SuperDebate
Organizing Intellectual Competition
From local clubs to global championships
superdebate.org
The Insight
Humans have always argued.
The urge to compete intellectually is as fundamental as the urge to compete physically.
Physical Competition
Got organized. We built gyms, leagues, stadiums, the Olympics.
We created paths for everyone: athlete, coach, referee, fan.
Multi-trillion dollar global infrastructure.
Intellectual Competition
Still unstructured. Scattered across comment sections, podcasts, and dinner tables.
The urge is just as strong. But there's no gym. No league. No path from amateur to champion.
That's the opportunity.
The Opportunity
Massive demand. Zero infrastructure.
The Demand
- •Billions of annual views on debate content. People watch Oxford Union clips, Munk Debates, podcast showdowns.
- •Tens of millions of educated adults want intellectual challenge. No place to go.
The Gap
Physical competition built:
- •Gyms ($100B+ industry)
- •Youth leagues, professional sports (trillions)
- •The Olympics
- •A path for everyone: athlete, coach, referee, fan
Intellectual competition has:
Nothing.
We're building the gym for the mind.
SuperDebate
The infrastructure layer for organized intellectual competition.
You don't need to be a former athlete to join a gym or watch the Super Bowl. You don't need debate experience to participate here.
Four ways to participate:
Debater
Test your ideas. Get sharper.
Spectator
Watch minds compete. Be entertained.
Judge
Evaluate arguments. Shape outcomes.
Organizer
Run a club. Build community.
Everyone has a role. That's how it scales.
The Experience
What a club night looks like.
Tuesday, 6pm. A WeWork's event room. Twenty-five people grab drinks. The host announces tonight's topic.
Two debaters step up. Five minutes each side. The room leans in. Someone lands a point. Heads nod. The other side counters with something unexpected. Laughter. Applause.
They'll be back next week.
This is what scales.
The Wedge
Start with believers. Scale to everyone.
The Wedge: Former Debaters
- •1.8M Americans competed in high school or college debate
- •They already know the value. They miss it. They'll come back instantly.
- •High earners, community leaders, extensive networks
- •They become our ambassadors and teach newcomers
The Market: Everyone Else
- •Tens of millions of educated adults seeking intellectual challenge
- •100M+ content viewers with no path to participate
- •Podcast listeners, news junkies, and armchair debaters ready to step up
Former debaters prove it works. Everyone else scales it.
The Model
Two tiers that feed each other.
Tier 1: Local Clubs
- •Weekly practice meetups at bars, coworking spaces
- •Low barrier: show up, participate, belong
- •High retention through community
Tier 2: Championships
- •Ranked competitive debates with stakes
- •Clear progression: club → city → regional → national → global
- •Media production turns debates into content
The cycle compounds.
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
One platform. From casual Tuesday nights to world championship finals.
Revenue Model
Five engines. Each compounds with scale.
Subscriptions
Club $50/mo, Member $15/mo
Events
Entry fees $25-500, tickets
Sponsorships
Local → regional → national
Media
Streaming, highlights, syndication
Enterprise
Corporate training, API
Unit Economics (Per Club)
$350
Monthly revenue per club
~$1,500
Club acquisition cost
~4 mo
Payback period
$4,200
Annual per club (base)
Base economics only. Tournament, sponsorship, and media revenue are upside.
Recurring revenue from day one.
Traction
Not a pitch. A proof.
Events & Community
- •10+ events hosted across three markets
- •3 cities tested: Chicago, Portland, Bali
- •250+ person Chicago community built through word of mouth
- •Strong repeat attendance: people come back because they want to
Platform
- •Full-stack product live and functional
- •Club management, event scheduling, tournaments, leaderboards all operational
- •Real users, real debates, real data
Not a concept. Not a waitlist. We're already running events.
Infinite GamesDebate Championship
Our first international championship. Executed.
What We Delivered
- •International talent pipeline validated: debaters from 7 countries competed
- •Content pipeline activated: highlight reel produced, published on YouTube
- •Championship format established: replicable template for regional and national events
The playbook is proven. Now we scale it.
Go-To-Market
Three phases to category leadership.
Foundation
Months 1-24
- •Recruit former debaters as city ambassadors
- •Launch 50 cities with standardized playbook
- •Prove unit economics, retention, and regional championships
Expansion
Years 3-4
- •Scale to 200+ cities through proven playbook
- •University partnerships for talent and venues
- •National championship launches. 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
One city at a time. Then all of them.
Trajectory
Five revenue engines. Compounding growth.
$16M
Subscriptions
300K members
$11M
Events
Championships, tickets
$8M
Sponsorships
300+ city partners
$4M
Media
Streaming, licensing
$3M
Enterprise
Corporate, API
Growth rate accelerates every year. Y1-2 is subscription grind. Y3 adds events. Y4 unlocks sponsorships at 100+ cities. Y5 all five engines fire simultaneously — each new city is instantly monetized across every stream.
2.5x → 3x → 4.7x → 6x. Growth accelerates.
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.
Combined, they make this defensible.
Why Now
Three forces converging.
The Discourse Crisis
Social media rewards outrage over insight. People are hungry for something better.
The Adult Competition Renaissance
Pickleball, rec leagues, marathons. Adults crave structured competition. The mind has no equivalent.
The Playbooks Are Proven
CrossFit proved club-to-championship. Topgolf proved casual-to-competitive. No one has applied it here.
The demand is proven. The gap is clear. First mover wins.
John Thomas Connor
Founder & CEO
I've lived every part of this: 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
- •HelpWith: 3,000+ in-person skill exchanges
The Ask
$500K Pre-Seed
24 months to self-sustaining growth
Use of Funds
- Growth (ambassadors, 50-city launch)60%
- Championships (prizes, production, media)20%
- Product (platform enhancements)10%
- Brand (sponsorship materials, partnerships)10%
Month 24 Milestones
50
Cities
60
Clubs
$500K+
ARR
8,000+ members. Regional championships in 5+ markets.
Unit economics proven. Series A metrics hit.
SAFE with standard terms. Clean cap table. No previous investors.
Flywheel spinning. Series A ready.
SuperDebate
For thousands of years, we've tested ideas against each other. Around fires, in forums, across tables.
The platform is live.
The community is real.
The timing is perfect.
Let's build the league.
john@superdebate.org