Unstructured pickup basketball, long plagued by uneven teams, lengthy waits, and heated arguments, became the spark that ignited Jordan Meinster’s vision. Frustrated by the chaos he encountered playing since high school, Jordan recognized a deeper challenge: how could casual sport be elevated into a professional, consistent experience? This question drove him away from his stable banking career, and into uncharted entrepreneurial territory.

Jordan, born in Baltimore and raised in Colorado, eventually settled in San Diego before moving to Los Angeles with his wife and co-founder, Casey. There, in 2012, PickUp USA Fitness opened its doors, an adult basketball gym offering refereed, timed games, structured queues, and organized play. What started as a single gym in Irwindale, CA evolved into a full-service fitness franchise, complete with training leagues, youth development programs, cardio/strength facilities, and tournaments.

Leveraging his finance and banking background, Jordan crafted a scalable model rooted in clear systems, disciplined operations, and franchisee success. He personally wore every hat, from cleaner to ref to salesperson, during the early years, refining procedures until the company could sustainably grow. In 2016, PickUp USA began franchising; today, upwards of 45 franchises span the nation, with plans for 100+ locations.

As CEO, Jordan’s leadership hinges on three cornerstones: clarity of vision, consistency in execution, and grit. His empathetic approach fosters environments where franchisees feel heard, supported, and empowered to innovate locally while preserving brand integrity .

Today, Jordan leads PickUp USA Fitness from Pasadena, California, steering corporate locations in Irwindale and Chandler, Arizona, and superintending a robust franchise network. He continues to obsess over unit-level economics, driving profitability, enhancing service, and expanding toward his vision of making PickUp USA a household name across America.

Early Journey Shaped His Leadership

From the age of thirteen, Jordan Meinster juggled full-time jobs alongside full-time studies throughout his teens and twenties. That relentless pace laid the foundation for his work ethic. It taught him that meaningful success doesn’t come from shortcuts, it comes from consistent effort and disciplined focus over time.

Some of the most impactful leadership lessons Jordan learned came from his earliest managers. The ones who made a lasting impression didn’t micromanage; instead, they trusted him, empowered him, and encouraged authenticity. Those experiences shaped his view that strong leadership isn’t about control, it’s about setting a clear direction, offering support, and holding people accountable in a respectful way.

Now at the helm of a national fitness franchise, Jordan credits both his past mentors and his current team for sharpening his leadership philosophy. Surrounded by a high-performing corporate team and a network of committed franchisees, he continues to evolve through collaboration. The lessons from his early years, combined with the daily influence of those around him, continue to shape how he leads with purpose and drives innovation.

SERR Approach to Scalable Leadership

Jordan Meinster, CEO of PickUp USA Fitness, defines his leadership style through a powerful framework he calls SERR — Strategy, Engineer, Recruit, Resources — a model that has evolved alongside the dynamic shifts in the business landscape.

• Strategy: Setting the Direction: At the core of Jordan’s leadership is strategic clarity. He emphasizes the importance of defining specific, outcome-driven goals that guide the entire organization. For him, a well-defined strategy is the compass, without it, even flawless execution lacks purpose. He spends significant time refining and communicating this vision, ensuring every team member is aligned.
• Engineer: Building the Machine: Once the strategy is in place, Jordan turns his attention to engineering the systems and processes that drive consistent performance. He likens the business to a basketball offense, not dependent on raw talent alone but on well-designed plays. This structured approach allows PickUp USA to scale effectively and replicate success across locations.
• Recruit: Investing in People: Jordan believes in constantly recruiting high-caliber talent, not just for present needs but for future growth. He seeks individuals who align with the company’s values and possess both talent and drive. This philosophy extends beyond the internal team to the broader franchise network, where strong people are viewed as the ultimate performance accelerators.
• Resources: Equipping for Success: A well-structured team needs more than just direction and talent, they need tools, support, and freedom. Jordan ensures his people are equipped with everything from operational systems and marketing platforms to leadership coaching. His role, as he sees it, is to clear obstacles and empower execution.

Over time, Jordan’s leadership has evolved from hands-on execution to designing and empowering the machine behind it. His shift from operator to architect reflects a philosophy rooted in trust. Once the right people, systems, and strategy are in place, he steps back, enabling others to own their outcomes. For him, empowerment is more than a principle; it’s the foundation of growth.

Transformed PickUp USA Fitness into a Dual-Demographic Powerhouse

• Leading Innovation: Building a Franchise Model for All Ages: Jordan has led a significant transformation within the organization by developing a unique, scalable franchise model that caters to both adult and youth basketball players, a rarity in the fitness and sports industry.
• From Adults-Only to All-Inclusive: Initially, PickUp USA focused solely on adult hoopers, addressing a gap in the market where adults lacked structured, competitive basketball opportunities. The company introduced officiated pickup games in a professional environment, quickly becoming known for its organized and competitive edge.
• Expanding the Vision to Youth: As the brand grew, feedback from members and communities signaled a strong demand for youth programming. Rather than offering a generic add-on, Jordan and his team built a youth-focused initiative from the ground up. This included launching a Youth Development Basketball League, designing coaching curriculums, and engineering support systems that seamlessly aligned with their adult offerings.
• Scaling with Community-Driven Feedback: Years of refinement, learning, and listening to franchisees and families led to a well-oiled system where youth now account for nearly half of the overall membership. What sets this model apart is its ability to serve both demographics under one roof without compromise.
• A Collaborative Success Story: Franchisees played a pivotal role in this evolution, offering feedback from real-world execution that shaped improvements across the network. Today, PickUp USA’s model is not only focused and scalable but also versatile and deeply rooted in community needs, a testament to Meinster’s leadership and vision.

Redefined Success at PickUp USA Fitness

In the early years of PickUp USA Fitness, Jordan believed that rapid revenue growth would naturally lead to long-term success. Like many early-stage leaders, he and his team focused on boosting sales, assuming the rest would fall into place. But as the business expanded, a hard truth emerged: top-line growth alone wasn’t enough. Without a sharp grip on expenses, even strong revenue couldn’t guarantee sustainability.

This realization marked a pivotal shift in Jordan’s leadership philosophy. He began to understand that real success lay in mastering the bottom line, not just the top. He led his team through a rigorous examination of their entire cost structure, scrutinizing everything from staffing models to utility usage and marketing spend. Over time, they built lean, efficient operating systems that could scale across markets of any size without sacrificing performance.

Today, this commitment to financial discipline is one of the defining strengths of the PickUp USA Fitness model. Under Jordan’s guidance, franchisees are not only taught how to grow their revenue, but how to do so strategically and sustainably. With access to real-time reporting, cost benchmarks, and proven frameworks, franchisees are empowered to manage their businesses proactively, not reactively.

Jordan’s journey from chasing revenue to embracing financial precision is now embedded in the company’s DNA. The lessons he learned, often the hard way, have become the foundation that helps franchisees reach profitability faster and build lasting, successful clubs.

Rooted in Purpose, Driven by the Field

Jordan Meinster believes that a truly purpose-driven and innovative culture begins with clarity: everything at PickUp USA Fitness revolves around the success of its franchisees. When individuals invest their time, capital, and trust into the brand, he sees it as a responsibility to provide not just a roadmap, but a genuine partnership.

This commitment shapes the organization’s focus and fuels its direction. For him, innovation is not born in isolation, it comes directly from the field. The most impactful ideas often originate from club owners and their teams, who engage with customers daily. To harness this, PickUp USA Fitness has put structured processes in place to gather, test, and scale these real-world insights.

By constantly learning from those on the front lines, Jordan ensures the company remains both grounded in purpose and agile in innovation.

Leveraging Automation for Scalable Success

Jordan is steering PickUp USA Fitness toward a future shaped by automation and intelligent workflows. Rather than adopting technology for the sake of appearing modern, he focuses on tools that create meaningful impact, streamlining repetitive tasks, improving responsiveness, and enhancing the overall experience for both staff and customers. For him, technology must serve a clear purpose: to make operations more efficient and results more measurable.

Every innovation implemented under his leadership is guided by two principles, simplicity and profitability. The company’s entire tech strategy revolves around making life easier for franchisees, not more complicated. Jordan and his team spend significant time analyzing data, tracking ROI, and assessing whether a new tool actually reduces workload, increases conversions, or eliminates inefficiencies.

In a business world often distracted by every shiny new innovation, Jordan takes a disciplined, no-nonsense approach. If a solution doesn’t directly support a simpler, more scalable, and more profitable operation for franchise owners, it doesn’t make the cut. This clarity of focus is what sets PickUp USA Fitness apart, enabling its clubs to run leaner, smarter, and more successfully than ever before.

Formula for Sustainable and Resilient Growth

Jordan has built a business model grounded in simplicity, scalability, and financial efficiency. Instead of overwhelming franchisees with unnecessary complexity, the company relies on clear systems, tiered service launches, and performance tracking to ensure that every decision adds tangible value. The goal is to create operating systems that are repeatable and manageable at the unit level, allowing the business to stay resilient in the face of market fluctuations.

What sets PickUp USA Fitness apart is its unique balance of experience and agility. With over thirteen years in the basketball gym industry, the company brings veteran-level expertise to the table, yet it continues to think and operate with a startup mindset. This means constantly evaluating what’s working, identifying areas of improvement, and evolving the model while staying anchored to the elements that have made it successful. That mindset has played a crucial role in the brand’s longevity and continued growth.

The company’s strategic approach also includes a diversified audience base, serving both youth and adult basketball players. This broad demographic reach has enabled the business to remain relevant across different geographies and economic cycles. Every decision is made with franchisee economics in mind, ensuring the model remains tight, efficient, and profitable. By prioritizing focus over complexity, Jordan has cultivated a resilient franchise system that continues to grow while many others struggle to survive.

Advice for Aspiring CEOs

Jordan Meinster emphasizes the importance of patience and discipline for aspiring CEOs and entrepreneurs looking to drive innovation. His core advice is to build slow and strong. He warns against mistaking rapid growth for meaningful progress and encourages founders to focus on refining their business model during the early stages.

Jordan advises against franchising too early or complicating the core offering. Instead, he stresses the value of operational discipline and resource management. “Be the most reliable operator in your space before you try to be the biggest,” he notes. For him, true success comes not from scaling quickly, but from scaling with purpose, not ego.

Vision for the Future

Jordan emphasizes that the core priority, past, present, and future, remains franchisee success. Every aspect of the business is designed with one goal in mind: helping owners build profitable, sustainable businesses. Whether it’s launching new clubs, providing structured training and support, or evolving the operating model, each decision is anchored in the success of the franchisees. Meinster firmly believes that when franchisees win, the brand wins, a principle that continues to guide the company’s growth strategy.

What excites Jordan the most is the growing momentum within the system. PickUp USA Fitness has carved out a unique niche in the basketball gym space, capturing the interest of entrepreneurs nationwide. There’s a palpable energy within the franchise community, a collective of passionate and aligned owners committed to the brand’s mission. This alignment, according to Meinster, is a powerful catalyst for progress.

While the brand is already leading the category it helped shape, Jordan believes this is just the beginning. Each new gym opening boosts brand awareness, builds stronger recognition, and opens new opportunities across the network. As the company enters its next phase, the focus will remain on scaling responsibly, staying true to its mission, and equipping franchisees with the tools and guidance they need to thrive.

Building a Legacy Beyond Self

Jordan Meinster doesn’t dwell on the idea of legacy in the traditional sense. For him, it’s not about personal accolades or recognition, it’s about impact. His focus remains on building a strong, sustainable business that creates meaningful opportunities for franchisees, employees, and the communities PickUp USA serves.

To Jordan, the brand is much larger than any one individual. PickUp USA is being built on a foundation of clear values, disciplined execution, and a commitment to the success of every franchisee. He envisions a future where the organization continues to thrive because of the value it delivers, a legacy defined not by his name, but by the success it enables in others.