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

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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