Startup Spotlight #81: Higround

Higround believes that if your wardrobe reflects your personality, then your setup should too.

Feb 03, 2021

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I got the chance to speak with Rustin Sotoodeh, co-founder and CEO of Higround, about what he’s working on at his startup, and any advice he has for emerging entrepreneurs.

Fashion and gaming have been core to him since Sotoodeh was a kid. In middle school, he launched a skating brand and ran a jailbreaking service installing games on iPhones. Fast forward to college, Sotoodeh had walked on to USC's football team and began flipping coveted sneakers to teammates and professors. He would use his sneaker capital to run gaming tournaments; eventually, he raised some real capital and launched E-Coliseum, the world's first esports gym, during his senior year.

It was here that he and his team found a community of culturally aware gamers they called Hypegeeks. Sotoodeh transitioned E-Coliseum into an agency dedicated to helping brands like Nike, Adidas, and Coachella understand the Hypegeek. In 2020, Sotoodeh and his team launched Higround, a brand for Hypegeeks. Their goal is to build Streetware: collectible, collaborative, exclusive gaming hardware. Think sneaker culture but for gaming products. In his spare time, Sotoodeh is an on-air talent for ESPN, a creator for Nike LA, and run Hypegeek, a weekly podcast covering the space.

Startup Spotlight: Higround

Higround cofounder and CEO Rustin Sotoodeh.

Problem: My co-founder and I are two such Hypegeeks—and we noticed that while our fits reflected our personality, our cookiecutter gaming setups didn’t. It was so odd to us that when it came to gaming peripherals we only had two choices: do we want it in black or white?

Market: There are 2B+ gamers, 41% of them are PC/Console gamers bringing us to a SAM of 820M.

Solution: Create design-forward gaming hardware that is collectible, collaborative, and exclusive with the goal of building a sneaker-esque culture.

Team: The team consists of Rustin Sotoodeh (CEO) and Kha Lu (CMO).

Recent Success:

Sotoodeh: A big learning we had from our previous business was that we weren't listening to our intuition. The idea for Higround came after we drowned out all the external voices and prevailing wisdom. It was truly what we wanted to do, and we've carried this intuition into many decisions, specifically in our creative process. A lot of our success has come as a result of following our intuition.

Recent Struggle:

Sotoodeh: Cash flow forecasting. With revenue coming in from multiple sources and money coming out from different departments, it's been very difficult to make decisions because we can't accurately predict our cash flow. This is a lowkey request for some sort of simple dashboard to help startups our size figure this out. Nothing I've used has been helpful.

Founder Advice:

Sotoodeh: Your gut feeling is real, follow it regardless of what people may think or say. In the end, you'll be happy because you were successful on your own terms. For me, that meant creating a brand. Many people around believed that creating a brand wasn't the most valuable thing I could be doing. I stopped listening to them and listened to myself. As I started on this journey, I came to the realization that it didn't matter to me if the brand was a huge success because it was so fulfilling for me. That is true happiness. When you operate in this zone, your decisions are successful because you're operating for yourself, not for others.

Two Cool Founders You Should Know About:

Sotoodeh: Here are two founders you should check out next!

Ashkahn Mokhber, Founder of KAHN: KAHN is a skincare routine for the Modern Man.
Michael Hillel, Founder of SunHaven: SunHaven is a company that designs and manufactures outdoor furniture and home goods.

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