BounceBack turns broken pickleballs into a business

September has been a month to remember for Dillon Rosenthal. 

He spent the beginning of the month pitching his business, BounceBack Pickle, in London, England. He spent the middle of the month winning the SCORE Pitch Contest in Naples, and by the end of the month, his company will sell its first recycled pickleballs. 

“He’s an extraordinary young man,” said Adrienne Robinson, who was a judge in one of his pitch contests and the organizer of the SCORE event. 

Rosenthal’s pickleball idea started with the explosion of the game’s popularity. He noticed he and his playing partner would break more pickleballs the better they played the game. Then he noticed the cracked and broken balls piling up in the garbage bin at the court where they played. He saw the same thing at other parks: piles of cracked pickleballs in the trash. 

Rosenthal, a 2026 graduate of FGCU’s Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship, became curious and discovered there were only a few nonprofits collecting broken balls and sending them to recycling centers. His idea went a step further — collect the balls, break them down into powder and make new pickleballs. 

He placed his first recycling bin in Three Oaks Community Park in March 2025 and sent out a batch of plastic for manufacturing in China at the end of last year. He received the first batch back earlier this year and shipped the balls to pickleball pros and facility managers to get their opinions about the quality. 

“The good news is they played exactly the same as the best in the game,” Rosenthal said. 

He now has collection bins at nearly 100 facilities in 13 states. His first shipment of balls was scheduled to arrive in Florida on Sept. 18 and is expected to be ready for sale on the BounceBack website by the end of the month. 

“As we continue to grow and we have more inventory, we’ll be looking at getting into some local sporting goods shops, and then obviously, our goal is in 12-18 months from now getting into some big box shops, starting with Dick’s and then hopefully the big dogs, Target and Walmart,” Rosenthal said. 

Partner facilities pay BounceBack $150 a year to join the recycling program. The company sells balls to the facilities for $1.50 each and $9.99 for a three-pack to consumers, Rosenthal said during his pitch Sept. 2 at the Hult Prize in England. 

BounceBack has diverted 3,307 pounds of broken pickleballs from landfills and is on track to divert more than 1.1 million pounds by 2030. 

He applied for the EF Hult Prize in February. There were 18,000 applicants. He made the first cut of 2,000, then 90, who participated in a five-week online program that included pitches, workshops and fireside chats. 

He was selected as one of 20 finalists who were invited to stay at Ashridge House, a historic estate outside London where Henry VIII once lived, for three weeks. 

“It was amazing. It was 16 to 18 hours a day of work between workshops, fireside chats, mentor sessions,” he said. 

He then was selected as one of eight to make their pitches, though he fell short of winning the $1 million first prize. 

At just 22, Rosenthal has become a veteran of pitch contests after first being exposed to them while at FGCU. He’s learned there is money to be won by competing, including $5,900 for his SCORE pitch. 

SCORE’s Robinson calls his pitches exceptional. Rosenthal said there is no secret to his success. 

“The secret’s just practice behind closed doors. Obviously, I have a business to run, but when there’s money on the line for a 4- or 5-minute pitch, the practice goes a long way,” he said. 

Confidence in yourself and your product also helps, he said. 

Robinson, who was a judge in his April pitch contest, said his pitch was even better in the SCORE presentation. 

“His message was crisper and clearer,” she said. 

Rosenthal’s days as an entrepreneur go back to when he was 12 years old in Sarasota. He comes from a family of entrepreneurs. His dad gives him business advice while his mom gives him the mental support “to make sure that I don’t drive myself crazy or burnout,” he said. 

Rosenthal began selling fidget toys, phone accessories and other gadgets at his middle school. The business became successful enough that he hired a friend to sell the products on commission at another middle school. When the school shut down his operation, Rosenthal pivoted to an online store, but it didn’t do well. 

He sold high-end sneakers and started a custom laser engraving business in high school, among other things. 

“I did a whole bunch, but I also failed a bunch,” he said. “I had so many things that just didn’t go anywhere and I learned a ton from them. I don’t think you can call them failures. I think it’s better to just call them learning lessons.” 

BounceBack is his biggest idea, and he said he’s obsessed with it. He wants to see how big he can make it. 

Does that mean he’s ready to make the ultimate pitch on the television show “Shark Tank”? 

One of his mentors said he should apply and see what happens. 

“It would be fun; it would be an amazing experience. It’d be great exposure and the relevancy of pickleball at the moment,” Rosenthal said. “I think it would be something that has a good chance of airing.” 

Other Score Pitch winners 

Second place: Justin Fiorello, founder of Hoop-Dee Mats, a reusable automotive drip-protection system designed to replace cardboard and disposable trays. He won $3,500. 

Third place: Khandyce Mosely, founder of Balosi Spirits, a wine and spirits brand in Fort Myers. She won $1,500.