Catherine Baxter: Talk About It Before You’re Ready (From Nonprofit Sales Lead to Dick’s Sporting Goods)

Catherine Baxter is the founder and CEO of Nettie, the design-forward pickleball brand sold in Dick’s Sporting Goods nationwide and featured on the Today Show. She started it in 2020 after more than six years running business development at The OpEd Project, when her in-laws built a pickleball court in their Manhattan apartment. We talk about her “biggest smile” award, 15 summers carrying canoes at a no-tech girls’ camp, the Björn Borg meets Wonder Bread design brief, pitching Dick’s early, solving seasonality with gift-ready packaging, the Barbie and Hamilton collabs, and why founders should talk about their ideas before they’re ready. Nettie’s Starter Pickleball Paddle ($39.99) is in the Womansplain Wellness Guide and The Reset box ($149): womansplainpod.com/gift-guides/wellness Use code WOMANSPLAIN for 20% off sitewide at playnettie.com. The Womansplain Collective is open for 2027: founder matching, members-only dinners, and your ticket to next year’s Summit. womansplainpod.com/membership Find Nettie: playnettie.com | IG @playnettie | TikTok @playnettie Find Womansplain: IG @womansplainpod | [email protected] | womansplainpod.com/newsletter