Year One

A Letter to the Community

By Ryan Morneau, Pickleball Breakdowns

The last 365 days have been nothing short of special. When I started my senior year of college, there was one real challenge I still needed to face: finding comfort in my own voice and my own personality, regardless of what anyone else thought. That's not an easy thing to do at 21. I struggled with it most when I got to James Madison, a school in Virginia, coming from Western Massachusetts, where I didn't know a soul.

I'd done a lot of work on that feeling, but the last step felt like putting myself out there for the public eye, for anyone in the world to judge at any time. So that's what I did. I started my senior year and vowed to myself that on September 7 I would post a video on Instagram every single day until January 1. Three months, no excuses.

There was only one problem: I didn't know what I wanted to post. I had an excess of pickleball knowledge, but I didn't love on-court instruction. It felt oversaturated and overvalued as a way to actually understand the game, and I knew there was more to it than that. That's when I created the format I still use today: Pickleball Breakdowns. It wasn't called that for the first month and a half, and I honestly can't remember what I called it at first. I had no microphone, no camera, no idea how to edit, and no pacing for social media.

The first few months were tough. My first-ever video got 50,000 views, and it's still probably the worst video I've ever posted. Everything I posted after that, for the next three months, barely cracked a few thousand views. By January 1st I had 2,000 followers, and I loved every minute of it. The metrics didn't matter. I genuinely had a passion for breaking down the intricacies of pro pickleball, stuff people never get insight into otherwise, and I got better at it every single day.

So when January 1st hit, I said: screw it, let's pour myself into this and post every single day until I graduate. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. In the six months that followed, I:

• crossed 10,000 followers by the time I graduated
• won a national championship on the collegiate stage
• had some of the best memories I'll ever make, with my best friends
• most importantly, became someone in the pickleball community that people trust

Today, I can feel the momentum starting to build. But this is just the start. There's a lot more planned, all because I made a vow to myself 365 days ago that I'd be consistent at something, for basically the first time in my life, no matter what it took.

This investor letter is going to recap that first year. Every quarter after this, I'll recap the last three months and what's on the horizon. You can buy into what I'm building here, because I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm the same as all of you, just with a better two-handed backhand and a lot more knowledge about how the pros think about the game we all love.

I hope you enjoy these insights, and if you have recommendations, ideas, or feedback, let me know. I want to be as in tune with this community as I've ever been, because I really feel like I'm building something meaningful here.

The first three months I posted, I checked Instagram 50+ times a day, refreshing to see if I'd picked up an extra 100 views, or even one comment. It was stressful and overwhelming, because I was failing publicly, and people were poking fun at me for trying something none of them had ever succeeded at. It was an unhealthy habit, but it speaks to how much I cared about my image, and it's also exactly why I started the account: to try to overcome that fear of being judged. What I've learned over the last 12 months is that the fear never fully goes away.

For the back half of my senior year, I was in a genuinely healthy spot, because I was too busy having fun to worry about my numbers. Then I graduated. The account was in a great spot, and I saw a real opportunity to make it into something bigger. That's when the obsessing came back: the growth, the numbers, what people thought. There's a new subset of people watching now too: top pros and industry leaders within pickleball who all know who I am.

So you're going to see some real growth numbers above, and I want you to take them with a grain of salt. I'm proud of them, but they can be a devil in disguise. The faster you grow, the more it hurts when you don't exceed the expectations you set for yourself. Every day I'm trying to get back to the healthy version of myself, where the account is fun and not a stressor. Pressure makes diamonds, but stress can crumble you, and that's one of the biggest things I'm trying to balance.

One specific highlight worth calling out: in February, after the PPA's Indoor National Championships, I posted a seven-day stretch of videos that blew up my account. I didn't do anything differently. The courtside cameras were just great that week. But I picked up thousands of new followers, and that was the start of it all. It's the best proof I have that consistency works wonders. You never know which video will land or how much a given day's effort will be rewarded. You just do it every day with no expectations, and if you're putting in the work and providing value, something good eventually happens.

That was the week I knew I had something real building. So even with vacations, a full class load, and a week in China, I posted every single day. You never know which video finds the right eyes, or where your next opportunity is going to come from. If there's one lesson in any of this, it's that showing up matters, more than you think.

Content is only one side of this story. I wanted to give real space to my college experience, because after this, it's not something I get to keep building on.

Quick background: I went to James Madison University, a state school in Virginia with about 23,000 students. I'd never heard of it growing up in Western Massachusetts, and I didn't know a single soul there. The first thing I did on campus was join the Pickleball Club. At the time it was maybe 15 kids and nobody cared about it. Over four years, I watched it grow into a powerhouse other schools modeled their own clubs after.

I was on the club for all four years and served as president my junior year. While I was president, we became the second school in the country to sign multiple sponsorships, behind only UVA. That same year we won a regional tournament. It probably doesn't mean much to anyone outside the club, but it's probably the proudest I've ever been of a group of people in my life (and we celebrated like we won the super bowl). Just writing this makes me tear up a little. There's no better experience I could have had in college, and a lot of that is because of the JMU Pickleball Club. It taught me how to lead, delegate, build a team, have hard conversations, and sign sponsors, all while having the time of my life. It truly was an invaluable experience.

On the individual side: I was ranked #1 in the country my junior year on a DUPR basis. Senior year, I was a three-time All-Star and qualified for the Major League Pickleball tournament by winning the MLP All-Star Game. I won both men's doubles and mixed doubles, and I was a big part of why we won the Dream Breaker too. Most of all, I won a national championship in singles. I was the #1 seed, but there were a lot of good players in that field, and the win never meant "I'm the best player in college" to me. It meant something bigger: it symbolized everything James Madison Pickleball has put into the collegiate scene. The same program that built me into a better from when I was a freshman into who I am now.

This is likely the last time I'll mention college pickleball in these investor letters. But if there's one thing to take from my college experience, it's that pickleball was a huge part of my life, and if I could do it all again, I wouldn't change a single thing.

What's next for Pickleball Breakdowns? The daily content has worked, and I'll keep doing it, but I don't want it to be the only thing. There's more the common pickleball fan can get from this account, and I'm excited to tease a few of those things here.

First: co-streaming and watch parties. I'm working on a deal with either the APP or UPA that would give me rights to their media so I can watch-party their events. Instead of just watching Pickleball TV alone, you'd tune into a live YouTube stream and watch it with me: live reaction on top, and a real way to engage with other fans instead of watching in isolation. Community is what makes this sport special, and it's what I want to focus on over the next three months if I can get a deal signed.

Second: coaching. I don't love on-court coaching. I do it for friends and family because I love them, not because it's where my passion is, and it's not where I'm strongest compared to the top pros. What I am passionate about is online coaching: reviewing film and fixing fundamentals rather than just how someone hits a shot. Everyone's grip and strokes are different (not everyone's going to hit a two-handed backhand like I do), but everyone needs to bend their knees and hit to the left foot when trying to put away points. Those fundamentals are universal, and it's surprisingly rare for coaches to actually teach them that way. I'm building a pilot for personalized one-on-one online coaching and running a small test with a few clients first. If it works, and I'm confident it will, we'll expand it to anyone who wants in. That'll likely be in partnership with a couple of coaches I know who are excellent with lower-level players (3.0-4.5), since my own style and lingo skew well past that range. Realistic timeline: three to six months.

Third: it's one I can't fully reveal yet. It's for any player at any skill level, and it'll change how you watch back your own matches. Most of you already record your games, whether on your own or through something like a facility's Pickleball Vision setup. But there's one thing none of those setups give you right now, and it would add a real layer of entertainment to your own footage. I'll let you speculate. It's coming, hopefully soon.

If you saw my video on this: the total money I've made from this account so far is a big, flat $0. That was by design. I was in my senior year, having a great time, and there was no reason to get busy monetizing with paddle deals, shoe deals, or paid ads. I've since graduated, and it's now been about three months since I walked across that stage. The $0 hasn't changed, on purpose.

That said, I do want to start looking at ways to monetize going forward, with one line I won't cross: I'm not going to sell out. I see creators promote products they don't actually believe in, and that's not what I'm doing here. I have a full-time income; I don't need the money. If you ever see me promote something, it'll be something I've genuinely used or believe in.

I'm also not chasing paid ads as the main play. I think the bigger opportunity is providing real value and getting paid for it: coaching, watch parties, building something real for this community. I'll give you an honest update on all of it every quarter.

I'm this open about it on purpose. There's a real education gap around what it actually takes to make pro pickleball work financially, and a lot of young players don't do the math before they put themselves in a bad spot. That's a longer conversation for another time.

A bit of forward guidance on my own goals in pro pickleball, not just content.

The question I get constantly: you're talented, why don't you just go play pro? I don't think that's a fair question. It's not everyone's dream to play a professional sport. Five years ago, telling someone you wanted to play pro pickleball would've gotten you laughed at. What I will say is this: I love competing, and I've found other ways to scratch that itch. I have real ambitions in finance and banking, and pickleball, honestly, slows that down. There's a fair argument that playing pro connects you to people who can accelerate whatever career you're building, and I buy that. But it doesn't give you the time to build skills that matter outside the sport. You're hitting a wiffle ball around a court. At a certain point, you're an entertainer, not someone building toward being valuable in the wider world. Nothing wrong with that, but that's the reality of it.

The side I'm actually interested in is off-court entertainment: co-streaming, watch parties, coaching. Real value, not just competing for its own sake. However, there is also something to be said for playing pro as marketing expense: it builds credibility and gives me reach I wouldn't otherwise have. But that's not the only reason I'd play.

Here's the other one: I have zero interest in grinding PPA qualifiers, first round, second round, etc. Unless you're in the quarters or semis of a PPA event, winning doesn't move the needle. You cause an upset, and it's forgotten in five days. Nobody's watching. No team, no stakes, nothing to actually care about. Major League Pickleball is the opposite: a real stage, competing for a team, for coaches, for fans who rally around an identity bigger than one player. That's what excites me, and with real pressure on the line, I play a different level than I do with just my own pride at stake. So if you ever see me in pro pickleball, it's for one reason: the Major League Pickleball stage, competing for something bigger than myself. That's when I'm at my best, and that's where I want to be.

I know this was a lot to take in, a full year of my life condensed into one investor letter. Future issues will be shorter and more to the point. If you made it this far: thank you. This community has been life-changing, and I don't take that for granted. I'll see you on your feed tomorrow, same as every day since September 7th. :)