NYTech
People
Personfounder

Max Kogler

Max Kogler is the co-founder and chief executive of PingPod, a New York-based operator of automated, app-controlled table tennis facilities [1]. He is known within the American table tennis community for building a model that allows players to reserve unstaffed, self-service pods around the clock, an approach he has framed as an attempt to close the divide between the country's large recreational table tennis scene and its comparatively underdeveloped professional pathway [3][4]. Kogler maintains a public profile under the handle MaxiePod, through which he engages with the table tennis community [2].

According to Kogler, PingPod was incorporated in July 2019, growing out of table tennis meetups he attended with co-founders Ernesto and David, after the group identified a real estate agent's tip that a competing group was pursuing a similar concept using the same model, which accelerated their plans [4]. The founders wrote a business plan and pitch deck, raised capital, hired an architect, and brought on Christine Cha as their first software developer to build the app and user interface [3][4]. Kogler has described the difficulty of persuading landlords to lease space for an unstaffed facility located beneath residential condominiums, noting that he and his co-founders personally guaranteed the leases to overcome landlord skepticism [3][4]. The first location opened on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in February 2020, with the three founders personally installing flooring and finishing the build-out [3][4].

PingPod's launch coincided almost immediately with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing a temporary closure that Kogler says lasted a few months before the company reopened around June 2020 [3][4]. He has argued that the unstaffed, reservation-based design that initially worried landlords ultimately worked in the company's favor during the pandemic, since it offered a sanitized, socially distanced venue at a time when other social and athletic venues were closed, and he has cited customer messages describing the space as important to their wellbeing during lockdowns [3][4]. Kogler credits this positioning, along with continued demand after pandemic restrictions eased, with sustaining the company's growth [4].

By the time of his appearance on the JOOLA-produced Talkin' Smash podcast, Kogler reported that PingPod had expanded to 17 to 18 locations across the United States, including new sites opening in Miami, and said the company had shifted from persuading skeptical landlords to fielding inbound requests from condominium buildings and universities seeking to add PingPod as an amenity [3][4]. He has described the company's broader aim as designing pods that appeal both to competitive players seeking serious practice and to casual newcomers, positioning PingPod as infrastructure that can help bridge recreational and professional table tennis in the United States [3][4].

Founded

Insights & ideas

Max Kogler sees PingPod as a way to close what he views as a longstanding, largely unaddressed gap between recreational and professional table tennis in the US, arguing that while the sport is thriving casually, the competitive side has stagnated with no real bridge connecting the two [1][2]. He describes designing the pods deliberately to serve both strong players and total newcomers, insisting the concept had to cater broadly rather than serve only a niche competitive crowd [1][2]. Kogler also frames PingPod's unmanned, app-controlled model as a genuine innovation that required convincing skeptical landlords unfamiliar with an unstaffed athletic venue, and he credits early collaborators for shaping the product's design and technology [1][2].

He reflects on the pandemic as an unexpected validation of the concept, noting that the sanitized, private, contactless format let people socialize safely when other venues could not operate, and citing customer feedback describing the pods as emotionally significant during isolation [1][2]. He also emphasizes that PingPod's growth, from one location to 17-18, has shifted the business from seeking landlords to being sought after as a valued amenity [1][2].

Media & appearances

This page shows public professional information only, each fact cited. Is this you? Corrections or removal within 24 hours, no questions asked.