GARY: Next on Start Up, we head to Grove City, Ohio to meet up with Dave Pando, the founder of LVLUP Sports, a premier paintball and airsoft adventure park.

All of this and more is next on Start Up.

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♪ GARY: My name is Gary Bredow.

I'm a documentary filmmaker and an entrepreneur.

As the country faces significant challenges, small business owners are navigating their way through a changing global marketplace while continuing to push the economy forward.

We've set out for our 14th consecutive season, talking to small business owners about how they started, how things are going, and what matters most to entrepreneurs in modern day America.

This is Start Up.

♪ GARY: Paintball started in the late 1970s when people repurposed marking guns - originally for forestry and livestock - for mock combat.

Companies like Nelspot and Tippmann made commercial markers and loaders, and the game quickly split into styles like woodball, speedball, and large scenario events with regional tournaments.

Over time, paintball became more organized and safer, with standardized protective gear, purpose-built fields, formal leagues, and coaching that emphasized teamwork, tactics, and player safety.

Today I'm heading to Grove City, Ohio to meet up with Dave Pando, the owner of LVLUP Sports.

Once a dream, LVLUP has become Ohio's number one paintball facility.

I can't wait to tour the fields and maybe suit up for a match myself.

♪ Take me back to that first time that you experienced paintball.

DAVE: When I was a kid, I grew up a baseball player, and that's what I wanted to be.

And I was doing travel leagues, and I was a pitcher, and I threw my elbow out really bad pitching.

And right at that time, I got invited to a paintball birthday party for one of my friends.

And I'm a very competitive person, and it just so happened I was really good at paintball the first time I played.

I shot a lot of people, and my adrenaline was going crazy, and it was just- I never experienced anything like it, you know.

I needed something else to focus my energy on that baseball was done for me, so paintball just became it.

My house is just like surrounded by woods, and so when I was around- once I started playing, when I was around 14, my neighbor and I started hosting paintball games in my woods.

So, we sort of- my parents let me start a fake illegal business in my yard.

(Gary laughs) And we were just- GARY: Awesome.

DAVE: Any money I had, I would just buy another paintball gun and another paintball gun until eventually we had like 10 sets.

GARY: Were you charging people?

DAVE: I was charging, you know, other 14-year-old friends.

GARY: Amazing.

DAVE: And their brothers or whoever would come and we would just go to the paintball shop.

My mom hated it 'cause it was like an hour drive.

GARY: Yeah.

DAVE: We would drive to the paintball shop, load up with stuff, bring it back home.

And then we would just play in the woods.

So, I think subconsciously it was what I was meant to do.

It's what I always wanted to do.

GARY: At what point did it sort of start to click?

Like, "I want to actually do something with this."

DAVE: But I did want to be a professional player.

But after college, my entrepreneurial instincts kicked in.

My dad was an entrepreneur as well.

GARY: Okay.

DAVE: And so, I decided that instead of trying to be the best player, I just wanted to work in the industry.

So that's- that was my first goal.

I got a marketing degree from OU.

And after college, I got my first paintball industry job was writing articles for a magazine at the time when magazines were a thing.

GARY: Interesting.

Okay.

DAVE: So, I would write articles for this magazine, but what I would do is I would just call companies I wanted to work for and just either pretend I was writing an article about them or actually, and then I would just do the article and schmooze them up.

And then after the article or after the interview, I would say, "Hey, also I have a marketing degree.

"I'm looking for a job.

If you're hiring, let me know."

GARY: Clever, man.

Did it work?

DAVE: It did.

It worked once.

And so, one guy said, "Well, if you lived in LA, you could come work for me at my big paintball park."

And so, 2 weeks later, I moved to LA.

I showed up at the park, and I said, "Hey, guess what?

I just moved here."

GARY: "I live in LA."

DAVE: Yeah, I was living on my friend's couch, and that was it.

He hired me at minimum wage.

GARY: Incredible.

DAVE: And I started working for this paintball park called Hollywood Sports in downtown LA.

I worked there for about 6 months until I eventually got sort of headhunted, hired to work for a paintball manufacturing company, an equipment company called Dye Precision, and they were in San Diego.

The biggest thing that I got from that job, other than, you know, a lot of marketing and design experience, was just bonding with the industry.

GARY: Connections, man, like for days.

DAVE: Absolutely.

Just becoming part of it, you know?

And, you know, anybody that works in the paintball industry will say that we're all, you know, maybe we're rivals, maybe we're competitors, but we're all a big family.

Pretty much as soon as I moved there, I was working on a business plan for my own park.

GARY: Amazing.

Getting paid to learn is what I call that.

DAVE: Getting paid to learn, absolutely.

GARY: That's an amazing story, man.

Having this vision, seeking it out, and having enough faith in yourself to go out without even having a job.

You've literally like created this world yourself.

DAVE: Sometimes you just, you know, you just follow your instincts and just go.

I mean, looking back, I don't know how many really hard decisions I made.

It was just a lot of yeses and a lot of sure, why nots.

GARY: Yeah.

DAVE: Until it clicked and it eventually led me all the way to where we are now.

I did not have anything lined up here, but I wanted to open a paintball park.

I could not afford to do it in California.

I had ideas.

I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted to go, but I did a lot of research while I was living in San Diego working at that park, and I noticed that Columbus had, I thought, a very open market.

There wasn't a paintball park very close to town.

We have Ohio State here, tons of college students, tons of businesses.

There's over- there's like 100 high schools.

And I just thought that the market was wide open.

I moved here, again with no money, but... GARY: No plan, nothing lined up.

You just packed up and left and came back.

DAVE: I had a friend who was a realtor and I said, "Hey, this is what I'm looking for."

And he's like, "Okay, this is crazy, but-" GARY: Yeah.

DAVE: "I'll go look for 30 acres of land for you somewhere."

And I was driving Uber.

I was just making websites for local people, anything I could to make money just until I found this land, until I got lucky.

GARY: Talk about finding the land.

DAVE: It was about a year process.

It was not easy to find the land.

We found other properties.

"Oh, this is this is in a wetland, or this is some," you know, there was just... Zoning for paintball is interesting.

You know, you can't just open it wherever.

What we ended up finding was this place we're sitting here now, but when we got here, it was just a cornfield.

There was no road.

It was just a big 80-acre cornfield.

GARY: Okay.

DAVE: And so what we did was we got a little creative and we talked to the owners.

"Let me lease the back 40 acres," 'cause there's some woods back there that I wanted to be able to use for the paintball.

GARY: Sure.

DAVE: "I'll pay you more than the farmer's paying.

What do you say?"

And he basically said, "Okay."

We paid him a little bit more than the farmers were paying at first, and then it just slowly increased over time.

But he was very nice to let us in cheap.

And then we just- we built a driveway and that was it.

GARY: What does a lease of 40 acres outside of Columbus look like here financially?

DAVE: Believe it or not, I was leasing 40 acres of land for $3,000 a month was what my rent was.

GARY: I think the super important part of that for me or for viewers would be you created yet another opportunity.

That, that wasn't, sitting there saying, "lease my back 40 acres and turn it into" - nothing was - there was no opportunity.

You just approached somebody and created it, right?

For the most part.

DAVE: And I'm also not a land negotiator.

You know, I'm a marketing guy from Cleveland.

GARY: Well, now you are.

DAVE: Well, apparently.

But that is, you know, just, just, you know, call it blind aggression, whatever you want to call it.

But... GARY: Passion.

Purpose.

DAVE: Just go for it.

Passion.

Yeah.

In the beginning, it was just very, you know, something that I could afford.

And then it was just, you know, how do I get the money to build the place?

♪ GARY: How were you able to, you know, source the money to even consider getting land?

DAVE: Sure.

So, at first I tried the bank route and tried to get a loan, just an SBA business loan.

GARY: Yeah.

DAVE: And turns out that they don't like lending out money to first-time business owners.

GARY: Yeah.

DAVE: I got denied from pretty much every bank in Columbus.

So, then I went the private route, which was equally as disappointing for the most part.

GARY: Yeah.

DAVE: It was a little bit more personal when they, you know, denied me.

But I tried as many local investors as I could, or just connections, anybody that I knew that thought maybe could do it.

But then eventually I found somebody that had kids that he used to do paintball birthday parties with.

GARY: Okay.

DAVE: And he was, he saw the vision.

He was interested in it.

He thought it would work.

And he was sick of driving his kids an hour away to play paintball from where he lived in Columbus.

GARY: Yeah.

DAVE: And he decided to put up the money.

GARY: And he put up how much?

DAVE: He put up $50,000 and got a quarter of the business.

And we used that money to- plus my credit cards and anything else I could come up with.

Just to- to invest in the beginning of the business.

GARY: So right now, we're looking at, this is 36 acres essentially.

DAVE: Yes, 36.

GARY: Right here.

DAVE: Mm-hmm.

GARY: Okay.

All right.

And then are you still leasing that 36 acres right now?

DAVE: No, so as the business started growing, eventually I bought out my business partner and became the 100% owner.

I also had a right of first refusal on the property.

GARY: So that's if he ever wanted to sell, you would be the first person- You could buy it?

DAVE: I could match the deal.

Yeah.

So whatever price he got, I could match it.

And so there was actually 3 times where somebody came in and made offers to buy the property, and I thought that I was toast.

Again, all 3 times I went to the banks to try to match the property, and I said, "Here, I have some business credit now."

GARY: Sure.

DAVE: I have this opportunity to buy the land.

But again, they just, they wouldn't accept the deal.

6 or 7 years in, I went to a different bank, a local bank here in Grove City where the paintball park is.

GARY: Yep.

DAVE: And the story I heard is that the owner of that bank used to ride dirt bikes on this property when he was a kid.

And he knew the property and he had heard, obviously our business had existed for a while then.

And so, he had faith.

And so, he approved the loan and I was able to get the money from the bank.

GARY: Oh my God.

This story is unbelievable, man.

Every single domino that needed to fall fell in place for this.

DAVE: Pretty much.

GARY: So now you own all 80 acres.

DAVE: So yes, I was able to match the deal and do the right of first refusal.

And so now... GARY: That is crazy.

DAVE: I'm my own landlord now.

♪ GARY: What about the building we're sitting in?

Because if this was a cornfield, obviously this wasn't here.

What is this?

I can't really- I can't figure out what we're sitting in.

DAVE: So we are in an old classroom, a mobile classroom from a school.

GARY: Oh.

Wow.

DAVE: I paid $1,000 for this building, and then we rehabbed it to become a paintball pro shop.

I have paintball experience, but not construction experience, not, you know, any of that stuff.

So, one niche that I found that became an addiction, I still actually have the addiction, is government and military auctions.

DAVE: So, all business owners out there... GARY: Okay.

DAVE: Let me tell you, this is a hack that everybody should know and take advantage of.

GARY: Got it.

DAVE: Obviously, I'm buying weird stuff.

So, for paintball, we need things that are, that you can hide behind, that look cool, and that are indestructible.

It turns out there's a lot of decommissioned holding tanks or, you know, just boxes, storage boxes.

GARY: Yeah.

DAVE: All kinds of stuff on these government and military auction sites.

And so, I just started bidding on things like crazy.

And I had my truck and a trailer, and I was driving all over the state just picking up things that I would get for $100, $200.

But not even just stuff to hide behind.

I mean, picnic tables.

A lot of the government's trash is a business owner's treasure, is what I would say.

And you wouldn't believe the deals you can get.

GARY: Was that the next step, was just getting this like pro shop area?

DAVE: So yeah, we needed a home.

We needed a shop.

The land was first.

Now it's the playing fields and the paintball infrastructure.

For the paintball side, again, I get lucky.

Where, so I worked for Dye Precision, that company.

Dye Precision used to be the owner of the professional paintball league.

A new league came and Dye's league went away.

And so, they were paying a fortune to store these, you know, all the infrastructure for the professional league in these semi-trucks.

So, the owner, he knew I was opening the park.

He said, "Hey, "I'm paying a fortune to store these semis.

"Can I store them on your property?

"Whatever you need to start the park, just use it."

GARY: Oh my gosh.

DAVE: "And then you can pay me back or just put it back in when you're done."

And so now I have poles, I have nets, I have, you know, all kinds of stuff.

GARY: Everything you could need?

DAVE: Everything I could need.

And again, it's because, I mean, like I said, we were a family and we all help each other out.

And so, I had a lot of support, not just from Dye, but from other companies as well, giving me unlimited terms, you know, for my rental equipment, pay me back whenever.

For my paintballs, pay me back whenever.

GARY: Wow.

DAVE: So yeah, really a lot of support when I started, and I couldn't have done it without them, honestly.

♪ GARY: What differentiates a really good paintball course versus a not so good one?

MIKE: A lot of times it's really stuff that's off the field for me.

It's the- when you walk in here, it's the hospitality that you're greeted with.

It's the sense and attitude from the people that you're meeting that you're welcome here.

GARY: And what about the field itself, like the obstacles and everything?

Is it anything that sets this place apart from others?

MIKE: Everything from the giant, you know, castle that's out there essentially, you know, to something as small as the Tiki map that's just, you know, like run and gun.

There's just so many options and you can spend a whole day here and do something new every time.

GARY: What do you say to somebody who's a little apprehensive and intimidated?

MIKE: Just ask questions.

I promise you, like, it's all in your head.

You know, everyone in paintball that is, you know, dedicated to this just wants the sport to grow.

And we want you here playing.

♪ GARY: How do you get people here?

DAVE: Well, I approached it with, "How can I do this without spending any money?"

So that was my approach to marketing in the beginning.

GARY: I see a theme.

Yeah.

DAVE: But luckily, paintball does have a cult following.

There are regulars, whether they're competitive players or just weekend warrior, love-it-as-a-hobby kind of people.

Whenever there's a new paintball park opening up, they're like, "Oh man," you know, a lot of Facebook groups.

It was a great marketing tool for me in the beginning, but also just a lot of word of mouth.

We're a birthday party business first and foremost.

GARY: Okay.

DAVE: Whenever we get a birthday party, we have to make sure that every person here has the best time ever so that they want to have their birthday party here as well.

So that was my marketing.

GARY: Great model.

Yeah.

DAVE: Was- was that.

And then it's just, yeah, anything I could do that was free, I, I was in there.

But it was a lot of Facebook hustling.

GARY: Tell me about a- a memorable experience in the early days.

DAVE: When we first opened, one of the big outings that I remember is that we just hosted- it was just a regular party, nothing out of the ordinary.

GARY: Yep.

DAVE: But then Cardale Jones showed up.

And Cardale is a very famous local football player, played for Ohio State.

He's a legend here.

And he just showed up.

For us, that was a big deal because we had- basically it was our first celebrity appearance.

GARY: Sure.

DAVE: And he was amazing and he was posting on his social media just like, look at me out here playing.

GARY: You can't buy that press, man.

You can't buy that.

DAVE: But that's the best- that's what's great about paintball is that any, it can apply to a 10-year-old girl's birthday party or a 6'6", 200-pound absolute premier athlete and paintball is the same fun to both of those people.

♪ GARY: What first got you into paintball?

CARDALE: I think just find another reason to be competitive with friends.

I think that's the biggest thing I look forward to.

I want to say about 2015 was the first time I came out here, had a chance to meet Pando and his staff.

And it's pretty cool because to see where- when I first started coming out here, to see where it is now, it's night and day.

GARY: What would you say to people that haven't tried it?

I mean, is it, you know, pretty accessible for just about anybody to come out and do it?

CARDALE: Here?

100%.

I can't speak for other places, but they do a great job.

Accessibility for everyone is there.

And I think it's a- I think it also plays into the comfortability for everyone as well.

GARY: So I have to ask, how does the rush compare between this and being quarterback in a national championship against, uh, against Alabama?

(Cardale laughs) CARDALE: You know what, you know what, I would say, you know, different types of rushes.

GARY: Okay.

CARDALE: You know, both of them are up there in their respective fields.

There's not many things I've done in the athletic space compares to that moment.

There's not many things I did in the recreational space compared to being out there in speedball or just playing paintball with friends.

♪ GARY: What's some of the gear that I'm going to need, and kind of walk me through the actual, you know, different parts of this.

DAVE: One thing that's really important to me is that our equipment is all top of the line.

So, this is not your average rental paintball gun.

This is basically one of the pro guns, but in a more durable body so it survives.

It shoots very smooth, minimum kick.

Another thing that we like to do is we have electronic loaders, so it keeps the paintballs flowing in.

So, it doesn't skip shots.

So, every time you pull the trigger, a paintball comes out.

And that's sort of like a bougie thing that we do here.

GARY: So this is rare to use this upgraded stuff for a rental?

DAVE: For a rental, yes.

GARY: What would a setup like this run me?

DAVE: So this particular setup would be about $400.

GARY: Okay.

DAVE: Or to get a starter, more beginner gun, you're looking at maybe $150, $200.

GARY: So not a huge barrier of entry to get into this sport.

DAVE: Not anymore, no.

GARY: You're getting suited up, you have the gun, you're getting ready to go out.

Kind of walk us through what's happening mentally.

What are you feeling?

DAVE: I like to compare paintball to a roller coaster.

So, before you play, you're going up the hill and that's when your heart starts going.

And that's when, you know, you first put the goggles on and the game's about to start.

You get that feeling very often when you first start playing paintball, which is the best.

You know, that's why people love roller coasters and that's why people love paintball as well.

So then when the game starts, the great thing about paintball is that when you shoot somebody, it splats big time.

So, there's a big payoff when you make that good shot.

GARY: Dopamine rush.

DAVE: Of course.

But when you get somebody, you know, if you shoot somebody in the goggles and you see that big splat, you are pumped.

I tell people to be aggressive and not in a malicious way, but a lot of times when people play, their instinct is, "I don't want to get shot."

And so they play and they hide.

Blasting people with the paintballs is the fun part.

So aggressively try to get that, and it can- I think it can change the experience.

And- and again, I want to make sure everybody has a great time here, an unforgettable time.

GARY: Yeah.

DAVE: And that's a great way to push people to do it.

GARY: Well, the time for battle has arrived.

Wolf Star, Columbus entrepreneur and super connector, put together a perfect matchup for the day: founders versus funders.

So, I strapped on my helmet, grabbed my freshly loaded paintball gun, and hit the course with some amazing entrepreneurs and investors.

And just like that, it was game on.

♪ GARY: As I snuck around the military truck, I saw our director, Raisa, standing right there in plain sight, about 5 feet away.

I paused for a moment.

Do I really want to shoot our director at close range?

Of course I do!

The Founders ended up going undefeated, 4 to nothing.

What an amazing experience.

And honestly, I think I may have a future in paintball.

♪ Take me back to some of those vulnerable moments, if you could, where maybe you thought that this dream was not going to actually happen?

DAVE: Yeah, there was a moment when I really didn't think I had a chance to get the money.

So I thought that sort of all that work was for nothing.

Like I said, I have- I had all these entrepreneurial instincts driving me, and they were from my dad.

My dad passed when he- when I was 21, when I was in college.

So, there was just a lot of times where I was just by myself.

You know.

GARY: Yeah.

DAVE: And, even though I- it never stopped me from doing anything, you know, it's just- it's, it's tough when you don't have the one person that you really want to talk to, to talk to.

GARY: So, losing him was a- was a really profound moment.

DAVE: Oh, absolutely.

But, and- and it was, you know, it was tough because it was before I knew- before I got a chance to really do what we were meant to do together.

GARY: Yeah.

What do you think your dad would say today if he could see what you've become and made?

DAVE: I mean, I think he would say, "I'm not surprised."

GARY: Yeah.

Awesome.

DAVE: Yeah.

I mean, he was alive when I was doing it in the woods.

He was the one that I think pushed me to do it, or at least said yes.

I mean, it was crazy.

It was very dangerous.

He should not have let me run a paintball business.

You know, there's lots of safety and- GARY: Illegal paintball business.

Hey, you were making money, man.

That's what matters.

DAVE: I'm sure he was laughing.

Yeah.

GARY: How have you changed as a person over the course of running this business?

DAVE: I would say I've become immune to anything, you know.

Owning a paintball park is one of the weirdest, scariest, coolest jobs you can have.

GARY: Yeah.

DAVE: But on any given day, I mean, we could get a group of, you know, middle school kids to wasted bachelor party to, The Ohio State football team.

GARY: Wow.

DAVE: You know, anything can happen.

GARY: Never a dull moment.

DAVE: Never a dull moment.

And you have to be able to adapt.

And no matter what, you know, you just show up and roll with the punches.

And yeah, so now, I mean, my resting heart rate is pretty low no matter what's going on.

And in the beginning, I was freaking out at all times.

GARY: Any advice for another future aspiring business owner?

DAVE: My advice is if you're passionate about something and, it's totally acceptable, and I would encourage you to try to just work either in the industry or near it, and then know that that's your second path, but take your time, make the connections, and even if you don't have money at the time, you know, once you feel like you're ready, don't hesitate and just go.

GARY: Take yourself back to when you were 14 years old, the same age that Dave was when he first fell in love with paintball.

Did you have a childhood dream about what your life could be?

I know that I did.

But like most people, as we get older, we talk ourselves out of that dream.

But not Dave.

Which is one of the many reasons why I find this story so remarkable.

Dave oriented his life in every possible way to turn his dream of owning a paintball park into a reality.

And some may attribute Dave's success to luck, but to me this is anything but luck.

It's blind faith, perseverance, and an undying belief in himself and his vision.

And it takes courage to follow your dreams, and you have to be willing to risk it all, constantly silencing that voice in your head that keeps asking, "What if this doesn't work out?"

And instead replacing it with the question, "Well, what if it does?"

So many of our dreams are pushed aside for stability and security, and let's face it, we have to do what we have to do to survive.

And provide for ourselves and our families, so I get it.

But don't forget that there is an entirely different life waiting for you behind one or two very bold decisions.

So, ask yourself, what's the worst that could happen if you just try?

And like Dave, you might just be surprised by the luck that you never knew you had.

For more information, visit our website and search episodes for LVLUP Sports.

Next time on Start Up, we head to Columbus, Ohio to meet up with Chanel, Deja, and Monique, the owners of Replenish, a wellness hub that offers spa services, movement practices, and community-centered programs.

All of this and more is next on Start Up.

Do you want to learn more about the show?

Or maybe nominate a business?

Visit us at StartUp-usa.com and connect with us on social media.

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