Marketer Studied: Vol 3. Insights from Spikeball’s CEO

Meet Chris Ruder

Welcome to Marketer Studied, where each week, we sit down with a marketing leader to learn more about their careers, insights and accomplishments. 

This week, that marketing leader is Chris Ruder, CEO of Spikeball. After a successful 10-year run working in sales at companies like Microsoft and LiveNation, Chris revitalized an obscure outdoor game he grew up playing in the eighties. 

Here are the need-to-knows about Chris: 

• Chris earned his undergraduate degree in photojournalism and later used those skills to shoot nearly all of Spikeball’s early brand photographs on an iPhone. 

• In 2023, Spikeball hit $19m in annual revenue with an estimated worth above $45m

• Has propelled Spikeball into one of the fastest growing sports of all-time with over 4 million players globally and features across ESPN and Shark Tank

Growing and engaging organically

Unlike most B2C CEOs, Chris didn’t invent his product—he brought it back to life.

Though he’d heard about it as a kid, the original company that launched Spikeball gave up on it after a few years. From about 1991 to 2008, the game was dormant. Then, Chris and his friends started wondering if they could bring it back. 

“When we’d play Spikeball, strangers would walk up to us and ask us about the game. It was always the same three questions: what’s the game, how do you play, and where can I get it? We could never answer that third question of ‘Where can I get it.’ It happened enough times that finally the light bulb went off and I said, you know what? I’m going to talk to some attorneys and see if we can bring this thing back.

So that’s essentially what we did. And it was not driven by the idea that it could become massive and we could make a ton of money. It was more of a fun side project. So me, my brother, my cousin, three or four childhood friends all went in on it together. The rule was that nobody was allowed to write a check for more money than they’re comfortable losing. Because chances were very good that we would lose it. But we agreed that if we do fail, at least we have fun failing.  

I ended up running it as a night job for about five years. I worked my job doing ad sales for Xbox at Microsoft during the day, came home, hung out with my wife and kids. They’d go to bed maybe around 9, and 10 is when Spikeball work would begin. That would go until 1 or 2 in the morning, and that was the routine. I was 100% of it those first five years.”

So, how did Chris grow Spikeball’s audience as a one-person show? Good ol’ organic growth and highly personalized customer engagement. 

“Those first five years, you could only buy Spikeball at Spikeball.com and that meant we had access to 100% of our customers.

What a beautiful city. I’m going to go ahead and mail it today, it should arrive in two or three days. By the way, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you hear about us?’ Pretty much every customer in the early days got that email directly from me. I was genuinely curious. I got very lucky in that—of course, many people didn’t reply—but a lot did. 

That’s how I learned that Ultimate Frisbee players, PE teachers, summer camps, and faith-based youth groups all loved the product. As a follow up to that email, I’d ask for referrals to other members in these niches that were interested in us. I’d send free equipment with the hopes that it’d be a strong marketing tool. I’m a big fan of Seth Godin, who’s a proponent of your product being able to self-advertise. Of course, not everybody has the liberty of having a $0 advertising spend but I think it’s a worthy goal. 

With Spikeball, we’re fortunate in that if I send one free set to you, you now have to go find three people to play with. There’s a viral element built into it. When you play, you’re probably in a public park, a college campus, or a beach where a bunch of other people will see you playing. So I saw that as a better investment than spending money on Facebook ads.”

Outside of his existing customers, Chris conducted his own market research by getting out and shaking hands with people and soliciting live feedback on the product. 

“Back in those early days, I’d go down to the beach in Chicago, North Avenue beach, on Lake Michigan in the summer. There are huge bike paths and tens of thousands of people running by on a nice Saturday. Sometimes I’d grab some friends to come play, other times I’d just walk around with a net in my hand and introduce myself to strangers. There are a ton of volleyball players down there and in between points, I would tell them about Spikeball, explain that the rules are almost identical to volleyball, and ask if they’d mind playing for a few minutes and provide some feedback. 

@spikeball

Are these guys even good or does the Unicorn set just have magical powers??

They were super nice about it and they played. And they absolutely hated it. They were used to being good at a sport and looking good playing it. Anybody that’s used our product knows that for the first 5 or 10 minutes, you kind of look like a fool—the ball goes weird directions, you don’t quite know how to do it. Then, once you get that one great point, you’re hooked. 

But what I learned from that in hindsight was that I was trying to light a fire and that’s really, really hard.

Asking questions—like ‘How did you hear about us?’ or ‘How can we become part of a pre-existing community?’— was much more impactful for us than thumping our chests and trying to tell the world how great Spikeball was.”

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A standout campaign

Chris hasn’t dumped a ton of resources into paid advertising or external agencies but Spikeball is exploring new ways to tap into a new brand message. 

“We recently came up with a new tagline, which is “Spikeball: Find Your Circle.” I think that perfectly encapsulates what we're trying to do here. Yes, it’s a play on words around the shape of our product, but it's also the social element. 

One of the ways this manifests is with high school and college students. Think about some of the headlines about how Gen Z was dubbed the loneliest generation because there's too much screen time, depression, etc. In a small way, Spikeball can be the antidote to that. It’s a very inclusive community. Parents often send us notes and I talk to them at tournaments. They say things like ‘Hey, my kid had no interest in getting off the couch until they ran into their group of Spikeball friends’ or ‘I was so nervous when my daughter was going to college, but she fell in with the Spikeball crew and they are such a good crew of friends.’ 

That's the kind of stuff that, obviously, feels great to hear, but I think it's also just marketing gold. Let's get those parents on camera telling these stories. Let's get the kids telling the stories. And I think that's a lot of what, you know, the world needs and wants right now: more of that connection. You know, it's not our plastic net and rubber ball that makes us special. It's the circle.

Advice and takeaways

Chris’s journey with Spikeball offers a lot of learnings. Here are a few that stand out:

1) Organic, Personalized Community Building

Chris Ruder personally emailed every customer in Spikeball's early days, asking how they discovered the product and establishing genuine connections. This direct engagement helped him identify key customer segments (Ultimate Frisbee players, PE teachers, camps) and leverage referrals within these communities instead of relying on paid advertising.

As a marketer, prioritize direct customer conversations over automated solutions when possible. By personally connecting with early customers, you can uncover valuable insights about who's using your product and why. These insights will help you identify your most promising customer segments and refine your targeting strategy far more effectively than broad paid campaigns.

Ask yourself, when is the last time I spoke directly to a customer?

2) Amplify Existing Enthusiasm Over Demand Creation

Rather than trying to "light a fire" with random potential customers, Spikeball found success by identifying "fires already lit" and "pouring gasoline" on them. When Ruder tried introducing the product to volleyball players, the reception was lukewarm, but by focusing on communities already enthusiastic about the product, growth accelerated naturally.

Look for communities and use cases where your product is already gaining traction, then double down on these areas. When marketing resources are limited, it's far more efficient to amplify existing enthusiasm than to convince skeptical audiences. Identify where your product naturally resonates, then provide those communities with resources, attention, and opportunities to spread the word.

3) Build Genuine Human Connection

Spikeball evolved beyond selling equipment to promoting their tagline "Find Your Circle," emphasizing the community and relationships formed through their product. They leverage authentic stories from parents and players about how Spikeball created meaningful social connections, particularly for younger generations seeking real-world interactions.

Your marketing should highlight the deeper human impact of your product rather than just its features. Collect and share authentic customer stories that demonstrate how your product improves lives or solves meaningful problems. This approach not only creates more compelling marketing content but also helps clarify your brand's purpose and builds emotional connections with customers that transcend the physical product.

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