When Annelise Niebauer moved back to Colorado after working abroad in the UK, she decided to pick up pickleball to make some new friends. She had also just gotten out of a decade-long relationship and found herself in that dark, dreaded place we’ve all been before…the apps. “I was surprised by how much admin being on dating apps was,” Niebauer recalls. “You’re creating multiple profiles, managing tons of small talk, and then when you finally meet in person, most of the time, the spark just isn’t there.” To cut through the chatter, she started doing something different: “If someone had a pickleball photo in their profile, I’d match and just message, ‘Hey, want to go play pickleball?’ It was such an easy way to skip the small talk,” she says. “Not every connection was romantic, but the social connection was real and easy.” That was the seed of the idea for PickleMatch, a new dating app currently in beta testing that allows pickleball lovers to find their perfect pickle. ✍️ Read the f...