Today we’d like to introduce you to Marc Freiman
Hi Marc, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Since I can remember, I was obsessed with racquet sports. I started playing Tennis at the age of four years old and dreamed of making the game my life. From the moment I picked up a racquet up until I began my professional career as an engineer, Tennis was at the center of it all for me. The helped shaped who I am today as a professional, as a sibling, as a husband, and as a human being. It gave me some of my happiest memories, started some of my closest friendships, taught be about other cultures, and also caused some of my worst heartbreaks.
A Mechanical and Electrical Engineer by trade, I started by career working in manufacturing and industrials in the plastics industry in Mexico City. Upon graduation, I wanted to expand my skill set and obtain knowledge about the digital space so I moved to South Florida to obtain a certification in computer science.
Upon completion, I pursued an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream of working in professional sports and joined the Florida Panthers Hockey Club as a Business Intelligence intern, which I was able to convert into a full time role. At the club, I continued to develop my technical skills, specializing in consumer insights, I was responsible for creating psychographic lead scoring and subsequent campaigns for the sales departments and creating data visualizations used by the C-Suite to evaluate the company’s KPIs. During the COVID-19 shortened NHL season, I left the team and moved to Pittsburgh, PA to attend Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business where I earned my MBA with a specialization in Business Analytics. Knowing that I wanted to stay in the sports and entertainment industry, I recruited for roles in the space and joined Fiserv’s Clover Sport business unit as a Product Management intern during the summer of 2021 and subsequently converted that into a full time offer to rejoin upon graduation.
From the summer of 2022 up until fall of 2024, I was the Product Lead for the entire Clover Sport business unit, working with software engineers, sales reps, customer success managers, and other key internal stakeholders to maximize CSAT and prioritize development for Clover Sport. The business’ products are in over 300 sports and entertainment venues across North America, including: Gillette Stadium, Citi Field, Raymond James Stadium, Acrisure Stadium, and more.
Knowing that at some point I wanted to follow an entrepreneurial endeavor in the sports and entertainment industry, I partnered with my brother Alexander in the summer of 2023 with the idea to build a best-in class racquet club in Austin, TX. With the fast growth of Pickleball and the favorable space requirements for courts, we started ideating what the ideal Pickleball experience in Austin should look like, and what peripherals best pair the game. It was there that DINKDEN was born.
During the past 16 months, Alexander and I have formed a formidable team of engineers, architects, consultants, and more to make this vision come to reality.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Absolutely not, being an entrepreneur in the physical space brings a lot of challenges and requires a lot of humility. It all starts with finding a location, it is one thing to come up with a concept but a whole different thing to execute that vision into reality. It is extremely important to surround yourself with competent people who are willing and able to share their expertise and turn that vision into reality.
Patience has likely been the most important thing during this time, while we already have every vendor onboard, be it for interior design, web development, court surfacing, canopy structure, etcetera, we are bound to follow the city for approval of site plans and construction permits. Being patient and working with the civil engineering and architecture team members has been a very long process that requires a lot of patience, trust, and determination. It’s of the utmost importance to have all of these things in order before breaking ground.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
DINKDEN is a family owned business and will be family operated. To me, DINKDEN represents the happiest moments of my childhood playing competitive tennis in Mexico and Europe, it’s an opportunity for me to share my passion for racquet sports with the Austin community and build a place where we combine a best in class facility with the luxury experience that is Mexican hospitality.
We have extremely high expectations for DINKDEN to be a place where from the moment you walk into the facility, our staff will know your name, your favorite drink, and your court of choice. We want DINKDEN to be a place where people immediately feel welcome and at home no matter their Pickleball level, this is a place where we will be united by the shared love and passion for the game.
How do you think about luck?
There’s a saying in Mexico that says “Camaron que se duerme se lo lleva la corriente”, it translate to “Shrimp that falls asleep gets carried by the current”, I often think of that saying when thinking about the role of luck. I believe that I’m extremely lucky to have been able to partner with my brother to pursue this endeavor, I am lucky that I have a supporting wife who pushes me to keep going when things don’t go according to plan, we were lucky that we were able to find a location and close on it for the business, but these things wouldn’t matter if I had “fallen asleep”.
Inevitably, things will get rocky for every entrepreneur at some point, what matters is developing the character and strength to keep going and figuring out how to overcome obstacles. Having said that, it’s always nice to have things go smoothly but you cannot solely rely on luck.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dinkdenclub.com
- Instagram: @dinkdenatx
Image Credits
Rendering of the facility to be built, not actual photographs.
