Growth & Marketing Co-Founder
You will be the person who made debate culturally inevitable. That is not a job description. That is a legacy.
About SuperDebate
The UFC did not invent martial arts. It invented the format that made it unmissable. That is what SuperDebate is doing for debate: one of the oldest intellectual traditions in the world, stripped down, staged live, and made into something worth watching.
We have hosted events in Chicago, Portland, Bali, and Roatan, Honduras. We have a platform used by clubs on campuses and in communities, an advisory board with deep roots in debate education and AI research, and a community that keeps coming back. The format is proven. The foundation is real. Now the work is making the world pay attention.
This is ground floor. We are not filling a marketing role. We are looking for a co-founder who owns the entire way the world discovers and talks about SuperDebate, from the first scroll to the packed room.
Debate already is the sport. It just needs its moment. You are here to build that.
The Role
You own growth and marketing end to end. Not as a function reporting to someone else. As a co-founder with equity, a direct line to the founder, and full responsibility for one of the hardest problems we have: getting people to care.
The central challenge is a perception problem. Debate is one of the oldest and most powerful intellectual traditions in the world. Most people still picture C-SPAN footage and high school auditoriums. You close that gap permanently. You make it electric. You make it cultural. You make it feel like something people want to compete to be part of.
The brand voice is unwritten. The content playbook is blank. The category barely exists. That is not a warning. That is the opportunity. The person who solves this builds something that did not exist before they arrived.
Brand & Positioning
- ◆Define and own the brand voice, visual identity, and positioning across every channel
- ◆Build the brand from the inside out: we are a sport, not a platform
- ◆Craft distinct value propositions for competitors, spectators, sponsors, and cities
- ◆Position debate in culture, not in an education niche or a civic-tech corner
- ◆Make people feel something when they encounter our name
Content & Social
- ◆Build and run our social presence (TikTok, Instagram, X, YouTube) from near zero
- ◆Produce clips and highlights that make debate look as electric as it actually is
- ◆Develop content formats that showcase wit, intensity, and real competitive stakes
- ◆Build a content engine that keeps us visible and talked about between events
- ◆Make at least one thing go properly viral
Growth & Acquisition
- ◆Drive club signups, event ticket sales, and community growth
- ◆Build city-launch playbooks: how we enter a new market and own it
- ◆Own the full funnel: awareness, conversion, retention, advocacy
- ◆Run paid and organic experiments, measure relentlessly, kill what does not work
Partnerships & PR
- ◆Identify and close sponsorships, media partnerships, and co-marketing opportunities
- ◆Build pitch materials that sell the vision, not just the audience metrics
- ◆Cultivate relationships with cultural figures, podcasters, and media outlets
- ◆Connect us with debate communities, universities, and civic organizations nationally
Community
Turn existing members into advocates who recruit for you.
Build the kind of community people bring their friends to without being asked.
Listen closely. The best growth insight we will ever have is already in the room.
Who You Are
5+ years in growth marketing, brand marketing, content, or a combination, ideally at a consumer brand, media company, or community-driven organization where you had to figure things out without a playbook.
You have built a social presence from early stage to real scale. Not as part of a team. You. You have examples, numbers, and a clear story about what worked and what you had to unlearn.
You understand short-form video at the level of craft, not theory. You know what makes content spread because you have made things spread, or you can explain with precision why specific things did.
You are a strong writer. You can write a brand manifesto and a single social caption with equal conviction. Voice is not an afterthought. It is load-bearing.
You are data-informed but not data-paralyzed. You track what matters, run real experiments, and make decisions. You know when to trust the numbers and when to trust your instincts.
You have taste. You know the difference between content that earns attention and content that fills a calendar. This matters more to us than your credential stack.
Bonus
- ◆You have competed, coached, judged, or organized in competitive debate
- ◆Background in sports marketing, entertainment, or cultural brand building
- ◆Experience with live event marketing and audience development
- ◆You have an existing audience or following in an adjacent space
- ◆Background in civic tech, education, or mission-driven consumer organizations
Compensation
- ◆Equity co-founder stake
- ◆Revenue share from events and partnerships from day one
- ◆Path to salary as the company raises funding
- ◆Part-time to full-time depending on your availability and how fast we move together
Why This Matters
We live in a world that has gotten louder and less persuasive at the same time. Knowing how to argue well, how to make a case, listen to the counter, and update under pressure, is one of the most valuable things a person can develop. Almost no one has access to it after high school.
SuperDebate is the organization changing that. Not as an academic exercise. As something people actually want to do on a Friday night, a sport with real stakes, real communities, and a format that compounds over time.
Ten years from now, someone will look back and point to the person who made debate culturally undeniable. If you have been looking for work worth the years, the kind where what you build in year one is still paying off in year ten, this is it. We want that person to be you.
The Team
Who You're Joining

John Thomas Connor
Founder & CEO
- ◆Debate champion. Coached the first Urban Debate League team to win a national championship.
- ◆Founder of Sparkblox, $1M+ raised. Product lead at Upland during 15x growth and 300K+ MAU.
- ◆Built SuperDebate’s platform, brand, format, and operating model.

Brian J. Esposito
Chief Strategy Officer
- ◆Founder & CEO of Esposito Intellectual Enterprises: 110+ entities across 25+ industries.
- ◆Leads capital strategy, partnerships, sponsor architecture, and expansion relationships.
Advisory Board
Stephen "Stix" Nilsen
Brand & culture
VP of Cult Indoctrination at Liquid Death through its run from canned-water joke to billion-dollar cult brand. 20+ years building movements at Red Bull and Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Matthew Rolnick
Partnerships & sponsorship
SVP Partnerships at Real American Beer; former partnership lead at Yaymaker and Groupon. Attaches national consumer brands to live experiences at scale.
Dr. Iain Lampert
Competition design
National champion debater, elite coach, founder of Authentalk, COO at ModernBrain. Designs the formats and judging that make rounds fair and skill compound.
John Hines
AI & pedagogy
Championship debate coach and co-founder of DebaterHub. Builds AI-supported debate training used by students, coaches, and institutions.
Make Your Case
No cover letter. No formatting. Tell us what you have built and why this is the one.
Application Form
Other Open Roles
City Ambassador: Austin
Be the person who brings structured debate to Austin. Build the community, host the events, own the city. Revenue share, stipends, and equity.
City Ambassador: San Francisco
Build the debate community SF is missing. Host events, grow the membership, own the city. Revenue share, stipends, and equity.
City Ambassador: Chicago
SuperDebate started in Chicago. Now we need someone to own it. Build the community, host the events, make it legendary. Revenue share, stipends, and equity.
