This post is a guest post from a CJ Carnicle, founder of Ai Sports (https://x.com/aisportspro)
My path to becoming a founder wasn’t a straight line. In many ways, it was shaped by a series of unexpected shocks - moments where the plan collapsed and the only option was to keep building forward.
Looking back, each step prepared me for the next, even when it didn’t feel like it at the time.
Selling $100M in Semiconductors at Texas Instruments
I started my career at Texas Instruments, where I spent about nine years working in semiconductor sales. My territory covered large Silicon Valley companies, and over time I grew the business from ~$1 million to nearly $50 million annually.
The work was demanding but incredibly educational. I had a front-row seat to how some of the world’s most innovative technology companies operated. I spent my days working with engineering teams, solving technical problems, and helping companies integrate components into products that millions of people would use.
One of my biggest wins was helping TI break into Facebook’s server infrastructure business. Seeing our components become part of the systems powering one of the largest companies in the world was exciting - and it gave me confidence that I could operate at a high level in the tech ecosystem.
But working so closely with Silicon Valley companies also had an unexpected effect on me.
The energy was contagious.
Everywhere around me were founders taking risks, building new products, and trying to reshape industries. It didn’t take long before I realized something: I didn’t just want to sell technology. I wanted to build it.
Leaving the Corporate Path
By 2019, that feeling had grown too strong to ignore. I left TI to become an entrepreneur.
My first startup was an app called Local Friend, designed to connect travelers with locals in cities around the world. The idea was simple: when you travel, the best experiences often come from people who actually live there. Local Friend would help travelers discover those connections.
It was early-stage but promising. I was learning quickly, building the product, and figuring out the challenges of running a startup.
Then 2020 arrived.
COVID shut down global travel almost overnight. For a product built around connecting travelers and locals, the impact was immediate and devastating. My entire business model essentially disappeared in a matter of weeks.
At the same time, I was running into technical hurdles that made the path forward unclear. Eventually, I made the difficult decision to step away from the project.
For the first time since leaving my corporate job, I found myself without a clear plan.
Floating and Rebuilding
That period was humbling.
I was living in San Francisco and working part-time as a tour guide, showing visitors around the city on private tours. It wasn’t glamorous, but it kept me afloat.
More importantly, it gave me time to think.
I still believed in building products. I just needed to find the right idea.
Discovering AI Through Fantasy Sports
Like many Americans, I’ve played fantasy sports since high school - especially fantasy basketball. The strategy, the data, the constant decision-making - it’s always a ton of fun.
With fantasy basketball, you have to set your lineup daily. It can be tough to be that consistent. I thought - What if an AI algorithm could make these decisions for me?
I started experimenting with Google’s machine learning tool - Vertex AI. I fed massive amounts of NBA data into models, trying to generate better projections for every player each day.
Soon I had something interesting: an AI-driven projection system that could help players optimize their daily fantasy lineups.
I turned the idea into a Web2 product called aiSports, which offered lineup suggestions and projections for daily fantasy sports players.
A few hundred users started using it. It was a solid start - but something else was happening that would reshape the project entirely.
Falling Down the Crypto Rabbit Hole
Around that time, I started paying closer attention to crypto.
What initially caught my attention wasn’t speculation - it was DeFi.
Interest rates in traditional banks were near zero, and DeFi protocols were offering yields that were dramatically higher. I became fascinated with how these systems worked and started exploring the ecosystem more deeply.
That curiosity eventually led me to ETHDenver 2022.
Walking into ETHDenver felt similar to my early experiences in Silicon Valley. The same energy was there: builders everywhere, experimenting, collaborating, and launching ideas.
But what struck me most was this: people were getting funding to build applications directly on blockchains.
I realized something.
I already had most of the pieces for a compelling on-chain product. I had the AI projections, the fantasy sports mechanics, and the user experience. What if the actual contests themselves lived on-chain?
So I built a demo.
The First Grant - and the First Collapse
Not long after, I received a $50,000 grant from the Harmony blockchain to build a decentralized daily fantasy sports platform.
For the first time, aiSports was becoming a true Web3 application.
I built aggressively and managed to launch just in time for the NBA Finals. It was a soft launch - mainly for testing and preparing for the next season - but it proved the concept worked.
Then, just two weeks after the Finals ended, disaster struck.
Harmony suffered a $100 million bridge hack. The value of the ONE token collapsed.
And unfortunately, the grant funds I had received were still held in ONE.
Almost overnight, the funding that had supported the entire project was essentially wiped out.
It was a brutal moment. Months of work for nothing.
I wasn’t going to give up though, I had already to built the first version of aiSports.
The product existed. The concept worked. All I needed was a new chain.
Finding a Home on Flow
Not long after the Harmony collapse, an unexpected opportunity appeared.
Dapper Labs reached out with an offer to move aiSports to the Flow blockchain. The idea was to build a product adjacent to the NBA Top Shot ecosystem, allowing users to compete in fantasy contests and win Top Shot credits.
It felt like a perfect fit.
I rebuilt the platform on Flow and prepared for launch.
To be cautious, I capped the initial number of players in contests at 80 users. I wanted to test everything carefully before scaling.
Within an hour of opening the platform, those 80 spots were completely full.
I immediately had to raise the limits.
Over the next season, contests grew rapidly. Many nights we had 600–700 players competing in our contests. The community engagement was incredible, and interacting with NBA Top Shot users brought a new level of excitement to the product.
For the first time, the vision felt real.
Building the aiSports Ecosystem
Over the last four years, aiSports has continued evolving.
We introduced NFTs that can boost a player’s lineup performance. We launched our own token, JUICE, which users can win in contests and use within the ecosystem.
Each iteration has helped refine the core product and strengthen the community around it.
But the most exciting part isn’t what we’ve already built.
It’s what comes next.
The Future: Consumer DeFi
One of the biggest challenges in Web3 has always been onboarding.
Most people don’t want to manage wallets, understand gas fees, or navigate complex interfaces just to try a product.
So our next step is simple: meet users where they already are.
We’re integrating social login and familiar Web2-style onboarding - similar to platforms like DraftKings - so players can start participating immediately without needing crypto knowledge.
Behind the scenes, however, something powerful is happening.
Because aiSports operates on blockchain infrastructure, we can integrate DeFi primitives in ways that traditional gaming platforms simply can’t.
For example, contest prize pools can generate yield while they wait to be paid out. That yield can increase prizes for players, fund platform development, or support the broader ecosystem.
From the user’s perspective, it just looks like bigger prizes and better games.
But under the hood, it’s a completely new financial model.
This is what excites me most about the intersection of gaming and DeFi. When done right, the technology fades into the background and simply improves the experience for users.
The Long Path of Building
If there’s one lesson I’ve learned along this path, it’s that startups rarely unfold the way you expect.
Local Friend was shut down by a global pandemic. My first blockchain grant evaporated in a hack. Multiple times I’ve had to rebuild the product, the strategy, or the entire infrastructure behind it.
But each challenge pushed the project forward in a new direction.
Today, aiSports sits at the intersection of fantasy sports, AI, and consumer DeFi. And while the product has already come a long way, it still feels like we’re just getting started.
The goal has always been simple: build something people genuinely enjoy using.
If we can combine great gameplay with the power of decentralized finance - while keeping the experience simple and accessible - we believe we can bring an entirely new audience into the web3.
That’s the journey we’re on now.
And this time, we’re building for the long run.
PS - I’d love for you to see what we’ve built first-hand. Whether you’re an NBA Top Shot collector or a fantasy sports fan, come see how we’re using AI and Flow to change the game.
