From A $900 Bank Account To A $50M Brand: Chris Meade On Building CROSSNET Founder2Founder With Aaron Spivak podcast

From a $900 Bank Account to a $50M Brand: Chris Meade on Building CROSSNET

30d ago 1:11:16

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In this episode of Founder2Founder, Aaron Spivak sits down with Chris Mead, co-founder of CROSSNET and Founders Club, for his most open and personal conversation to date. From a small Connecticut town, to building one of the fastest-growing backyard sports brands in America, Chris unpacks the highs, lows, and lessons of scaling a startup from scratch.

They dive into the origins of CROSSNET, the $1M mistake during an acquisition, the toll of leadership decisions, and how those experiences shaped the vision for Founders Club. If you’re navigating the founder journey, this episode is packed with the kind of honest insights you won’t get anywhere else.

Chapters:
02:49 – Growing Up in Small-Town Connecticut
04:40 – From Film School, to HBO, to Burnout
06:30 – Learning Amazon Dropshipping in College
08:26 – Fired, Broke, and Starting Over at Uber
12:49 – Inventing CROSSNET in a Backyard
15:06 – Quitting Jobs and Moving to Miami
17:49 – Going All-In with Marketing
19:21 – $87K to $9.8M: CROSSNET’s Hockey Stick Growth
21:30 – The Year Everything Went Wrong
25:19 – The Mistake of Not Cutting Fast Enough
28:10 – Trusting the Wrong CFO and Losing Sight
30:01 – The Acquisition That Fell Apart
33:50 – Picking the Wrong Buyer for the Wrong Reasons
35:10 – The Second Exit: Why Vivier Was the Right Fit
38:15 – What He’d Tell His Younger Self
42:04 – Why He Wouldn’t Change a Thing
42:46 – Building Founders Club from Scratch
46:41 – What Makes the Community Work
49:29 – There’s No Real Community for Founders… Until Now
51:07 – What a Great Member Looks Like
54:10 – Building a Life Beyond the Business
57:15 – Relationships Compound Like Capital
58:19 – Founders Forum and the Future of Events
1:00:51 – The Long-Term Vision for Founders Club
1:06:49 – Why This Will Never Be a Suit-and-Tie Club

Guest Links:
Instagram: @crossnetgame & @chrismeade
Website: https://vivereltd.com/pages/crossnet

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30 episodes