Fancy a game of Roundnet? How an old sport became a $45m juggernaut.
Ever heard of Round Net?
Didn’t think so.
But in the 1980s a sport was launched with a small round trampoline like net and a softball…It flopped and everyone forgot about it, everyone bar a man named Chris Ruder.
In 2003 Ruder and his friends were playing a game of roundnet on a beach in Hawaii and attracted a lot of interest. People wanted to know what it was, how they to could play and most importantly were they could buy it. Feeling he might be onto something Chris researched roundnet discovering the games trademarks had expired and there was no patent. He acquired that trademark and filed for a patent.
Come 2008 Spikeball launched and 5 years on was doing >$1m revenue with a growth trajectory every year since. In 2023 Spikeball amassed $45.2m in Revenue, but just how did Spikeball grow?
How did Spikeball grow? The key reasons
Do it first, Do it Better or Do it cheaper – A successful business is normally one of the 3 and with Spikeball we can say Chris Ruder certainly did it better! Whilst he didn’t dream up Round Net, he was able to repackage, re-brand and modernise an old sport and capitalise on new marketing channels to drive demand.
Know Your Customer – To better understand the market. Chris would communicate with every customer and have them do a survey. This revealed his key demographics and he was able to use tailored marketing techniques to appeal and drum up demand
Mass Marketing with no budget – Chris was savvy in his approach to mass marketing and was lucky enough to secure himself a slot on shark tank in 2015. He was offered $500k for a 20% stake from Daymond John which he turned down. However, that mainstream free advertising led to spikeballs growth every year since.
Product visibility – Spikeball can be played in parks, at the beach or on a university campus. Which puts it right in the eyes of its target customer. Word of mouth is a powerful and free organic growth driver which continues to push Spikeball to ever higher levels.
So there you have it, it just shows you don’t need a new and unique idea to make it big! Sometimes the past makes good in the future.
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