PickUp USA Fitness’ Founder and CEO is Jordan Meinster. Jordan was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and spent his youth in Colorado until coming to San Diego in 2006. Jordan and his wife, Casey, co-founded PickUp USA and presently live in Los Angeles.
Jordan’s favorite hobby in high school, college, and well into his thirties was pick-up basketball. He performed at least once a week. He enjoyed playing but despised the chaotic nature of it. He began developing a gym concept that would take traditional PickUp basketball and arrange it by adding referees, uniforms, a queueing system, and scorekeeping.
This thought crossed Jordan’s head while he worked his way through college, managing a fine dining restaurant and night schooling for his MBA while working full-time in finance.
Jordan finally resigned from his job in the financial industry and founded PickUp USA. Jordan was in the trenches at his gym from 2012 to 2016, tweaking systems and expanding the PickUp USA prototype club. From custodian to referee to salesperson, he played every function in the gym at some point. Jordan was able to start recruiting employees to fill positions as the club developed, allowing him to focus on developing the business.
Jordan now leads the PickUp USA Franchise Company and his staff in Pasadena, California. Jordan is also in charge of two corporate locations in Irwindale, California, and Chandler, Arizona.
Below are highlights of the interview:
Tell us about PickUp USA Fitness, from its humble beginnings as a start up to its current status as a thriving franchise.
In 2011, Jordan Meinster quit his job as a banker to start his lifelong dream of opening a basketball gym. In 2012, Jordan opened the first PickUp USA in a warehouse in Irwindale, CA.
PickUp USA started with a single service: PickUp basketball with referees for adults. It was a slow start for the concept, but within a few months, the basketball courts were packed with people. Gradually, PickUp USA started adding basketball and fitness-related services and equipment to the menu.
Today, PickUp USA has awarded 45 franchises across the country, and their clubs offer the original service of PickUp basketball with referees, along with basketball tournaments, group and private basketball training, youth development basketball leagues, full fitness centers, shooting machines, and more.
What were the major difficulties encountered by the franchise during the epidemic, and what has changed since then?
In March of 2020, COVID-19 shut down all PickUp USA locations from coast-to-coast. It was a scary time with a ton of unknowns.
We immediately implemented our emergency plans and worked with our franchise owners and their landlords to defer rent payments. We also worked with all of our customers to freeze their memberships during the closure period.
During the closure, we forecasted a worst-case scenario where we would lose 40% of our membership base upon reopening.
Then, in May 2020, after two months of closures, our clubs reopened. What happened next was the most surprising outcome in our brand’s history. Not only did we not lose the customers, we forecasted that our clubs would see demand that exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Within a couple of months, many of our clubs were experiencing all-time record revenues. Even with a couple of months of closures, 2020 turned into PickUp USA’s best year yet. 2021 beat 2020, and 2022 is set to be another banner year.
Many smaller basketball gyms didn’t make it through the pandemic. PickUp USA’s strong brand and resilient team of franchise owners weathered the storm and emerged in a stronger position than before.
In your opinion, what are the primary factors that have the potential to revolutionise the franchise industry’s future?
At PickUp USA, we believe that the future of franchising lies in allowing franchisees the ability to innovate at their locations. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have brand standards. Our clubs are expected to deliver a world-class basketball experience to our members and guests. That said, we are always looking to expand our menu by offering new services. Most of our new service ideas come from the store level.
How selective is the brand in choosing franchisees?
PickUp USA is very selective in our franchisee vetting process. We typically award one franchise for every 100 inquiries we receive about our franchise program.
We have a very deliberate process that starts with our Franchise Development Manager, Grace Ronquillo, conducting initial phone calls, sending information packets, and handling the front-end of our qualification process.
The strongest candidates then work with our VP of Franchise Development, Gary Mazakian, to go through a comprehensive discovery process. The strongest candidates are awarded franchises.
What does your franchise training program entail? Do you provide assistance with advertising and marketing?
PickUp USA’s franchise training program is widely recognized as one of the best in the fitness industry. Franchisees work one-on-one with our leadership team and support associates as they go through PickUp USA University. We do lots of remote training, in-person training at our headquarters; and substantial amounts of training onsite at our franchisees’ locations.
We have ten years’ worth of operating experience, and our training modules ensure that this knowledge is successfully transferred to our franchise owners and their teams. This is a big reason for our success and the track-record of fast starts that occur at our stores.
What sort of characteristics in employees contribute to the organization’s success? What is the best way to build a great team?
It’s two things: attitude and effort. Give me someone with a good attitude that is ready to work and we can accomplish big things together.
From there, you have to cultivate their talents with continued support, coaching, training, and professional development opportunities.
Lastly, it’s important to let your team have freedom and autonomy to experiment, innovate, and improve their processes and systems. Let them make mistakes.
If you hire the right people, give them resources and support, and allow them the freedom to grow, develop, and learn, you can have a dream team of individuals.
What are your overall objectives and goals for your brand? What are the company’s future plans to sustain its success?
At PickUp USA, our success is all about the success of the individual stores. We are exclusively focused on unit level economics. All of our resources go towards ensuring that our club owners have all of the tools, resources, and training possible to maximize their cash flow.
This focus is what has generated the results that our brand has seen over the last few years and we’re going to continue to reinvest in the success of the stores so that our footprint continues its nationwide expansion.
