Hardware Podcasts

Advice Line with Chris Ruder of Spikeball

How I Built This · 21 Nov 2024 · 48m

What this episode covers

Spikeball founder and CEO Chris Ruder joins Guy Raz on the Advice Line to answer questions from three early-stage founders. Ruder shares how he discovered his core customer base by emailing 100% of his early direct-to-consumer buyers, revealing unexpected communities like PE teachers and Christian youth groups rather than volleyball players. He advises a parkour gym founder on scaling talent using Chick-fil-A’s internal development model, a running brand founder on leveraging retail validation, and a failed surf shop owner on rebuilding through community stakeholder engagement.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up, early-stage companies and founders before launch

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Freedom in Motion, Pen and Paces, Station Surf Shop, Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out Burger, Peloton, Paragon Sports, Dick Sporting Goods, Walmart, Target, Google, Kickstarter
Products
Spikeball

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