SuperDebate
The league for live intellectual competition
From local clubs to global championships
superdebate.org
The Insight
Physical competition became a trillion-dollar industry.
Intellectual competition has no league.
1B+
Annual views on debate content online
1.8M
Former competitive debaters in the U.S.
0
Leagues for adults
What Doesn't Exist
•No adult debate league, recreational or professional
•No championship circuit for intellectual competition
•No media IP around live debate. Just clips and podcasts.
•No platform connecting participants, organizers, and audiences
That's the opportunity.
SuperDebate
Three layers, one integrated platform.
Local Clubs
Weekly meetups at coworking spaces and community venues. Show up, debate, belong. Low barrier, high retention.
Cash-Prize Championships
City → regional → national → global. Clear progression, real stakes, real winners.
Media Platform
Every debate becomes content. Highlights, streaming, owned IP. Stars are born on our stage.
Clubs feed championships. Championships build the brand. The brand drives more clubs.
The Experience
What a SuperDebate night actually looks like.
The Setup
Tuesday, 7pm. A rooftop bar. 30 people. The host reveals tonight's resolution: “AI will replace more jobs than it creates.” Two teams draw sides.
The Debate
5 minutes per side. The room leans in. A rebuttal lands. Laughs, applause. The judges score. The audience votes. A winner is called.
The Hook
Drinks after. New connections. “Same time next week?” Retention rate: they keep coming back.
This is what scales.
The Beachhead
Start with believers. Scale to everyone.
Former Debaters
- •1.8M Americans competed in high school or college debate
- •They know the value. They miss it. They'll come back.
- •High earners, community leaders, extensive networks
- •They become our ambassadors and teach newcomers
The Market: Everyone Else
- •~100M U.S. college grads seeking intellectual challenge
- •Massive audience watching debate content with no path to compete
- •Podcast listeners, news junkies, armchair debaters
Former debaters prove it works. Everyone else scales it.
Traction
Already in market.
12+
Live events produced
3
Cities tested
250+
Community members
Live
Full-stack platform
Events
Chicago, Portland, Bali. Repeat attendance. Sponsorship in motion with Chicago's largest professional maker space.
Platform
Club management, event scheduling, tournament brackets, leaderboards, content engine. All live and functional.
12 events. 3 cities. Bootstrapped.
Infinite GamesDebate Championship
First international championship. Delivered.
What We Delivered
- •International talent pipeline validated: debaters from 7 countries competed
- •Content pipeline activated: highlight reel produced and published
- •Championship format established: replicable template for regional and national events
The playbook is proven. Now we scale it.
The Platform
Everything needed to run clubs and championships.
Turn-key Club Launch
Playbook + platform = launch in minutes
Tournament Engine
Automated brackets, scheduling, scoring, rankings
Flexible Formats
1v1 to team debates, 5-min rapid to hour-long deep dives
Content Engine
Every debate becomes shareable video and highlights
Revenue Model
Tough Mudder for the mind. People pay to compete.
City Event
Repeatable. 50+ per year by Y3.
Championship
Flagship. 4-8 per year by Y3.
Events
$15K avg
City events at 75% margin
Streaming
$5–50K
Live streams, highlights, licensing
Sponsorships
$5K–100K
Per-event → city → flagship
Memberships
$53/mo avg
Club dues feed the pipeline
Enterprise
$10K+
Corporate events, API access
City event economics based on 12+ events across 3 cities. Championships scale with sponsorship and streaming revenue.
Trajectory
Events scale faster than subscriptions.
$18M
Events
5,000+ events, 67% margin
$8M
Streaming
Live + highlights
$9M
Sponsorships
300+ city partners
$4M
Memberships
Club pipeline dues
$3M
Enterprise
Corporate, API
Events are the engine. Clubs are the feeder. Y1 proves the format. Y2 repeatable city playbook. Y3 championships unlock sponsorships. Y4-5 every new city launches with ticketed events, streaming, and sponsors from day one. Each event is a profit center, not a cost center.
The Model
Start local, ladder up to cash-prize championships.
Tier 1: Local Clubs
- •Weekly practice meetups at coworking spaces, community venues
- •Recurring memberships. Low barrier, high retention.
- •Show up, participate, belong
Tier 2: Championships
- •Cash-prize tournaments. Real stakes, real winners.
- •Clear progression: club → city → regional → national → global
- •Flagship championships become media IP
Clubs feed championships. Championships build the brand. The cycle compounds.
Go-To-Market
Three phases to category leadership.
Foundation
Months 1-18
- •Recruit former debaters as city ambassadors
- •Launch 35 sustainable U.S. city hubs
- •Prove unit economics, retention, regional championships
- •Raise Seed at month 18 to fuel Phase 2
Expansion
Years 2-3
- •Scale to 100+ cities through proven playbook
- •University partnerships for talent and venues
- •National championships launch. Sponsorships activate.
Category Leadership
Year 5+
- •300+ cities, 1,500+ clubs, international circuit
- •Championships become destination events with media deals
- •$42M+ ARR across all five revenue streams
Why We Win
Advantages that compound.
First Mover
Clubs, platform, and championships as one integrated system. No one else is building this.
Built-in Distribution
1.8M former debaters are natural ambassadors. Pre-trained, connected, passionate.
Network Effects
More clubs means more talent, bigger championships, more prestige, more participants.
Data Moat
Every debate generates scoring data, performance analytics, and shareable content. Proprietary dataset grows daily.
Championship Path
Club to city to region to nation to world. Clear progression keeps people engaged.
Media Flywheel
Every debate is content. We own the talent. Stars are born on our platform.
Why Now
Three forces converging.
The Discourse Crisis
Social media rewards outrage over insight. People are hungry for something better.
The Adult Competition Renaissance
From Tough Mudder to pickleball to bar trivia. Adults will pay to compete. No one is serving the mind.
The Playbooks Are Proven
CrossFit proved club-to-championship. Topgolf proved casual-to-competitive. No one has applied it here.
Demand is proven. Gap is clear. First mover wins.
John Thomas Connor
Founder & CEO
Competitor. Coach. Community builder. Scale operator.
Debate Insider
- •10-year competitor. Chicago Urban Debate League champion.
- •Championship coach: my students became the first national champions from an urban debate league.
- •Deep relationships across the competitive debate community.
Scale Operator
- •Upland: 15x revenue growth to 300K+ MAU
- •Sparkblox: $1M+ raised, Chainlink and Algorand partnerships
- •Mode Mobile: Led 15-person product team, launched EarnPhone
- •HelpWith: 3,000+ in-person skill exchanges
The Ask
$500K
Pre-Seed · Standard SAFE · 24-Month Runway
Use of Funds
Ambassador program. City launches. Member acquisition.
Regional and national finals. Prizes, production, broadcast.
Platform refinement. Tournaments, video, replays.
Founder full-time. Brand polish, partnerships.
18-Month Milestones
35
Cities
50
Clubs
$350K+
ARR
5,000+
Members
Clean cap table. No previous investors.
Flywheel spinning. Raising Seed at 18 months.
SuperDebate
Platform is live.
Community is real.
Timing is now.
Let's build the league.
john@superdebate.org