Founder Information

Name: Matthew Taylor Social Links:

• Farcaster: @matttaylorlol
• Twitter: @MattTaylorLoL
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/MattTaylorLoL

Are you looking for co-founders?: Open to partnering with a technical co-founder, but planning to build and scale solo initially to limit costs.

Project Overview

Project Title: TouchTennis NYC - Onchain Tournament Platform What does your project do?: Building the first onchain tournament platform for TouchTennis in NYC, featuring automated brackets via Bracky, player profiles, match history, and an ELO rating system. All match results are signed onchain by both opponents for transparency and trust.

Mission statement: To establish NYC as the TouchTennis hub by creating an accessible, gamified onchain platform that onboards people to crypto through sports, while building a profitable tournament ecosystem.

Problem & Solution

What problem are you solving?: TouchTennis is an emerging, extremely accessible racquet sport with no organized tournament structure or player tracking system. Current organization is completely informal with no way to track progress, rankings, or facilitate competitive play with prize pools.

How do people currently solve this problem?: They don't - TouchTennis exists only as casual pickup games with no formal structure, statistics tracking, or competitive opportunities.

Revenue & Business Model

How will you make money?: Multiple revenue streams including tournament entry fees, prize pool percentages, gambling/betting revenue, sponsorships, and potential bonuses from equipment sales when entire school districts adopt the sport.

What will you sell?: Tournament organization services, platform access, sponsorship packages, and betting/gambling opportunities on matches.

Do you currently have revenue?: Not yet from TouchTennis specifically, but I have successfully turned profits in previous businesses through sponsorships and event coordination.

Progress & Execution

How far along are you?: I'm the TouchTennis USA ambassador for NYC Metro area and currently the sole TouchTennis player in NYC. I have experience with Bracky platform from pickleball events and am familiar with Solidity and Farcaster mini app development.

Are people already using your product?: Not yet - I'm building from ground zero as the only player in NYC.

What's your timeline to launch/completion?: Six months to get the sport off the ground with regular tournaments. By end of year, this should be a profitable business. Already in contract negotiations with casinos for live tournaments and working with Pivot Agency (leading racquet sport agency) plus piloting an unreleased Coinbase Wallet feature.

How long have you been working on this?: Recently became ambassador after discovering TouchTennis on TikTok. Leveraging years of experience growing pickleball and running events.

Technical Details

Implementation plan: Building initial platform myself using Solidity and Farcaster mini apps. After pilot phase and investor interest, plan to hire dev team for a more polished version. Platform will integrate with Bracky for tournament brackets and feature onchain player profiles, match history, and ELO system with opponent signatures.

What's a non-obvious detail about your project?: Roger Federer has tried TouchTennis and loved it. Planning to replicate this success by bringing D1 tennis players and professionals during US Open season for video testimonials and marketing content.

Founder Background

Why are you uniquely qualified for this?: I've been an events coordinator for years, led Polygon's NYC community for 2 years, run the NYC High School Esports League, and organize tech events and game jams. I work full-time at Urban Arts (non-profit) and lead events scouting for the Mayor's Game Development Industry Council. I have direct connections to NYC Mayor's Office of Sports and Wellness, Media and Entertainment, and the PSAL.

How did you come up with this idea?: Discovered TouchTennis on TikTok and immediately saw the potential. As someone who plays tennis, ping pong, pickleball, and padel, I recognized TouchTennis's unique accessibility - only needing a pop-up net, 21-inch racquets, and foam balls that bounce on any surface.

Past achievement: Successfully turned profits in multiple businesses through sponsorships and have grown pickleball as a sport in NYC, teaching new players through my work with Flows.

Funding & Growth

How will you use the funding?: Primarily for prize pools to attract initial players and grow the community. I'll be funding most events out of pocket initially, so any funding goes directly to incentivizing participation.

If you had 10x more funding, what would change?: TouchTennis goes to the moon - platform ready on day 1, top-level marketing campaigns, paid event staff, and significantly bigger prize pools to accelerate growth.

Best-case outcome: TouchTennis becomes my full-time business. NYC becomes the TouchTennis hub with different surface tournaments year-round, business activations, high school and college teams, and an easy-to-pickup, easy-to-gamble-on sport that scales to other cities.

Additional Information

How did you hear about this accelerator?: Through my involvement in the Flows community and Nouns ecosystem.