Ep. 184: Fantasy football puzzles for the masses w/ Brian Birt from Griddy

Ep. 184 features Brian Birt, founder of Griddy, the fantasy football puzzle game bringing year-round engagement to sports fans.

Hear him discuss:

• His journey from childhood sports fanatic to building products at Sleeper and launching Griddy
• How Griddy turns fantasy football into a strategic, bite-sized mobile game playable 365 days a year
• Solving the seasonality problem in fantasy sports with an innovative “chemistry” team-building mechanic
• Why he intentionally built Griddy as a free-to-play game without real money components
• How a community-driven approach led to 30,000 users and 3M+ games played with zero ad spend
• The role of Reddit and storytelling in driving organic, founder-led growth
• Lessons from Sleeper: building trust and community before monetization
• Finding product–market fit through retention and user obsession, not growth hacks
• Getting early believers on the cap table, including Joel Simkins from XST Capital, and why he seeks to preserve optionality for future capital needs
• How psychological resilience and consistency fuel startup success
• What’s next for Griddy, from new game modes and rewards to expansion into other sports and fandoms

Catch the video version of this episode here.

Learn more 👇

➡️ Girddy website

➡️ Brian Birt on Linkedin

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This podcast is presented by Optimove, the #1 CRM Marketing solution for the iGaming industry. Since 2012, Optimove has served iGaming Operators from startups to industry leaders. Today, 4 out of the Top 5 US Operators Personalize Player Experiences with Optimove. iGaming operators know their growth journey begins and continues with Optimove, the #1 CRM Marketing solution for the iGaming industry.