From Zero to 630 People: What I Did, What I Stopped, and What I Failed at While Growing a Community

In the autumn of 2024, I started a pickleball community with two of my students.

The first trial session had two participants. There were two trial participants for the three of us.

A year and a half later, that number had grown to 630 registered members.

For those interested in community management, I will write down everything I did, stopped doing, and failed at.
Although this is about sports, I believe it applies to all kinds of "creating a place where people gather," such as yoga, English conversation, photography, and local communities.

What I did (1): Started with people close to me first

The first participants were referrals and customers from the tennis school I run.

I didn't try to gather strangers from scratch. I reached out to people with whom I already had a relationship of trust. This became the foundation.

When starting a community, many people think about "how to gather strangers" first. But starting with people close to you is enough at the beginning. 10 trusted participants will bring the next 10.

What I did (2): Kept looking for a venue even after being rejected 31 times

The biggest struggle at the beginning was securing a venue.

I went to negotiate with courts and schools. I made countless phone calls. I called 31 places, and only two gave me the OK.

I kept getting rejected, but I thought, "If I have two places, I can start." So I kept moving forward.

In community management, you will definitely hit the wall of "no venue" at the beginning. But the solution was to assume you will be rejected and just keep hitting the numbers.
I still think it was good that I used brute force here. One school told me it "couldn't be used," but I persisted and managed to get the vice principal to actually see us playing, which led to them giving us the OK.

What I did (3): Kept conducting every trial session with care

I didn't do any special marketing.

I just kept conducting every trial session with care. Whether the people who came could think "that was fun." I kept standing on the court thinking only about that.

Word of mouth spread naturally. Advertising costs were almost zero.

What I stopped: Stopped giving special treatment

There is something I stopped doing along the way.

It was giving special treatment to some of the participants.
"Changing the fee only for this person," "Making special rules only for this person."
I was doing things like... for tennis school customers, but I stopped halfway through.
Those things are prone to happening at the beginning.

However, doing this always creates friction. This was something that also happened in my previous tennis business.
Rules must be equal for everyone. Do not make exceptions. The community stabilized once I enforced this thoroughly.

What I failed at:Canceling a trial session because there was no venue

The failure I remember most is when I had to cancel a trial session because I couldn't secure a place to play pickleball.

Back when there were few facilities, there were times I couldn't book the day of the week I usually held sessions, which caused trouble for the participants.

I learned two things from this experience.
Always double-check in advance.
Keep multiple locations picked out.

It may seem obvious, but just by being thorough with this, you can significantly reduce the inconvenience to participants. At first, I only operated in one location, so if that wasn't available, I couldn't play pickleball. It is important to have multiple location candidates.
In community management, I believe that 'not breaking trust' is just as important as 'building up trust'.

Turning point: The external environment changed

Honestly, there isn't really a clear moment where I can say, 'It increased rapidly from here.'

However, inquiries increased from the time pickleball was featured on TV. Facilities also increased. Honestly, there is a part of me that rode the wave of the times.
Well, honestly, I was just lucky (laughs).

I realized something here. In community management, it is important not only to make internal efforts but also to know how to leverage changes in the external environment. It was important to be in a state where I could move when the flow came.
Especially for those working as freelancers or running small businesses, I think it is extremely important to stay somewhat agile.

In the end, what was the biggest factor?

To put the reason for reaching 630 people in one word: I kept going.

At first, there were two trial participants. I was turned down 31 times. Many people stopped coming. Even so, I continued to do it carefully every time.

A community does not grow all at once. But if you keep going, it will start to grow naturally at some point. I believe that whether or not you can keep going until that 'some point' is everything.

Kotaro Hayashi, Representative of tennis-peak Co., Ltd.

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