Brian Koenig

What I need is already here and everything is for my higher good.

As Founder & CEO of NEXXTUP, I’m building the first mobile platform to bring structure, competition, and personal performance tracking to pickup sports. Players can instantly form balanced teams, run fair matches, and track their wins, losses, and point differentials across every sport they play. NEXXTUP is creating a player-first experience that eliminates confusion, fosters competition, and builds community.

NEXXTUP is designed and built to look, feel, and function like a finished product from day one. That commitment comes directly from my background in Experience Design, where how something works is inseparable from how it feels.

For over two decades, I’ve designed immersive environments for some of the most iconic names in luxury leisure travel; including seven Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts projects and private estates for heads of state, royalty, and ultra-high-net-worth clients. In every case, the goal has been the same: create environments that don’t just look exceptional, but feel exceptional.

Experience Design, whether in a five-star resort or a public park, combines the physical layout of a space, the quality of interaction, and the seamless integration of every touchpoint into one memorable outcome. I believe the customer’s entire experience isn’t the most important thing to consider, it’s the only thing to consider.

NEXXTUP applies that same philosophy to the world of sports, transforming casual play into a frictionless, competitive, and unforgettable experience.

I’m an avid runner, and I use an app called Strava. It proved the power of your fitness social network: One athlete logs their time and everyone else sees where they stand. The line is drawn. At its core, it isn’t about fitness, it’s a social flex. That loop drove Strava to one million users in year one and nearly 50 million in five. Today Strava has 150 million users and is worth $2.2 billion.

I also play a lot of pickup basketball and beach volleyball, and I realized there’s no app in this space that captures that same social flex. That’s what NEXXTUP does. In every run there’s always someone, a scorekeeper, a captain, a player on the bench, even a spouse watching, who’s willing to tap it in. That’s all it takes. One input, and suddenly everyone gets their win/loss, their streaks, and their Madden-style rating. That’s the flex, and it spreads fast: once your game counts, people care more, they show up, they invite friends.

Add stablecoin rails for gym fees and buy-ins, and suddenly the whole system is money-ready. Layer in an AI-powered betting line, and the trash talk writes itself.