Welcome to 1v1, a Founders Basketball content series where we shine a spotlight on the people building in our community.

And, for our first one, there's only one place to start. The guy who started it all.

Brandon Blum. The “founder of founders”. He started Founders Basketball and he also runs New Edition, a Brooklyn creative agency for emerging consumer brands.

What began as a way to get founders in a room and hoop together is now four cities and growing fast.

Meet the guy behind the whole thing👇

I'm Brandon Blum, founder and managing partner at New Edition, a creative agency based in Brooklyn for emerging consumer brands.

After college I went into advertising, working at digital marketing  agencies, then moved to the media side at big digital publishers like The Atlantic, Axios, and Meredith Corporation. 

During the pandemic I started an e-commerce business with my brother and learned a ton, what to do and what not to do. We built it into a six-figure brand with some traction, but never got it to where we wanted, and we actually officially sunset it earlier this year. 

Before we officially shut it down, I started taking freelance projects to make some extra money. That turned into more projects, and eventually I had enough work that it made more sense, personally and professionally, to stop banging my head against the wall on the apparel brand and lean into the creative work I'd done at bigger agencies. I formally launched New Edition at the beginning of 2025 and have been growing it ever since. We’ve always been acquisition-focused for brands, but through a creative-first lens.

Funny enough, I thought we could be a podcast agency for brands and creators, full service. We'd build it for you, come up with the brand, the name, get the guests, the whole thing. The idea was that it was an effective middle-of-the-funnel, consideration-point play. But it turned out to be really hard to sell. It's tough to convince people to invest thousands of dollars in something that won't drive revenue for months, because you have to stay consistent with it. I had a couple of clients, but it was hard.

We still run one client's podcast from that era, but most of what we do now is performance ads, ad creation, video editing, working with creators, concepting, founder content, and creative production like e-commerce shoots and studio interviews with small crews. We started as an e-commerce agency and grew into consumer brands more broadly, fintech, CPG, still e-com. Everyone says "niche down." I actually niched up at the beginning of this year and started working with different kinds of businesses.

The biggest unlock early on was realizing I had to build relationships and get my name out there. I'm not the only show in town, you can get ads made or a shoot done anywhere. I wasn't going to win on that. What I could do is connect with people, because I think I'm really good at that. So I started hosting events, which is actually how Founders Basketball started, as a way to get founders in the room and network while playing ball, something I've always loved.

It's a high-trust business. Similar to Sam's List with accounting, you have to like your accountant to want to work with them. So my approach is: let me build a relationship with you first, and at some point when you need creative services, that's when I can come in and provide value.

Communication is everything in a client-services business. Over-communicate, and be a partner, not a vendor. I've never tried to have clients, I've tried to have partners. At the end of the day someone's paying you for a service, but part of sales is not just making it seem like a partnership, it's actually being one. It shouldn't be transactional. If it is, that's not the kind of business I want to build.

What did the very first run look like?

I don't have the "I showed up and no one was there" story, but there were early runs with ten or twelve people. I made some scheduling mistakes, like doing one on a Friday in the summer, which was a terrible idea. Ten people showed up to that one. In the beginning, in every chapter, we hustle to get 20 good founders there. We curate the list on purpose, we don't want it to just be a pickup game. We've gotten really good at putting that group together. New York is our biggest chapter still: usually 75 to 100 people try to come each time, and we only let in 25.

What's been the biggest success story to come out of it?

Doing the event at All-Star Weekend was the most fulfilling thing I've done. It led to a lot of work for New Edition, and I just love being around basketball. We had 85 to 90 people there and 300+ sign-ups. A year earlier, throwing an event at All-Star Weekend would have seemed insane. That was really cool for me.

What channels have worked best for getting the word out?

In every city, I try to find chapter leads who can spread the word to the local founder community and newsletters. Having local champions to send it around really helps it grow efficiently and organically. People see it on Instagram and LinkedIn and pass it along, we do a little post boosting on IG, but not much. It's grown organically mostly. It's just a concept people get excited about.

Favorite book? The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

Favorite business podcast? My First Million.

Entrepreneur, dead or alive, you'd trade lives with? Ben Franklin.

Favorite living entrepreneur? Michael Rubin.

Current hype song? "What You Sayin'" by Lil Uzi Vert.

Favorite basketball team? The Philadelphia 76ers.

Favorite all-time player? Allen Iverson.

Favorite game you've witnessed? The Sixers beating the Raptors on a last-second shot to reach the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001. I was nine, and it's the moment that made me a Sixers fan.

📈 Today's issue was sponsored by Sam's List, a marketplace helping founders find vetted, industry-specific accountants, bookkeepers, fractional CFOs, and financial advisors. It's run by Kimi, one of the founders here at Founders Basketball, so if you need help finding the right fit, reach out to her directly ([email protected]) or at samslist.com.

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