ARCHITECTING A UNICORN

My journey as the founding designer who built the Underdog brand from a sketch to a billion-dollar titan

When FanDuel acquired and subsequently sunsetted DRAFT, they discontinued our most popular game, Best Ball, a multi-million-fan niche that was a huge part of the fantasy sports ecosystem. They didn't even give us non-competes. They left a passionate community with nowhere to go.

We saw this as our chance to build a fantasy sports product for the people, built by the people. We weren't just a corporation; we were fantasy players ourselves. Brandon Stakenborg, another founder at Underdog, and I had even started the world's largest fantasy hockey podcast. We knew the pain points because we lived them. Our mission was to build a home for this disenfranchised community and a drafting platform that was unequivocally better than anything else on the market.

ORIGINS

MY ROLE

As a key member of the founding team, my role extended beyond typical design. I was the architect of the brand's entire look, feel, and user experience, responsible for translating our mission into a tangible identity. I personally designed:

Brand Strategy & Naming: Establishing the core "Underdog" identity and ethos.
Visual Identity: Designing the initial logo (inspired by my dog, Bandit), color palettes, and typography.
Product Design (UI/UX): Leading the design of the core Underdog mobile app and website.
Marketing & Broadcast Design: Creating the visual language for all marketing campaigns, from our first iPhone commercial to national TV spots.

FORGING AN ICONIC IDENTY

THE NAME AND MARK

We chose the name "Underdog" because it was our story. We were the tiny startup going up against behemoths like FanDuel who had cast us aside. It was also our customers' story—they were tired of spreadsheet-like games they couldn't win. We wanted to build a brand people could root for.

The name was designed to scale with our ambition, from fantasy to sports betting and beyond. It tapped into the universal sports truth: "Everyone loves an Underdog," creating free marketing every time the word was uttered. We wanted to join the echelon of legendary underdogs—the 1980 US Hockey team, Leicester City—teams that go down in history. My design for the logo was based on a photo of my dog, Bandit, embodying that loyal, fighting spirit.

PICK’EM

While we knew Best Ball was our foundation, I designed an off-shoot game lobby called Pick'em in under a month. The design challenge was to create something incredibly simple and intuitive that could also scale to support hundreds of drafts for our power users. This "side project" became the company's rocket fuel.

The initial Pick'em design I created went on to:

Handle billions of dollars in entry fees
Generate over $500 million in revenue
Become the undisputed gold standard for lobby and card design in the industry, emulated by every new competitor

BROADCAST CREATIVE

My broadcast work began with the ultimate underdog story. Our first commercial was a video I shot on my iPhone of my dog Bandit. That simple, authentic ad was so effective that it went on to back millions of dollars in marketing spend and even ran during Thursday Night Football while we were a small scrappy startup.

That scrappy beginning set the stage for an incredible evolution. I have since led our creative through every stage of growth, collaborating with world-class talent like Bill Belichick, Tyrese Maxey, Cam'ron, and Bryson DeChambeau. Most recently, I pioneered a first-of-its-kind campaign where I created all of our video ads in-house using AI, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in creative production.

THE RESULT?

The brand and product ecosystem I helped build from the ground up served as the foundation for the company's explosive growth and market success

$1 Billion+ Valuation: Achieved "unicorn" status and became a new titan in the industry
$500 Million+ in Revenue: Driven largely by the Pick'em and Best Ball product I designed
300 Thousand+ Users:
Market Leadership: Established Underdog as a household name for the modern sports fan
Industry-Defining Design: Created product and brand designs that are now widely emulated

What’d we learn

My journey with Underdog proved that an authentic brand story, combined with a relentless focus on the user, is the ultimate competitive advantage. I learned how to build not just a product, but a community, and how to scale a creative vision from an iPhone video to a Super Bowl-level production.