Presenting: Pickup Play – Where Pickup Games Begin

Pickup Play (http://www.pickupplay.games) — Founder PJ Bullock presenting — is a community marketplace that uses sports to create real-world human connection and belonging.

Loneliness and social fragmentation are growing problems, and it’s harder than ever to find people to casually play sports with. Pickup Play uses sports as the catalyst to bring people together around a simple question: “Who’s free to play?” The platform makes it easy to discover, organize, and join pickup games in local communities. By lowering the friction to participation, Pickup Play transforms spontaneous play into a repeatable social habit. The result is stronger communities, healthier lifestyles, and meaningful in-person connection.

Our target market is urban and suburban adults in the U.S. who need easy ways to find social, recreational sports opportunities and are willing to pay for access, convenience, and community-driven experiences.

Our competition is Meetup, Facebook Groups, and recreational sports leagues. Our competitive advantage is focus on spontaneous pickup play, lightweight coordination, and community-first network effects rather than formal leagues or event planning.

The total market size in 2024 is the U.S. recreational sports and social fitness market, and the total market revenue in 2024 is $40B+.

Top 3 challenges:

1. Early user adoption
2. Achieving strong product-market fit
3. Staged development of a two-sided marketplace

Our PitchBoulder ask:
We’re looking for feedback on whether the long-term investment path toward building a $20M+ ARR business is credible, or if the focus should be more heavily weighted toward near-term execution milestones versus long-term vision.