How Basketball Knowledge Sparks Board Game Success: Jerry Dupree’s Journey from NBA to Board Games

EP036_06-28-24_Jerry Dupree

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Toy Business Unboxed, your gateway to the secrets of the toy industry. Here, Jason Hsieh, a toy entrepreneur and expert in the field. “Every product we develop is really inspired by some of the real life experience that we have with our son.” “60 percent of all toys last year were sold on Amazon.”

“Be passionate about it. Because it’s a road. It’s a journey.” “Like when you have an idea that you think is gonna somewhat change the world, make things better, I’d say go for it.“

Jason Hsieh: Hello welcome back to another episode of toy business unboxed, im your host, Jason Hsieh. Today I’m thrilled to have Jerry, founder of Brainfit games and a formal NBA basketball player. Jerry’s entrepreneur spirit United in high school and his journey has led him from professional [00:01:00] basketball to creating his own board game company.

He will share his story, the inspiration behind Tip-Off basketball and how Brainfit game is making wave in the toy industry. We’ll dive into the challenge of scaling a business, the importance of both physical and cognitive development in gaming, and also exciting potential future collaboration that Jerry is currently working on. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Jerry.

Jerry Dupree: Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure. How you doing today? 

Jason Hsieh: I’m doing great. Can you first tell the audience a little bit more about your background and what inspired you to start the Brainfit game that you currently have the business?

Jerry Dupree: Yeah. A little bit about me. First, my name is Jerry Dupree, born in Los Angeles, California. Raised a little bit in Marina Valley, Riverside, California, where I went to high school. Started playing basketball at 15 years old. I was five foot nine, became six foot seven. 

Jason Hsieh: Whoa. 

Jerry Dupree: I grew, I don’t know, a lot of inches [00:02:00] over the summer. I don’t know how many total, but I knew I was five foot nine my freshman year. 

Jason Hsieh: I want to be taller than myself. 

Yeah. So now I’m six foot seven. Grew to be six foot seven and fell in love with the game of basketball. So basketball became something my first, I would say my first passion, my first love, my first, almost my first entrepreneur experience if you think about it, because basketball fast forward basketball brought me to a lot of places. I’ve been to 60 different countries, played overseas, got to go to college, play the NBA a little bit, and we’ll mixtape tour those things. So I think basketball was my first. 

What team were you on when you were in NBA? Were you at the Lakers? 

Jerry Dupree: Yeah, I had an opportunity to play preseason with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000 or 2005. Yeah, when Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant had their beef and Shaquille O’Neal got traded to [00:03:00] Miami Heat. So I came in with those guys, Brian Grant. So I was able to be with them about a few months training camp preseason, was able to work out with Kobe, Him putting me under his wing and teaching me the game and things like that. So it was a great experience. Unfortunately the team was so deep with a lot of great players that it just wasn’t a fit for me. So I had the opportunity to go play with the Hall of Globe tragedy after that. One is when I really discovered the business of basketball and played a mixtape tour game, which is called a mixtape tour, which we would go and to different cities like Houston or New York and we’ll find some of the best street ball players and we compete against them like a rivalry game. So it’d be M1 versus New York, or M1 versus Chicago, M1 versus Los Angeles. 

Jason Hsieh: Is that also like a tournament? Or how does that work? 

Jerry Dupree: Yeah it was a TV show. Actually, we had to deal with ESPN, Old Spice, Pinewoods Mobile. Yeah, so that’s when I [00:04:00] started learning the business side of it. I had an opportunity to get a scholarship to go to USC. So I got a full scholarship to go to USC. But the craziest thing about it like I was saying I started playing basketball at 15, I graduated at 17, I was at USC at 19. So in that little small timeframe of me developing my game, I understood that this was a business, of take care of your body, have good grades, business of listening to your culture, going to practice, right? These are the same practices that you have to practice in the business world. I didn’t understand that until recently, till forties in my forties. Now I’m 42 years old. I didn’t understand the things that I was learning in my development, getting to this point of me developing me, my own basketball board game. My own companies being the boss or being the founder or the creator, whatever you want to call it. I think it’s all the same, right? We all creators, if [00:05:00] you’re a CEO and you might not create a product, but you’re creating solutions. If you are a product creator, you’re creating different products for solutions of problems that it might need, or it might just be something like I created a board game, like it’s really not solving problems, but I’m coming to find out it’s solving a lot of problems unbeknown to me from educational aspect to the physical aspect, to learning aspect. So this is my packaging. It’s called Tip-Off Basketball, the board game. So this is my board game, right? This is the board. So I have an open one here for you. It’s a pretty big board game. It was actually a 20 by 20 board where you could shoot physical shots on mini basketball hoops that I developed. Where you ask is shoot physical shots in the hoop. 

Jason Hsieh: How did your experience as a professional basketball player [00:06:00] influence the creation of the current booking that you have, which is Tip-Off Basketball?

Jerry Dupree: Basketball. Simple, the love of the sport. Loving the game of basketball, but also I have a love, hate relationship with basketball right now. Unfortunately, I got injured five times, had five knee surgeries. Basketball was taken away from me early on in my early twenties, that’s when I knew my coach, John Smith he taught me a long time ago. He gave me a piece of paper with a quote on it. And the quote said, “don’t let basketball use you, use basketball for what you want in life.” And that always stuck with me. Once I got injured basketball was I want to stay away from it. I don’t want to watch it. I can’t play it. I’m bitter with the game, but the game was always coming back to me. Are you coaching? You want to coach? Can you train my kid? Can you help us get overseas? Do you have any information? So every day it was always basketball and I was running away from it, but it was [00:07:00] chasing me. 

So fast forward to the pandemic. My son, I have a 10 year old son now, but Four years ago, he was six years old and he was starting to get into basketball. But the pandemic hit and he lives in San Diego. I live in Orange County, so he lived with his mother. And at the time it was a lockdown, which we couldn’t travel. I couldn’t go see him or visit him because of the COVID 19 didn’t want him to get sick. I didn’t want to get sick. It was just that thing. So I was trying to find a way, how can I communicate and teach them the game of basketball? Cause he couldn’t go outside and play, go to the park. And it was just like, what showing them videos is one thing talking about, it was another. I really wanted him to get in tune. So this light bulb popped up in my head and I was sitting on a the video call just like this with them talking to him. And I was like, what do you want to do? Let’s play a game. We don’t have nothing to play. I said, I’m gonna create a game. He said, no, you’re not. I said, watch me. I said, I’ll call you back son, give me one [00:08:00] hour. I got a piece of paper, literally cut it up, taped it on the board and thought about the first game came to my mind was monopoly because it was a very simple game. Grab the dice, shake the dice, throw the dice, count with the number of the dice, say four or five, six on the board (counting) the board tells you what’s happening. Do you want to buy this? Do you want to sell this? Do you want to do this, railroad this, right? So that was my basic steps of it. So I was like, Oh, I’m gonna do a monopoly style, but I’m gonna turn it into a basketball game where now you have to use many courts to shoot physical shots in the hoop, but also let me incorporate the dice aspect of it, right? where now, where you go? This is a piece. I broke my board down in pieces just for research. On the board you go around and the board tells [00:09:00] you what to do. So like we have things on here like technical file, that’s the ball. One on one. Lock shots. Player’s cards. I wanted to think more. I didn’t want the kids just to sit there and just throw dice and shoot little balls in the hoop, right? So another light bulb hit me. Oh, let’s incorporate some kind of physical activity. Let’s make them get up and move because my business, my company is called Brainfit Games.

Every game that we create a Brainfit Games, LLC is going to have some kind of physical activity or physical component to it, where you get up and move. So I thought about it. So I created what, which I call players cards. There are 50 cards, 25 to each player. I have things like sports question. What team did Kobe Bryant score 81 points on where if you’re a basketball fan and you love the legacy of Kobe it was the Toronto [00:10:00] Raptors, but the light bulb came on again. The kids that don’t know the history of basketball or Kobe Bryant because they’re younger, how do they find out? Guess what? Everyone carries around what in their pocket? A cell phone. Everyone comes around cell phones. So for them to answer this question, what they have to do, go and research it. Now it’s research, look up and research. So now they researching the history of the game and now it, inquires them to research. Maybe more later on they might wanna know more questions, right? So that was just one aspect. Then I came up with another one, which is called, physical activity, right? For five points. So this one is 20 sit ups in 15 seconds. 20 sit ups in 15 seconds, right? Five points. So the object of the game in total is first player to win the win score 21 points wins. In [00:11:00] the game is 21 points to win first player, right? So I’ll get five points for 20 sit ups in 15 seconds. Now, if you’re able and capable of doing it. It’s a good challenge for you to say, Oh, let me knock these out. You can win. I lose that way and that’s the, that was the thing that I was questioning. Do I even want that? Because eventually I want to turn this game into a tournament and have like prizes and that’s something I’ll talk to you about a little bit later on, but just in terms of that, this was just ideas of adding more elements to the game. And once I started putting it together, then I had to figure out how to manufacture it. Google is your best friend Google, YouTube is your best friend. I’m YouTube, Google university. 

Jason Hsieh: What challenge do you face when you are transitioning from being a professional, like sports athlete to being an entrepreneur? 

Jerry Dupree: I would say for me personally, the biggest challenge, because I, my network is so huge. But it’s that network where you don’t see [00:12:00] people for months, but it’s still Oh, we have that connection. I haven’t seen you in months, but we still have that friendship. It’s like that. But I find out a couple of things about this. Everyone I know wants something for free. This is not a nonprofit, this is a profit business. I have a 501c3 where they could donate and do things in that nature, but this is a profit for profit business. And I’ve noticed that when you have reports, Big relationships with a lot of people, especially in the sports world. They we, are spoiled in the sports world a little bit. We get things for free a lot, food, money, cars, clothing, toys, whatever. We get, so we get spoiled. So that’s been my hardest thing is trying to really market my game to my network, because the first thing they ask is. Can I get it for free? I’m like I have to pay for this. I have to create this. I’m selling this. I’ll give you a discount, but I think that’s been my biggest thing. And really my second, I think is just really [00:13:00] learning the business. I’m coming from a sports background or no one really looks like me, dress like me in come from a sports background. That’s actually doing what I’m doing right now. I don’t know any, not one person that’s actually in the toy industry or board game gaming industry. That’s actually used to play professional basketball, play basketball on any level, right? It can be on any level. Not to me that look like me. So when I’m doing my research and doing my R and D research development, and I’m seeing a lot of faces that don’t look like me, right? That’s not an issue for me. The biggest issue is that people don’t believe that I’m actually doing this myself. I actually created. Yes. They believe that they made me think that I’m working for someone. Maybe I’m just trying to sell a product. Every aspect from the design part, to set up the website, to the trademarks, to the LLC’s, to my Instagram, to my LinkedIn’s. I’ve done everything by myself. So now I’m at a turning point where I need [00:14:00] to elevate, so to speak, I need to now bring on business minds, better business minds. A few people have been reaching out to me, because of the game and idea and I get a lot of people tell me too, that this is bigger than me. Like it’s bigger than me. Which I understand it might be bigger than me. I love that, that’s why you do, yeah. Go big, go that’s why you go home. That’s my basketball motto is. You play basketball to eventually make it to college and make it to the NBA. Eventually make a lot of money. That’s the goal. If anyone in basketball say that’s not their goal, they’re lying. That’s the major goal is make it to the NBA. And if you’re not NBA quality, you wanna at least get an education, college education for free. So I was able to do that in a four or five year span. So I believe taking that mentality and that attitude and put that into this company now, because I’m only in on year one and a half or two, maybe really only six months in selling world, and selling on my own [00:15:00] website and going to

Jason Hsieh: different ball games, 

Jerry Dupree: like a whole different business. So I’m learning sales. I’m learning marketing development. Also, the most important thing is really your network, networking. Convincing people. I have to do a lot of convincing, I see, but it’s okay. I’m a strong believer. I’m a believer like I’m not from St. Louis, but I’m a believer in that motto to show me state. I don’t like to talk. I like to show people. Just getting out of networking and getting to these different conventions and networking events and like what you’re doing. I see you everywhere. I’m like, wow, how does he know that’s the things I need to do? I’m an introvert, so that’s another issue too. I’m a Virgo, so I’m an introvert. I stick to myself a lot, not on purpose, just because I have so many ideas and so many things I’m going to develop. I do a lot of things in terms of creativeness. Tip-Off Basketball is I think my ultimate creation that God planted in [00:16:00] my brain and say, here, I’m going to give you this jewel, but I’m not going to make it easy for you. I’m going to make the road a little bit bumpy, but I’m going to introduce you to people and people are going to give you knowledge and they’re going to give you the credentials are, the the tools that you need to. So that’s where I’m at right now. Just really just trying to figure out, navigate the toy world, navigate the sales and marketing right now because the development is done. I want to do a version two, but right now we’re on version one right now. Version two is on the makes, but right now it’s really just getting it out to the market, talking to different companies.

Jason Hsieh: Talk. You have something even bigger than the board game. I don’t know if you’re comfortable to share that. 

Jerry Dupree: Yeah, I’m comfortable with sharing. I’m an open book. I’m an open book, so any questions you want to ask, I’m comfortable. 

Jason Hsieh: Do you have that figure? Because that’s amazing. When you show me your the prototype of the figure you’re working on. Because now it’s not just a boards game, it’s also a collectible. People collect different themes. I would like to [00:17:00] have a maker of a Boston I have a different teams and different things at different places. 

Jerry Dupree: I love that. Yes. That is the ultimate goal. So the ultimate goal is tip off basketball, the board game, licensing deal with the NBA, NCAA could be Disney. It could be Warner brothers. It could be any character. Why? Because I created this concept of where the player pieces are balanced of all players. So the first initial one was this, was the first one that comes in the standard players box. It’s just a regular last one, but I have them. So what the game is, you could play up to 10. So I have these in different colors, but my idea was like, I wanted to do something much bigger and better than this. This is too simple for my mind. So I was walking around and I was looking for different things and I ran across this product and I saw, I was like, this is perfect. [00:18:00] So I want to go from the wood pieces to the actual figures of the players. Incredible. Yes. I did not develop this. This is not my idea. This is not my IP, but when I saw this, was perfect. This one replaced this one. It gives the game a much more dynamic, but it also helps with the licensing deal. So say the NBA blessed me with a licensing deal. And I got a Milwaukee bucks license deal. Guess what now I can have a Giannis. Figurine that is actual payable 

Jason Hsieh: NBA championship edition. Let’s just say 2024 NBA champion, which is 

Jerry Dupree: yes. Championship edition. The ultimate goal is really Staples Center, Los Angeles downtown having tip off basketball one on one for 25, 000 all the lights on two players playing the board game in the middle of Staples Center. Sponsored by Nike, Puma, Gatorade, whoever it may be. [00:19:00] That’s it. That’s the ultimate goal is really getting these bigger companies and develop these scholarship programs, these community outreach programs with the board game. So my whole goal is to have a tournament say for a small tournament, 16 players. We pick a city. Our state and we get sponsors like Nike, I don’t know, Gatorade, Pepsi, Coca Cola, right? They can either sponsor product that you can either sponsor or scholarship money. So we could have one player win a grand championship, grand prize of 25, 000, or we could break it down with 25 players and everyone gets 1, 000, but it’s all in the competition of the board game, right? So now we have the competition aspect. We have the community reach aspect because now we go to these different communities and have competitions and scholarships and these big companies that can come in and show their community reach to these smaller communities. Like a pest, imagine a Coca Cola come [00:20:00] to, I don’t know, a small community and they set up a tournament where they’re giving away scholarships for the youth or Product for whoever in the community 

Jason Hsieh: because that’s what I’m trying to do with my business and with my foundation of the work. I want to make an impact. It’s beyond just making money. Everyone can make money, but money when we all die, nothing, but we can leave a legacy that’s lived beyond us. And I believe you will leave a legacy that’s beyond and bigger than you. And because I like the way you think, you and me is really alike. We are both visionary. We like to see the big picture. What can we create that’s so big, we can really literally change the world. Like my mission is to empower, support, and educate kids so they can live a life full of possibilities regardless where they live on planet Earth. That’s my mission. 

Jerry Dupree: Exactly because I’m a short believer that I want this game to go international. I want this [00:21:00] concept to go from California all the way to Japan. I didn’t been in Japan. I’ve been to China. I’ve been South America. I’ve been to Dubai. I haven’t been in North Korea. Can you believe that? I’ve been to North Korea. Yes, I was one of the guys that went to North Korea with Dennis Robin. 

Jason Hsieh: That’s amazing.

Jerry Dupree: Now, imagine Kim Jong Un playing my board game. Oh, that’s my boy, right? That’s how my mind think. Imagine Dennis Rodman sitting here, Kim Jong Un playing, and they playing the board game going back and forth. 

Jason Hsieh: Hopefully he doesn’t have that full of the nuclear button on it. 

Jerry Dupree: Yeah Then it’s Oh, I need to win and be able to make it back in America. And then Kim Jong Un, like you lose, you stay here forever or whatever but that’s like the idea of the competition and also the beautiful thing about it. Like we go back to the sports questions or the fiscal activity cards. Yeah. It’s not just them sitting there. So when we get to these real tournaments and we’re able to get subway or Gatorade to sponsors, we’re able to up the [00:22:00] ante a little bit. It might not be 10 push ups. It might be 50 push ups. Because we have different age brackets, right? But wouldn’t it be cool to see a Seven year old play against a 40 year old. Going back and forth with the game. Because only part that the 40 year old can really achieve more than the seven year old or nine year old is the physical activity part.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah. That’s true. 

Jerry Dupree: But it’s all random too. So if you and I play this board game, I’m not guaranteed to say that just because I created the game, I will beat you. 

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, 

Jerry Dupree: You can lose points. You could win points. It’s all about how to dice roll. So that’s the whole concept, but it’s basically roll the dice, go around the board. The board tells you how to play the first person. 21 points wins. Yeah, lose points. You could earn points. 

Jason Hsieh: And what I also dive into because last time when we spoke, you do something very different than a lot of the other toy entrepreneur I met is you like to go and meet [00:23:00] people in person like a lot. For example, can we talk about how you bring the game? To like tournament and have people play at the basketball tournament with your board game as well. 

Jerry Dupree: Yes. Oh, that’s the best part about this Now. Now I’m going to piggyback what I said a little bit earlier. Remember I said I was an introvert. I don’t know if I really am. Cause I’m more of an introvert when I’m alone. Like when I’m alone, I don’t want to be bothered. I just want to create and do things. I noticed once I asked to get in public. I’m like the life of the party. I’m glad you brought that up. So the whole goal was to flood the market, basketball market internationally and domestically with Tip-Off Basketball. And what I mean by that is I believe that Tip-Off Basketball belongs in every household, every gym, every team, every college, every pro team, anything that relates with basketball. If you’re a basketball lover, basketball enthusiast, a basketball fanatic, or just a casual basketball, I’ll watch sometime fan. You need this game. So I’ve been doing a lot of Facebooking and [00:24:00] Instagramming. So I’ve been catching a little bit leverage, not huge, but it’s getting It’s word of mouth. So people, tournament directors been reaching out to me to come to the events now on Saturdays. So these, are events are maybe 30 to 50 basketball teams with 10 players, 12 players each on AU from the ages of maybe seven year old to 14, they come to like different places. And like here, I’m in California, Orange County. They come to Orange County, they come to a gym, like called Ladera, they’ll come for a Saturday and Sunday. There are 50 teams that’s playing in that tournament. Now they have families, moms, dads, aunties, cousins, whoever want to come watch them play. So we have this, now we have this warehouse where we have thousands of people just walking around watching basketball courts, people playing. So the directors was thinking like, because a lot of kids They might have a game at eight o’clock. Then their next game is not to 12 and one o’clock. They’re not going home. They’re just sitting around now. They’re sitting on their [00:25:00] phone all day. Yeah. They told me the idea was come bring the game, set it up and we’re going to have the kids play the game. 

First event I went to. I was like, okay, we’ll see. Let’s go. I, cause I have this big 10 by 10, 10 is orange, bright orange is football, basketball, or everything is very like bright and orange. And it stands out, set it up. It went crazy. It was hundreds of people standing in line, waiting to play the game. It was so chaotic. It was only me and my buddy. It was to the point where I was getting overwhelmed. I started seeing how people were playing, how people were reacting people, What is this? This is a cool idea, but once they start playing it Their eyes is light up. Their faces light up. You see the competitive. We got moms, dads, grandparents, all competing against each other and all and I sit there and I just do this. So I have so much footage of me going to different AU events. I just recently went to Beverly Hills middle school [00:26:00] where they stem class invited me down there and also this program called, Breakthrough sports. Yeah so one of my good friends Steve Hodges, Steve, he’s the the owner of breakthrough sports. He invited me down to Beverly Hills middle school, where I presented the game to maybe 50 kids. 

The beautiful thing about it I wanted to step away from it. So set the game down and step away from it and see if they could put it together. See if they know how to start the game. See if they know how to play it. And I was just watching the kids like, Oh, this group right here, they’re younger, but they’re organized. They putting it together, they’re working together. The little girl, she was maybe 78 years old teaching people how to play the game. I was like, oh wow, I didn’t even teach you guys yet. So I noticed that the game is not hard. It’s very simple, a simple game to catch because that’s why I use monopoly as an example. But I noticed going to these different tournaments now. I’m at a tournament every week now, so the [00:27:00] whole goal is the big goal is make it, from east to west to east from California to Florida, going to these different states, different tournaments and setting up and presenting the game.

Jason Hsieh: Can you also share with us exactly like exciting partnership or even licensing opportunity that you’re currently exploring? How’s that going? 

Jerry Dupree: That’s actually fun though. I have a few relationships in the NBA world. One of my agents, he has a lot of NBA champions on his roster. So I’m in talks with him right now. He’s real busy right now. Cause you know, NBA draft was yesterday and the day before. So probably next week we’ll be talking more, but yeah, I’m talking to him about NBA licensing deal, like I mentioned earlier. So the biggest thing is I want it. I need it. I’m going to get it. The NBA likes to, I want to create Laker boards. I want to click Clipper boards, Dallas Maverick boards, Miami heat boards, whatever your favorite team. I want to have a board for you. Whatever your favorite collegiate team, your college team, mine’s go Trojans. I want to have a board for you. That’s the thing I want to do. So that’s like the next I see the [00:28:00] next thing, but also the bigger pitches, I really wanted to go, Retail. I want to get into targets. I want to get into Walmarts. I want to say, I want to walk in the store and see. 

Jason Hsieh: How is Amazon going since last time?

Jerry Dupree: I haven’t tried Amazon yet. I’ve been talking to you about that. Right now I haven’t started Amazon just yet. Everything right now is directed consumer out of my own personal business website. That’s something I’ll probably talk to you about because I know you’re the expert about that. It’s just, I wanted to build a lot of leverage right now organic leverage, because I’m in the basketball world and it’s a basketball game. And I believe once, the organic, I start seeing it, I don’t think I would need too much real marketing in terms of paying for ads and stuff, because once the basketball word catch flight, it’s like to spread, it’s like wildfires. Because this has never been done before. There’s never been a basketball game. There’s a board basketball game ever created like this. I think I’m the only one first one. So I think it’s so new to everyone. No one still understands it until it’s actually in their face. That’s why I know it’s like going to these different events that people will walk past the table and they look like [00:29:00] that’s a cool, what is this? And I’ll say, come sit down, play me. You’re like, no, you created the game you’re going to beat me. No, actually I probably lost more than anybody I’ve known playing this game. My son beats me. My nieces beat me, the kids at the camps beat me. And I’m like, I sit here like how is this possible? I’m really trying to win and like trying to distract them. So that’s the beautiful thing about this game. And that’s why I think it’s going to work in the tournament aspect, because we can bring on big sponsors. We could give the community back so much. Even product scholarships, whatever it may be. I don’t care. I just want to make it up. I want to see it happen. I want to see a Pepsi, a Nike, someone come and sponsor Tip-Off Basketball, Brainfit Games, and we give away. 

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, if you need an exclusive distributor for Japan, I can be your distributor for Japan.

Jerry Dupree: Osaka, yes, definitely. I have a couple of buddies in Osaka, out there, Tokyo. Yeah, definitely. That’s the next move, internationally. I have a lot of friends that’s even playing ball [00:30:00] internationally right now or live internationally. I have one of my best friends live in Australia. We’re working on and he has a big basketball program out there. So we’re working on getting the board games out there to the indigenous people in the rural countries and things like that. Basketball is not accessible to everyone everywhere in the world. Everyone doesn’t have a basketball court, even the basketball, even shoes. So if I’m able to provide a source. A lot of US players used to go to Taiwan and make a lot of money. Like Taiwan, Puerto Rico, Philippines. But my whole idea with the board game is really like to these third world countries and these different small countries that have the board game. That way basketball is always on their mind. They might not able to play it all the time or even watch it. They might not have access to a phone or TV or cable or games, but if they have this board game. Access to basketball all day, every day, year round, 365, right? Thinking about basketball.

If you’re a basketball fan, or are you someone that loves basketball deeply in your heart, and you might live in a country or a situation where basketball is not visible [00:31:00] to you all the time, where everyone had this game, now you have a mini hoop that you can play on, you can always think about basketball, create your own games. It can bring community together. So I’m very big on community. 

Jason Hsieh: I also have a lot of like personal connection with basketball because like I shared with you before my wife used to be a professional basketball player. 

Jerry Dupree: Yeah, you told me that. That’s so cool. Gotta get, I gotta get her a game. Oh, matter of fact, you said you’re going to be in my area. Come pick up a game. I’m going to give you a game. Yeah, for sure. Yes. You’re definitely getting one. 

Jason Hsieh: The final question I always ask every single guest on the podcast is if you had to share just one piece of advice with someone that’s getting started in the toy industry, what would that be?

Jerry Dupree: I am that person. One piece of advice for someone that’s getting started. So I would say. I think the best advice would be find someone that’s smarter than you. What I mean by that is I’m going to speak for myself. I consider myself a pretty smart guy. I consider myself knowing that we live in a modern [00:32:00] technology area. And if I need any information, all I got to do is what Google it, youTube it, look up my phone. So that’s how I developed it. I don’t know. I’m 50, 50 with it. I’m 50 with in terms of learning yourself, learning how to develop, learning how to develop again, research again, manufacture it, create it, tool it, sample it. I’m big on learning that by yourself with no help. They get to a point where you did, you’ve done all that. You got to a point where now you want to plateau up a little bit higher, but that step was a little steeper. Now you might need a rope. You don’t have any rope. Now Jason has a rope. Jason, can you come bring your rope? So we both get up now, right? That’s what I’m saying. It’s start, start slowly, including people that have different knowledge or are better at certain things like you, you might be better at marketing than me. I might be better at creating than you. I don’t know. I’m just hypothetical. 

Jason Hsieh: You all kick my ass every day out in basketball court. . 

Jerry Dupree: Oh yeah. At 42. I’ll kick a lot of ass at [00:33:00] right now. Young and old. I still could do it, but I’m saving myself and my son. I, want to dunk on him when he get a little older. I wanna show him that. Dad was pretty good. So that’s the thing I just, I say just believe in yourself. Try to do everything you possibly for free first for free. I don’t believe in paying everybody for Mark. I don’t believe so. I have a big issue with marketers. Sorry, marketers. I come from a world where I guess they similar in that world that they want to get paid before the work is done or started. Yeah, I never understood that. Like, how do I pay you before you even prove to me that you even worthy of me paying you, or you can even help me or my company, how do I pay you these hundreds of thousands of dollars and you have no track record with me. I always be like, marketers should maybe show first. One cell first, see if you’re even able of making a sale. Then guess what? With me, you can have that sale. Keep that. That’s all for you. Now let’s go sell more. Navigate your money and let’s work now. [00:34:00] That’s why I believe, but I believe at the end of the day, try to learn as much as possible. Research. Develop a bit relationships with great business minds and go for it. That’s enough room for everyone. I say like in the music game, it’s enough room for every single rapper, artists in the game, and we’re all going to be different. We’re all going to be sound different. 

Tomorrow’s not promised. So I live by that every single, I tell my son this, son, what do you want to do that way tomorrow? No, tomorrow is not problem. I’m not going to wait till tomorrow to do anything unless I physically have to. If I could do anything to benefit my business or my mind, Or me being as a better person, I’m doing it right now. As soon as I get off this podcast with you, I’m not waiting tomorrow because I can go outside and get hit by a damn truck tomorrow. God forbid, right? God forbid, but it can happen. I think about that things. I want to get this done fast, the most efficient, effective way [00:35:00] and get it going. That way I can start and get some other stuff going and get a portfolio of toys out into the world. 

Jason Hsieh: Laker version. Ready? I’m ready to buy one. 

Jerry Dupree: I already have, my my USC Trojans one already. Okay. Yeah. Just, so this is my arm, ma u usc. I already cut. They contacted me. I customized them one already. So I got them a whole, these are actually their boards, but those are USC boards, not tip off USC that I customized. Yeah. So I actually customized it with. Actually, and I actually do it myself, . 

Jason Hsieh: Oh, whoa. You customize it yourself. Whoa. 

Jerry Dupree: Yeah, I do it. I told you I do everything myself. Everything. So this is basically my design, my adhesive that I put stuck on the board. Okay. Yeah. Because my board comes with my tip off basketball design.

Jason Hsieh: Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Where can people find you? 

Jerry Dupree: You can find Tip Off Basketball, the board game on IG, Facebook, Twitter, which is X now LinkedIn. Also our website is [00:36:00] http://www.brainfitgames.com. Once again, our website is http://www.brainfitgames.com. So you can buy the game right now. It’s 40 bucks on the website, got all the information on the website. I got the tournament information about our first initial tournament, grand prize, I think 500 to 5, 000. So if you want to sign up, check that out, everything’s on the website. If you have any questions, you could contact me through via my website or Instagram or Facebook or contact me, Jerry Dupree.

Jason Hsieh: Sounds good. Thank you so much again for joining us on the podcast. 

Jerry Dupree: Yeah, no, thank you for having me. Like I said, I can talk about this all day as you can tell. So I’m excited I’m excited for you. I’m excited for me. I think this is going to be cool. This is not going to be the first time we’re going to work together. I got some cool ideas in my mind for us to work outside of this so it’s going to be a great adventure and before 2025. Thank you for having me and God bless you on your ventures and your family [00:37:00] and it’s a pleasure meeting you. We’ve been talking for a while now and you’re a cool guy. And I love what you’re doing. Really keep up the good work, Jason. Really? You’re doing something cool. When I saw what you were doing and I saw you created the toy launch, I was like, I got to get in contact somehow. So I’m glad God made it happen. It’s done. We here now let’s work. And thank you.

Outro: You’ve been listening to Toy Business Unboxed, hosted by Jason Hsieh. Thank you for joining us and exploring the fascinating world of toys and the ingenuity behind them.

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