🏐He made $10 million playing with balls

He made a new sport thats taking Gen Z by storm.

Author

Zachary Alabre
October 20, 2023

This 26-year-old made $10 million by creating a new type of volleyball.

“You can’t do it all by yourself. None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way.”

- Greg Meade: Age 26, CEO of “Crossnet”

What’s cooking, good looking?

I’m bout to hook up all you sports fans because this week we are taking a look at Greg Meade and his company called Crossnet. Crossnet is a sports game that is a mix of volleyball and four squares. It comes with a full-sized net and It’s perfect for parties, tailgates, and beach days.

And in 10 minutes or less, you’re going to learn:

✔The one thing that guarantees business success

✔Why free samples are the best marketing strategy

QUICK SUMMARY
TLDR:

Greg Meade started Crossnet when he was just 21. At the time, he worked for a large Amazon store. He saw the number of orders that the store got and knew that he wanted to become an entrepreneur himself. So he and his brother sat and watched ESPN for 14 hours straight until they saw volleyball highlights. That is when they found the idea for Crossnet!

Greg and his brother created the prototype for Crossnet by putting two badminton nets together and tying them to a tree and an old shed. They tried it and had a blast! To prove the product had potential, they went to Miami Beach every day to ask people to play. Eventually, they got TONS of interested people!

Once they confirmed the product, they went online and started running ads on Twitter and Facebook. A professional volleyball player in Latvia posted a video using the Crossnet, and the video got over 12 million views! That was the moment they knew they struck gold and they now sell over $10 million of Crossnets per year!

My boy Greg is making more than actual professional volleyball players!

This proves one thing.

There is money literally everywhere.

Your business doesn’t have to be a boring real estate company.

If you have fun and build a great product, you can make a fortune in anything.

Even a simple backyard ball game.

1. Do it for the love of the game.

Can I be real with you guys for a sec?

I write this newsletter so that you guys can start your own businesses one day.

Because I would love to see all of you guys pull up in a Lambo and start flexing on the haters.

But there’s one thing that is always true about business.

If you don’t love what you do, it will be almost impossible to win.

And if you do something you hate, even if you win, you will still be depressed about it.

That’s why I love Greg’s story.

He used to chase the bag, but then he pulled a Kobe.

RIP Legend

He did what he loved instead, and he eventually made even more money because of it.

Greg was 20 in college when he started his first business.

It was called “Glunt”, and it was a reusable weed-smoking pen.

The funniest part was that Greg and his business partner never smoked a day in their lives!

Their customers were like:

They just saw an opportunity and went with it.

And it paid off BIG TIME.

They made about $1,000,000 in revenue from that business, which is straight đŸ”„đŸ”„đŸ”„.

But it quickly died because he and his partner just stopped doing it.

They got sick and tired of doing stuff just for the money.

So they quit, and Greg sadly crawled back to his 9-5.

But he never gave up his dream to be an entrepreneur.

Plus, he acquired plenty of useful skills from his first business.

So one day his brother pulled up to him and said he was tired of working his job.

They decided that they were going to build a company THAT NIGHT.

After 14 hours straight of watching ESPN highlights, they stumbled across volleyball highlights.

And then they got it.

Instead of a large volleyball net, why not have it split up four ways?

And then the idea of Crossnet was born.

Now, building this product was not easy AT ALL.

It took over 1 year to make the finished product.

Here is exactly how Greg developed the first Crossnet product:

1. To test the product idea, they made the first prototype by going to Walmart and buying two badminton nets and tying them together. Then, they tied them to a couple of trees in their backyard. Even though it looked super ghetto, it was tons of fun.

2. Greg’s business partner, Mike Delpapa created a blueprint for the product with a software called AutoCAD.

3. Once they had a solid idea, they went to the website Alibaba.com. which is a website where you can speak to product manufacturers in China. Greg messaged over 100 different suppliers and asked them to send over a design. After 12 months of trial and error, they found a decent supplier who could build the product they were happy with.

And the final product is pretty fire!

The three keys to Greg’s business being successful were:

1. He chose a business that he actually loved doing, which made success that much easier.

2. He took an idea that was already successful, which is volleyball, and revolutionized it with one simple change.

3. He picked team members who brought their unique skills to help improve the product.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Takeaway and Tips:

It may sound cliche, but doing what you love will make sure your business will succeed. This is because starting a company is hard AF, and you will go through many pitfalls. The one thing that will keep you going through the struggle is loving what you do in the first place.

If you are building a physical product, it may take a long time for your product to be manufactured. Because of this, make sure to talk to as many different product manufacturers as you can so that you can build quickly.

Your product doesn’t have to be perfect when you first start it. All it needs to do is work. Your first goal in creating a product is to get to the MVP. That stands for Minimum Viable Product, and it is when your product is good enough to just work. Once it reaches MVP, then push it out into the market ASAP.

Make sure to have expert team members who can create a great product for you. Greg’s co-founder Mike Delpapa had a background in engineering, so while he was able to design blueprints for the prototype, Greg was figuring out marketing tactics to grow the brand. Treat your company like the Avengers, every person brings their own unique value to help the business succeed.

2. Use the Costco method.

Costco is the sh!t.

It’s like the Disney World of grocery stores.

And idk how they make money from those $0.99 hotdogs.

But the best part about Costco is those free samples.

Being able to try a product before buying it is the BEST way to get someone to buy.

Greg and his team knew this, so they came up with a brilliant idea.

They knew that their product would be perfect for the beach.

So they all followed Pitbull’s advice and moved to the 305.

Wink Celebrity GIF by MLB

Thank you Mr. 305!!

When they moved to Miami, every day they would go to the beach and play with the Crossnet.

They would then get people to play with them, and tell them about their brand.

It started slow, but like a gender reveal party, it started to blow up.

Word of mouth was spreading, and sales were starting to grow.

Then, Greg and his team thought:

❝

Why don’t we just send the product out for free to more people?

So they started sending out their product to as many people as they could and asked them to make videos using it.

And this is where they took their business to the next level.

One day, they woke up and saw that they got over 1,000 orders in one day!

Greg and his team were literally shook, they made over $30,000 in one day and didn’t know why.

Their accountant was like:

They followed where the customers came from, and it was from a famous volleyball player in Latvia.

He posted a video of him playing with the Crossnet, and it got over 15 million views!

Their business really blew up overnight, and after that, they knew what marketing strategy they needed to follow.

This type of marketing is called “influencer marketing”.

Influencer marketing is when you pay someone with a large following to promote your products to their audience.

So, once Greg saw that the video went viral, he just took that video and posted it multiple times on every available platform.

This method of marketing was genius for his brand because:

1. The Crossnet is a very unique product, so seeing it would cause people to stop scrolling on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.

2. Since he knew the video was successful, once he promoted it on other platforms it became a crazy snowball effect.

3. Once people saw his video and bought from his store, he could then figure out who his target audience was by seeing their age, gender, and demographics. This would make it much easier to market in the future because he wouldn't have to waste money marketing to the wrong person.

MARKETING
Takeaway and Tips:

When you find a marketing tactic that is working, keep doing it! Don’t try to change things too much, just keep doing the same thing until it stops working. Greg used the same exact video to market his product for over 5 months because it consistently got him sales!

Give away your product for free. When you do this, it builds trust with your brand. If your product is good, then people will be inclined to tell others about it, which increases the trust for your brand even more. Trust is the most important thing in business because if your customer doesn't trust you, they will never buy from you.

Find your target audience as quickly as possible. Once you find your target audience, your marketing will be easy because you know exactly what your customer wants. Greg and his team thought that his main customers would be college kids at tailgates. However, after he ran marketing campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, he noticed that middle-aged mothers were buying his product the most. The reason why is they bought it as a gift for their children. That changed their marketing completely, so make sure to track the demographics of your customers.

🎼You just leveled up your mindset today!

What did you think of this week’s newsletter? Did you like it? Was it entertaining and informative? How can I do better? Hit reply to let me know!

Thank you for reading as always!

- Zach