Trent Hoerr, CEO of BullRush, was recently interviewed by Benzinga.
BullRush says it is pioneering a unique approach to trading with its competitive gamified platform. The platform merges the excitement of fantasy sports with trading in an interactive, game-based competition format. Users worldwide can challenge each other in diverse trading contests, trivia tournaments and various challenges with cash and substantial prizes at stake.
Mr. Hoerr spoke about the exciting success of the platform and how the company is looking to expand.
BullRush says it is pioneering a unique approach to trading with its competitive gamified platform. The platform merges the excitement of fantasy sports with trading in an interactive, game-based competition format. Users worldwide can challenge each other in diverse trading contests, trivia tournaments and various challenges with cash and substantial prizes at stake.
Mr. Hoerr spoke about the exciting success of the platform and how the company is looking to expand.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hey, Zingers, it's Dan Leitch, and I have a fantastic guest for you today.
00:06It is the CEO of Bullrush, Trent Hare.
00:09So great to be with you, Trent. Good to see you again.
00:11Yeah, likewise. Thanks for having me back on.
00:13Well, the pleasure and honor is all mine.
00:15Fascinating stuff you guys are doing at Bullrush.
00:17Let's give everyone an overview of Bullrush, if you want.
00:19Yeah, certainly.
00:21So, as we talked about last time,
00:22Bullrush is the first ever dedicated trading competition platform
00:26where we host both free and paid entry trading competitions,
00:30and people come and compete against each other for cash prizes.
00:34And people love the term gamified.
00:37What exactly is gamified training, and how does that work?
00:40Yeah, that's a great question.
00:42So, as most things these days, you know, everything's becoming gamified
00:46in terms of, you know, just trying to drive a lot of user engagement
00:49and give people an incentive to come back into the platform.
00:52And so we've done a lot of that at Bullrush.
00:54So, we have badges, certificates, we have experience points.
00:58And a lot of the things that we tied around to those experience points
01:01are now there's cash prizes where, you know, we have a monthly XP leaderboard,
01:06or whoever earns the most experience points in a month
01:09now goes and wins cash prizes.
01:10You know, first place, it's actually a lot.
01:12It gets $750.
01:13And that's not for winning competitions.
01:15There's no fees for that.
01:16You just come participate, use the platform.
01:19And if you do enough stuff in the platform or more than others,
01:22you can win $750.
01:24Now, listen, it's an incredible and, you know, fascinating concept.
01:28What has the user feedback been like, Trent?
01:30How many users are repeat and regular customers?
01:33Yeah, so the feedback's been great.
01:35One of the biggest things that came from the feedback here recently
01:39was a lot of the influencers and brands that we work with
01:44wanted fully branded competitions.
01:47And so that's a feature we are currently doing
01:49and it'll be fully available here in three weeks,
01:52where you can now come into our platform
01:54and build your own competition.
01:56Think of fantasy sports where you want to go
01:58and you want to play fantasy sports with your buddies.
02:00You can go create your own league
02:02and you can have it up and running in the platform.
02:04And so we built the same concept based on the user feedback on our side,
02:08where now you'll be able to go into our app.
02:11You'll be able to build your own competition.
02:13You can run it privately.
02:14So if you just want to do it with your friends and family,
02:16you can do that, or you can open it up to the public
02:19so anybody can come register.
02:21You can set different entry fees for it.
02:23You can set which products are able to be traded.
02:25You can set what the drawdowns are.
02:28A host of different things you can go customize
02:30to really make it feel like as if it's your own.
02:33And then most importantly, you can actually monetize it.
02:36So you can keep up to 23% of the entry fee
02:39if you go build your own competition.
02:41And so all of that came off the back of user feedback.
02:44And as we were talking with partners
02:46and as we were talking with the Benzingas of the world,
02:49everybody was wanting their own fully branded,
02:51customized competitions.
02:53And so this was the outlet to go do that.
02:55As they say, Trent, the options are endless.
02:56You got to love that.
02:58Now, how do you monetize the platform?
03:00And what is your revenue model?
03:01Yeah, so our revenue model is we keep a small percentage
03:05of the entry fee for providing the services and technology.
03:08So when you go and you enter a competition,
03:11you pay an entry fee.
03:12We'll take a small percentage,
03:14anywhere from 2% to 20% of that entry fee.
03:17And then the rest gets distributed back
03:18in the prize pool.
03:20And so it's, you know, it's a very competitive environment.
03:23It's, you know, we stole some ideas,
03:24borrowed some ideas, as I like to say,
03:26from the poker world,
03:28where it's a very similar concept to what they do.
03:30And as I said, listen, it's a fascinating concept.
03:32People are really excited about it.
03:34Are you looking to expand the scope
03:36of the platform right now?
03:37Yeah, we are.
03:39We are currently getting ready to offer
03:41free stock trading competitions.
03:43And so that finally got signed off
03:45by our in-house counsel and lawyers
03:47to be able to go offer stock trading competitions,
03:49which I know is a big thing with the Vidzika audience.
03:52It's one of the big initiatives
03:54after I attended the event for you guys in New York
03:57that I came back and we really explored it,
03:59really drove it home on how to go do this.
04:01And so, you know, earlier in January,
04:04we finally got the sign off on it.
04:06Those will all be free.
04:07So they're just literally come in,
04:09participate in a free stock competition,
04:10win some cash prizes.
04:12There's no entry fee for those.
04:13But that's one of the big initiatives
04:14that we're pushing forward here in the next month.
04:17In addition to the Build Your Own competition.
04:19And there obviously are so many exciting things
04:21going on in the space,
04:22like what you guys are doing at Bullrush.
04:24What are the biggest trends that you're seeing in the space
04:26and where do you think it's headed, Trent?
04:28Yeah, so again, the space is us.
04:30Nobody else does this.
04:31We're the first ever.
04:32We're the only ones to do this.
04:34I'm sure there'll be knockoffs here in the future.
04:36But the biggest trend for us is just the validity
04:39of what we've been doing and sort of the recognition.
04:42Obviously, when you start a new company
04:45and a new concept, there's that period of time
04:49where people have to come in, buy into it,
04:51trust that you're actually gonna get paid out
04:54if you do well.
04:55And so we've overcome that obstacle.
04:58Having been in the market since July with our beta launch,
05:01people now realize like, hey, we're actually a real company.
05:04We actually give away prizes.
05:06I think we've given away over $75,000 so far
05:09in free prizes to all the participants.
05:12And then that doesn't even include
05:13the paid entry competitions.
05:15Yeah, Trent, they can try to knock you off,
05:16but there's only one Bullrush, as we all know.
05:19Exactly.
05:20Trent Hare, the CEO of Bullrush.
05:22That was an absolutely fascinating conversation.
05:24Thank you so much for joining me today.
05:26Yeah, thanks again for your time.
05:27I appreciate it.
05:28Pleasure and honors, all right.