🔮 How Spikeball Spiked its Growth & Why Networking is Everything

Good Morning. This is the first time in history where after Halloween you don't stop wearing a mask...

First off, we usually leave financial commentary to other newsletters (ahem...the one that just got acquired), but a lot happened in markets this week so we had to sum it up for you.

So what's Our Future again?

We're the #1 podcast for Gen Z professionals and we create this Sunday newsletter to share exclusive industry insights and career advice from the brightest minds in business with the leaders of tomorrow.

Sports

Scaling Spikeball

Back before COVID-19 made college campuses obsolete, it was rare not to see four shirtless fraternity brothers running around a plastic net while diving for a rubber ball in the diag.

Chris Ruder, the CEO of Spikeball, recounted his adventure to us about growing a forgotten game into the next olympic sport.

Spike Arrives: the now iconic sport was actually created in 1989, but failed to build a following and disappeared from shelves a few years later. Fast forward to a 2003 Kauai vacay where Chris and some friends brought a tattered, duct taped Spikeball set to the beach.

Unable to tell passerbys how to buy the game, Chris, along with his brother and a couple of friends, imagined the glory of bringing their most cherished childhood memory to millions of others.

In 2008, Chris finally decided to jump into the fray and start producing Spikeball sets for the world to play with–but it was just a side hustle for as long as it could.

“My corporate job was a 9-5 job and I wasn’t passionate about it. So I’d do that, come home, and hang out with my wife and kids. They’d go to bed around 8 or 9 and then I’d jump into Spikeball work. So our first “warehouse” was my basement and I’d have 700-800 sets down there and usually around midnight or so I’d do the shipping.”

Chris thinks of Spikeball's gradual scale-up as an advantage, as it allowed him to grow up with the customer and build awareness for the game.

“Those first five years, essentially being 100% e-commerce gave us the time to actually figure out who the customer is and what they’re into. If we had gone into sports authority or Dick’s or whomever on day one, I think we would have failed because nobody would have known what the heck the product is. So having distribution as one thing, but actually having people know what the product is, is wildly different.”

Despite getting a huge boost in publicity when Spikeball was featured on Shark Tank and landed a deal with FUBU CEO Daymond John, Chris notes that the business was already exploding before the show aired.

His perspective on marketing is that your biggest fans will become your best salespeople.

“Let’s narrow it down to one person who buys the product. They have to go find three other people to actually use it, so there’s a viral element just built in the product,” Chris said. "Then let’s say those four people use it. They play in a public place, a beach, public park, etc. So now they have the attention of strangers who are wondering ‘what’s that weird trampoline gang’? As long as [our customers" are more or less leading the charge then we're in good shape.”

Today, Spikeball is a multi-million dollar company that hosts professional tournaments around the world and boasts social media pages that command 8 figure followings. After alluding to a future appearance for the sport in the Olympic Games, Chris left us with some powerful advice.

“So many people talk about doing something, but few actually do. And if it fails, be smart enough in that you know you’re not risking everything or you’re going to be on the street if it fails. Just dip your toe in the water and see.”

Listen to the full story of Spikeball on the Our Future Podcast.

Students

Our Future Careers in Consulting

Emily Inestroza is an analyst at Deloitte’s Technology Consulting practice, and she sat down with us to share her secrets to success in landing her dream job.

Beginning college at California State University – Northridge and ending it as a graduate of USC’s Marshall School of Business, Emily has successfully recruited the Big Four from both a target and non-target school.

While she began her foray into the professional world as an Accounting Intern for PWC, Emily quickly realized consulting was more in line with her ambitions. She explained to us what she thinks the most valuable traits are for anyone considering consulting.

“Three weeks into the job, the platform that I'm working on right now is very challenging. I'm working my butt off to understand what I'm learning, I'm studying, I'm doing research, I'm asking questions. So I think [for anyone considering consulting], being a learner, up for the challenge, and being adaptable and flexible are huge,” she said.

At the end of the day, no matter what school you go to or what career path you want to pursue, building relationships is EVERYTHING.

“Network, network, network. Knowing people who are working at these companies is how you’re going to get in. I know networking can be difficult, but you really just have to remind yourself to be aggressive, put yourself out there,” she said. “If you reach out to 100 people, at least 5 of them are going to get back to you. So you have to keep pushing, that network will take you really far in your career.”

Our favorite networking tools:

• 5 free email search credits of any executive on RocketReach

• 30-days free of Linkedin Premium (just don’t forget to cancel)
  

Emily put together a collection of free career resources such as resume and networking templates that took her far.

We highly recommend checking them out and also hearing Emily’s full story on the Our Future Podcast.

Finance

Wild Week on Wall Street

We’re excited to be partnering with the Weekly Wrap Up for this issue to give you the update on a momentous week on Wall Street.

The U.S. economy had a major break-up in March, but it got to swiping on Tinder and rebounded HARD. In Q3, GDP rose at a record-breaking 33.1%, but we all know rebounds aren’t usually a long-term thing...

Investors still sense plenty of heartbreak on the horizon and stock markets had their worst week since COVID-19 came along and cancelled your spring break jet ski photo. Here’s why:

• The Second Wave: Despite being 6 months into this pandemic, we’re still smashing through daily COVID-19 records with 100,000 infections reported in the U.S. on Friday (NYT)

• Stalled Stimulus: Uncertainty surrounding the election has investors spooked, especially with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi noting that the economic stimulus deal won’t pass until after the election

But here’s where things get interesting.

CNBC reported this week that roughly 85% of companies have crushed expectations by an average of 19%, with tech companies like Google and Amazon leading the pack.

Despite big dubs in Corporate America, political and pandemic-related uncertainties have the bears out-wrestling the bulls.

Written by Michael Sikand and Sia Anand

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