Ep. 208: Digitizing the Super Bowl squares concept w/ Nathan & Brett from GridGorilla

Ep. 208 features Nathan Thomas and Brett DeBari, the founding team behind GridGorilla, a digital platform that evolves the classic Super Bowl squares format into a year-round, player-stat-based prediction experience.

Hear them discuss:

• Brett’s journey through tech sales at Dell and AWS to previous gaming startups, and Nathan’s 20-year engineering career ranging from biomedical startups to database architecture

• How the team identified the "mass market" appeal of Super Bowl squares and adapted it into a year-round digital product

• Moving beyond final scores to create player-performance grids involving stats like points and rebounds across an x and y axis

• Why they opted for a free-to-play, ad-supported model to lower barriers to entry and onboard non-bettors.

• Leveraging AI-simulated matchups (e.g., LeBron James vs. the '86 Pistons) to keep users in the app for multiple sessions per day

• Nathan’s experience navigating the complex, one-year process of securing a software patent for their predictive grid system

• Why the three-person team chose to remain self-funded and the "leap of faith" required to build the company without meeting in person

• How Nathan operates as a one-person dev team by leveraging tools like Cursor AI, Flutter, and Golang to write nearly 97% of the app's code

• Seeing success with Meta ads under a $2 CAC and partnering with influencers and brand ambassadors to scale to 10,000 users

• Future plans for pay-to-play mechanics and a B2B licensing play to offer embeddable grid widgets for other brands and apps

The dedicated Startup Zone at SBC Summit Americas gives real-money gaming startups a platform to showcase to 10,000+ attendees — including investors, operators, suppliers, media, and key industry players.  Spaces are limited, secure yours now through https://www.bettingstartups.com/sbc-americas-2026

If you don't have a ticket for the event yet, use discount code BETTINGSTARTUPSVIP for 30% off your pass. Grab your ticket here: https://sbcevents.com/sbc-summit-americas/

Catch the video version of this episode here.

Learn more 👇

➡️ GridGorilla website

➡️ Nathan Thomas on Linkedin 

➡️ Brett Debari on Linkedin 

📩 Get the top headlines from the industry's most promising growth-stage companies every week—totally free! Subscribe to the Betting Startups newsletter here: https://news.bettingstartups.com/