Good Morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

Let’s be honest: the way networking most often takes place is trite. 

You shake hands, swap Linkedin profiles, set up meetings over coffee, promise to “circle back”, and leave wondering where the time went. 

It’s polished, performative, and forgettable.

I’m Rahel Philipose, the host of The Ken’s newest podcast, 90,000 Hours, where I explore the future of work and how careers and workplaces are changing faster than ever. 

In the inaugural episode of this show, I wanted to explore a shift I have noticed in how people are connecting professionally. 

After all, “why do pitches have to be in offices and cafes and Zoom calls?” That was the question Arjun Vaidya asked himself a couple months ago. He is the founder of Dr Vaidya’s, a direct-to-consumer Ayurvedic brand and investment partner at V3 Ventures, a consumer-focused venture capital fund based in Mumbai.

Over a late night Zoom call in June, just before he took off for a family vacation to Spain, Arjun told me about his latest project, “Pickle and Pitch”. It’s a series of meetups where founders pitch their startups in between games of pickleball. Any entrepreneur who wants Arjun’s attention or capital will have to beat him first. The response was overwhelming.

Since then, more than 2,000 founders have reached out to Arjun, asking for a shot.

Besides Arjun, more entrepreneurs and investors are rewriting the rules of how people connect for professional purposes.

One of them is Vaniya Dangwal Eternal, the founder of Court Side Club, a curated networking platform that aims to bring founders, entrepreneurs, and investors together through sports. Here’s how she put it: “Most of the conferences you go to are pretty boring. You typically attend, collect a bunch of business cards and come back home. That was a problem I wanted to solve.”

I wanted to understand what the hype was about. So, last month, I decided to sign up for a pickleball mixer in Bengaluru’s HSR layout. This wasn’t just any game, though. It was the warm-up act for a micro VC summit organised by Headstart, one of India’s oldest startup communities.

I was nervous. I’m not great at small talk, or racquet sports, or high-stakes networking. This had all three.

But the energy was different. I could feel the guardrails coming off. Even though I was there mostly to observe, I decided to step onto the court. To put me at ease, other players assured me a five-year-old could pick up the sport. Happy to report I was not that five-year-old.

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At the event, I met up with Vaniya, who is a former pro tennis player. She founded Court Side Club based on the belief that sports like pickleball will give India’s white-collar workers a fun way to build new professional relationships—and that she could facilitate those connections.

And maybe that’s the real point: when you stop trying to impress, you start to connect. 

Want to know what networking looks like on a pickleball court? Listen to the full episode: https://the-ken.com/podcasts/90000-hours/pitches-pickleball-and-the-new-rules-of-networking/

Until next time,
Rahel 

P.S: Want to give pickleball a shot?

Here’s the official rulebook: usapickleball.org/what-is-pickleball/official-rules/rules-summary

Don’t worry, it’s not as intense as tennis!

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