The new human-social economy
Give n Receive
Our uniqueness, connection, and value to each other in our real-world communities — digitized.
Give 'n Receive · NEPC
A new layer of the internet
Give n Receive
Our uniqueness, connection, and value to each other in our real-world communities — digitized.
Variant A · Paper & Ink
— Est. 2025 —
An invitation
Give n Receive
Our uniqueness, connection, and value to each other in our real-world communities — digitized.
Variant B · Vellum
Give 'n Receive
A new morning for human connection
Give n Receive
Our uniqueness, connection, and value to each other in our real-world communities — digitized.
Variant C · Daybreak
No. 01 / The Title
Give n Receive
An operating system
Our uniqueness, connection, and value to each other in our real-world communities — digitized.
Variant D · Sage Gallery
Next frontier in human connection technology
Big tech is digitizing everything.
Except the thing that matters most in our lives — real human connection.
Scroll alone
→
need for real connection and community going parabolic
→
Feel good together
What's a community?
Real-world social communities run on human connection. That’s what they are.
True Social
Matchmaking
Group-Experience
Formation
Compounding
Community Value
Today, these have to be done by hand.
Because no system measures what our communities actually run on.
The Data Exists
The most valuable,
networkable, untapped
dataset on the planet
is trapped inside
all of our heads.
Give 'n Receive
Privileged & Confidential
The Cost of Honesty
You'd never
say it out loud.
"I don't want to play with Mike." "That group makes me dread Wednesday." "Sarah is the only reason I come on Tuesdays." "I give all the energy and never get it back." "I stopped coming because of one person." "He's not really a 4.0."
Give 'n Receive
Privileged & Confidential
The Uncomfortable Cultural Shift
What happens when that data within all of us gets digitized?
The Invitation-Feed
Choosing IS measuring.
Who chooses to spend time with who, in what groups, and why — captured through Give 'n Receive's invitation-based matchmaking system.
Magic
happens
Our Uniqueness
To Each Other
True Social
Matchmaking
Peak Human
Value
Peak Community
Value
Group
Formation
Belonging
Different Layer of the Stack
Marketplaces light up cities.
Give ‘n Receive rewires communities that already exist.
Same cultural wave (movement as the new social currency). Different layer of the stack.
Dimension
The Marketplace
e.g. SweatPals, Eventbrite
Give ‘n Receive
The operating system
Who it’s for
Strangers looking for a class to attend in their city
Existing real-world communities running on human value exchange — coordination stacks stuck in 2005
Atomic unit
The event — broadcast → audience
The invitation — directional → small group
What it does
Discovery + ticketing + payments — host posts, anyone signs up
Encodes the human coordinator’s tacit knowledge — picks the right four for a court
Data captured
Tickets, attendance, repeat bookings — same data Eventbrite has had for 15 years
Every invite, accept, decline, sub, fill — directional behavioral signal between specific humans
The moat
Two-sided liquidity per city — cold-start, executed well
The Invitation Graph — compounds with every invite, can’t be scraped or bought
How it scales
Add cities · one at a time
Add clubs · CourtReserve = 1,600 already · each one already has a Krista
They are the marketplace.
We are the operating system that runs underneath.
Opportunity Size
Abundance
information
sharing
intelligence
human connection
Human Value Marketplace
When you digitize what we mean to each other, you can:
graph it · orchestrate it · sell it · automate it · incentivize it · make it abundant
 
The data exists in all our heads
The most networkable, untapped dataset on the planet
↓
our private thoughts and feelings about each other
Replaces
Skill Ratings · the old paradigm
3.0
One number. One dimension.
100-year reign — ending.
Invitation Feed
There’s no like button in the real world.
But there’s the invitation.
Like
You belong, the invitation proves it.
Scheduling is measuring
There’s no like button in the real world.
But there’s the invitation.
Before the room
Invitation Feed
Member Mixer
Sunday · 11:00 AM
✓ ×
Round Robin
Saturday · 9:00 AM
×
Refer a friend mixer
Friday · 5:30 PM
✓ ?
Dream foursome
Tonight · 6:00 PM
✓ ×
In the room
Group Formation
Who you choose measures connection at the exact same time it schedules it.
Max social signal · density · velocity · need
Average pickleballer: 3 sessions, 24 rounds per week.
Her reality
Each one is it's own Give'nReceive experience and experiment.
Core Product · Decisions in Motion
Every invite = a choice. Every choice = signal.
Real decisions captured, in real time. Not surveying who likes who. Who chooses to spend time with who.
Krista's Feed · Today
5 INVITES
Doubles 4.0 · Tue 6pm
w/ Sarah, Tom, Jen · Court 3
Pickup Mixer · Wed 12pm
w/ Mark, Lisa, Joe · Court 1
Round Robin · Thu 7pm
w/ Bob, Carol, Dan · Court 5
Doubles 4.5 · Fri 6pm
w/ Pat, Alex, Sam · Court 2
Sat Open · Sat 9am
w/ Mike, Kate, Jim · Court 4
choice
→ signal
The Matchmaking Graph · forming live
K S M P A
Each accept becomes a directional edge. The graph compounds.
412
Invites today
287
Accepts
125
Declines
all
Captured
Proof · the living lab
Already running at New England Pickleball Club.
400
people with personalized invitation feeds
60
invitation courts · per week
$215K
ARR · powered by Give ‘n Receive
+5%
court utilization lift
NEPC · 2 locations · ~500 members · the operating lab
Signal Density
645,228+
behavioral signals — already captured
400 monthly active players · 18,007 events · 2 NEPC locations
258K
When
time-of-day,
day-of-week patterns
171K
Who plays whom
co-play pairs
per group
100K
Yes / no behavior
accept, decline,
response timing
86K
Showed up
attendance
per event
30K
Conversations
decline reasons,
SMS, notes
We don’t need millions of users. We need high-frequency users in structured group interactions.
Pickleball’s 4-player format delivers that.
Inside New England Pickleball Club
When people say no to a group,
they almost never tell you the real reason.
70%
follow social avoidance patterns
0.6%
will say so directly
The invitation captures it. Feedback doesn’t.
NEPC Proving Ground
Same courts. Better groups.
More people showing up.
Before
55%
court utilization
After Stage 1
61%
court utilization
+$110K new revenue
“The GnT invite has three courts all month — the skill rating event couldn’t fill one.”
— Krista Trefethen, NEPC General Manager
“I don’t even check calendar events anymore.”
— Member Dean Taylor
Our Moat · Krista's judgment, digitized
One pickleball club general manager + One agent.
She pours in everything.
📨
Invitation Feed
Every group she builds encodes who belongs together
🤖
Slack Agent
Direct conversation — overrides, insights, personality notes
📱
Fill Texts
22K texts — who she calls first reveals who she trusts
📋
Event Setup
Court assignments, time slots, cohort choices — all signal
Krista
keep Tom and Rick apart
Agent
Separated. Making it invisible.
Krista
new member Jen — shy but good. welcomers first
Agent
Jen on Court 3 with Beth and Carol.
Krista
Dave M gone 2 weeks
Agent
His last 3 were competitive. Burnout? Slot lighter?
Krista
Carol thinking about quitting
Agent
Her last 4 had low-warmth pairings. Rebuilding her week.
Krista
Mark feels intimidated by 4.0s
Agent
Bridge group. Strong 3.5s, encouraging.
Krista
wed 10am ladies are perfect. lock it
Agent
Locked. Won't rotate.
Krista
tuesday 4pm getting cliquey
Agent
Rotating 2 per week. Gradual.
Krista
put the new couple with the Johnsons
Agent
Thursday Court 2. Done.
Give 'n Receive
Privileged & Confidential
Current Phase: Human-In-The-Loop
Krista's agent
starts leading.
Give 'n Receive Agent
Janet cancelled Wed 2pm. Sub found: Lisa (similar style, available, welcomed by the group). Dave M. hasn’t played in 3 weeks — slotted him Thu with his favorites. 3 courts ready. Approve?
Krista
approved
Give 'n Receive
Privileged & Confidential
Behavior change
Radical change in player behavior.
Your 24/7 personalized matchmaker.
20,000 accepted invitations · 300 active players
“It’s such a psychological phenomenon — I couldn’t fill a skill rating event on Monday at 5pm to save my soul, and now the Give 'n Receive invite has three courts all month.”
— GM Krista
“Finally, I feel like a person, not a rating.”
— Member Laurie Relinski
“I don’t even check calendar events anymore.”
— Member Dean Taylor
The Leap
That agent Krista talks to in Slack?
Every staff member gets one. Then, every player gets one over SMS.
Marcus
I'm new and don't know anyone
Give 'n Receive Agent
I found 3 players who love welcoming new people. Tuesday at 6.
Will they be nice?
They're the best. You'll feel at home.
Sarah
Keep me away from Mike’s court
Give 'n Receive Agent
Done. He’ll never know. Rebuilding your week around people who make you feel great.
Wed 2pm — Court 3
Beth
Can't wait for tomorrow!
Jen
My first week! Nervous lol
Give 'n Receive Agent
You're going to love this group, Jen. Beth is the best welcomer we have.
Carol
We'll take care of you! 💛
The Intelligence
Every interaction trains it.
It never stops getting smarter.
Domain experts + players + communities + AI = a self-improving coordination engine
G n R INTELLIGENCE RSVPs group ratings cancels referrals chat signals group outcomes repeat requests expert overrides every player, every interaction better groups out smarter matches
Autonomous social coordination
Two loops. One engine.
The club optimizes itself · at AI speed
Matchmaking loop INVITATIONS RSVPs ROUNDS PLAYED THE ENGINE G n R LEARNS · MAXIMIZES RECIPROCITY Value loop BETTER MATCHES RETENTION REVENUE EVERY OUTCOME TRAINS THE NEXT INVITATION
Historical community data solves the cold-start problem.
← Ground Zero
Human connection, zero to one starts here.
✕
Click anywhere to return
The Perfect Outlier Wedge

Pickleball is the lowest-risk wedge.

19.8M US players. The other 18.8M coordinate through texts and group chats that don’t get smarter. (SFIA 2025 · DUPR)

90+

90+ new clubs / month

Fastest-growing sport in US history

4 players / court

Densest social signal per session

3–4x / week

Graph densifies fast

The Insight
For the first time, we can understand
what makes each person unique
Not demographics. Not rating.
What they actually bring to a room.
&
what they’re worth to each other
Not followers. Not likes.
Real human value — measured by what people choose.
Why this matters
Airbnb solved discovery. We’re solving the real-world social graph.
“Getting people connecting in the real world is the ultimate promise of the internet.”
Brian Chesky
Founder, Airbnb
Max lived problem
domain expertise
⟶
Idea maze
reinvention
⟶
Epic unsolved problem
scaling real human connection
dave@gnt.ai
Founder · Dave Velardo
I turned down the acquisition.
Built New England Pickleball Club instead — to figure out the new future.
2020
#27 ranked
pro tour
2021
DUPR acquisition
offer declined
2022
Built New England
Pickleball Club
2024
Bet on the
invitation feed
2025
Steve (CTO) joins
System goes live
$2M+
ARR testbed
communities
60 courts/wk
powered by
Give ‘n Receive
$215K
court fees ARR
(NEPC)
Self-funded
from
day one
Impact
3× Net Profit Impact
GnT handles the complexity of people. You 3× the value of your community.
$300K
—
55%
util
Before GnT
$410K
+37%
61%
util
Stage 1
today
$630K
+110%
70%
util
Stage 2
human-in-loop
$850K
+183%
80%
util
Stage 3
autonomous
“The GnT invite has three courts all month — the skill rating event couldn’t fill one.”
— Krista Trefethen, NEPC General Manager
The Ask
Seed round
$1.5M
to prove it transfers.
18-Month Sprint · End of 2026
✓
Full autonomous social coordination live at NEPC
✓
3–5 external clubs sold & onboarded
✓
Repeatable onboarding: signed to live in <30 days
✓
Series A position: external ARR + proven playbook
Team
Small, focused, shipping
Runway
18 months
Proving ground
Already running
Get the most out of your community,
while your community gets the most out of you.
G n T
Give 'n Receive
Free to give.
Abundant human connection
dave@gnt.ai
Our vision
All our lives run on
Abundant
human connection
Every prior substrate of civilization — food, water, information, money — has gone abundant.
Human connection is next.
What’s a good life?
Every field of science agrees:
human connection matters most.
Neuroscience · Epidemiology · Public health · Longitudinal
Human connection
#1 predictor
of a fulfilling life
Money
Fame
Work
Intelligence
Fitness
Nutrition
Sources: Harvard Grant Study Holt-Lunstad (PLoS) Kim (Harvard) Chen (PNAS)