
And then, three, actuallyexecuting on it, which is not
always easy because you'relooking at here's the opening in
the court.
You know the players have movedto this space, I have an
opening, but can I focus on theball getting there and me also

(00:36):
hitting that target and that'swhat it's great at working on is
like yes, you have to makethose quick decisions and it's
good cognitive exercise.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Hello Picklers, Welcome back to another episode
of Blazing Paddles, and on thisone, Karen and I got to have a
little fun.
Our old friend, Sean Edwards,that we met at the boot camp
about a year and a half ago.
He is now one of theco-founders of a company called
PlayCout, and it is a pickleballsimulator.
He knew it was coming, so wetalked to Sean and another

(01:03):
co-founder, Jorge Guerrero.
We went out to Dallas, spent afew hours with them, talked
about their vision, about thejourney to date.
They've been working on thisfor a couple of years already
and what's next with it.
We actually got a chance to tryit out too, and you'd be amazed
at the space efficiency andyou'd be amazed at the workout
you get on a pickleballsimulator all while you're
having a great time.

(01:24):
It's the top golf of pickleballand it's coming to a town near
you.
So we hope you'll have a goodtime listening to these
conversations and if you want tocheck them out, we'll get the
history of the name.
But go to PlayCout on Instagram, P-L-A-Y-K-O-U-T or
letsplaycoutcom.
You can go to their website andI think you're really going to

(01:44):
enjoy this conversation.
So saddle up and have a listen.
You'll be glad you did SeanEdwards, our buddy that we met
at Preston Playhouse about justover a year ago at the TCD, now
the PCD boot camp and, Sean, youstarted a different venture.

(02:05):
You were there and tell us alittle bit about your role there
.
Right, and you were also withTBRM Correct and now you're with
an outfit called play count andI bet nobody on this podcast is
going to know what that is andthey're going to want to know.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Um, tbrm I was, uh, I startedthere a little over 15 years ago
helping out with running a protennis tournament and that just
kind of turned into operationsgraphic design.
I was a food and beveragemanager there for a while and
then, once we had the newownership and we started things

(02:40):
with Preston Playhouse, then Ikind of found myself going over
there and being more involvedwith Pickleball, with um, but
still doing a lot of things onthe T-bar M side.
And, um, it was a situationwhere a T-bar M member actually
came to me, um, during I washelping doing, uh, during the
whiskey's charity event that wejust moved over from SMU and

(03:03):
I've been working with his wife,jessica, for years of like how
do we get this potentially overto T bar M someday?
And we finally made it work andI was there and I was helping
out and and Bahia Kuna, who'sone of the co-founders, said hey
, I'd really like you to checkthis out.
Like, I know you know a lot ofstuff operationally and from you
know the racket industry.
Um, you would you mind comingby and just checking it out?

(03:24):
And I did, and we had aconversation that lasted two
hours but it could have been onethat lasted 10 hours.
He was one of those where wewere really bouncing stuff off
each other and I saw a lot ofthings in what they were doing
with Blake out and thesimulators where I was like
there's something here, and I'vebeen in the industry for a long
enough time that I've seen alot of things come and go
performance-wise andsimulator-wise, and it's like

(03:47):
there's always something lackingand it's usually re-engagement
and it's usually havingperformance and entertainment
merge and there's nothing reallyout there that does that.
And things seem to either beway overpriced if they are out
there, they're kind of cool orthey just fall flat.
They're just not utilized otherthan, hey, I'll try it once,
and then I'm done.
And with this I was like no,there's something, there's some

(04:08):
legs on this where it can growtremendously.
Um, from where they'd alreadystarted, they'd already gotten
it to a great point.
Um, then and I said, yeah, let's, you know, I really go time in
my life where I said, hey, I'm,you know, at that time, 41,.
Um, this is something that I'vealways wanted to do, and kind
of help with a startup and dothe fun R and D and figure

(04:29):
things out and just go on thefly and, you know, use
creativity to and partnershipsthat I've, you know, developed
over the years um to say, hey,let's, how, how big can this get
and how how much can we grow itand improve it from what it is
now?
And, you know, I feel like it'sin a really good spot, you know
, based on where we're at rightnow as a B2B business um with

(04:50):
Blake out.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
So it is B2B.
And are you?
Are you thinking residential?
At some point too, we're doinga residential.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, I mean um, right now it's, it's typically
more of a luxury homeresidential situation.
Um, we'll eventually have onethat's maybe a better price
point.
We're talking to PickleballCentral about having our system
available on there as well, butright now, our main focus is B2B
for Pickleball facilities,entertainment, cruise lines,

(05:17):
hotels, co-working spaces.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
That's a good point.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Get you on a boat.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
I can't tell you how many people told me?
When we were at brookhaven, we,the ppa, invited us and said,
hey, can you do bring thesimulator out?
And we hadn't done that before.
So we're like, yes, we can,we'll figure out how to do it.
So we figured out how to do it,um, and it was just like
non-stop of people coming inline, like there's constantly a
line.
The entire time I was was like,okay, this is, I need a break,

(05:45):
sometimes like I'm out therefrom the beginning of the
morning to the end of the night.
But the feedback was like, hey,I just got off a pickleball
cruise.
This would be great for that.
You know, because they have alot of times pickleball cruises
are we'll get to thisdestination, play pickleball,
load up, and then it's like,well, how are you?
Really?
It's kind of hard to playpickleball on a cruise ship, um,
but this is something thatcould be inside the cruise ship

(06:05):
in different areas where you canstill keep with the theme of
what you're doing.
So, um, you know kind of whatwe gained from that is okay.
It's not just one venue, it'snot just, hey, we need to go
into pickleball facilities, it'smore than that.
There's other opportunitiesthere, uh, but residential is
one that we haven't eliminated.
Like I said, we're doing one ina couple weeks down in Austin.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
So John doesn't have sea legs, so that would be fun.
He's out on that one.
He's out on that one.
I understand.
I'm not a big bill of the openwater kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Maybe I watch Titanic too many times and I get a
little nervous, I can imagine.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
No, I just remember when your ship got caught
offshore and all the plumbingwas done and they were on a poop
cruise, and that did it for me.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, but you have a hard enough time playing when
there's no movement.
No, it's rough.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Were you just waiting to drop that?

Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, that's where I was going.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
Okay, good.
So were there other products inthe market that you were
competing with right out of thebox?

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, I mean, there's other stuff that we'd seen,
either from a strictly a tennissimulator system or from a
pickleball simulator, but it wasmostly performance based and it
was, and most of them that wesaw, like I said, is kind of one
dimensional.
It's like here's thefunctionality of it and for a
venue and I looked at in thepast when they would approach me
at T bar M from my operationsside venue, and I looked at in

(07:24):
the past when they wouldapproach me at T bar M from, you
know, my operation side theywould come to me and say, hey,
we have this product, and I'mlike, well, okay, it may be a
cool amenity, but I can'tmonetize it.
Like how am I going to evermake my money back on something
that's thousands and thousandsof dollars?
So our whole plan going intothis is like okay, we can't just
have something that's cool,because cool doesn't always last
.
Right, it has to be somethingwhere, like, no, we can prove

(07:44):
that this is an opportunitywhere you're getting your roi
back, because it's not just aperformance tool, it's
entertainment, it's.
You know, a lot of times and weuse the terminology, but other
people tell us too they're likeoh, it's like a top golf of
pickleball.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
We're like yeah, basically it is so that was the
first thing I thought of waslike that's brilliant, you know
it's like, and even some of thewhat are the pga super stores
and stuff.
They'll have their littlesimulator in the back where you
can look at your swing.
And there's some people whoactually like the practice piece
right almost more than theylike the game piece and that's a
good thing with this system,the way we created it is.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
You know, a lot of physics and geometry and
engineering has kind of goneinto this process of you know
being able to use a ball machinewhere it's projecting the ball,
you're hitting it, it hits thescreen, it drops into the ball
receptor and it refills the ballmachine.
So if you want to hit athousand balls straight, or if
you just say I just want to workon my backhand today and I want
consistent feeds where I canjust work on backhand and I want

(08:43):
to go inside out, or I want todo whatever like you can do that
you don't have to have a pro,you don't have to go pick up
balls across the court, you canjust come into our simulator and
you know play as hard as youwant to for as long as you want
to.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
Basically, Now does it give feedback or tips Um on
some of the performance games?

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, on the performance games, it's giving
you some analytics of you knowhow accurate you are on targets.
And then there's some otherthings that we're adding in that
are giving you more of the umfrom an ai perspective, more
feedback on performance um.
But, yeah, most of it is, youknow, you're seeing where you're
hitting, you're hitting targets.
It's giving you, you know, somesome basic feedback from that

(09:21):
for the most part, but, yes,it's reps is like the best thing
.
That most people come in.
They're like oh, it's greatthat I can just hit as many
balls I mean, cause you can hit35 to 40 a minute.
Uh, which is a workout.
I mean that's the other part ofit.
I mean we were big into thefitness side of it and people
come in there just play for 30minutes and they're drenched in
sweat.
You know, if they want to playto that level, there's different

(09:43):
modes beginner, intermediate,advanced.
But for the advanced playerthat wants to play like I like
that, like you'll burn somecalories for sure can I tell you
if you have top spin?

Speaker 1 (09:52):
um, it doesn't right now yeah, but those are the
things like you're talking aboutin the future.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, yeah, so we have a partnership that um isn't
finalized yet with a partnerthat you would be very familiar
with, but we'll let that happenwhen it happens just because
it'll be a intrigue.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yeah, it'll be a big launch.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
For us, it's a good partnership that I think that we
have.
That kind of adds some of thethings that we're lacking and
some of the things that theywant to be able to be associated
with.
So that'll be something that'scoming down the line here pretty
soon.
Hopefully we'll see it in NewYork city.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
That's going to be amazing in Central Park.
You were telling us about that.
Now how many of their foundersso?

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Baha'i yeah, baha'i.
Akuna and Jorge Guerrero arethe two co-founders, so they're
the ones that really got thisstarted two years ago and then
they brought me on as a partnerback in November.
Okay.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
So talk about New York.
What are you doing in CentralPark?

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yes.
So Wallman Rink is obviouslyduring the summer not ideal for
skating, a little too warm evenup there.
But City Pickle is anorganization that some people
may be familiar with.
They basically kind of helpfacilitate having pickleball in
venues, temporarily sometimes,or extended.
But we're working with them asthey go into Wallman rink and

(11:04):
they set up their pickleball forthe summer and we'll go in and
we'll have our simulator there.
You know, with a ton of foottraffic, which is nice for, you
know, a lot of people to get tosee what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
So oh yeah, I was telling you earlier, I think
that there's a big campaign, aback to work campaign from COVID
.
You know everyone working fromhome back to the office and
companies struggling to get, uh,their employees excited about
it, and seeing that some haveturned like um or um, um, made
pickleball courts in the parkinglots or you know, and so I can

(11:39):
see this being something thatwould be cause everyone.
You know they're.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
They have what sleeping rooms now and wellness,
employee amenities become a bigthing, especially with the
fitness side of it.
Like capital ones group thatwe've talked to, they're great
about that.
Like they have football fields,baseball fields, indoor
basketball, they have pickleball, they have all this stuff
because they want to providethat reason to be like, no, you
can be here, have a good time,still get a workout when you

(12:03):
need to and still have the teambuilding elements there on site
so they don't always have to go,you know, offsite to be able to
generate, like some goodcamaraderie between teams.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
So can two people play on it at the same time.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
We do have a two player mode.
It's kind of more of a.
You take turns hitting, um,it's not going to feed the ball
separately to two differentpeople, but, um, we basically
use our code to tell the ballmachine this is a two player
game.
You know that's what they'veselected through our user
interface tablet and it knows,like, okay, you're playing this
game.
So how many balls come out inthose games is, you know, less

(12:38):
frequency than one of the gameswhere it's like you want to
score a high score.
You need a lot of opportunitiesto score.
So in that one, liketic-tac-toe or connect four or
you know some of the other onesum, like I would step in, hit
the ball, the next person wouldstep in, hit the ball, and it's
just, it's staggered enough toknow that, like you need that
time to to switch places.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
but well, the thing that I'm thinking right now
because you're talking aboutthey have targets and there's
things that you're going thatmakes practice productive, as
opposed to just going like, yeah, we have a ball machine and
I'll go out and hit hundreds ofballs, but I'm not really always
conscious about what.
Am I working on here, or am Ijust trying to hit to build
muscle memory?

(13:16):
So when you guys are youdeveloping the games as well,
the kind of the different modes,is that part of what you guys
are doing?

Speaker 2 (13:23):
right, yeah, so we're taking the game elements and
we're, you know, adjusting themand customizing them and trying
to find, you know, what's thebest way to make it successful,
both for a very high levelplayer, because we want higher
level players and we've had pros, we've had um john isner play
on it, oh yeah, and he said,like this is like his quote, was
this dangerously fun?

(13:43):
Which is great to hear.
That is cool.
Um Tyra black played on it, youknow, and and she liked it.
Um, a lot of higher levelplayers have played on it.
But we want it to be not justfor the high level player.
You know, when we look at thefunnel for pickleball, you know,
up here is the beginnerintermediate and that's where
the biggest pool of players are,um, the higher level that are

(14:06):
higher duper.
You know they're a little bitmore.
You know they, they enjoy thesystem.
But we want to make it where,if you're a brand new novice
player who's never even played aracket sport at all, you can
walk in and within a few minutes, like you're making good
hand-eye coordination, likeyou're making contact.
You're, you know, familiar withlike oh, I know, like a candy
crush style game or, I know,like these type of games.

(14:27):
So, as they're like progressingin the game, they're actually
getting better at pickleball andfeeling more comfortable that
they can play that sport, whichyou know would lead to beginner
lessons or clinics or open playsor you know, and kind of
starting their journey intopickleball.
So you're the pathway drug youkind of yeah, well, I mean, I
think, every pickleball clubwants to have that element to
like get people hooked andthat's why I, you know, I think

(14:49):
Dave and busters is a great fitfor us and great fit for them
because they see the popularpickleball Um, they know that
that's, you know, an area thatthey want to have an element of
their um stores have.
And we think it's another greatway to just introduce the sport
to players who maybe aren'tfamiliar with it yet or they
haven't walked into a pickleballfacility yet, and they can do

(15:12):
that with a friend.
Or you can be a good player andhave a friend with you at Dave
and Buster's that never playsand y'all are still going to
have a good time and havecompetitive play and you know,
with our leaderboards, be ableto see like, oh, I outscored you
and it's that competitive sideof it that I think is super
engaging.
You know, with our system, yeah, and you.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
We talked about this a little bit earlier.
The was the original thought tohave standalone facilities, and
so you did a proof of concept.
You did a pop-up store proof ofconcept, and this was an uptown
.
So how long was that open andwhat did you guys learn from
that experience?

Speaker 2 (15:42):
So yeah, when long was that open and what did you
guys learn from that experience?
Um.
So, yeah, when we first openedit um, we were really kind of
focused more on and this is evenbefore I got on um to the team
it was focused on, well, whatabout you know, the fitness side
of it?
We really wanted to do sort ofa fitness um facility that
utilized other elements that webrought in for fitness, but also
our simulator which was gettingdeveloped, and then, as the

(16:05):
simulator side of it just kindof grew and said, well, this is
something that's going to be astandalone thing Like the
fitness is good and we can dofitness through it regardless.
But doing franchises of thesimulator facility is doable for
us, but we think we need tofocus our attention and time on
growing it specifically likerunning facility and I know this
um obviously from experiencefor us.
But we think we need to focusour attention and time on
growing it specifically likerunning a facility and I know

(16:27):
this um obviously fromexperience it takes a lot of
time.
There's a lot of operationaloverhead and thought that goes
into scheduling and keeping upwith membership.
And we said, okay, we were at apoint now where do we keep this
path going?
Do we stay open at thisfacility?
Uh, do we look at franchising?
Or do we say no, let's focusall our time and energy which,

(16:47):
for Baha'i and for myself andfor Jorge, this is our full-time
gig Like we're not doing a sidejob, you know to to this isn't
a hobby for us.
You know, we want to put allour effort into how do we
develop this and make it what weenvision seeing it and having
multiple phases and growth andscale to it.
So that was kind of the decisionwe made of yeah, we want to be
able to test it, you know, hereat this facility.

(17:09):
But now it got to a point where, like, I think we know the
opportunities for monetizationfor it, how it can be utilized.
You know we had it on classpass and gym pass where we were
getting.
You know, we would do 10 or 12fitness classes a week, um,
where people would come inthrough class pass and some had
played pickleball that's whythey wanted to do it.
Some hadn't played pickleballand they wanted a different hit
style class to do fitness andreally, yeah, so I mean, even

(17:31):
that element of it was but agood, you know, revenue
generator for us.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
That's amazing.
So what was the feedback youwere getting from your your
customers.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Um, they loved it.
I mean, if you look at, youknow, some of our um reviews, I
mean we're at, I think, 97% orsomething on four and five-star
reviews and like 92% werefive-star.
So I mean we were getting a tonof great feedback on the
experience.
Um, and just, it's a differentthing.
You know, doing a hit classesit's fun, but if you're not a

(18:02):
super fitness like you wouldlike a, you know, a change of
pace a little bit like what elsecan we do?
How do we make it a little bitmore fun?
And this made it more fun.
It's not just okay, I got to doburpees and I do kettlebell
swings.
I got to do you know, curls.
Like this kind of broke it upwhere we would do three people
outside of the simulator bay,one person would be in and those
would be the four rotations andeach person would get in and

(18:22):
rotate and it kind of gave themcardio but also, you know, a
little fun that's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
From the weight.
That would be great.
That was so fun.
That's a way to make exercisefun for sure, we need to get one
.
That's why I prefer pickleballversus working out Right.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, I'm with you.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
And people ask why I'm so fit and I'm like
pickleball.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
People ask me why I'm so good looking.
I don't know.
God, Just luck.
So I think so it came down tothe decision are we going to be
a franchise?
And I think you guys are wise,because the I mean you see all
the facilities going up,facilities going up, which is
great, pickleball is just takenoff and continues to take off,
but there's gonna, we're gonnareach that, that point of right

(19:02):
maximum density where it's notenough or there's too many and
you have a component of each one.
You're you're pretty much, youknow, able to move and adapt as
needed.
Yeah we're.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
It's a pretty compact unit itself.
The system, you know.
It does have a good amount ofheight, almost 11 feet, but most
pickleball facilities are abovethat, obviously because you
don't want to lob into theceiling.
So, um, that hasn't really beenan issue where only it's only
four feet deep and then 11 feetwide, so it's easy to put in.
And you know, the thing withpickleball, which is a lot

(19:34):
different than the tennisindustry, is a lot of these
facilities.
It's like oh, what was thisbefore?
it was a pickleball facility,cause it's probably a bed, bath
and beyond, or a Tuesday morningor something.
And the problem with those?
Well, not really a problem.
But what you end up with is anawkward amount of space where,
like, the courts didn't fit toadd another court there, so you

(19:55):
have sort of dead space and it'slike, okay, what do we do with
it?
Whatever you put there, whetherit's, you know, typically
lounge seating or you knowwhatever else, it's not
monetizing that space.
So this has always been, youknow, a goal of ours.
It's like, hey, there is anopportunity here to monetize
space.
That's already there.
A lot of these places have thatdead space, but they just don't

(20:16):
know how to do anything with it.
That's really going to beconsistently a revenue stream
for them.
And with this it's basicallylike getting another court.
Um, you know, if you're doing ajunior program, you can put you
know, let's say you have fourkids, um, on the court.
Well, now you can rotate themin the simulator.
Now you've expanded yourcapacity without needing another
court, without needing anotherpro even, and now kids are

(20:38):
rotating in from the simulatorand now they're back on court
and then they go to thesimulator, or however you want
to structure it.
But you know, for that element.
It's like oh, this is a way tobasically give myself another
court and, from a Bay rentalstandpoint, charge pretty close
or, if not, the same as what youwould charge for a court rental
.
You know why would you not doit?
You know cause.
Otherwise you would say like oh, if we could have fit a court

(20:58):
there we would put it there, butwe can't because of space.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
And I think for kids wow, I mean they're, that's what
they grew up doing gaming andso now you're taking something
that especially this generation.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
I mean especially yeah, that's the other big
motivation for us is, you know,get kids off their phones off
their tablets for some amount oftime, but we call them the look
down generation.
Yeah, but what they need issome of that also endorphin rush
of the gaming side of it sothis allows you to do that.
You know, the good thing withthis from a junior program

(21:31):
standpoint is you know what kiddoesn't want to play.
You know a space invaders typegame or candy crush type game or
whatever.
Um, as opposed to just grindingon the court, I mean every
kid's going to say like, yes,I'll do that junior program
versus one that's just only oncourt play.
Because even with tennis, youknow you would see a lower level
red ball or future stars, thereally beginner kids, during

(21:54):
summer specifically.
Those are long camps and youhave to do a breakaway of okay,
we got to stop doing tennis anddo some entertainment for these
kids because we're losing them.
But with this it gives themthat entertainment side and
you're still working on thefundamentals that you want them
to work on, because our systemworks for red ball tennis as
well.
We're developing the Padelversion.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Wait, what is red ball tennis?

Speaker 3 (22:18):
The softer ball.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, that's kind of how they, the usta, started the
new junior programming, with asmaller racket with balls that
kind of go from red to orange togreen until they progress to a
true yellow tennis ball.
So those are kind of like thelevels you start out in.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
I never knew that the ball has less, yeah, less
compression, compression, sothere's not as much rebound,
it's bigger and, yeah, itdoesn't give you tennis elbow
from you know, hitting with this.
I could have used one insteadof hitting every ball out of the
court because I'd get pissed.
It would have gone over the net.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah huh, yeah red ball, yeah, but adults they're
that's the push by usda rightnow is red ball tennis and doing
it on pickleball courts.
What so?
Yeah, that's another you knowstrategy of the USDA which I
think is great because they wantto get more adults into tennis
and they're thinking, you know,hey, the red ball isn't a bad
way to start an adult either.
It really isn't.

(23:08):
I mean, if I'm a beginner, it'sstill tough to to play tennis,
you know, with a standard yellowball and a regular racket.
And they found a way to say,hey, we can kind of merge.
You know what they're doingwith pickleball facilities, kind
of help add some, uh, courttime to pickleball facilities by
doing, you know, some adulttennis on it and then hopefully,
some of those players go on toplay play true tennis.

(23:31):
But it's a good opening, youknow.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
Start for them we need to get our buddies uh, abe,
andy and ty, we need to getthem some red balls so they can
go out there and play.
I mean, still not bothering.
No, it's I'll, I'll, I'll take,take it over later.
Fill me in later I'll fill itin later.
I'm still not getting theconcept.
Where can we find them now?
If we were to find it?

Speaker 2 (23:51):
so dave and busters have one in yet.
Well, that'll be um early june.
Okay, that will be there, um,and that's kind of where we're
at at this point.
We're doing multipleinstallations across, uh, united
States and we should be doingCanada by the end of the summer.
But yeah, so I mean that'sthat's a big market for us,
because a lot of cold weather, alot of downtime where they

(24:13):
can't be on the court, and we'vegotten a ton of great feedback
from that market of, yes, weneed this, like they're.
They're very big on havingstandalone facilities that are
just simulator based, that maynot even have any courts because
of the interest in pickleballthere, but the lack of
facilities that have itavailable indoors, or just you
know what options are availableto to play there in canada

(24:37):
during certain times of the yearI think we take it for granted
here that because we have somany outdoor courts and just the
indoor courts are now startingto build up.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
But like my sister in Ohio that she drives 30 minutes
to go play pickle, I complaindriving 10.
She said there's no outdoorcourts really.
So the north, I can see thiswould be a good fit for all
those indoor facilities.

Speaker 3 (24:58):
I would like it here.
I mean, the summers here arepretty brutal.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
Every bit is brutal.

Speaker 3 (25:03):
Oh yeah, and they say this one's supposed to be
particularly nasty.
So we'll be keeping an eye onwhere these are going.
And you said you're going downto Austin.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
So yeah, we're doing a private residence down in
Austin.
Oh, okay, so that'll be one,but we're talking to a couple of
franchises as well, that I'llwait until we finish those deals
on which ones those are, butagain, very popular ones.
The one I can't speak to isDill Dinkers, which we'll be
going into in Maryland.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Oh good, we know him.
We know the owner of DillDinkers.
We've met him through thekitchen cabinet and twice right,
yeah, yeah, kitchen cabinet,yeah, and twice right yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yeah, shout out to Ashley.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Yeah, and I can't remember his name.
What is?

Speaker 3 (25:42):
it.
Oh golly, I don't know what'shis name.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Oh, anyway, he's doing a great job of franchising
indoor facilities up there.
He told us he had to build onefacility four miles from the
other facility because thedemand is so high.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
That's amazing, Right ?
If you can keep both of thosefull and they're only that far
away, then that's pretty.
Yeah, it's a lot of interest.
That's incredible.
Plays the pickleball.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Yeah, he's a really sharp guy and he's got it
together.
I mean he definitely has thesecret sauce to this indoor
facility.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah, he's the one that connected with us a while
back and he's kind of let us,you know, explain to him like,
hey, what are we doing?
And obviously, being a startup,we had to, you know, tell him,
like, you know, this is what itis, it's not what you've seen in
the past, it's not what's onthe market now.
And luckily he's like, okay,this is something I am willing
to, you know, add to myfacilities, because I think it

(26:34):
is something that's going to besuper beneficial for any
facility really.
But he sees the vision of howwe can grow it and how you can
do events with it and how youcan do e-tournaments with it and
obviously, what we talked aboutwith junior program and adult
clinics and classes,capacity-wise and bay rentals,
and there's just so many thingsyou can utilize it for that,

(26:55):
luckily, he was one that said,yeah, let's get it up here Now.
Can you give us an idea of?

Speaker 3 (26:59):
price point.
If I'm, you can utilize it forthat.
Luckily, he was one that umsaid yeah, let's, let's get it
up here Now.
Can you give us an idea ofprice point?

Speaker 2 (27:04):
If I'm a, if I'm a facility, and I'm thinking this
might be something.
Yeah, so our starting one is at29,500.
So that's everything you needin the system.
Um, that's the entire frame.
It's, you know, getting the umprojector.
That's included with it.
It's a short throw projector.
So, unlike some other systems,we're not relying on a ceiling
mount.
We wanted to mount it thereinto the system.

(27:25):
So, one, it's not even visibleto the user.
And two, so you don't have toworry about, like, if you've got
a 30-foot ceiling.
Well, we've got to find a wayto mount a ceiling projector if
there's not a wall to put it onor it gets tricky.
So a ceiling projector ifthere's not a wall to put it on
or it gets tricky.
So it includes that includesball machine, includes the
screen, includes the tablet thathas all the games on it, um,
and then um, even paddles andballs, and you know pretty much

(27:49):
everything.
You need to say okay, once weget it, we install it, um,
connect, you know, internet toit and power it up and you're
good to go.
You know, there's not much elsethat you really need yeah, yeah
, this.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
Well, the sport's so crazy that I know there was a
lot of people building their owncourts, you know, trying to
build it.
Some of it's a problem withneighborhood restrictions or
HOAs or just space, but it costsmore to make a court than it
would to get one of those.
You can probably put it in yourgarage or you can put it
somewhere else, so that wouldthat would.
That would be interesting ifyou could get that in a resident

(28:20):
and you said you're alreadyputting some residential.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, so yeah, so I think I saw on the website.
I said if you have room forpool or no ping pong table.
And, by the way, it's WillRichards.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
That's who it is who is the founder and chief
executive officer of DillDinkers.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
I just want to give a shout out to will, because we
like him.
Yeah, we do too very much, youdo too.
Yes, we're very big fans ofthat's what I love about the
pickleball world, though, isthis community.
I mean, you're it, maryland?
That's really far away, right,yeah, yeah, we're here,
pickleball.
I was thinking about thatyesterday, looking at the group
that we were playing with.
How, where, what would my lifebe like without pickleball?
And I would never know allthese people.
So it's just um you know thereason why I love the sport.
Um, so are we going to get tobe able to try this today?

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yes, we will, absolutely.
Yeah, I want y'all to get onthere and, you know, give me
some feedback and see how wellyou do, and what I want to do is
go do that and then come backwe can do that, if we can do
that.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Oh yeah, does that sound like a good idea?
Sure, yeah, let's do that.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
All right, we'll be back.
You know, guys, when you playon this simulator, it doesn't
take long before you startthinking of all the different
applications for it.
And if you are a visionary anda pickleball nut, think of
having one of these maybe inyour waiting room at your office
, or having one for youremployees to take a break on at
the office building, trying toget people back to work in a

(29:42):
live environment.
Throw a pickleball simulator inthere.
You might have a little bitmore luck with that as well.
As an HR person myself, I wouldlove to have one of these.
And they say that if you haveroom for a ping pong table, you
have room for one of thesesimulators.
And having used it myself, Ican attest.
And it's a lot of fun.
I tell you 10 minutes.
You will burn some calories tojust playing games.

(30:03):
So if you're interested at all,once again go to the Instagram
PlayCout or contact them atletsplaycoutcom.
I'm sure Sean or Jorge would beglad to talk to you about the
application.
However you'd like to use itresidential or business so let's
get back and talk to the fellas.
Hey, we got a few minutes, sowe're going to sit down now with
Jorge Guerrero.
He's one of the co-founders.

Speaker 4 (30:30):
Jorge, what's your main role in this whole startup?
Thank you, John, Karen.
So, as in any startup, we doall type of roles, right?
So right now we're just comingdown from the ladder doing the
installs with one of ourinstalls, but no, my career has
been mostly on strategy, financeand tech, so I basically cover

(30:53):
those things here around PlayCup.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
So are you involved in, like the actual programming
and the coding?

Speaker 4 (31:01):
Well, not in the programming, but we talk a lot,
both Bahá'í and I, to the techteam from the product side.
We're very, very deep intoanalyzing how we want the user
experience to be and we bothhave experience on that.
Bahá'í has been all his life.
He's been in tech for a longtime.

(31:23):
He comes from.
He spent eight or nine years inSilicon Valley.
I did some auto tech here outof Westlake, so we both
understand that part of tryingto just think of how a user
would use a technology to havefun.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Pickleball.
Like I mean, you've been intech, right, was it just like
you saw this boom in a sport andsaid you know what?
Hey, a little bit.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
Both Bahá'í and I, as well as Sean, we love racket
sports.
When we started talking, he wasmore into tennis.
I was more into padel.
When we started talking, he wasmore into tennis, I was more
into padel.
But, to your point, pickleballwas booming and we thought about
doing this in pickleball.
But again, it was the passionand the love for racquet sports

(32:12):
that brought us into this right.
It was like trying to dosomething fun in a sport that we
enjoy.
So, yeah, that was a little bitof the tech and then something
that we really enjoyed, right.
So, and pickleball was reallyeasy for us to just um, dive in
um and again, the demographics,the volume, the just makes sense

(32:33):
to to do it initially inspicable.
We are now um, also doingtennis and I've already tested
it, um with the ball behind forpadel.
I haven't gotten to the product, to the final product, but I
know, I know it will.
We will have a product probablyby the end of the year for
padell, yeah wow, now will thatbe a the product?

Speaker 3 (32:57):
the same product can change between modes, or would
that be separate?

Speaker 4 (33:01):
yeah, the first thing is you need the walls right,
the padell player wants to learnhow, particularly if you're
coming from pickleball or tennis.
You don't know how to use thewalls right, so you have.
If you're going to have asimulator you're coming from
pickleball or tennis you don'tknow how to use the walls right,
so you have.
If you're going to have asimulator, you're going to have
to have the walls for Padel andstart drilling on those like
corner walls and all that.
So that's the first part andthen potentially we'll probably

(33:26):
be using another machine,another one that we ball machine
, but yeah, it's just justanother like from the same
company padell looks like such acrazy, not understanding it at
all watching.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
It is so crazy to watch, so that would be an
interesting simulator to get to.
Yeah, running around I'mexcited.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
I think it's the only way that I would start padell,
because when I look at the guysdoing it I'm like I feel like I
would get dizzy.
It would not be safe with meinside of that cage.

Speaker 4 (33:54):
So a simulator is right up my alley and you know
it is because I've been playingpadel for 30 years and what you
see from tennis players is thatthey run back to the ball right
where you know the ball's gonnabounce you back.
So you better start moving infront of the net, because then

(34:16):
you're gonna get to the to theball easier and in in a more
aggressive way.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
So, um, so 30 years.
I didn't even know pedelexisted until um, pedel.

Speaker 4 (34:28):
Pedel has a a similar story as pickleball.
It was invented in Mexico by afamily who played tennis, had
constraints of space, so theydid this smaller court and it
happened to be that it had walls, so that was, I think, in the

(34:51):
name.
Late 1960s, early 70s, okay,and then it just started taking
some momentum.
And then the spaniards and theargentinian got huge in spain,
for sure, in europe, and they,they obviously modified it and
built the.
Those were concrete walls backin the beginning.
But back to your point, um, Ilived in mexico until 10 years

(35:17):
ago, so while while I was in mymid-20s, um, I played.
Then in my neighborhood therewere some courts and I played,
yeah, and when I got here, thefirst thing I did literally 10
years ago was like where aresome Padel?

Speaker 1 (35:33):
courts.
Where are some Padel courts?

Speaker 4 (35:34):
And they didn't exist Nowhere to be found.
And then, five years later, Ithink in 2020 or probably a
little bit earlier than that, Ifound out that T-Bar had some.
The first two Pll courts weredown in t-bar, so I joined that
club, I played and then Ihaven't played because play cup

(35:59):
play cup has kept me busy andpickleball and all that I hate
that.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
That's what sean's saying too.
You guys get it.
You got to find some time.
You got a simulator right here,in your office.
You should find at least anhour a day to play.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
We know a guy he can set you up.
Yeah, he started playing att-bar is where you found the
court.
Is that where you met sean?

Speaker 4 (36:18):
yes, where that connection came from as well.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
Bahai also met him there, so yeah, and bahai is, he
said, his background is mainlytennis.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
He played tennis more than padel yes, um and that.
And he joined T-Bar againbecause there were good tennis
courts there.
He likes to play in red clay.
I understand that there aresome red clay tennis courts
there, so that's where he joinedwhen he just came from Sanford,
when he moved from SanFrancisco to Dallas.

(36:47):
Yeah, and you were in Westlake,you said Well, I work for a
company, an auto tech companyout of Westlake called Solera.
So yeah, that's where I had beendoing before this, until we
went crazy and said, okay, thislooks easy.
All startups.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
That thing is easy in a startup.
I know this for sure.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
And it was two years ago probably, like more like 26
months the first time we builtthe first simulator we like
really with our bare hands and aguy who we knew that he was
good building things and yeah,it was two years ago in this

(37:34):
same spot and oh really, yeah,we're at the OG baby at this
spot right here, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
So this is kind of.
This is the showroom, the R&Dlab, this is the whole deal for
now.

Speaker 4 (37:47):
It's a showroom we're going to move.
It's been really good becausewe have a lot of space here, um
and um.
The space is one of ourpartners, so it's rent free for
now um, it's a plus.
Hey, apple started in a garage,yeah, yeah yeah we need a
little bit more space in agarage, and here in texas uh

(38:11):
doesn't have air conditioning.
At least that site here does.
So, um, it worked well for usalso a plus.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Air conditioning is always a plus here.
Um is the?
Is the thought that, um, whenyou guys start installing these
on a larger scale, are you maybegoing to consider having a
facility as well, or is it youguys stick it to your model,
where installations is the key?

Speaker 4 (38:35):
we've.
We've gone through the route ofhaving a venue and basically
what I have found is two thingsis I think what we're good at is
inventing and solving for thatneed of bringing another um side
ofleball home.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
So I think we're better at that than the brick
and mortar and the running of itand all of that.

Speaker 4 (39:01):
And again it's the three of us.
We work a lot and just having avenue, there's a lot of hours
invested there and I think,again, our talents are best used
Definitely just going on moreimprovement and selling and
making it compelling.
I'm sure there's going to be alot of things that once we

(39:22):
install that, the venues aregoing to want us to do, like,
hey, we want to do a tournament,so that's going to keep us a
lot of.
It's going to keep us busy.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
I can see it Like this would be like a virtual
what do you call it?
Like a tournament.
You could do virtualtournaments in places all across
.
That would be really cool.
Don't they do that with likevideo games now?

Speaker 4 (39:45):
Yeah, absolutely that business.
I'm far away from it becauseI'm not a gamer in the sense of
gaming, but yes, there's peoplefield stadiums and these guys,
the gamers, they earn a lot ofmoney.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
This could totally be like that.
Yeah, I'm familiar with ourkids doing this gaming online.
We're like who do you meet?
How old is he?
Are you sure he's legit?

Speaker 4 (40:14):
you can definitely like do a tournament in a let's
call it dave and busters and hey, everybody who comes in this
saturday could play all over the200 locations and see who
breaks the record for one of thegames, right, and then they can
get a trophy or whatever right,and it could be sponsored by
Solkirk or whatever right.

(40:35):
So there's a lot of that that.
I'm sure that's going to bedown the road, but yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Save a lot of travel and time right.
Take the top pros across the USor whatever, and have them have
competitions like that.
I think it would be pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
Are you writing their marketing plan?
How are you guys marketing?
I mean, is it word of mouthright now?
Is it just your connectionswithin the industry?

Speaker 4 (41:00):
As of now?
Yes, as a matter of fact, weare the version that you're
going to see.
It's been here for no longerthan two weeks, right?
So again, we had had it in thevenue.
But all of those simulatorswere like suited for,
constructed for the venue.

(41:21):
It was not a commercial versionthat I could pack up and ship
it and have someone install it,and that was like the second
part.
That was the vision.
Now that we went to the—.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
So you're repurposing it.
It has to be redesignedcompletely.
So when we did that and wemoved out of the.

Speaker 4 (41:37):
Yeah, that's again, it's easier said than done.
Oh, yeah, we'll do that.
Yeah, it took us three months,like going every single day to
the manufacturer and, oh no,this corner has to be like that,
oh, this Velcro has to be likethat, or this velcro has to be
like that and the screen has tobump like that, and we're pretty
anal on certain things.

(41:59):
So, again, it took us a while,um, again more than we expected
as any venture.
And so back to your point.
We are using this weekend tobring a professional photo
shooter and start elaboratingthose videos that will be in

(42:23):
social media and all that.
So, yeah, that's the summerplan, plan um, just trying to
start doing social media orwebsite and obviously worth of
mouth.
But it's easier when you havelike really pro videos of what
they can expect to, becauseright now there's an experience
out there that you can see andyou can gauge oh, this looks fun

(42:44):
, but you don't see the productsas such, right?

Speaker 1 (42:47):
and that's.

Speaker 4 (42:47):
That's the part that we're going to invest in the
next couple of days it's prettycool.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
I mean we're being at the in the next couple of days.
It's pretty cool being at thefront end like this.
One thing we found out aboutthe pickleball world too is even
when it comes to business,everybody seems to be pretty
helpful to one another withinthe community and I know that,
whether it's the people you knowSean was talking about some of
the pros he knows around thearea and the connections you
make.
We've had people we've nevermet but just met online through,

(43:15):
who have companies out incalifornia.
They're doing little things.
Whatever they can do to help orspread the word or whatever.
The pickleball community seemsto be pretty collaborative I
agree, totally agree.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
We have had people here, um, not just last week we
had someone who built um sportsdetainment venues, right, and he
was like, oh, I can introduceit to A, b, c, d and F because
I'm sure that they're going tolove it.
And we're going to have onehere on Tuesday which he went to

(43:44):
the venue as well With that.
Just hey, yeah, absolutely, andthere's nothing out there, so
it also serves our clients thatare looking for something
different.
So, yeah, but to your point,absolutely the pickleball
community.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
I found that they are , like, really helpful and yeah,
yeah, dallas is a pretty goodplace to start too.
I think what Dallas and Austinare pretty much the pickleball
meccas here in Texas, with theflash here and so many
facilities.

Speaker 4 (44:11):
Yeah, and obviously with PPA and all that, yeah.
So we were, the first time weput our simulator, let's say,
out of our home, out of Plano.
We went to the World PickleballChampionship here in Brookhaven
, yeah, and it had not rained inthe whole month.

(44:33):
And then that week we got somuch rain it was like oh bad
time.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Remember, I do, we were.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
We were there, we.
Luckily we weren't there theday that they said that, like
all the bathrooms had flooded orsomething.
We weren't there that day, butit was a mess.

Speaker 4 (44:50):
I woke up really, really worried we were going to
get wet inside the simulator, soI had to go in and uninstall
one thing that we had installedjust the day before.
Oh, no, yeah, because I Ithought this is going to get wet
.
Um, yeah, it was.
And then that was tuesday, fromfor monday to Tuesday, and then

(45:12):
I left on Friday and these guysalso received a really, really
bad rain.
But it's one of those things,man, it hasn't rained in Dallas
like in 45 days, and then we getthis week.

Speaker 3 (45:25):
I know Just an incredible week of it.
That's how you know when youhave a startup company is you
had something installed and yougot to go?
Yeah, you're the one that hasto go take it down.
It's not like you call yourcrew exactly.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
You tell me what do I do?
I do everything, it's like whatdo you?

Speaker 3 (45:42):
do?

Speaker 4 (45:42):
you put what has to be done I'll get the donuts and
the coffee for the people whoare going to come here and and
help us with a shoot.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
So um, I'll do everything, yeah it's like your
baby right oh yeah

Speaker 3 (45:55):
yes, yes, and it requires uh, I mean it's great.
How long have you guys been atthis now?
Has it been over a year?
Two and a half?
Two and a half golly times.
Okay, two and a half years,it's, it's long.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
But hey, we're still here.
Yeah, we're still here and wegot sales and um, we got really
good um perspectives in in termsof like, no one has come here
and said, oh, this does notinterest me, right, right, it is

(46:32):
compelling, the valueproposition is there.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
Do you go out seeking places and tell them about the
product?
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
Sean has visited.
I think Probably there's nopickleball-related venue that he
has not visited yet.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
So let me ask you this, just out of logistics how
many of those can you produce in, say, a month?
He has not visited yet.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
So let me ask you this, just out of logistics how
many of those can you produce in, say, a month?
20 a month, at least right now,or even more.
I'm not really worried aboutthat.
Again, there's a lot ofcomponents to the simulator.
There's a lot of components tothe simulator, but I'm not

(47:18):
concerned about the amount thatthe productions that we can do
it.
Eventually, the hardest part isone of the one of the
mechanisms is imported by europeand by yeah, it's imported.
Once we got, once we get thismomentum, I think we can have 50
on stock and that's it right.
Then the rest of the componentsare locally fabricated or in

(47:41):
California, something that Iknow that there won't be an
issue.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Now what about updates?
So once you purchase somethingand then, as you roll out new
updates, is that something done?
Virtual yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:56):
So once you buy the simulator, there's a monthly
rent and that monthly rentencompasses support and all that
and obviously updates, right?
So right now I think we'regoing to launch with seven games
.
Yeah, we'll continue to updatethose games.
I'm not sure at what rate, butyeah, there's going to be

(48:18):
novelties when time comes by.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker 3 (48:25):
Let's go try this dude.
You ready to try it?
I am Okay.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
Let's see.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
Did you know that Blazing Paddles is more than
just a really cool name and areally great podcast?
We have also now gone out tofacility openings.
If you're interested in havingan event live streamed or have
us actually do the show at yourfacility, get in touch with us.
We bring the whole crew out, weset it up and it's actually
been a lot of fun to do so.
If you're interested in havingblazing paddles on site at your

(48:51):
pickleball event, you know howto get in touch with us.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
Yeah, man wait so wait, where are you saying?

Speaker 2 (48:57):
just saying he burned 400 calories in like 15 minutes
, yeah, because I was just, youknow, non-stop hitting the ball.
You know had it on the advancedset.
I was playing the blocks game,which is an endless game, so it
didn't have a timer, so I couldjust play it as long as I wanted
to.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
So I'm just like cracking balls, for you know
well, let me just say this I uh,it's got the right name.
Yes flake out and so can we goover that, because we missed
that soundbite, because we werein the um in the playroom.
So tell us the the name whereit originated from yeah, flake
out it was.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
It was actually kind of feedback from, in those early
days, somebody saying, man,this is actually like this is a
pretty good workout, and we'relike, yeah.
So we started thinking aboutit's like okay workout and but
you feel like you're playing,cause you're playing, you know,
performance or an arcade game,so you don't think of it as much
as like I didn't realize I wasgetting a workout while I'm

(49:51):
there playing a game Like you.
You're not doing that withbowling or with arcade games or
anything else otherwise.
So it was one of those whereit's like okay, yeah, I mean
you're playing and you'reworking out, let's just combine
the words and you know, that'skind of how play cat was born.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
It was perfect.
I wasn't going to play todaybecause I needed to take a day
off because my body is justdestroyed and, um, I pretty much
just destroyed it.
That was so fun though I gottatell you.
I mean that it's a workout.
I mean the target being able toyou know, cause you're not just
hitting a ball now, you're Imean that can really help a

(50:25):
player go to the next level,cause you're, you have to think,
you have to.
You're doing two things reallyquick I'm watching, I'm looking
at the screen, watching the ball, trying to hit the target.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
Which is what you need when you're playing matches
.
You have to use that cognitiveside of it.
You can do all the physicalstuff you want to.
How quickly is your mindthinking?
One, where's this ball coming?
Two, where am I going to hit it?
And then three, actuallyexecuting on it, which is not
always easy, because you,looking at, here's the opening
in the court.
You know the players have movedto this space, I have an

(50:54):
opening, but can I focus on theball getting there and me also
hitting that target and that'swhat it's great at working on is
like yes, you have to makethose quick decisions and it's
good cognitive exercise, whichsometimes you just don't get,
unless you're drilling a lotwith a pro or I think what were
the games we?

Speaker 3 (51:10):
We had Tic-Tac-Toe, we had Moving Target, connect
Four, connect Four Darts whatwas that one?

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Darts, oh darts.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
Darts I actually like darts.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
I thought that was awesome, because that's what you
outscored me.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
No, I outscored you on the other one way more.
You only outscored me because Igave you pointers.
It yeah, it works though.
Yeah, yeah, so no, I can seethat, having definite, you get
immediate feedback, really,because you can tell if you're
uh, you're missing more like Ihad to back up a little bit you
know what it taught me?

Speaker 1 (51:41):
you're better at playing this game than you have
shown me out there, so let's gogreat, okay, great.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
Now you have to live up to your 258 score.
No, I've recorded that score,so I know you did.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
We'll be posting that that's what we want to see.
I mean we want to see thatcompetition of.
I mean that's what bringspeople back and not say like oh,
this was a one-time thing and Iguess it's okay.
Like it's, I want to beat you.
Like let's play it again andsee if I can get personally a
higher score, personally ahigher score if I can beat you
regardless of score.
It's just that competitive sideof it that I think for the E
tournaments and for the socialside, like it just makes it

(52:15):
where it's fun.
Like you don't have to beworried about where you're at in
the kitchen or the score or anyof that stuff that I think some
novice players get a little bittoo worried about.
Like you can just go in thereand play and have a good time.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
I'm telling you, if we had access to one, we'd
destroy our bodies.
I think I'm just competing.
It would be like the Wii allover again.
The family.
That would be so fun to playwith the boys in an adult Wii
game, right.

Speaker 3 (52:43):
Oh, absolutely, and compete with them.
I'm thinking of all theapplicability.
I was thinking this is sostupid.
But you go to the doctor'soffice or whatever, and you've
got a 30 wait.
What if the some doctor thoughtI'm gonna put one of these
simulators in this other room?

Speaker 2 (52:56):
so while you're waiting, go have a few hacks
over there yeah, we've talked tocar dealerships, because that's
another one where, like you getthat kind of wait time, you
can't help it's gonna go tofinancing, it's gonna go.

Speaker 3 (53:04):
This stickiness gets stick around you got the kids
distracted.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
well, I mean, I think even for and I've seen that
with with pickleball and I'vegot friends who do this, like
they bring their kids cause theywant to play as much as they
want to, but they don't alwayshave a babysitter for the kids.
Well, the kids can be doingthis while you're on court.
It's not like they're not asannoyed.
They're like oh, I've got tosit here on my tablet Like you

(53:30):
don't want them doing.
I hope my parents hurry up andfinish playing because I'm bored
and you know, yeah, that'sright, and you know I was.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
I was thinking about that earlier, like with chicken
and pickle, you know cause?
It's it when we're out theretrying to play serious, and then
some kids are running aroundand I'm like, oh my gosh, this
is annoying.
But um and I, they're sittingthere all day, they're on 24

(53:57):
hours, right, and they'replaying video games, but they're
sitting, and so this is a wayto keep them physically active.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
Yeah, or they have lines outside, but some days you
can't do that, or it's late atnight and they don't want to.
You know they don't have thelighting for it.
So, yeah, I mean, that'sdefinitely one of them that you
know.
It just makes sense Anyanywhere where you can fit this
in the space you know.
And again, you don't need thatmuch space for it, then why not?
You know, why not have it inthere, versus putting something
outside that you may or may notbe able to use or committing to

(54:27):
actually paying for a full courtto be installed.
It's just, you know, you wantto make sure you're getting your
values worth and you'll be ableto use it whenever you want to,
and people can use it thataren't your same level.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
So we're the idiots who um set up a pickleball court
in our house.
When was that when, when?
When was that still during?

Speaker 4 (54:46):
covid yeah we were, and it would rain.
We, we were bored, so we set upin our house.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
And I know, I know I have video of it.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
No, we worked on some short game skills.
It was good.
Now, sean, I know that you guysare on Instagram.
Isn't it Plakeout?
Is that your handle onInstagram and website is let's
Plakeout Correct, is that right?
Okay, so if people want to findout more, would that be the
best way for them to go aboutfinding out a?

Speaker 2 (55:13):
little bit more about you guys.
Yeah, they can contact usthrough the website, through our
Instagram Either one is fineand we'll get back to them and
give more information about thesystem and how it can work for
their venue or their home orwhatever they have in mind.

Speaker 3 (55:27):
Well, jorge Guerrero, sean Edwards two of the three
co-founders spent some time herewith us today.
We hope you go check them out.
If not on Instagram, go to thewebsite.
Let's Play Cout.
That's P-L-A-Y-K-O-U-T.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
That was the most physical fun I've had playing a
game indoors.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
That's great.
Yeah, that's awesome to hear.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
Yeah, yeah, it really is similar to Topgolf, if you
think it's the games they havewith the Angry Birds and Candy
Crush and all that kind of stuff, except Pickleball is better
yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
Well, so better, absolutely better and easier
than swinging a golf club too.
So you're swinging a paddle ina golf club.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
Oh, absolutely, and you can actually do it with your
wife.
You know, topgolf, top golfanyway, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
That one wouldn't be fair.
I wouldn't have a chance ofwinning.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
But pick a ball, yeah , yeah, that way just it's, it's
good at bringing the wholefamily together.
You don't have to say like oh,this is kind of more of a dad
thing or this kind of more ofmom's thing, like no, this is
all four of us or however manylike for our family to just go
out and have a fun time togetherand compete and everybody's can
kind of be at a similar funskill level.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
I love it.
So don't think of it as Iscored 500 and you scored 100.
Think of it as together weaveraged 300.
Okay, okay I will not sleeptonight, Right Sean.
Any other final words for theaudience?

Speaker 2 (56:49):
Um, no, I just you know we'll.
We'll definitely keep peopleposted on where we're going in,
like we mentioned Dave Buster'sand Dill Dinker's and Paddle Up,
and there's a lot of differentfranchises that we'll be going
into, so we'll keep peopleposted on where we're at so you
can find us in a venue near youvery soon.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
And we'll be posting some video on Insta too so you
can get a look at it.
And obviously the podcast willdrop here the next week or so
and we're going to tag you guyson all the socials.
So best of luck to you.
This is awesome.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
No, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
Thanks guys thank you so much for reaching out.
Thank you all right.