A big challenge

Onpadel.

SaaS for organizing amateur padel tournaments. It replaces the WhatsApp groups, spreadsheets and paper workflow most organizers still use.

11,000+
registered players
900+
tournaments held
Visit Onpadel →
Recognition

Recognition and traction

Along the way, Onpadel earned recognition beyond its own users.

  • Winner - Impulso Tech Program

    Winner - Impulso Tech Program

    Won the Impulso Tech program at Siglo 21 University, selected as the winning project among 6 finalists out of 100+ participating projects and 300+ applicants. Received funding to further develop Onpadel.

  • Campus Party - Tech Week

    Campus Party - Tech Week

    Invited to showcase Onpadel at Campus Party during Buenos Aires Tech Week, October 2026.

How it happened

The journey, start to finish

From strategy and MVP to a product running in production. How Onpadel was built, step by step.

Onpadel replaces WhatsApp groups, spreadsheets and paper with one platform
  1. Strategy

    MVP and product roadmap

    It all started with feature planning to define what to include in the MVP and what to leave out. I mapped a 4-version roadmap, each version with specific features. The hardest part was resisting the temptation to add more before launching. You always want the product to be better, but not everything has to be there from day one.
    Feature Planning FigJam board — MVP scope and 4-version roadmap for Onpadel

    Feature Planning. MVP scope and 4-version roadmap defined.

  2. UX

    Information architecture and user flows

    I defined the user roles, mapped the information architecture, and designed the user flows so the design team and I were all walking the same path from day one.
    FigJam board: Onpadel Information Architecture and User Flow

    Information Architecture & User Flow. User roles, navigation structure and full user flows mapped.

  3. Design

    From idea to prototype

    I assembled and led a design team to prototype it. Months of iteration, a Figma project with 1000+ comments (feedback).
    Onpadel design system wireframes across Desktop, Tablet and Mobile

    Wireframes board. Every screen designed across three breakpoints.

  4. Architecture

    Engineering and architecture

    Before writing code, I designed the app architecture, data flows, and service dependencies. I chose Next.js because most of the product would be public, with a few private, authenticated pages.
    FigJam App Architecture diagram for Onpadel

    App architecture. Surfaces, data flows and service dependencies.

  5. Engineering

    Let's code

    I started writing code from scratch, without AI — designing the entire database schema based on everything defined in previous steps, thinking through every business relationship and rule. I spent months working with mocked data, building components manually, the way we used to.
  6. AI

    AI as an accelerator

    As new tools and AI agents emerged, I incorporated them into the workflow. I learned to give them context, define my own rules and skills, and make them respect the design system and project architecture. That let me accelerate development until the product reached production.
  7. Go-to-market

    Launch, sales and feedback

    After building it, I went out to sell it and find the first customers. I had to learn sales on the fly: I read, studied different methods and discovered that I love selling and meeting with clients.

    I also had to understand a market I knew little about beyond what I had researched for months from my room. I signed up for tournaments, took padel lessons, and got involved in the ecosystem as much as I could to understand firsthand the needs of players and organizers.

    With the first early adopters, I started receiving feedback and adapting the product.

    About 70% of my initial assumptions about how the product should work turned out to be wrong. I learned more by listening to real users than by trying to anticipate their needs — even when they couldn't quite articulate what they needed. The market taught me.

  8. Iteration

    Concrete product improvements

    • Signup

      Phone-number onboarding

      Redesigned onboarding around the phone number as primary identifier, with OTP verification. A significant architectural change.

      ~1 min → 15 s

    • Event creation

      Faster event creation

      Simplified the event creation flow. I reworked how we handled a large form inside a wizard — it required schema changes and being very careful with edge cases.

      3 min → 10 s

    • Registration

      Faster registration

      Reduced tournament registration from 4 steps to 2, suggesting the last partner to simplify sign-ups.

      1 min → 20 s

    • Retention

      Per-organizer rankings

      Built per-organizer rankings to boost retention, coexisting with Onpadel's global country ranking.

  9. Data

    Measurement and production operations

    Added analytics and observability to understand how the product is actually used, catch production issues early, and steer improvements with real data.
    PostHog analytics dashboard for Onpadel — DAUs, WAUs, retention and growth

    DAUs, WAUs, retention cohorts and growth accounting to steer product decisions with real data.

  10. October 2026

    Onpadel is in production, with over 11,000 registered players and more than 900 tournaments held, and it keeps growing.

    Visit Onpadel →