From the tech world to the padel courts, three associates — Jessica Talbert, Katie Lampert and Neil Chainani — left their careers in tech and fintech to pursue a brand new dream: constructing an area sports activities group round one of many world’s fastest-growing video games, padel. (Talbert and Chainani, now married, predict their first baby.)
Consider padel as tennis meets squash. It’s performed in doubles on a smaller, enclosed court docket the place gamers can hit the ball off the glass partitions for quick, steady rallies. An enormous hit in Europe and Latin America, the game is now taking off in the USA.
With courts uncommon within the area, they launched Park Padel in November 2023 with public courts at San Francisco’s Embarcadero, adopted by their flagship membership in South San Francisco in November 2024. With formidable plans to develop throughout the West, the trio mirrored on their classes in entrepreneurship, group, and why Silicon Valley wasn’t the end-all, be-all for them.
From left to proper, founders Katie Lampert, Jessica Talbert and Neil Chainani pose for {a photograph} at Park Padel in South San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Q: You all got here from established tech and fintech careers. How did that flip into beginning a enterprise round a distinct segment sport like padel?
Jessica: Katie and I went to undergrad collectively and performed rugby. We’d at all times talked about beginning a enterprise… Later, Neil and I labored collectively at Lyft in analysis and knowledge science, and we’d additionally discuss beginning one thing someday.
It wasn’t till the summer time of 2022, when all of us occurred to be touring in Europe, that we found padel. We noticed it first in Lisbon — underneath the bridge, which truly reminded us of San Francisco — then once more in Rome, and at last in Spain, the place we spent per week studying how you can play.
Folks had been obsessive about it — whole rookies and semi-pros enjoying aspect by aspect, all having enjoyable.
Co-founder Neil Chainani, left, high-fives Juan Carlos Rosa, from San Francisco, as they play a sport at Park Padel in South San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Q: Was anybody enjoying padel within the Bay Space again then?
Neil: Hardly anybody in California… however the Bay Space felt like the right combine — nice climate, an enormous Latin American and expat inhabitants, and individuals who love attempting new actions that aren’t simply centered round alcohol.
Jessica: And there have been no courts right here! We wished to play, so we figured we’d need to construct them.
Q: How did you introduce the game to the Bay Space, particularly with pickleball already booming?
Neil: Our first location, in Embarcadero Plaza, was actually our advertising and marketing technique. They’re probably the most public courts within the nation — tons of foot visitors from the Ferry Constructing, commuters, and folks dwelling in FiDi (Monetary District) wanting down from their flats.
Jessica: Each day, folks would cease and ask, “What is this? Is it pickleball?” And we’d clarify — or invite them to attempt.
Neil: We love pickleball, but it surely was vital to make that distinction. Padel is its personal sport, with a special tempo and stage of play.
Jessica: We consider our group in waves: first, the individuals who already knew padel and couldn’t imagine there have been lastly courts; second, the curious — vacationers or tennis converts; and now, a rising wave of people that simply desire a enjoyable, social, energetic approach to meet others.
Co-founder Neil Chainani warms up at Park Padel in South San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Q: What’s the largest distinction between pickleball and padel?
Neil: The ball can come from any path, so it prompts your mind otherwise. There’s a particular type of pleasure once you pull off a shot off the wall that you just didn’t suppose would work — it surprises you and retains you hooked.
Jessica: The partitions are actually what set it other than pickleball.
Neil: That additionally raises the ceiling for athleticism. It’s straightforward to choose up — you possibly can have a good time inside an hour — but it surely has infinite room to develop. It’s quick, enjoyable, and extremely watchable, even on TikTok and Instagram.
Q: How have your tech backgrounds influenced the way in which you run Park Padel?
Katie: Every of us introduced one thing from tech that turned out to be actually invaluable. Jessica comes from consumer expertise — determining what makes a product “sticky” and how you can discuss to prospects about what they’d wish to see in a membership like this.
Neil comes from knowledge science, so he handles the numbers and builds instruments to verify all the things runs effectively. I come from folks and expertise, so I concentrate on team-building, tradition, and guaranteeing an excellent expertise for each workers and members.
Jessica: We’ve additionally needed to study a lot from scratch — actual property, building, hiring. We additionally concentrate on skilled improvement for employees members who may’ve been employed proper out of faculty.
What’s been attention-grabbing about this second is how a lot AI has helped small companies like ours function like larger ones. Neil builds inside instruments that assist with programming, scheduling, and membership programs.
Gamers play at Park Padel in South San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Q: Why did you select South San Francisco to your second location?
Jessica: We wished a flagship — a wonderful area with a lounge, showers, locker rooms, and room for tournaments. Indoor made sense so folks may play year-round, however discovering buildings with excessive sufficient ceilings is difficult.
Katie: Lobs are an enormous a part of the sport, so ceiling top is important. South San Francisco has a whole lot of warehouses that labored completely. Plus, we’re within the coronary heart of the biotech cluster, so it’s ideally suited for company occasions — and we’re near the airport, which makes it handy for vacationers.
Q: What did your family and friends suppose once you left your careers?
Jessica: They requested, “You’re not actually leaving your job, right?” And I stated, “Oh no — I have to.”
Katie: We truly acquired Embarcadero off the bottom with help from family and friends, so we had been fortunate to have individuals who believed within the imaginative and prescient.
Jessica: They didn’t know what padel was — there was nowhere to point out them. Our first spherical was actually a leap of religion: they had been betting on us. Typically we remind one another of how comfortable our previous jobs had been — however that is a lot extra fulfilling.
A bunch gathers to play in a match at Park Padel in South San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Q: How have you ever constructed a group across the sport?
Jessica: It’s a very powerful half. This place is nothing with out the folks. Neighborhood-building is hands-on — we’re right here on a regular basis, assembly members and matching them up for video games.
Each time I’m on the membership, I consider it like internet hosting a celebration. My favourite factor is seeing members who met right here hang around exterior the membership — going to concert events collectively or bringing associates again to play. That’s when it’s working.
Q: What have you ever realized as entrepreneurs in these first two years?
Katie: There’s no time to dwell on the previous. Each day brings new challenges. There are low lows, but additionally unbelievable highs.
Jessica: Battle to your highs. Imagine they’ll come, even when issues are powerful. And don’t do entrepreneurship alone. I really like that my co-founders are robust in areas I’m not — it lets us lean on one another when wanted.
Q: Any regrets leaving your previous jobs?
Jessica: Apart from the wage? (laughs)
Katie: I actually haven’t seemed again. After COVID, folks had been craving connection — a spot past dwelling and work to belong. Creating that area has been extremely rewarding. No day is similar, and that makes it all of the extra fulfilling.
Jessica: It’s a fascinating approach to stay. You’re continually studying and assembly new folks.
Q: What recommendation would you give to others eager about beginning a enterprise?
Katie: Discover individuals who problem you — who push again, talk about, and aid you attain higher selections.
Jessica: Maintain robust opinions loosely. Again up your concepts, but when somebody has a greater one, go together with it. You don’t win by successful an argument — you win when the enterprise succeeds.
Merchandise on the market at Park Padel in South San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Q: What’s subsequent for Park Padel?
Jessica: We’re a spot within the East Bay that we’re actually enthusiastic about, and planning to open round 100 courts over the following 5 years — now we have 13 now. We love the Bay Space, we’re deeply invested right here, and we need to change into a family title earlier than increasing throughout the West.
Q: Something you’d like to spotlight about your South San Francisco location?
Jessica: We now have showers, locker rooms, a devoted workspace if you must take calls, health gear, restoration instruments like Hyperice and Normatec, and even a ping-pong desk. We host tournaments each third Saturday, plus socials… the place gamers of all ranges can drop in.
Katie: And our workers — they’re wonderful… We make investments closely in them as a result of they make the expertise what it’s.
Names:Jessica Talbert, CEO and Co-FounderKatie Lampert, COO and Co-FounderNeil Chainani, CFO and Co-Founder
Schooling:Jessica — Stanford College; B.A. 2011, M.B.A. 2018Katie — Stanford College; B.A. 2011Neil — College of Maryland; B.A. 2015, Harvard College; M.S. in Information Science 2016
Residence:San Francisco Bay Space
5 issues about Jessica, Katie and Neil:— Jessica and Katie performed collectively for the Stanford Ladies’s Rugby group as undergraduates.— Jessica and Neil, who’re married, predict their first baby in December.— Neil moonlights as a designer and created a lot of Park Padel’s web site and signature swag.— Jessica prefers to spend her downtime studying nonfiction — The Identify of the Wind is her favourite e book.— Katie is an authorized barre teacher and hopes to convey that observe to the padel courts someday.
