Trisha Goyal is the CEO and Founder of Break Sports.
break sports
In 2019, Trisha Goyal found herself experiencing a problem that many casual adult athletes face. She wanted to return to tennis but didn’t know how.
(Disclosure: Caroline Fitzgerald served as a consultant for Break The Love in 2022.)
“After spending the day from 9 to 9, I was a little tired of having to go to the gym alone. I wanted to get back to the sport of tennis, which I had been playing since I was little. ” said Goyal. “It turned out to be really difficult. I had to either join a brick-and-mortar club in a single location or go online and find strangers to connect with.”
Goyal quickly learned that the pain he was experiencing was not unique to him, but was shared by many of his friends and colleagues.
“Actually, a lot of my friends have asked me, ‘How do I start playing tennis?’ Or, ‘Where do I go to learn?’ So I started Googling and realized there was a gap between education and empowerment.” . Because learning these sports online isn’t easy and back in 2019, you had to pick up the phone to schedule and book lessons. ” he said. Goyal.
Out of this collective frustration, a business idea was born. Goyal saw an opportunity to start a company that would make it easier for people to play sports. In 2019, Goyal began creating Break Sports, and since officially launching in 2020, the platform has become one of the largest online social sports booking platforms for casual players in the United States.
“You can think of us as a combination of Meetup.com and the mind-body of sports,” Goyal said.
Best known for its Break The Love platform for racquet sports players, Break Sports offers a social sports experience in 35 states where casual athletes can book, join, play, and meet new people. Masu. To date, Break Sports has served more than 360,000 users in the United States, primarily in racquet sports (tennis and pickleball) and golf.
Fusion of sports and culture
For Goyal, Break Sports is about more than just playing sports. Adult recreational sports leagues and platforms certainly existed before Break Sports entered the market. Her vision for the company is to make sports a seamless part of popular culture.
“Incorporating pop culture into our messaging is truly at the core of our DNA, from who we hire, who we partner with and collaborate with, to everything we put out into the world.” Goyal says. “We knew that in order to get to know new audiences, we had to speak their language, so we’ve always incorporated content and collaborations that draw on pop culture as well as sports. From fashion trends to people in pop culture who aren’t actually athletes to being in front of people who aren’t athletes.
Break Sports leans into experiential partnerships at events like Art Basel and collaborates with brands like Liquid IV, Bumble, Blank Street, Alo, Lilette, and Walmart to help active adults already work and play. They have found success by showing up in unique ways where they are.
Female founders in male-dominated fields
Data shows that being a female founder is not an easy task. Despite data showing that women-owned startups deliver better business outcomes per dollar of funding than men-owned startups, the numbers show that less of all venture capital funding goes to female founders. Only 2% are affected.
“Women-owned startups earn $0.78 for every dollar invested, which is more than double the revenue of male-owned startups,” Goyal said. “I think female founders are really attentive and can accomplish more with less.”
Goyal and her team have certainly achieved remarkable results despite the systemic challenges of being a female-led company in sports. Break Sports has reported double year-over-year revenue and is currently on track for an all-time eight-figure revenue. Break Sports’ major investors include the Dassler Family, Antler Ventures, Lake Nona Fund, and Behind Genius Ventures. Goyal was also named the inaugural Tory Burch Foundation Sports Fellow in partnership with Billie Jean King.
on the horizon
As global interest in women’s sports increases, Break Sports continues to grow, especially among users who identify as women.
“We recognize that 54% of our users are women, which is very interesting. In the sports space, we usually replace other types of booking platforms,” Goyal said. “As we continue to expand, and with the current increased interest in women’s sports overall, we are excited to see increased participation by women across all sports categories,” Goyal said.
Break Sports has begun expanding beyond its core racquet sports offering to include golf testing with Break The Birdie. In 2025, Goyal and team are embarking on innovations in more team sports, particularly in soccer and basketball, driven by interest from casual female athletes.
