In the buzzing courts of Rackonnect Exclusive Padel Pickle Park (REPPP) in South Delhi, where the crackling thwack of pickleball echoes off the walls, six young dreamers with a tabletop booth came to craft a new story. They are not just students in their late teens; they are co-founders, visionaries in the making.

Andrea, Jeet Totla, Antariksh Gupta, Joan Escandell, Fiene Klemmer, and Sofia Rodriguez - hailing from the US, India, Cuba, Germany, and Mexico, respectively - came together at TETR College of Business, headquartered in New York, post the Covid-19 pandemic with one thing in mind: to develop skills to make new-age business. And they eventually turned to pickleball and made it into an experience that is as much about community as it is about sport.

“We saw the rise of it in America,” Andrea, 20, told Pickleball Now on the sidelines of the recently concluded LawStrings Pickleball Premier League (LPPL). “One of the things I love most about pickleball is how it brings people together.”

Pickleball is not just about paddles and nets; it is about competition, connection, and camaraderie. That spirit has carried them halfway across the world to India, where Andrea, Joan, and Jeet have been since January, studying, listening, researching, and building from scratch with a focus on making the country their core market, leveraging pickleball’s skyrocketing popularity. And this simple yet nuanced intent has made them stand out.

Their jovial nature, willingness to engage amateur players, and eagerness to answer endless questions from over-enthusiastic parents and players make them a distinct entity in the Indian scenario. They have been to hundreds of tournaments so far in their pursuit of engaging with potential future customers while also making a physical brand presence.

Their company, Serve Club, was born in the classroom of TETR as a project, but it quickly became a promising pickleball startup in India, with the potential to challenge the monopoly of legacy brands like JOOLA. “We did not just want to build a random company,” said 19-year-old Jeet, who hails from Delhi. “We want to build a proper brand which is well recognised. At the same time, we have always kept it very community-driven.”

Pickleball in India is still finding its feet, but Serve Club is there to catch the ball. The sextet saw an opportunity in the market gap - a chasm between low-quality beginner paddles and prohibitively expensive pro gear - and chipped in. “There is a pretty big gap between just high-quality but affordable, like intermediate paddles,” Andrea explained. “And so that is where we came in.”

They launched two lines: a beginner fiberglass paddle at Rs 3,000 and a carbon fiber pro paddle at Rs 8,000. And a pack of four pickleballs goes for Rs 656. They are not only offering cheaper paddles but are also diligent in their approach to manufacturing.

The idea is precise: every paddle is crafted with care and consultation. “We talked to a lot of players, whom we met at pickleball events. We noted their feedbacks and came up with customised paddles for Indians,” she added. “A lot of people, especially in India, prefer a longer handle… It also gives you longer reach.”

From the very onset, they have been open-minded in their approach, bringing their learning from TETR into effect and always evaluating the changing scenarios and incorporating the inputs into their actions.

“When we do research, a lot of people said that they seek simpler designs but with brighter colors. So, our fiberglass paddles are very minimalistic. They have hardly any design, and they are just plain colors. We have one black, one white, another black, and then one pink and one blue - so pretty light.

And I think the response has been pretty good. I think we’re like a very fun, cool brand,” Andrea said, providing a glimpse into how strong customer research is giving an impetus to their business goals.

Hence, Serve Club is not just a business - it is a living, breathing part of the Indian pickleball community. They host events, help officiate matches and clinics. They also optimise the power of social media, with a dedicated presence on Instagram. To foster growth, they stay at the core of the community by partnering with pickleball courts, clubs, and competitions.

"We share tips on the group about how to play pickleball, as well as news about what is happening in the pickleball industry in India and America. I think that is one way we interact with customers - through events, seeing them, talking to them, and then through social media and WhatsApp, getting jobs done," said Joan, the senior-most member of Serve Club at 21.

"We have been around in India for almost six months now, and we are doing quite well on social media. I think in the last 30 days, we have reached more than a quarter of a million impressions. Yeah, we are getting a lot of traction and very positive feedback from people," he added.

“I think first of all, pickleball is a very community-focused sport,” the Cuban said. “We are not just selling paddles; we are selling an experience, a community kind of thing.” The startup now plans to grow monthly sales by 20–25 per cent over the next two quarters.

They know they are newcomers, up against legacy giants. But their strategy is grounded in something bigger than numbers. “We are kind of competing with some of the biggest legacy racket sport brands like JOOLA,” Jeet said. “The good thing is, because we are present in person, in front of people… we try to build a relationship with them.”

Their journey has had its share of challenges. Six founders from six different cultures of the world, each bringing their own ideas, their own fire. “There are constructive challenges,” Jeet admitted. “But that is also the good part… we build upon it.” Their story is as much about learning from each other as it is about selling paddles. While the US remains the fastest-growing pickleball market, with the sport registering a 311 per cent growth in the country, the competition is also high.

Since their college project transformed into a full-fledged pickleball company, they have been bootstrapping this dream, every penny from their own pockets, with technical inputs and support from their mentors at TETR, but they were not daunted. “We are serious about making this a cutting-edge business,” Joan emphasised. “Ours is a B to C brand in the pickleball space in India,” he added, “and soon we will be on Amazon as well.”

Their ambitious project and holistic approach have eventually secured them seed funding from notable industry leaders including Manish Poddar (Co-founder, Rare Rabbit), Pratham Mittal (Founder, Masters' Union and TETR), and Malika Sadani (Co-founder, The Moms Co.). The funding will be deployed toward product development and expanding Serve Club's reach across India through both online and offline channels.

While India is the launchpad and their prime focus as a market, with the country’s pickleball market, according to Bonafide Research, projected to grow at over 26 per cent CAGR from 2024 to 2029, they are vowing to expand their presence to Southeast Asia and the Middle East in the next six months.

Asked why they are so confident about pickleball's growth across the Asian regions, Andrea says it is a heady mix: ambition and purpose, friendship and competition. In her words, it is “just very easy to hit the ball, but also very, very competitive… it brings everybody together.” In that sense, Serve Club’s story is not just about pickleball or semester project - it is about a new generation of entrepreneurs, building something that matters.