[HN Gopher] Our ping pong startup hit a $50M valuation in 5 year...
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Our ping pong startup hit a $50M valuation in 5 years by tapping
into automation
Author : tomwiddles
Score : 44 points
Date : 2024-09-28 17:59 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (fortune.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (fortune.com)
| thucydides wrote:
| https://archive.is/8O3Us
| everyone wrote:
| Cool gonna rent one right now and use it as a meth lab!
| jameslk wrote:
| > Third, the PodPlay system includes a dedicated video-
| monitoring team based in the Philippines. The team in Manila
| constantly keeps eyes on all PodPlay autonomous locations and
| alerts local team members when necessary.
|
| Ping pong-opticon is watching
| from-nibly wrote:
| They automated away all the manual labor though.
| NickC25 wrote:
| There's a pingpod place near where I live. It's a cool little
| spot, and I applaud the founder for taking a unique approach.
|
| Well done, PingPod!
| debacle wrote:
| This reads like a pre-COVID startup story and I find that
| refreshing despite the slight Silicon Valley (the show) vibes.
| fldskfjdslkfj wrote:
| Feels like a mini WeWork in the making. They should keep it small
| if the actually want to be a viable business.
| itsoktocry wrote:
| Yeah, so much of this is really cool!
|
| Then you get to the "we raised $X and have $Y valuation" and
| the tech company framing. Why?
|
| > _Today the majority of Americans prioritize experiences over
| goods and products._
|
| The linked article is a survey of Gen Z; how is that the
| majority of America?
| lupire wrote:
| Gen Z is the current generation that spends money on leisure
| activities.
| bdcravens wrote:
| The golf, crafting, gardening, hunting, etc industries
| would question that framing.
| candiddevmike wrote:
| Gen Z should be renamed to Gen YOLO
| golergka wrote:
| YOLO is a millenial thing.
| smabie wrote:
| No chance they spend the most on leisure activities.
| Definitely it's baby boomers.
| knallfrosch wrote:
| I don't see the connection at all. If anything, they can easily
| branch out into games that share some characteristics, such as:
| Few players on the field, no referee, small field, physical
| exertion etc. I think of badminton or squash.
|
| They already have the tech for reserverations, operating
| insights and the cool replay feature.
| jfengel wrote:
| TTAAS (table tennis as a service)
| monero-xmr wrote:
| So much cynicism here but if they have solid YoY growth and $3.6
| million in real revenue then $50 million valuation (I assume post
| money and probably with some guarantees) isn't totally crazy
| itsoktocry wrote:
| There's barely any cynicism in the comments, what are you
| seeing?
| ErikAugust wrote:
| File under: Things that can exist in a big enough city.
| Etheryte wrote:
| Yeah, many such ideas only work once you're past a certain
| number of people, given e.g. the fraction of people who play
| ping pong, you need a lot of people to reach the point where
| it's viable as a business. Cutting costs on the other side as
| described in this article is a great way to bring that
| threshold down though.
| lupire wrote:
| Eh rent is cheaper in smaller cities, and more space is
| available for hosting multiple activities in one location.
| dannylandau wrote:
| Will be in NYC soon, and will definitely check out the table
| tennis, just not clear how to find a partner since I'm at the
| 2,000 point level.
| meitros wrote:
| I suspect you could still find someone via the Pingpod slack,
| but another option would be to book a coach and play with them
| - they have multiple former olympians
| supportengineer wrote:
| This is one way to make use of the excess of unused office space.
| abraae wrote:
| We're in the cloud golf simulation space (sounds like these guys
| dabble in golf too) and this has a few really interesting angles.
|
| - remote video monitoring from the Philippines. Great way to
| economically monitor customer behavior.
|
| - built in tech for capturing replays and sharing to social.
| Awesome and really scratches the sharing itch.
|
| In golf some extra challenges are:
|
| - safety - a golf ball at 160mph is far more dangerous than a
| ping ping ball, literally life threatening.
|
| - cleanliness - you don't want people hitting balls into your
| shiny impact screen using their filthy mud covered clubs. Need
| some way to monitor people's clubs at check in time. Could again
| be the Philippines crew. Or make them use the in-house clubs -
| more capital outlay and ongoing expense
|
| - need a gaming computer and sim licence installed on it.
| Expensive to have sitting idle between customers
| advael wrote:
| Claims of automation really fall apart for me when they rely on
| outsourcing. Even setting aside ethical considerations, this
| business relies on there being a stable source of cheap labor.
| Moving that labor to remote monitoring and presumably some kind
| of local intervention skeleton crew for when they report
| something may be more in line with the experience customers want
| than a gym that is perceptibly staffed, but automation is a
| strong word for that
| Ekaros wrote:
| I wonder how well some type of skeleton crew will work on long
| term. If you are paying premium price you want issues fixed
| now, not for the next visit. And if someone over worked have to
| run from site to site all around the city it can't be too fast
| to get stuff worked. And even if you cancel pre-emptively
| reservations people will only take that so many times...
| abraae wrote:
| What can go wrong with a table tennis business that would
| require urgent onsite intervention?
|
| Break a bat, table or net? - just move to another bay.
|
| Video replay not working even after remote intervention? Give
| the customer a credit.
|
| Customer flips out after hitting their third backhand into a
| net, holds their bat to another player's neck while frothing
| at the mouth? Call the security firm.
| Ekaros wrote:
| Breaking table or net. How many bays there are? What is the
| utilization of those at popular times? Someone remote
| confirms this. Orders repair. Is repair person available or
| fixing things somewhere else?
| fracus wrote:
| I don't understand. Either you have one person on site or one
| person monitoring video with your expensive "no one on site"
| tech. I'm skeptical that this would save anyone money. I suppose
| the labor for the monitoring is dirt cheap and maybe one person
| can monitor multiple sites? And I suppose no real employees means
| no HR, etc..
| lupire wrote:
| So, you do understand, since you explained it yourself.
|
| Your minor error is thinking that surveillance tech is
| expensive in 2020 onward.
| moralestapia wrote:
| One person monitoring in the US: $30/hour
|
| One person monitoring in the Philippines: $2/hour
| abraae wrote:
| $2 per hour and monitoring 20 screens simultaneously.
| lupire wrote:
| > In March 2022, we received $10 million in VC funding [for
| facilitiy rental business]
|
| > In 6 years I've bootstrapped my moving company to $100M in
| revenue. Avoiding VC funding has been key. [Link is to an article
| by a different author.]
|
| Also, it's cute that they use the term "outsourcing" instead of
| "offshoring" for the Philippines-based monitoring.
| wswope wrote:
| While I think these venues are cool, they're inherently VERY
| limited in maximum possible scale. They're more of a competitor
| to bars like SPIN, rather than traditional table tennis venues -
| kinda like how Top Golf isn't really trying to steal business
| from the local driving range.
|
| As a tourist, I walked by North Station location in Boston, saw
| the price - $50/hr at any time I'd want to play - and noped out
| hard. Decided to spend the money on an Uber to Boston Table
| Tennis Club instead, and played for three hours with good
| coaching (shoutout to Coach Vincent for the warm welcome) and fun
| pickup games. Cost half the price in total, and I didn't have to
| hunt for a decent partner either.
|
| Economically, Pingpod will just never be a viable option compared
| to old school clubs, even if they slash their prices to a tenth
| of what they are now. Forever a novelty/tourist gimmick.
| vunderba wrote:
| jesus, $50 for a single hour? It's not like we're talking about
| a batting cage with pitching machines, custom equipment, etc.
|
| There were tons of ping pong tables available at any university
| in Taipei that were effectively open to the public to play
| whenever I wanted.
|
| _EDIT: Just out of curiosity I looked up the rental costs for
| full blown tennis courts in my area. They range from $15-30 per
| hour._
| wswope wrote:
| You inspired me to check, and I'm paying $50 _per month_ for
| my home club. We have monthly member appreciation nights to
| burn off excess budget where they order a bunch of expensive
| pizza for everyone.
| virtualwhys wrote:
| Boston TTC is a great club despite its small size and low-ish
| ceilings.
|
| Some very high level players there (lots of Asian students from
| MIT, Harvard, etc. who, having grown up playing, absolutely rip
| :))
|
| Westchester club is a much better facility if you're in the NYC
| area.
|
| I'm in San Diego now, I pay $50/year at my club, lol, $50/hour,
| ridiculous.
| fma wrote:
| I wouldn't really consider this automation. Just because a
| company uses software doesnt mean it's automation.
|
| This is the same way self storage operators run their business.
| No one would call that automation. It's called self service.
|
| But I guess that wouldn't drive valuation.
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