How I Met Ninja, Superstar Gamer & Nutcase Co-Founder
Seriously though, how does this even happen? It’s a super random and highly unlikely story. And it all starts with a game of poker.
Ninja was invited to a live streamed poker game with fellow creators Mr Beast, Ludwig, XQC, Alex Botez and Slime — as well as poker pro Phil Hellmuth. In a big hand with Hellmuth, Ninja famously suggested he would “suck a dick for a 10”, the only card that could save him… and of course, the next card is exactly that. It’s one of the most hilarious and viral poker clips.
I happen to also know Hellmuth through poker. One day he calls to catch up and asks what I’ve been up to. I mention Nutcase, the better-for-you chocolate milk I was working on. He perks up. He loves the idea of a healthier chocolate milk and wants to try it. I send him some early samples and he loves it so much that he invests and becomes an advisor.
His first suggestion? Let’s talk to Ninja. I’d heard of this Ninja guy, but I’m not a gamer myself (having given up my GameBoy as I grew up). My husband Daniel is into gaming though, and confirmed Ninja is a legend in the gaming world. Phil texts Ninja and he replies that he’d love to try it. I send samples and wait. He gets our package and soon as he tastes it, he’s hooked. He wants to talk.
We schedule a call. I rarely get nervous, but for some reason, that morning, I felt the nerves. Good, I’m still human. Soon as we start chatting, I chill out. He clearly gets it and sees the potential. He’s interested, but we both agree that before committing to working together, we should meet in person to make sure we get along. So I book a flight a few weeks out.
In the meantime, I prepare by listening to his podcast AFK to give me a feel for what he’s like. I love the episode with Steve Aoki, when he tells Tyler he needs to visit and do a cold plunge with him next time he’s in Vegas. Having personally been persuaded by Aoki to take my first ever cold plunge a few months prior (another random story), this brought back crazy memories. Little did I know at the time, it also foreshadowed things to come.
But first, back to me landing in this panhandle part of Florida I didn’t even know existed. I text Tyler that I’ve arrived and he suggests meeting for dinner at Fleming’s. I laugh to myself having just heard on his podcast about having dinner at Fleming’s with Twitch CEO Dan Clancy the week before. Now me? It’s moments like these the impostor syndrome kicks in. How is this real?
I like to pretend I was super chill, but that’s not entirely accurate. I didn’t want to fuck it up and say something awkward (I have very little filters, so this is a real risk). It’s a lot of pressure, but I try not to overthink it. Don’t think — that’s my trick. Just show up and try to NGAF.
Of course, as soon as I meet Tyler, it’s super chill. We chat about poker, food, Pokemon, Nutcase and a bunch of random shit. We have more in common than I expected. A few fans come by to say hi and the way he responds to them is super endearing.
As we finish up our meal, I’m like “Oh shit, we still need talk about actual business. So like… you in?” I just spew it out.“Oh, we’re doing this!” he confidently confirms. Sick. But like, what exactly? As a brand new startup we can’t afford his typical partnership fees, but it’s all good, cause he’s more interested in equity anyway. He believes in Nutcase and wants to be part of it. I throw out a number, standard vesting, and the title of co-founder. “Sounds good.” he says. Easy game.
Ya, not so fast. Tyler and I agreeing was the easy part. Getting our lawyers to agree was a whole other ordeal. It took months. The wait was painful. Even worse, we met early December and I was eager to get things locked in so I could start planning, but we all now what happens in December…
Holidays, that’s what. Unpopular opinion: not a fan. Why? Cause I like to get shit done and nothing gets done over the holidays. And don’t tell me I need to learn to relax. I made a 2000 piece puzzle to try and relax ok? It’s not my thing. I’m a nutcase remember?
It’s like when people say I need a hobby. You don’t get it. Nutcase is my hobby. A startup may not be a traditional hobby like gaming, but it kinda is like a game, no? A real life game with real life stakes. With customers and investors keeping score. That’s what makes it interesting to me. That’s just how I’m wired.
This is the part no one sees. Week after week of uncertainty. Too much time to get in your own head. One day, I wake up confident it’s gonna happen and pumped to start planning — the next, I’m skeptical and beating myself up for getting my hopes up. I should know better. The waiting game is the worst. It forces you to build mental toughness. Time to level up.
Finally, we got an answer from his lawyers. They wanted to change some stuff. We agreed to most of it, but not their new vesting schedule. I was concerned this would wreck our deal. Luckily I called Tyler and he confirmed he was good with our original timeline and would tell his lawyers to revert back and just get this done. Phew. Finally, I got his autograph… on legal docs. Ninja was officially my co-founder. Game on.
Now what? We needed to brainstorm and strategize — and some content to announce the partnership. I jumped on another flight and this time we met at his house. He showed me his studio, we hung with his dogs, ordered Uber Eats, and chilled by the pool as we talked about marketing ideas and launch plans. It was super low key, which was perfect.
We didn’t plan a professional photoshoot since we wanted to capture real, organic content to start and I felt this was a better way for us get to know each other as co-founders. I also got the chance to meet his wife Jess, who is an absolute sweetheart and helped take pics. Thanks Jess!
Given our mutual love of poker, the fact that we were introduced thanks to poker, and my connections at PokerGo—we agreed a streamed poker game would be the perfect launch event. We decided to name it Nutcase Ninja Poker Night.
Ty would stream the game on his Twitch channel and asked them if they’d help promote it. They promised to feature the game on their landing page, which would provide a ton of additional awareness. We also sent Twitch CEO Dan Clancy samples — which he posted a nice tweet about.
Sadly, less than a week before the game, we got word from Twitch that they’d just changed their policies on ‘gambling’ content and could no longer promote our poker game. Major bummer.
We wanted to build the most entertaining lineup we could. Our first invite went to Hellmuth of course, and Ty reached out to his streamer and celeb contacts. A lot of really cool people (DJs, athletes, creators, etc) were interested, but coordinating dates with such busy people ended up being a huge challenge. We had to pick a date and hope for the best.
Hellmuth was in. Nate Hill (with Faze Clan at the time) was in. Bryce Hall said he was in (but then bailed last minute). I would play, and my husband Daniel (Shopify co-founder) as well. So we had 6 players and 7 seats. We hoped one of our VIPs would come through last minute, but no luck. NGL, I was disappointed. My friend tried to make me feel better by reminding me that just watching Ninja & Hellmuth face off again would be great.
Then we got lucky. We had invited Steve Aoki, but unfortunately he had a show in China that date. The day before, he invited Daniel and I to hang. Recalling Ty’s podcast, we surprised him by bringing Ty & Jess along. His reaction when he recognized Ninja was hilarious.
He gave everyone a full tour of his aptly named Aoki Playhouse, including his gaming room, music room, art room, bed room, trampoline foam pit room… so many awesome rooms.
And of course, it wouldn’t be a proper Aoki hangout without a cold plunge. As mentioned, Daniel & I had already been initiated on our previous visit, but for Ty & Jess, this was their first time. They were nervous, which I totally related to remembering how anxious I’d been. Truth be told, I don’t know what’s worse — the fear of the unknown the first time, or the dread of knowing exactly how much it was gonna suck the second time.
Either way, full credit to Ty & Jess for taking the plunge. We all froze our butts off for 5 minutes before hopping into the sauna to take things to the other extreme. What better way to bond than to suffer and sweat together?
Before leaving, I asked Aoki about his show in China and he answered that it had just been cancelled. Immediately, we we’re all like “Oh! Wanna come to our poker game then!?” He said he’d love to, but he had a book signing… maybe after? He promised to check with his team and let us know.
I was pumped that he might be able to join after all and anxiously waited to hear back. Finally, we got the text saying he was down, he just might be a bit late. Talk about last minute lineups.
The game was insane. The banter between Hellmuth and Tyler did not disappoint. All-ins, bluffs, friendly trolling, inappropriate commentary — we had it all. Everyone had such a great time we promised to plan more games to bring you the sickest lineups of nutcases possible.
Nutcase went live during the live stream — initially launching just our Chocolate 12-packs on our Shopify website drinknutcase.com, to test and get feedback. We sold out in the first week, with Ty cheekily promoting ‘Ninja’s nut’. I have to admit selling nut milk to gamers might not be the most obvious fit, nevertheless, the response from Ninja fans was really cool.
We also planned a proper professional photoshoot this time — though I won’t pretend we kept it professional at all. It wouldn’t be on brand.
Ty of course is a natural on camera, whereas I am awkward AF. But we had fun with it, and ultimately the main challenge became getting Ty & I to stop goofing off and laughing long enough to actually take the shots. Luckily we our partners Krishan and Brooke were there to help keep us in line.
Side note: it’s often said that golf is best for networking. I would argue that poker is even better — and I’m not just saying that because I look dumb AF in polos (hoodies all day for me). Case in point: Ninja? Poker. Aoki? Poker. Investors? Poker. Advisors? Poker.
Not knocking golf though. On the contrary, I also have a random golf story. I knew Ty was getting super into it, and saw a post on Twitter about Tiger Jam — Tiger Woods’ invite only charity golf & poker event in Vegas. I’d gone to the their last event (pre-Covid) thanks to Hellmuth. So I texted Phil to ask about getting Ty an invite. It was sold out, but he made it happen.
The weekend of, I hadn’t yet heard from Ty and was wondering how the event was going. Then I saw this Instagram post and died laughing. Classic Ninja.
Now the most random part. A month earlier at EDC, this guy Naysan (who runs the Vegas Speedway where the massive festival is held) and who had invited me (another fun story for later), mentioned that when Nutcase was ready, he’d introduce me to his good buddy Troy who owns Nevada’s biggest gas station chain Terrible’s. I was like ‘Cool’.
A few weeks later, I get this text from Ty: “I’m golfing with this guy — he’s interested in Nutcase and potentially a great partner.” I was like ‘Cool.’ He tells me his name is Troy and he owns this gas station chain called Terrible’s. What are the odds. Vegas baby.
Less than a year ago I was nervous to talk to ‘that Ninja guy’. It’s crazy how quickly he’s become just Ty — my co-founder, and more importantly, friend. Working with Ty has been a blast and we’re just getting started.
There’s a lot more fun stuff in the works that I can’t talk about just yet… for now, I’ll just leave this pic here.
