(September 12, 2025) Believing that sport should be a daily habit, not a luxury, Sam Sancheti and Abhinav Shankar took a leap that had been building for years. They wanted to transform recreational sport in India — not for the elite, but for everyday people. The mission was ambitious but simple: “Our vision for GoRally is to make recreational sport a natural part of everyday life in India and to get the next 10 million people playing regularly,” they tell Global Indian.
As lifelong sports fanatics, both of them were familiar with the challenges in India. Their two months of deep immersion, through hundreds of interviews and centre visits, revealed just how stark the barriers were. Access and facilities remained poor, and this went far beyond the lack of courts. Age and gender diversity were almost non-existent, with sport still functioning like a boys’ club. And unlike running or cricket, there were no platforms to track progress in other sports.
Looking for a vehicle to achieve their mission, they discovered the answer in pickleball, a sport rapidly growing across the globe and in India. “We chose pickleball and padel because they were designed to be easy to start playing, which makes them the biggest disruption to sport in decades,” Abhinav remarks. Deeply social and community-led, pickleball was perfectly suited for urban access. “We realised that pickleball could be the sport for India, one that could grow quickly and potentially become the second or third most played sport,” mentions Sam. Within months of their launch in Bangalore, GoRally had already attracted momentum, raising ₹6.6 crore ($750,000) in its pre-seed round.
Sam Sancheti and Abhinav Shankar
Winning over the community
The response to GoRally has been nothing short of extraordinary. In just over a year, they expanded from a single centre to multiple hubs across Bangalore, built an 8,000-strong WhatsApp community, and hosted national-level tournaments.
“What excites us most is not only the scale but also the culture. We’ve seen people from schoolkids to housewives to working professionals to retired folks play sports as part of their daily lives, and many come just to connect and be part of the community. That sense of belonging is the heart of GoRally,” say the duo.
Of course, building hasn’t been without challenges. Setting up physical infrastructure in India meant negotiating with landlords, managing construction timelines, and navigating countless moving parts. But patience, problem-solving, and trusted partnerships kept the vision on track.
Synergy between founders
The synergy between the two founders began on their very first video call. Abhinav noticed a Sir Alex Ferguson book in Sam’s background, sparking a conversation that quickly moved from football to work to life. Both discovered they were Manchester United fans, and the connection was instant. To this day, they joke that while Abhinav is more Dhoni – calm and strategic – Sam is more Kohli – fiery and dynamic. Different personalities, but united by a shared purpose.
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Solid roots, shared passion
Abhinav grew up in Delhi, studied economics at Delhi University, and later pursued a master’s at Oxford. For him, sport was never just a pastime but part of his identity. Childhood tennis sessions with his father and grandfather and a summer spent coaching kids at a football academy in Poland deepened that love. At Oxford, he witnessed how sport was woven into everyday life – from rowing to football to tennis, communities were built on the games people played. It was less about competition and more about belonging.
Sam, meanwhile, was a 90s kid in Jaipur who loved sport but never had the infrastructure to pursue it seriously. He poured his energy into debating, quizzing, and projects at school, but the seeds of building better access to sport for everyday Indians were sown early. After graduating from IIT Delhi, he went on to do his MBA at London Business School, always carrying his passion for sport with him.
London years and sporting highs
Their London years sharpened their professional skills and deepened their connection with sport. After Oxford, Abhinav spent a couple of years in financial services, including at Aberdeen. Sam worked with world-class companies like Bain London and Visa while also living his sporting dream. He played over 400 games of football, six seasons of club cricket in Middlesex Division 2, experienced a promotion with his club, and even after an ACL injury, immersed himself in long-distance cycling, finding community in every sport he took up.
Sam Sancheti
These experiences shaped the vision for GoRally. They wanted to bring that same sense of community back to India, not just creating places to play but fostering a culture where everyone felt like they had a sport they belonged to. For Abhinav, the real success lay not in running a business but in building belonging.
Back to base
While Abhinav moved back to India in 2019, joining venture capital and working with leading funds such as Ventureast and Lightrock, Sam returned in 2022. In India’s thriving startup ecosystem, Abhinav invested in a wide range of companies and later joined Cuemath, reporting directly to Sam. Their time working together proved formative, as they discovered not only complementary skills but also shared instincts.
For Sam, Cuemath was an immersion role to settle back into India. As Chief of Staff and CBO, he gained a front-row seat to the workings of Indian startups, from investor dynamics with Sequoia and Lightrock to the struggles of scaling and the watchouts to keep in mind. Those experiences prepared him to eventually start GoRally with Abhinav.
Building GoRally
Abhinav had long wanted to move from being an investor to being a builder. “I wanted to move from being an investor to being a builder. So last year, when I teamed up with Sam, who’s as passionate about recreational sports as I am, it felt like the natural next step,” he recalls. In February 2024, the duo launched GoRally and opened their first centre in Bangalore that June.
Abhinav Shankar
They chose pickleball and padel as their sports of focus – both designed to be easy to start, challenging to master, and deeply community-oriented. While most Indians still play the same sports their grandparents played, the duo saw pickleball as a disruption in the making, with the potential to become India’s second or third most played sport.
From finance to sports
Though the shift from finance and corporate roles to sports entrepreneurship may appear drastic, for Sam and Abhinav it was the most natural progression. “Each experience for me has been formative. I’m proud of the breadth and depth of my journey to date and know how much it helps me build a new organisation from scratch,” says Sam, noting that GoRally blends sport with tech, real estate, and community building. Abhinav, meanwhile, drew on the lessons of finance—structured decision-making, risk assessment, and value creation—while continuing to lean on sport as the constant that had shaped his life since childhood.
The road ahead
For Sam and Abhinav, this is just the beginning. “Our vision for GoRally is to make recreational sport a natural part of everyday life in India and to get the next 10 million people playing regularly. Over time, we see ourselves building a full-stack ecosystem for sport (centres, tech & retail) that enables a culture of sport, movement, and community in India,” they remark, talking about their future plans.
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As they sign off, the passion is unmistakable. GoRally is not just a sports business. It is a movement, one that is rewriting how India plays, connects, and belongs.
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