Future of the Business World Podcast · Wharton Global Youth Program

Tennis Ball Innovation and Sustainability on Center Court

September 25, 2024·23 min·1 clip

125 million tennis balls end up in U.S. landfills each year, and they take about 400 years to decompose.

Diana Drake opens the episode at the start of a new school year and podcast season for Wharton Global Youth. She introduces Future of the Business World as a place for young entrepreneurs and student-led ideas. The conversation then turns to Shreyas Gore and Ari Fain, co-founders of Serve to Sustain. Their nonprofit is focused on making tennis a more sustainable, eco-friendly sport. The backdrop of Center Court in Flushing Meadows, Queens, and the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament fits the story because tennis balls are at the center of their work. The founders explain that their project is built around collecting used balls and moving them into a recycling stream. Recycle Balls handles the recycling side. Lakehold then uses the processed rubber to surface new tennis courts. The partnership chain makes the idea concrete. It also shows how sustainability depends on coordination, not just good intentions. The episode spends a lot of time on the practical side of building the nonprofit. The founders describe how much time went into early planning calls. They talk about the first few months as a stretch of daily conversations about rollout and partnerships. They are blunt about how much logistics sat behind the scenes. Reaching high school students was one of the biggest challenges they faced. Building chapters required finding people who would actually participate and help the project spread. They describe using connections from Wharton programs, including a student from their business camp, to help open a chapter in Texas. The partnership story is equally grounded. At the beginning, they were just two high school students, and they were treated that way. They had to give up some of what they originally wanted to make the relationship work. Over time, credibility changed the terms of the conversation. As one of the partner's bigger clients, they expect to renegotiate on better terms. The episode also captures how the founders think about the work itself. One takes away the idea of bringing old things to a new life. The other keeps returning to problem first, then solution. Those lines fit the way the interview is structured. It starts with the idea, then keeps asking what had to happen in practice. The closing turns more personal and a little lighter. Shreyas names Mark Cuban as a dream guest because of Shark Tank. Ari picks Reed Hastings because Netflix reached such a wide audience and keeps showing up in everyday life. The episode closes with thanks and a reminder to explore more opportunities through Wharton Global Youth.

As heard by us

Teen founders show how a sustainability idea becomes a working nonprofit.

Future of the Business World treats tennis sustainability as a practical lesson in how teen founders turn a simple idea into a real nonprofit.

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Why you'd press play

Hear how two high school founders are making tennis more sustainable with Serve to Sustain.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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