Padel Foundry

Director of Racquets & Wellness / General Manager

Virginia Beach / Hampton Roads  •  Founding hire

Padel Foundry is building Hampton Roads' first serious padel club - a third space for the fastest-growing racquet sport in the world, run with the standards of a top country club and the energy of a great independent. We're looking for the operator who will run it.

It is a hyperlocal, capacity-constrained, long-lived physical asset operating in the fastest-growing racquet sport in the world. A new emerging-category specialist infrastructure asset class, with PropCo and OpCo ownership. 

The overarching vision is to create the destination youth academy and elite junior funnel to professional leagues in the US and globally.

What we're looking for

This is a head-hunt. We think you're an Assistant GM or Director of Racquets at a strong club right now, doing excellent work, and quietly aware that the seat above you isn't opening any time soon. You know how to fill courts through programming. You read membership funnels and court utilization the way other people read the news. You run a structured operation. And you'd rather build something than inherit it.

If that's you, this is the role most people in your position never get offered.

Who you'll be working with

Padel Foundry is being built by founders with a long operating track record. They've started and scaled 60+ companies in deep tech and education, developed 3,000+ units in real estate across the US East Coast, and built fully automated quant trading systems with teams across four continents. They build things that last, and they run them properly.

That changes the shape of this role. You won't be left to figure it out alone, and you won't be micromanaged either. Expect weekly time with the founders, their networks open to you, hands-on mentoring on the things that actually matter, and a real seat at the table on the calls that shape the business.

What you'll own

• Membership and revenue - pre-open through steady state, against a plan you'll help shape

• A 7-day operation: courts, front desk, F&B, member experience

• A small team of five-plus, including the Events & Experience Coordinator

• The 13-activation programming calendar - built in partnership with the founders and their vision, executed by you and your events coordinator (you would be expected to add other activations)

• The Q1 2027 launch event - our flagship pro-am, with celebrity captains and pros on court

• Court corporate sponsorships and the relationships behind them

• The Foundry Academy youth program - operating model, coaching, and the celebrity-backed scholarship cohort

• The P&L. Reviewed weekly with the founders.

12 Months OKR’s

• 300 memberships sold; attrition under 4% monthly

• All 13 activations live, with owners and numbers attached

• The launch event delivered - talent, sponsors, ticketing, content, all of it

• Hampton Roads talks about Padel Foundry without being prompted

• Our social media channels have 12,000 followers

Who you are

• A racquets operator. You've filled courts before, and you know how you did it.

• Revenue-first. You've owned a P&L for a unit doing $3M+ in revenue.

• Structured. Your operation runs on systems, not on you being in the building.

• A player-coach. Five-person teams don't have layers of management; you'll tour members, run events, and work the floor.

• Hungry for the next step. You've been ready for a Director-level seat for a while.

• Hampton Roads is home, or you're ready to make it home.

Comp

Base $100k depending on experience, plus performance bonus (target 20 - 25% of base), plus equity / profit share. Full benefits. We're transparent about the range because we'd rather filter on it than negotiate against it. 

How to apply

Email the founders directly. One paragraph on why this role. If there's a GM whose work you admire, tell us who and why.

hello@thepadelfoundry.com

Appendix

The 13 activations

Padel Foundry's programming is a defined calendar of a minimum of 13 activations. The GM owns the calendar end-to-end; the events coordinator runs execution. The founders work hand-in-hand offering their networks and guidance..

1. Structured Programming / Sunrise run clubs / performance clubs - beginner heavy padel coaching (would be a big draw), early-morning wellness programming that extends the brand beyond the courts

2. Structured socials - build socials around structured programming, the weekly social rhythm that makes the club feel alive on a Tuesday night, not just a Saturday morning.

3. Founding Member Cultural Launch (pre-open → first 90 days) - the narrative arc that turns early members into evangelists.

4. Family Sundays - the multi-generational programming that turns members into households. Families programming

5. The Foundry League system - the competitive and development pathway, from beginner ladder to Reserve Cup / Hexagon / FIP feeder.

6. Schools - relationships across all the 757 area schools

7. The Foundry Academy - the youth development program at the heart of the brand. This is both a retention engine and the legacy story Padel Foundry is building around.

8. Corporate and wellness activations - daytime bookings with Hampton Roads employers, team offsites, wellness packages.

9. Corporate league nights - the commercial spine of weekday evening court utilization.

10. Athlete / investor cultural series - curated evenings that leverage Padel Foundry's celebrity and investor network (757 legends, national ambassadors, Reserve Cup talent).

11. Art x sports evening - the cultural crossover programming that positions Padel Foundry beyond racquet sports.

12. Foundry Summit (Sports × Youth × Performance) -the flagship annual convening that anchors Padel Foundry's thought leadership in youth sport.

13. Court corporate sponsorships - commercial asset management: naming rights, branded activations, multi-year partners.

14. Singles nights - the social/community programming that turns the club into a third place for the 25 - 45 demographic.