Contexto

The number of US pickleball players has 10Xed since 2019, from 3.5 million to over 36 million today. And behind pickleball’s rapid rise are businesses like The Pickleball Club that have built the courts, surrounding infrastructure, and communities to help the sport explode. But before The Pickleball Club co-founders Matt Gordon and Brian McCarthy could realize their vision of private, indoor, amenity-rich clubs for pickleball enthusiasts, they first needed capital. 

O desafio

The Pickleball Club used emails and PDF attachments to share information with investors, which was time-consuming, insecure, and impossible to track.

A solução

Fundraising at speed and scale with DocSend virtual data rooms. With insights into investor behavior, a professional platform, and a secure way to share assets, The Pickleball Club turned 200+ leads into over $25 million.

Manual investor management was too slow

Though Matt and Brian were clearly onto a winning idea with The Pickleball Club, and potential investors were pouring in, managing an overwhelming volume of leads on a one-by-one basis was slowing their fundraising down. 

“I would have to process thousands of leads manually. That’s when I knew I needed to use better technology to improve my efficiency and productivity,” says Matt.

In addition, raising capital in a hot market with many competitors meant The Pickleball Club needed control over who could see and distribute its sensitive investment documents—something the team couldn’t control via email. That’s when Matt started his search for a better way to fundraise, and it wasn’t long before he chose DocSend virtual data rooms. 

Serving investors at pace with DocSend virtual data room

The Pickleball Club unlocked immediate efficiency gains with DocSend virtual data room. Instead of manually attaching files to emails or juggling different versions of assets, The Pickleball Club team now uploads all relevant documents to his DocSend virtual data room and quickly shares materials with investors through a single link.

Once The Pickleball Club’s assets are with investors, DocSend virtual data room delivers visibility over how people are engaging with it. “I can see who’s reviewed a document and how much time they spend on each page. This helps me to gauge the interest of investors and prioritize meetings. Beyond that, DocSend’s insights help me to understand what’s important to each investor and I can engage accordingly,” Matt explains.

Matt also uses DocSend virtual data room’s video capabilities to deliver company updates and understand exactly what’s resonating with investors. “I can see engagement scores, track playback time per user, and track other details like pausing, rewinding, muting, or skipping,” Matt says.

As a firm believer that your investment process is a reflection of your business operations, Matt knows first impressions have a big impact on investor trust. And the presentable and professional impression DocSend virtual data room gives investors is a huge advantage.

The Pickleball Club also has better control over its information and data by restricting who can view information and controlling what they can do with it. Existing investors typically have more access to highly sensitive information than prospective investors do, so The Pickleball Club employs additional security measures. “We don’t allow downloading, only viewing links. We require email authentication and limit access by email or domain and can remove access to any asset at any time, so we know all our information is secure” explains Matt.

With a background as a mergers and acquisitions attorney, Matt also placed high importance on compliance. He found the ability to update documents and have those changes instantly reflected for all users invaluable. This ensures every investor has access to the latest information, eliminating the risk of misleading data caused by version control problems. Matt explains, “With one click of a button, I can share the most recent version of a document with investors who already have access. I don’t need to manually resend a new version every time we make an update. So now what used to take hours takes seconds. And when you’re operating with a lean and mean team, that productivity is crucial.”

When it comes to virtual data rooms, Matt’s thrilled with DocSend, noting, “DocSend virtual data room by far has the best feature set”

With DocSend virtual data room, delivering a professional first impression is easy. The Pickleball Club is confident their assets are presented to investors in a way that reflects the professionalism of the company.

DocSend also provides enhanced control over information. The Pickleball Club can now manage how and when investors access documents and prevent sensitive information from being passed on. 

$25 million raised with DocSend virtual data rooms

Out of the $32 million The Pickleball Club has raised so far, $25 million has been raised using DocSend virtual data room. Matt mentions, “We just started our latest fundraising round and I shudder to think of how hard this would be or how little we would have raised without DocSend virtual data room.”

Knowing how investors are engaging with assets in the data room gives The Pickleball Club the strategic advantage it needs to prioritize interested investors, tailor pitches to each investor, and know what to focus on in follow-up meetings.