Founder Spotlight: Ben Borton, PodPlay

Ben Borton has built his career at the intersection of sports, technology, and society. We spoke with Ben about his journey from studying economics to founding PodPlay, and the lessons he's learned along the way.

1. Where did you attend school and what degrees do you have?

UCSB undergrad in Economics

University of York (UK), EAP
University of Chicago Master's in Cultural Criticism

I studied economics and the role of sports in modern society. 

I’ve always been interested in systems—how incentives shape behavior, how cultural institutions scale, how markets compound.

School gave me helpful frameworks. Startups are where the real learning happened. 

2. Were you involved with any business/entrepreneur groups in school? Other clubs/orgs?

I gravitated towards people creating things—music, writing, startups—or playing sports. The zero–to-one act of taking an idea and bringing it to life, whether in the arts or in startups, has always been what interested me.

In the UK, I was captain of the men’s and coach of the women’s basketball team. I wrote for and edited a newspaper as an undergrad. 

3. What inspired you to create PodPlay? Is it your first startup? 

I’ve done multiple startups, but this is the first that is creating a category.

PodPlay came out of the tech we built for PingPod, our autonomous table tennis concept.

We always knew the system could go beyond ping pong. By summer 2023, it was battle-tested—and strong enough to stand on its own. At the same time, pickleball was exploding and clubs were looking for modern infrastructure.

People saw what we built—mobile-first booking fully integrated with hardware like digital scoreboards, instant replays, and autonomous mode—and wanted that same experience.

That’s when it clicked: we weren’t solving a PingPod problem. We had the foundation for a category defining platform.

4. How would you explain PodPlay to someone who has never heard of it?

PodPlay is the operating system for modern sports venues.

Club management software.

Payments.

Tournaments & leagues.

Video + AI replays.

Digital displays.

Autonomous operations.

One stack. One experience.

From booking to brackets to broadcast.

5. Are there any co-founders or individuals you want to acknowledge (including investors)?

I am in charge of the PodPlay GTM org and double as our chief storyteller. My Co-Founders are:

Max Kogler, Co-Founder & CEO.

Relentless. Strategic. Long-term thinker.

Ilya Rivkin, Co-Founder & CTO.

Architect brain. Builder mindset.

Frontier Growth led our Series A round in October 2025 and has been everything we could ask for in an investor: they are a force multiplier for our executive team.

6. What are one or two of your biggest wins as a company since launch?

Expanding beyond the original use case.

What started in table tennis now powers pickleball, padel, pool, tennis, golf sims, and other participatory sports. New verticals. New logos. Existing operators adding locations.

Growing to $3 million annualized revenue without a sales team. 

Great product + great content allowed us to scale with a founder-led GTM motion. That only works with a highly differentiated product and clearly articulated vision. Post Series A we have hired exceptional sales leadership and are accelerating. 

7. What advice do you have for new founders with all that you've learned?

If you can't clearly articulate your company's story, you probably don't have a clear strategy. Writing publicly forces you to be clear to yourself. 

Building in public is not really optional anymore. Stealth = invisible in a world where LLM’s drive discovery.

Learn more about what Ben and PodPlay are building at podplay.app