We're a small, focused team putting every tennis court in America on one map. If that sounds like a thing you want to spend the next decade on — read on.
Not on features. We pick a narrow problem and execute it ten times better than the horizontal alternatives. The people we hire have a strong opinion about what we shouldn't build.
Our best product instincts come from playing tennis ourselves. Everyone on the team — engineers, designers, ops — uses the product weekly. If you don't play tennis, you'll learn.
At our stage, the engineers who do the most are the ones who can swap between Drupal, Next.js, React Native, and SQL without slowing down. We hire generalists, not specialists.
The team is distributed but the working hours overlap with California business hours. We get together in-person quarterly — usually around a launch.
Most decisions happen in writing — Linear comments, docs, PRs. Meetings are for problems that need three people's brains in the same hour, not for status updates.
Our default is "deploy on Friday." Small batches catch bugs early. Production behaves better when it changes constantly than when it changes rarely.
The whole team focuses on a single weekly metric — Weekly Confirmed Plays (WCP). When we move that, everything downstream moves with it.
Founding-team grants are meaningful (1–5%). Above-market base for our stage. We share milestones, hiring decisions, and the cap table with the team.
$1,200/year tennis budget for the whole team — lessons, court fees, gear, league entries. We expect you to use it. Eat your own dog food.
All roles are open as we close our pre-seed. We respond to every application within 5 business days.
You'll own the backend (Drupal 11 on Pantheon), most of the web (Next.js), and a chunk of the mobile app (React Native via Expo). The first engineer hire after the founder — substantial ownership and decision-making from day one.
What you'll do in the first 90 daysYou'll set the visual identity through public launch and own design for both consumer and operator surfaces. Start as a 3-month contract; convert to FT if it clicks for both sides.
What you'll doSecond engineer hire. You'll own the mobile app — iOS and Android — from M3 onward. We'd love to hear from you now even though the role opens later this year.
You'll be the first non-engineering hire. Owns host onboarding, player support, court-data quality, and the editorial review queue. If you've worked in marketplace ops before — we want to talk.
If you'd be perfect for The Courts and we just haven't written the JD yet, email us. We've made hires from cold inbound before.
100% covered for you, 75% for dependents.
Founding-team grants. Standard 4-year vest, 1-year cliff.
No tracked PTO. Take at least 20 days/year.
Lessons, courts, gear, league fees. Yearly.
MacBook Pro + monitor + chair. We pay.
$1,500/year for books, courses, conferences.
We get together in-person once a quarter. Usually somewhere warm.
Once we're past Series A, we'll add a match.
We don't use applicant tracking systems. Send Ryan a short note with:
We read every application personally and respond within 5 business days. If we're a fit, you'll do a 30-minute intro call with Ryan, then a paid trial project, then a final conversation with the team.