Jared Paul: The Origin Story of The Kitchen and How It Became Pickleball's Biggest Community | S4 E5

Jared Paul is the co-host of Pickleballers and the founder of The Kitchen Pickleball — the largest and most engaged pickleball community and media company in the world, with over two million cumulative members, followers, and email subscribers across platforms.

In this episode, Roscoe flips the script and puts Jared in the guest seat for the first time, joined by Dane Illif, Jared's longtime co-founder and right-hand man at The Kitchen. Together, they trace the full origin story — from a broke music startup in Oakland to building the brand that helped define modern pickleball culture.

Jared opens up about the winding road that led him to Austin: surviving 9/11 in New York, playing in a funk band called Frontline Theory, running a nonprofit in San Francisco, and finally landing at a digital agency where he realized he was unemployable and couldn't work on someone else's dream. The Kitchen didn't start as a business plan — it started as a Facebook group for Austin pickleball players during COVID, born out of a failed music company and a chance invite to play at a bar called Bolden Acres.

Jared and Dane also get into the behind-the-scenes of how The Kitchen actually became a business — from a $1,000/month deal with an Amazon paddle brand, to producing an $8,000 Electrum commercial in Vegas, to landing an early partnership with Connor Pardus and the PPA before anyone else believed in them. They break down why they never bought a single follower, what made the kitchen impossible to replicate, and why Jared believes singles pickleball is the format that takes the sport to TV.

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Timestamps:

1:09 — Jared in the Hot Seat

2:17 — Dane Joins the Story

4:29 — The Broke Oakland Music Startup

9:38 — Growing Up & Early Life in Atlanta

10:10 — Bombing the Interview, Then Getting the Job

12:34 — Seeing 9/11 from NYC Rooftop

14:19 — Playing in a Band Called Frontline Theory

16:07 — Quitting Sales & The Power of Now

17:18 — Building a Nonprofit in San Francisco

19:29 — Working at Salesforce & a Digital Agency

21:06 — Why the Early Companies Failed

22:18 — Community First vs. Product First

27:08 — How Pickleball Found Them During COVID

28:02 — The Kitchen Is Born

29:07 — Dane Create the Logo

32:23 — When It Became a Real Business

34:03 — Trying to Make a Pickleball (and Failing)

36:28 — The $8K Electrum Commercial in Vegas

38:21 — The Early PPA Partnership

39:44 — The Kitchen by the Numbers Today

43:51 — Never Buying a Single Follower

45:14 — Top Tips for Creators

48:10 — Most Viral Post of All Time

49:24 — Is the Pickleball Boom Over?

50:44 — Favorite Pickleball Events

54:24 — What Pickleball Has Given Them

57:33 — The Future of Pickleball & The Kitchen