Friends, Fuel & Founders

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No blurb from the sponsor this week. All they wanted was for me to share an awesome story. Keep reading…

Back in 2020, right as the world was crumbling and I was learning how to spell “e-commerce,” I got a cold DM from some guy named Chris Meade. He had just started a weird volleyball-meets-four-square company called CrossNet. I was working at birddogs. Neither of us had followers, newsletters, or a clue what we were doing.

He wanted to collab on something. I didn’t know on what. He probably didn’t either. We had absolutely nothing to gain from each other at the time — which is probably why we actually became friends.

Fast forward five years and now the dude is a FORCE OF NATURE.

• Chris and his brother Greg (also a friend now) invented a sport. CrossNet went from being played in some backyards to being sold in Walmart.

• He got married.

• He launched Goodsport with YouTuber Danny Duncan

• He created the Founders Club - which I am a loyal member of.

• His wife & him launched Body Hot Pilates.

• He’s got a podcast, a newsletter, and more hustle in his bones than 95% of people on LinkedIn.

But what’s always impressed me most is how human he’s stayed. Chris isn’t one of those “10X your brand with AI hacks and sleep optimization” founders. He’s a storyteller. He laughs at himself. He’s open about his failures. He texts me about how the Knicks are finally gonna win this year (Sorry Chris, they’re not. Go Celtics.).

And when I screw something up, he’s usually one of the first people to tell me: “Yeah dog, I’ve been there.”

Building relationships off of the idea of "misery loves company" in my humble opinion is the unbreakable bond. Find folks who are in the mud with you. Share ideas. Share complaints. Laugh when you fuck up. Be the bud of the joke. It's ok. It's human. It's approachable. Chris is one of those people that loves to story tell, laugh & be vulnerable. He's outwardly human, which to me, is why he's been successful.

All that is to say…
This Thursday, Chris is doing a live interview where he’ll walk through exactly how CrossNet made the jump from e-comm to retail. No fluff. No frameworks. Just real talk about what buyers care about, the metrics that matter, and how they got on shelves.

If you’re building a brand and ever hope to see it in Target, Dick’s, or even your local mom-and-pop — this is the session to watch.

🗓 Thursday, July 17
⏰ 10am PT / 1pm ET
🎥 Save your seat here: https://hubs.ly/Q03x4QbV0

Chris is one of the few people I know who’s actually done the thing most of us are trying to do. And he’s generous enough to tell you exactly how he did it.

Show up, take notes, ask questions — and maybe, just maybe, fire off a DM to someone you respect afterward. You never know where it might lead.

Ok, enough blowing smoke up his ass. Go Celtics. See you all next week.