CROSSNET

Chris Meade was working as an Account Executive at Uber HQ, helping launch UberEats in Boston and Providence, when he came home for holiday break in 2019. Late one night, he, his brother Greg, and childhood friend Mike Delpapa—who had just graduated from Northeastern with an engineering degree—started brainstorming business ideas. After writing down 200+ ridiculous ideas and crossing most out, four-way volleyball emerged as the winner. "We quickly realized it was not as ridiculous as we thought!"

The next morning, the three friends drove to their local Walmart, bought two volleyball nets, cut the centers out, and rigged up a prototype. They invited friends over to play elimination volleyball using old four-square rules, and the reaction was immediate: it was a blast. What followed was a year-long iteration cycle. Mike started crafting blueprints and finding manufacturers in the sporting goods industry. "We'd finally get the game and immediately point out flaws. Go back onto Whatsapp, relay the feedback and repeat the process. A year later, we had our final product!" Meanwhile, Chris was working full-time at Uber and building the CROSSNET website at night, while Greg launched their social media accounts.

The team made a critical discovery: every time they set up CROSSNET, crowds gathered. "Our four-way net turns heads because nobody has ever seen anything like it before." They realized their marketing strategy should be distribution. The founders brought the prototype to beaches and parks where people could play, then directed them to their website. However, this created their first major problem—they were accepting orders before having inventory, leading to months-long delays and customer frustration.

Chris learned this lesson hard: "I always tell fellow entrepreneurs to make sure you 100% have your inventory in before you start selling or to properly set customer expectations." Once they had inventory, they shifted to influencer marketing. They were selective, vetting ambassadors for quality content and audience fit, then offering product exchanges for videos. The key was getting direct contact—phone number, email—before shipping anything. They repurposed the best videos into Facebook and Instagram ads, which generated significant revenue. On the conversion side, they implemented Privy for email capture and discounts, Hotjar to identify drop-off points, and Carthook to streamline checkout from three pages to one. Chris noted that last change "increased our conversion by almost 1%, which is hundreds of thousands of dollars across the year."

By late 2019, CROSSNET had hit $300k/month in revenue and over $2M in cumulative sales, selling through their website and 20+ marketplaces including Target, Walmart, Amazon, Scheels, and Academy. The founders were bootstrapped and 100% profitable. For 2020, they planned to launch an indoor model for schools, hire a remote team for customer service and marketing, and target $5M in annual sales. Chris's advice to other founders: "Break down every single cost and find ways to improve your margins from day one. Negotiate on everything possible."