Christine Schwarz

1: Origin & Resilience

I know what it feels like to be left out of the game. As a first-generation American, I didn't pick up a ball until high school and then got cut from every team I tried out for. Sports eventually taught me "I can't" was never an option, and that lesson carried me through winning an ESPN Muscle Mania title, turning around a $20M company post-recession, and drafting legislation that became law.

The big-budget players in this space are still making controller-based video games. We're making movement-based VR with real physics that captures what it actually feels like to play, the way the Wii once got entire families playing tennis and bowling in their living rooms. Every player faces an AI avatar that plays at their level, so a ten-year-old who's never touched a ball gets a realistic game. We're filling the gap where 80% of kids globally fail to meet daily activity minimums of just an hour a day of activity. We're funding our Meta Quest beta through brand-sponsored activations along the way.

2: Building Without a Budget

I'm fearless and targeted in my outreach. I research who would benefit most from VRB, tailor my pitch to fit them, and reach out directly by telling people what I'm building, what I need, or asking for a specific intro. I vet events the same way, focusing on VR, gaming, sports, and brand sponsorships. I'm also in every Chicago founder group, on Sports Business Journal zoom calls about basketball and women's sports, and subscribed to sports tech, basketball, and startup newsletters. Then I cold-message anyone I read about on LinkedIn. We cold-called NBA teams to test our MVP, and the Cleveland Cavaliers were the most receptive, winning us the G-League Partnership of the Year award.

Angels focused on social impact care about access and VR opens the game to fans without the skills, time, or confidence to play in person. Fans light up at feeling what it's like to play like a pro. Parents see a way to get their kids off the couch and moving. And I always offer to help my connections with their work in return because real relationships go both ways.

3: Standing Out in a Competitive Market

The right people for VRB are the players themselves and the partners who already have their attention and they're rarely where VR devs are fighting for visibility. That's my real edge: I don't come from gaming.

I plug into the VR/AR community, AWE, where I was selected to pitch, plus an online XR founders community and XR Women. All of them have introduced me to people who then sought me out, and warm intros have connected me to Discord community managers behind successful launches.

Then I go where fans of the game actually are. We will activate at NBA and WNBA games, college tournaments, and host tournaments at gaming cons, all beyond social media. Our Cavs relationship has opened doors to other NBA teams and agencies, youth basketball tournaments connects us across the basketball space, ManageXR puts VR headsets in thousands of schools looking for engaging content, and Mynd Immersive brings VRB into senior living. The platform is crowded so we meet kids and their families at basketball tournaments, students-turned-ambassadors on college campuses, fans at the arena, and seniors in care facilities.

4: Sponsorship Over VC

We initially tried cold outreach to brands and agencies and it went nowhere. Through our relationship with the Cavs we connected to an agency that taught us how brands evaluate activations. From LinkedIn I found a consultant who analyzes and writes extensively about digital sports sponsorship campaigns and offers free 30-minute calls. I was able to validate my offering and pricing and he provided an intro and a roadmap for what brands need to see. While exhibiting at a conference, a small experiential agency approached me and now will be pitching together.

My advice is to find the thought leaders who write about sponsorship in your industry and feed their content into AI to analyze and create your value proposition and test it with a connection in the space. Attend industry events where brands and sponsors are in attendance to make connections (IRL>online). Approach smaller agencies who are more open to innovation (you can find them on LinkedIn based on their posts) than the big ones, who tend to repackage what they already do. Pitch brands directly and partner with an agency for footprint and digital. Build a comprehensive plan because everyone's overworked, so do the thinking for them which they will appreciate.

5: The Founder You're Becoming

I wish someone had told me to stop chasing big names and start chasing real users. In the beginning, I focused on pitching VCs and NBA players for investment, and chasing team partnerships which felt like milestones. But none of that gets a product into players' hands. What I should have done is run leaner and focus everything on a scrappy beta in the Quest app store with real playtesters.

Team activations were valuable, but one Cavs activation gave us all the fan validation we needed. After a handful of no's from sponsors, the signal was clear, my network wasn't there yet to reach them. I should have paused on that, continued to network, and use the friends-and-family round into the beta itself.