Chris Meade

For our eleventh (and 2022 season debut) episode of Reformers: The gritty details behind the world’s greatest bootstrap successes, we are excited to share our interview with Chris Meade, the Founder & CMO at CROSSNET, a new sport that combines the best elements of four square and volleyball. Chris founded CROSSNET with his brother in 2017 and has built it into a rapidly-growing sport with tens of millions in revenue, all while raising no outside capital. In this interview, Chris shares his incredible journey including key insights and lessons learned that can be implemented in your own business. --- Reformers host Andrew Oved is the Founder & General Partner at Reformation Partners, a pioneer in early growth equity. The firm invests in the best capital efficient enterprise and consumer companies at their point of breakout and supports their growth through profitability, future financing rounds, and / or exit.

Chris Meade is the co-founder and CMO of CROSSNET, the world's first four-way volleyball game. The brand has had solid growth over the years, and they've also worked really to deploy their capital in the most efficient ways possible as they scale. One way they're doing that is by primarily hiring freelancers instead of full-time employees. How can any DTC brand replicate the success they've had with freelancers? What mistakes are brands doing when hiring them? And how do you keep freelancers as accountable as full-time staff? The answers, and more, will be found in this episode.

Chris Meade is the CoFounder of CrossNet - the game designed to be the cross between volleyball & foursquare. Chris is an eCommerce superstar with tons of valuable knowledge!  The Shane White Show is now proudly brought you by ROUTINE! Head over to yourroutine.com and try their newest product "Morning Routine". Use code "ShaneWhite30" at checkout for 30% off your first order! Today's episode is also brought to you by Elite Sweets. Elite Sweets is redefining the way we think about Sweets with their Elite Donuts. The Elite Donut is a better-for-you donut that is packed with 13g protein, gluten-free, keto-friendly, and contains only 1g of sugar. Get yours today at elitedonut.com or Amazon! Use code "SHANEWHITE30" for 30% off. Sponsor Links: Routine - http://yourroutine.com Elite Sweets- http://elitedonut.com https://www.amazon.com/stores/Elite+Sweets+-+The+Elite+Donut/page/A1C69F4B-1192-4F55-B06B-29F4F7B901B9?ref_=ast_bln ---------- Helpful Links: Instagram: @chrismeade @crossnetgame @crossnet @shane.m.white http://crossnetgame.com Whoop (1 free month): https://join.whoop.com/#/C20648 Robinhood: http://join.robinhood.com/shanew1 COVID Stock Market Rebound Tracker: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-ayygZVOqsqPuqAWmmIFm7qj2Mymw86OKd7UvQiPx1o/edit?pli=1#gid=0

Chris and Lucas share some of the biggest lessons they've made from nearly catastrophic events. They've both messed up big time, so listen closely, and avoid costly mistakes.Make sure you're subscribed, because Chris will be bringing you big lessons each week from other entrepreneurs.Lucas is going to be talking to vendors and tech partners in the ecommerce ecosystem to keep your store fine tuned and winning.Chris Meade woke up to a big box retailer definitely know of discounting Crossnet 50% at the end of season. Which is totally reasonable.What hurt was when 35 new sellers were competing with us on Amazon for the buy box. We had no choice but to buy them all back.Lesson learned - always negotiate buy backs with your retail buyers.The second lesson he share is the first time Greg and I ordered a container. Nobody told us you had to have protective packaging.Turns out weeks at sea isn’t the greatest thing for your product’s packaging. When we got our shipment, everything was damaged and destroyed.We had no choice but to pay retail for new boxes and stickers and redo everything ourselves.Lesson learned - Use one company that can get the products across borders and to your doorstep.After the big retail summer season, comes our BFCM season, which is great for us when we make sales directly through the website. Especially when we’ve already collected the POs from all the retailers.What isn’t so great, is when our Black Friday deals over discounted what the retailers were able to do.Buying ads to send traffic to retailers isn’t fun. It’s low ROI, but it’s a great way to build rapport and relationships with buyers.Lesson Learned - Have a special package for retailers or your website to avoid the feeling of competition.Sign up for Chris' weekly newsletter Cross Commerce here, and connect with him on Twitter and Linkedin. Chris Meade is the co-founder & CMO of CROSSNET, the world’s first four-way volleyball game. Chris was honored with Forbes 30U30 for the 2021 Sports category. CROSSNET combines elements of the childhood game four square and volleyball in a competitive game to 11, win by 2. CROSSNET is now available at 3000+ retail stores such as Walmart, Target, DICKS, Academy Sports, Sam’s Club and 20+ other retailers.Lucas Walker is a serial entrepreneur founding Venngage, Treats Happen, and Rolled Up. Connect with him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Chris Meade with the from-the-ground-up story of CrossNet, the 4-way volleyball game, how he got into 3000 stores while also being a viral ecom brand, and his philosophy of learning along the way. In this episode of Building Blocks, Jason Wong talks with Chris Meade, co-inventor of CrossNet, entrepreneur, Forbes 30 under 30, and now a self-taught ecom and wholesale expert. It’s rare for a DTC ecom product to make it so deeply into the world of wholesale, and Chris talks openly about all of the things he had to learn as his product began moving from online sales to the shelves of sporting goods stores. Chris’s entire framework is about trying all sorts of things, learning along the way, and sharing what works. He touches on the details of contacting retailers for the first time, negotiating with manufacturers to optimize cashflow, funding and financing pitfalls and solutions, in-store vs TikTok marketing, and why sharing what he has learned is the most essential part of his success. Follow Chris’s Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/cmeade Chris’s Newsletter:https://chrismeade.beehiiv.com/subscribe Building Blocks website: bbclass.co Jason’s twitter: https://twitter.com/Eggrol

Incredible conversation with an incredibly impressive human. Chris and his team created not only a new sport, but a whole new market. From a rural CT town to hustling CROSSNET on the beaches of Miami to being in 3000 big box retailers. Living the American Dream 🇺🇸! Show Notes: Grab a Crossnet at https://www.crossnetgame.com/ Follow Chris - https://twitter.com/chrismeadej Subscribe to his newsletter - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhl9l3yslbszIBUGi0jYr5G_7uZ5cI6O7QGZeo5CLNhNstFw/viewform Follow Triple Whale at @TryTripleWhale - twitter.com/trytriplewhale Subscribe to our Newsletter, Whale Mail - https://www.getrevue.co/profile/trytriplewhale --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/trytriplewhale/message

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup We’re back again with another throwback to one of our favourite episodes filled to the brim with wisdom. Join us as we reminisce and look back on on CROSSNET's journey and chat about: 👇 🥾How they BOOTSTRAPPED the company from flipping 10 orders to making orders of 22,000 units a pop.    🛒How they used Linked In and classic content marketing to reach the influential retail merchandisers at Target, Dicks, and Walmart.   📩How an education focused email marketing strategy and correct use of Wheelio went from driving $3K a month to $150K in just a few months.    🏋🏻‍♀️Seeing someone working out on a balcony for the first time ever on the Hot Seat! Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Chris Meade is the co-founder and CMO of Crossnet. Crossnet is the world's first four square volleyball game. Set up within minutes in sand, grass, or indoors and is an 8 figure business selling in retail, DTC, Amazon and other marketplaces. Chris talks about how they grew the business using their product and customers, influencer marketing, getting into retail and what mistakes they made along the way. Sign up for Chris's newsletter with ecom and business tips for free here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhl9l3yslbszIBUGi0jYr5G_7uZ5cI6O7QGZeo5CLNhNstFw/viewform This episode is brought to you by my Amazon marketing and advertising agency IncrementumDigital.com. Visit 8fig.co to learn more about growth capital solutions for your ecommerce brand. Join the E-commerce Mindset Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/ecommercemindsetgroup/ on facebook to continue the conversation and follow Liran on social media: https://www.facebook.com/lhirschkorn https://www.instagram.com/liranhirschkorn/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/liranhirschkorn/--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/liran-hirschkorn0/message

Chris Meade, 28 years young, a Forbes 30 under 30 nominee, invented a new sport with his co-founders that mixes Four square with Volleyball.  Today you can catch Crossnet on ESPN and the product sells in over 3,000 locations in the US and around the world. Chris and I talk about naming not only a brand, but a sport, how to create not only momentum but a movement, the latest in digital marketing, and why communication, internally and externally is key to brand success and, as usual, we touch on a lot more. If you are an entrepreneur in the D2C space, listen in. If you are any kind of marketing professional, listen in. Much wisdom is to be gained from this conversation on how to get e-commerce traction in today's environment. 

CONGRATULATIONS CHRIS ON YOUR ENGAGEMENT :) Chris, his brother, and their best friend were home for the summer. Bored and looking for a project to build, they stumbled upon the idea of 4 way volleyball in a brainstorm session. After doing some quick Google research, they were shocked to learn it didn't exist yet! And thus, CROSSNET was born.  This episode is a classic tale of "I didn't choose this life, it chose me." Chris hasn't let his youth or a lack of formal business training slow him down one iota- in fact, it's emboldened him to take risks that many would not have. The result has been a thriving company that's formed partnerships with Barstool Sports, Walmart, Dicks & even a tournament on ESPN.  Love this episode? Let me know on Twitter! https://twitter.com/Sue_Cough