Today we’d like to introduce you to Devan Egan.
Devan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My dad & I started playing pickleball together in early to mid-2020. He has a tennis background and I played basketball in high school. We’re both highly competitive people and enjoyed doing something together, but pickleball was more than just competition. We first observed this at our first-ever pickleball tournament in September of 2020.
The crowd, the spectators, the friendships, the atmosphere – it was unlike anything we’d ever experienced. All of it was in spite of the less than stellar conditions: Temporary nets, undersized courts, tennis nets in your service backswing. After the tournament, we thought there might be a solution to that experience that could also be a business opportunity.
We weren’t the first ones to have this idea, but we were the first ones to make it come to life. We quickly built our business model in a spreadsheet and started shopping for viable space to make it work. By November of that same year, just 60 days later, we signed on the space we’re in now in Orem and by January 12th we were open for business.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The road was smooth but a little bit of a winding one.
It was smooth because our local pickleball community is so great and supportive. We didn’t have everything perfectly situated in our assumptions or projections, but we got the critical stuff right. Wherever we were wrong, we pivoted quickly and made the right adjustments.
Every decision, we’ve made has been player-focused – trying to deliver more value and a better experience for the players. That’s what has made this work for us. We are 100% pickleball.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve always been in real estate. Either selling it, buying it, renting it, Airbnb’ing it and now financing it. My experience in real estate has certainly helped us in this endeavor. Pickleball, like real estate, is a relationship business. You have to be good with people and you have to be good with the numbers.
The margins are narrow in pickleball, so if you get any of your numbers wrong – like real estate – you are likely to end up with a bad deal. Fortunately, we got the numbers right and have been conservative from day 1 to help ensure we have a viable and sustainable product.
The other thing my background has helped with is the marketing aspect of our business. We put out, locally, a really strong marketing presence across multiple channels & media types. Most everyone knows who we are, where we are, and what we do.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson for me, in hindsight, has definitely been that it’s okay to not have it perfectly right the first time.
When we built our business model we made assumptions that were based on our pickleball experience and we were wrong in a handful of places.
We didn’t have pride in authorship or stubborn opinions – we were open to what the market/players wanted and we made rapid changes accordingly.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@clubpickleballusa.com
- Website: ClubPickleballUSA.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/clubpickleballusa
- Facebook: facebook.com/clubpickleballusa
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt5TH-6Doa4qm-B0FhDeMuQ
- Other: https://linktr.ee/clubpickleballusa
