Still In Disbelief at Everything That's Happening.

Hey guys!

I just got off of the craziest call and had to send this newsletter out IMMEDIATELY. 

I had a 45-minute Zoom call with the co-founder of STARBUCKS, the legit creator of Starbucks, the company that was sold to Howard Schultz. Zev Siegel, the co-founder, is an absolute legend, and could not have been cooler.

Tomorrow, Zev and The Founders Club are hosting 300+ people on a call where he will talk to us about the highs and lows of his journey, things he wishes he could take back, and how he’d think about building a billion dollar business from scratch in 2025.

Still in disbelief that this is happening, to be honest.

I was nervous to even ask for an intro call to align on expectations for the big talk, but he couldn’t have been cooler! What I thought would be a seven minute (if we were lucky) run down, turned into a 45 minute jam session and him asking my co-founder for coffee in Seattle next week. So damn cool. 

Just a wake-up reminder moment, those that we’d consider to be celebrities and “famous” are regular people just like us. Every single one of them is human, some are just a tad bit richer and smarter. 

Unfortunately, the webinar with Zev this Wednesday is completely filled up, but keep your eyes peeled: this is only one of many events that TFC hosts quite literally all the time.

How We’re Launching in Target

Last night I received probably the best email ever. It was a full store rollout list of all the locations that CROSSNET will be in Target this spring. Sadly, there’s no Miami location, so I’ll have to make the 45 minute trek up to Fort Lauderdale.

If you’ve been following along with the CROSSNET journey for some time, you’d know what it means to us that the launch Target is officially on the horizon. At this point, the blessings/things to be grateful for seem to keep falling in our laps one-after-another.

Someone much wiser than I once said “The harder you work, the luckier you get”…

I wanted to take you behind the scenes on how we plan on crushing this launch and expanding nationwide after proving out this test. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, I am 100% all ears as this means SO MUCH to me. You can adapt this same strategy for any retail partnership you’re thinking about.

1. Several email campaigns announcing the launch of Target x CROSSNET

   A) Beautiful graphic collaboration with GIF

   B) Heartfelt message from the founder

   C) Photos from inside the store

   D) A little bit of friendly competition—the first few customers to buy the game will get a full refund of their receipt 

2. We are launching in 150 stores.

   I have the exact zip codes. We are going to run video & static ads with the CTA being shop at your local Target in these areas. 

3. I am considering taking out a few affordable billboards in the midwestern regions to announce the Target partnership.

   This will make things look larger-than-life. It’s also great content for the buyer and their team and promo for us. I can probably get a few billboards for a couple thousand dollars, and they will last all summer. 

4. Influencer seeding.

   I’m going to be sending in 10 TikTokers a week to Targets all across the country to create video content. I don’t actually need them to “buy the game” or “play the game," as I am sending them copies of our best B-roll to then edit into their videos. This elevates them from having to find 3 friends to play, setting up the game, and waiting for the right weather conditions + any possible complaints. 

5. Buying a few influencer posts from Target Obsessed Instagram accounts.

   These accounts show case the latest drops and this could be an easy feature for us. We are also going to start doing this with Founders Club - collabing with city pages (aka Lifestyle Miami) when we have a Miami event, and buying shout-outs on entrepreneurship pages. 

6. SMS blast to Target website for e-commerce orders. 

   If a customer orders in Florida, for example, the closest Target store will ship them their order. At the end of the day, anything that moves a unit is a win. 

7. Podcast world tour telling the CROSSNET story and where people should be looking for us this summer. 

   Some founders like to be more front-facing than others. That is, and always will be, okay. For us being a more founder-forward company, we’ve seen historically that sometimes, people will latch on to you as a person, and then your brand secondary to that just because they like you/your story. If you’ve never done it before, I urge you to try it out and see how it goes.

8. Update all email flows (welcome, abandon cart, post purchase) to include a CTA to shop at Target

   CROSSNET has been built on the back of doing the little things right the first time, every time. This removes the necessity to go back and iterate later. Anything that can incrementally-move the needle is a win in our book; this yet another example of doing just that.

I could rattle off ideas on-and-on for hours of all the things I’ve dreamed up since 2017. I am so damn excited, and I know that this will unlock an incredible new subset of customers for us who will be learning about four-way volleyball for the very first time. We have a few months to blow this out of the park, and trust me: not a day is going to waste.

Here, There, and Everywhere

If I didn’t have such a great team around me + an affinity for caffeine, I genuinely don’t know how I’d have the hours in the day to get done what I need to.

On top of everything that’s been mentioned already, TFC is going back on the road again with a couple crazy events coming up.

This week, we’ve got our TFC Denver Ski Retreat. 3 days of skiing, networking + hanging out in a crazy villa, and some surprises along the way. Oh yeah, did I mention that the group’s got a box at John Summit as well?

Next week we’re throwing our biggest NYC event of Q1 on February 18th. We rented out a massive spot so if you’d like to come hangout and meet up for drinks & dinner you can RSVP here - TFC NYC. 

The best part about this? We’ve got nothing to sell you, and it’s entirely free, so leave your wallet at home, but bring your A-game. You never know who you’ll meet at events like this. To be honest, if it wasn’t for meeting somebody beyond well connected at our last Denver dinner in September we never would have got into Target in the first place.

I’d love to meet and see you there!

No Plans to Slow Down

At this point, if you’ve been following me for a minute, I’ve made it virtually impossible for you not to have heard of The Founders Club.

What started out as a passion project for my buddy Aaron and I quickly snowballed into a community where 250+ ambitious founders from 15+ cities, having generated over $10 billion in revenue, come together to push each other’s boundaries beyond what they’d ever thought imaginable. That’s exactly what The Founders Club is — a private, intimate network of high-growth entrepreneurs who are all about scaling, building, and succeeding.

Whether you're looking for actionable advice, lifelong-connections, or that sought-after group of people who truly get what it takes to run a business, this is the place to be.

Our applications are literally topping 100+ each week, and we pride ourselves on having less than a 18% acceptance rate. Not any elitism, of course, but we only want to bring the best-of-the-best together.

If you’re interested in surrounding yourself with A+ players who routinely go out of their ways to help each-other level-up, check out a bit more about The Founders Club here.

Thank you, as always, for being on this journey with me. The rest of this week, I’m taking a much-needed vacation with my wife and her family, then back to the grind. Could not be happier with the direction in which things are moving on all fronts, TFC, BODY, and CROSSNET. Speaking it all into existence, day-by-day. Onward and upward.

All love,

Chris