From College Gamer to Founder: The VarsityGripz Story with Maurice Manswell

A lot of entrepreneurs will wait till everything is perfect that they have [music] the products and they start pitching it. You're pitching one of the biggest programs in the country. Yep. The products and then >> you didn't have a product. >> Yeah, exactly. >> I wanted to have you here before you blew up big [laughter] time so we can say you heard it here first. >> I appreciate it. Welcome back to Game Changers Live, coming to you from our home studio here at Florida International University's College of Communications, Architecture, and the Arts. My name is Sergio Tia, your host, and each and every episode, we bring you a game changer, and this week is no

exception. We have Mr. Maurice Manswell. He is the CEO and founder of an innovative company called Varsity Grips. And I had the pleasure of spending 12 weeks with this gentleman in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 small businesses program which really aligns small businesses and helps them grow and elevate their impact. So Maurice, welcome to Game Changers, bud. >> Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. It's been a pleasure these last 12 weeks with you. Um, and yeah, I'm excited. >> So Maurice, this gentleman is 23 years old. >> Yes, sir. >> Right. Went to school where where you you were born in Maryland. >> Yep. I was born in Howard County, Maryland. Um,

grew up there. Um, yeah. >> Awesome. When did you move to Miami? >> So, I moved to Miami. I moved to Florida in my junior year of high school. I was playing lacrosse. Um, we had won a state championship. We ranked 10th in the country. It was it was a really great year. And I had ended up going to a tournament a little bit after that at IMG Academy called IMG Nationals. So, my club team was playing there and I didn't realize that they were recruiting, but it started to hit me a little bit like during the tournament. So, I like really was dialing in. So, we did well. Um, and then IMG ended up

messaging me after like, "Hey, we love seeing you at the at the tournament and would love to kind of like learn a little bit more about you and and and have you come down for a prospect camp." So, I did that and then they ended up offering me a partial scholarship. So, I transferred to IMG halfway through my junior year of high school and then I was a co grad. So, the next year, senior year, right before the sen the season starts. Um, I ended up committing to my university right before CO hit. But, yeah, CO hit and then we all got sent home because of boarding school. So, we're like, "All right, see see

you see you in two weeks, I guess." And then just like never came back to campus. So, >> I was fortunately enough able to stay pretty close to like my friends um over there. But yeah, it was a very weird experience. Taught me a lot of resilience. And then 2020, I got to Lynn University in Bokeh where I committed, played my first year of college lacrosse. And then I always knew I wanted to be a business owner. And um I also wanted to go to university that had a football program. Big football fan. So um I applied to University of Miami and then transferred in 2022 and I've been in Miami ever since. >> Phenomenal.

What did you study? Then business administration. >> Uh sport administration with a minor in entrepreneurship. >> All right. Awesome. So yeah. So that that led in perfectly into what you're doing today. So >> tell me about what was that moment? So you're a gamer. You're there playing games and what made you like what hit the light bulb? >> Yeah. So I would say um it really dates back like I grew up playing a lot of video games with my older brothers and one of the main games we would play was college football, NCA football. And so >> three boys all play sports, super competitive. And that's one way for us to do it. And so

in 2013, I think it was the last one that they had made. It was NCA Football 14 and they discontinued it because of the um the NIL rule. The players rebelled. They're like, "You're using our NIL. We need to be getting paid." >> Okay. >> So EA shut the whole thing down. Um and so 2021 rolls around, NIL is announced officially and and here >> then EA is like, "Okay, the game's coming back, you And so 2024 comes, um, they're like, "Okay, the game is getting ready to launch in July of 2024. >> 3 years of hype, build up, you know, trailers and stuff like that." And so by the time it's May 2024, everyone

is just like, "Man, I'm taking off of work, you know, I'm buying a console. Like, college football is back." It was such a big deal. And I was one of them who was extremely excited. Like, I'm going to be playing this game, you know, for hours. And my brothers, too. And so I'm getting out of my junior year of college at M and I'm home for the summer and my mom's asking like she's like, "You're just going to play video games all summer?" I'm like, "Yeah, like let me know what you need need me to do." July 17th, college football comes out. So I'm not doing anything else but playing that. But as I start

looking more into the game, I'm just seeing like all of these grown men taking off of work and buying consoles. I just felt the energy. And so I felt in my head like I feel like something is missing cuz it's 2026 now and everyone's getting the game digitally cuz I remember going to GameStop at midnight and getting physical games. >> And so I'm just like, you know, it's going to be great to download it, but it's like it felt like something was missing. So I was kind of brainstorming a little bit and then it was really like a light bulb that went off in my head like, oh my gosh, every fan is holding the

controller, but it's blank, >> you know? Yeah. But they're surrounded by every jersey, every photo, every football. >> And so I just felt like like there's a huge market for this. Like I if there was a Miami one, I would get it. >> And I had just seen like stickers before. I'm like my hands get sweaty when I'm playing sometimes for hours. Like there needs to be like a high quality product for this. And so I really created a basic website, my email address, and I was like, this is what we do coming soon. And I reached out to our top like kind of the schools that we wanted to to target first. And the

same day I sent that email out, Alabama responds and they're like, "We love it." >> And I'm like like froze for a second like you know my heart dropped. I'm like >> so okay. So a lot of entrepreneurs will wait till everything is perfect that they have the product to start pitching it. You basically put the website together. You put coming soon. >> You you're pitching one of the biggest programs in the country. >> Yep. You sent them like a mockup. Uh >> yeah, basically. Yeah, like we had made a deck and like um even I actually because this was this was 20 early 2024. So chat GBT was like still like getting big. So

I brought draw up some mockups on Chat GBT and like created a pitch deck of like this is the vision, this is what it would look like. And then I presented to them um on a call and they were like this is awesome. Like we love it. And then 2 weeks later, they're like, "You know what? We want you guys to come to campus as well when the game launches cuz we're hosting this big event with the team >> and we want you to supply all of the players." >> And um Yeah. And then they ended up we ended up getting featured on their Instagram after. >> So to to supply the players with the

product >> the products and then >> you didn't have a product. >> Yeah. Exactly. [laughter] So that's the funniest part. Okay. So we had two months to get live and launched and to campus with them. So, we fly to Alabama the day before. >> Did they know that you didn't have the product? >> No. No. They knew that they were the first school, but like they didn't know that we had just started the company. They're like, "Yeah, come over in 2 months." And you're like, "All right, [laughter] I'll be there. We'll figure it out." >> Exactly. >> Figure it out. Um, but one story I definitely want to like drop is we flew there the

day before the products like had gotten delivered, but I guess someone who was supposed to receive it had left a little bit early. So they got taken back to Birmingham, which is like two hours away from Alabama the day before. So we were freaking out because we we were there. And so the creative director is at like Publix getting dinner and he sees a DHL truck. So he goes up to him. He's like, "Hey, I have this package. Like I just need to track it." He's like pulls it up. He says, "Oh, it's in Birmingham." So he ends up driving 2 hours to Birmingham the night before grabbing them. And I was like, "We will

do it." He's like, "No, it's completely on us. Like we got it." So he gets them at like 10:00 p.m. the night before. Then we go at like 7 in the morning the next day, put all the products on, and then give it to all the players. So sometimes you just have to like >> just pray everything is going to work out. >> Awesome. No, but I mean that's that's an that's an amazing lesson for entrepreneurs. Like for those of you w watching, >> a lot of times you got to say yes and then figure it out. Right. Right. And trust that you're going to make it. Trust that you're going to figure out a

way to get there. >> And so when that night when you got [laughter] you know, at 7 in the morning. Was that the first time you saw and felt the product? >> It was. [laughter] >> It was. It was. And honestly, like >> you must have been freaking out. >> I was freaking out. And they had like received our >> What if it didn't fit right? >> Exactly. >> Or you know the logo was off. It looked >> I was so worried. I was so worried. But like once everything was done, like they just looked amazing. Like like I was like, "This is unreal. This is what I've always envisioned." Um, and yeah, they also

had gotten our samples as well, like our physical product samples too, like that had our logos on it. So, they approved us like right then and there in person. >> Wow. >> So, it was like an unreal story. And then a a few hours. So, they gave us a tour of the facility, the stadium, like treating us like family. Like, shout out to them. Like, they're they're they're really family. And I get a notification after we leave 2 hours later, Alabama football has tagged you in a post. >> No. And my heart dropped. [laughter] >> My heart dropped. Um, but yeah, we had made like their their feature poster. Everyone in the comments was like,

"Where do I get that controller? Where did I get that controller?" >> And I'm just responding, "Launching tomorrow. Launching tomorrow at 10:00 a.m., launching tomorrow at 10 a.m." Cuz we hadn't even launched yet. >> So then we launched tomorrow, the next day at 10:00 a.m. And like orders just start flooding through. >> You're kidding. >> It was crazy. I was just like in some frat house in Alabama. I was like, "What did we just create?" you know, and then we just started to to partner with all of our other schools after that. >> So, you had a a website with an order form and so forth and >> yeah, >> you know, it just started

coming. How many how many orders did you get in the first? >> Probably the first like even the first two hours was probably like >> like 50 50 75 orders. I guess people had like reminders set up or times >> and yeah, like they just immediately were like just order. It was through Shopify. We were using Shopify. So like we're just getting the notification, the Shopify notification. I'm just like this is crazy. >> And you didn't have the product either. >> No. Yeah. Yeah. Like we go like, "Hey, I need >> 200 of these." Like >> Exactly. And like our whole fulfillment process was just still so amateur rookie. I started in a storage unit.

>> Like I had a storage unit in my apartment in Miami when I first moved in and just like driving to and from campus class like be in class be like, "Oh, I got four orders. I got to go ship then drive back. Like it was really like that that dorm room kind of style store startup. It was crazy. >> So you would just go there, pack them in a in a box, take them to UPS and drop them off [clears throat and laughter] and ship them. But it was just so manual like it's crazy, right? >> Yeah. >> And so so you started with that one. What happened after Alabama? >> So then Penn

State responds. Um so they're like super excited. than Ohio State and Oregon and like Tennessee, LSU. It literally like what I mean once I was able to do that >> and you showed them the Alabama. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Like a lot of a lot of schools were like >> they they they want to see proof of concept. Like that's it. That's is what it is. And like they saw proof of concept, they're like we love it. The game just dropped. >> This product doesn't exist. The timing was there couldn't have been any better timing for us. Um but yeah like the game had they they knew how many people would be playing the game. Um

but yeah it was a really really exciting beginning to to the story. >> So I mean g a lot of people don't understand how big gaming is is and the kind of audience worldwide that there is with this. It's insane right >> huge >> the market. Um and then especially in the US with with the passion for for college sports college athletics then the NFL and baseball and everything else. So, y >> you've now licensed this with all the NCAA teams, right? >> I would say like like 80% of them. Um, a lot of the SEC schools, ACC, Big 10, um, Pack 12, like we we really just started to it it was like a

domino effect in a sense, you know, like not only did we start with obviously such a powerhouse program, but such a unique product. It's not another sweatshirt or hat that they get hundreds thousands of. They're like, you know, this is like we've never seen this before. And the game just dropped as well. Like it was literally just like back to back to back to back. It was crazy. Like >> we really had a blessing like a just a really blessed story because a lot of people get denied. Like a lot of people apply and like they cannot. So like for us to be able to like really just keep getting approval. >> Exactly. You're winning.

>> Exactly. It It was really It was really cool. >> So who's your biggest program in terms of orders? like which one is leading? >> Yeah, that's a good question. Um, I would say like orders definitely start to spike obviously when your team when the teams are winning. >> So like I would say our top five uh like teams this past year was like Miami, Indiana, um Georgia, >> Alabama as well and Tennessee. Tennessee is like they have a really passionate fan base um and a really like good uh retail setup as well like into the stores. So >> yeah, we sell into the campus bookstores as well and like trying to get into those

spots because it's it's a perfect product for that. So >> So it's a it's a blessing that you got such success so quickly, but it's almost a curse as well because you're like the ramp up period >> must have been insane. Yeah. You know, you can't be going back and for yourself like like a man 20 times a day to UPS. >> So like tell me how how did you start getting through that? Yeah, it was it was it was definitely tough. Um, good the great thing about University of Miami. So, there's a UPS store on campus. So, there's a UPS store right by my apartment in the storage unit, but there's also one on

campus. So, I would think to myself, okay, the night before I'm going to go pack every order, have it in my car, and then drop it off on the store on campus. So, I probably went to the UPS store on campus so many times. Like, they they knew me. They just kept seeing me come in with these controllers, and they're like, "Bro, this is this is crazy." You know? Um, but yeah, it was a lot of learning. I've I've watched a lot of YouTube as well, like and just like stuff about founders, like big fan of Steve Jobs. What he's created is like >> what he's created allows us to do everything that we do,

you know? So, like I love that movie and um a couple of others. But yeah, it was a lot of research leaning on my mentors. One of my mentors I want to shout out uh Professor Augustine Nelson from University of Miami. When I first got to Miami in 2022, like I've always had a startup mind. So like he I went to him right like my first day of class and he's been like in my corner ever since. So he's witnessed everything, given me so much advice and insight. Um because honestly this is actually my second company. So when I was at Lynn, I was a college athlete. I was playing college lacrosse >> and I

was training kids um in lacrosse like an hour. I did it in Maryland as well. Like it was a big thing doing sessions. And so I would like the way I would get my clients was word of mouth or at the field like I like they would see me training and ask if I could train them. And so it got to a point to where I was training a lot of kids and my teammates would be like yo when you're busy like let me let me train the kids and I'm like of course. >> And then I think to myself when NIL comes out I'm like there's no platform you know what I mean? There's

no platform to be able to do this easily. Everything is so unorganized getting paid late. Don't have like a website for sessions. So I decided to try to create like a app similar to Uber. So basically for booking booking sessions and so I was working on that when I got to Miami and he was helping with that. I ended up pausing cuz I picked the wrong tech company. One thing anyone starting a tech company >> and now with AI it's a lot easier but in 2021 there was not all this AI. So you had to really like go and pay a developer. >> So I went through that horror story. I went through that horror

story. Ended up getting over like 3,000 users on the platform. We hosted a youth football camp at St. Thomas Aquinus. >> It was great, but then there was one specific moment that like felt like a dagger in my chest. There was this former NBA player who was trying to sign up and like it wasn't working. So like that was when it hit me in my head. I was like, "Okay, I've built this platform. A lot of people want to use it. It's not like literally not working no matter what we try. I'm just going to completely halt the operation." >> Yeah. focus just try to like come back to it or potentially create something else

and come back. So, it was it was a very tough time after I had to like stop working on it because I like super passionate about it. But obviously I I I got that passion back when I started varsity grips. But yeah, that was just a quick backstory. I'm relaunching we train soon. Um have the whole AI thing figured out now. So it is relaunching soon. >> Um but yeah, that was >> you just have to know like when or if to pivot. Like I could have kept trying to fix it, fix it, but I just had the wherewithal to be like, you know what? >> I this is not supposed to happen right now

in a sense. >> Right. Right. >> You know, >> no, that's that's a great point because a lot of times we're like, man, I'm so invested, >> right? >> I've done so much work, so much sweat and tears and blood and everything else and it you know, you keep running into a wall. >> It's hard to say, okay, look, I'm going to just >> put it aside. >> Right. Exactly. >> As an entrepreneur, you're not a quitter, right? Like [laughter] you're like, you got to be persistent. You got to I'm going to I'm going to make this thing force it in until it works. >> Exactly. And like I would have to drive by the

amount of times I would drive by like fields and see people playing like kids playing. I'm just like always thinking about we train like I have to get back to we train. I have to get back to we train. So >> obviously like when I when I started working on varsity groups I'm like this is incredible. Once it started to really reach it like kind of autopilot mode I'm like okay I can start to focus and figure out how to rebuild retrain the right way this time with AI as well. Right. Yeah. So, uh, going back to Varsity Grips, now you've established a supplier. Now you have a a distribution center >> in the US

where everything is going out. >> So, as you build these processes and operations and systems, what what has been your biggest lesson that you can you can share with other entrepreneurs on the importance of having some standard processes and systems in place? >> 100%. I would say um really just like one exercise that I learned is like okay if I were to go on vacation or be unavailable for 2 3 days weeks whatever it is what would break like you know I mean what would break what would people be asking me for and then putting those in place now so one of the most the simplest ones is like passwords you know what I mean

like passwords to login like basically just like having everything um organized like employee cards for example that's a super important one that people don't think about is like if only the founder has access to the cards and a payment needs to be made it's like if I'm unavailable then that payment is stalled you know what I mean so >> really just like thinking about okay if I were to not be available what would break and also like thinking long term like if we want to get acquired by a huge company in the future they're not going to buy a company that's reliant on me you know what I mean so >> figuring out what would

what would need to be in place and um and operate for that to happen. It's helped a lot and then using AI as well like you know claude perplexity you know having those and and kind of letting it understand the company and and even asking like what what are the gaps in our company right now and that's even worked sometimes as well. Um, but yeah, SOPs are like huge. We just created a channel recently called VG SOPs. That's just strictly everything because one thing we realized in hiring, we're repeating the same information to the to people like spending time training people and then some of them may not even work out. You know what I

mean? So, it's like we're wasting so much time >> and so being like, okay, also thinking if I were a new employee to this company, what would I need >> to be able to thrive and and to be successful? So super important, super super important. >> I mean that the these lessons that you've learned, you're 23, you're wise beyond your years because there's people who are in their 40s and 50s are just learning this now, you know. So you're you're you're advanced in that sense. There was something that uh I saw on social media that was a great idea and they did it on Claude or wherever, but you can say, "Okay, let's do a

premortem." So instead of a postmortem where you evaluate what happened when your, you know, your project died to figure out, it's a premortem. So you'll ask the AI, hey pretend you're, you know, six months out or a year out and this this project or this company just failed. >> Tell me why it failed. >> Yeah. >> And it'll start then giving you some insight as to, okay, what are the ways that this thing can go wrong? >> Yeah, that's great. That's actually a great point. >> You can then build that into the into the business now. >> So your uh how big is your business right now? What are you guys going to hit in

revenue this year? Um, honestly, I think in revenue this year, we should be able to surpass about a million. Um, potentially, obviously, fingers crossed, like maybe 2 million plus in Q4. >> Um, >> but yeah, we've, uh, we've experienced, like, for example, last December, we generated over 250,000 in revenue, and that was with 20 NCA schools out. We weren't on Amazon, we weren't in big box retail. So, we're starting to like really amplify our offerings of variety. So this Q4 like holiday playoff time is a huge season. >> Um and we really think like so right now we're going into soccer and like getting pro teams out getting more available and we think that we

should be able to to hit that. >> Yeah. And you're going overseas too with with the branding, right? So Madrid and Barcelona and Manchester United and these big teams that are have global fan bases, right? >> Yeah. Potential is insane. >> Exactly. And like back dating back to what I said earlier, I grew up playing with my older brother. So my oldest brother was a D1 soccer player. So that mean me and him were playing FIFA all the time. >> And I would just keep playing keep playing till I could beat him. But I was able to understand like the uniqueness and and the and the passion behind soccer at a early age strictly through

FIFA. So our soccer clubs, we just launched French and Portugal during the World Cup, which was awesome. >> We had a Ronaldo and Mbappe edition, too, which is super cool. Nice. >> Um and then now we're getting ready to launch um our clubs like the the first clubs. So we just launched Atletico Madrid. Um and then we do have a couple new ones coming soon in La Liga, Premier League and Bundesliga as well. So >> that's exciting. >> Super excited. >> It's exciting because you have such like a unique product that could be amplified just by getting licenses. All of a sudden, you have access to >> millions of passionate fans who game and they're

going to want that branding on their on their units. >> And it's more than just the controllers, right? You're branding the units themselves and you're getting into other other kind of derivative uh designs, right? And collections. >> Yeah, exactly. So, we have like um the PS5 and Xbox controllers and then also the console routes for the actual units. Um and we just launched for Portugal and France was our first one is Switch. So, the Switch is like such a unique product. Um, I love the handhelds. I grew up on the PSP, the PS VA, so um DSi, you know what I mean? Like I was a big gamer um as a kid and so the

Switch is one of the coolest handhelds um in my opinion. >> I'm super excited to see where they take it. But yeah, Switch and then even PC. Like there's a lot of people out there that don't even use a console or maybe they use a controller on their PC, but a lot of fans do like to be like have the desktop. Um, and there's a lot of games as well that offer on there. So, getting ready to go into like mouse pads, key caps, covers, all of that. But really just kind of expanding our our range as well. >> Man, it's exciting what you're doing, dude. And can't wait to follow and and see what's

next. So, where do you see the business in >> three years from now? It's 2029. >> Yeah. Um, honestly, like with like all of the major leagues like the whole NCAA and then the NFL, NBA, MLB, um, global soccer, and then like even the unique ones like that are growing as well. I think the UFC is a really cool collab that we would love to do. Wrestling, WWE, um, and then even racing like Exactly. NASCAR, like stuff like that. um just really being the main go-to company for any gamer that is a fan of any team, any league organization, any player player. We're really getting to a lot of player products um as well. >>

But yeah, that's really where I see see the company um and then even having our own internal products, you know, like >> unique designs that we made that are unlicensed. Like I think that's a really big opportunity for us. But um yeah, we're super excited to see where where it goes and where it's heading for sure. >> Phenomenal, man. Hey, dude. Congratulations on your success. You're you're taking off. I wanted to have you here before you blew up big [laughter] time so we can say you heard it here first. >> I appreciate it. >> You got it, man. Congratulations on your success. And guys, if you if you learned something from this episode, make sure

to like, subscribe, and share it with somebody that needs to hear it because you could be the game changer in their lives. See you next time. [music] >> [music]