Craig Diamond - Diamond MMA

Today Gigs at Startups is interviewing: Craig Diamond of Diamond MMA

Name: Craig Diamond
Company: Diamond MMA
Role: Founder

What is DiamondMMA?
We design, test and manufacture products for the sport of mixed martial arts, We’re Diamond MMA. Right now we’re working on the ultimate in groin protection. Think how football changed when Riddell invented the helmet players wear today. We’re doing that with a new breed of fight shorts. In the past a fighter could get injured because of a cheap plastic cup that would shift, it just couldn’t handle a kick, punch or knee to the groin. Ours is different. We designed a state of the art cup made from unusual materials that we found through Inventables.

We’ve taken a compression short and re-engineered it with a built in jock strap that prevents the cup from moving and keeps it in the right place during a fight. MMA is ready for that game changing product and Diamond MMA is bringing it to market. Check out some commercials that explain the products.


How did you get involved in DiamondMMA?
I got involved in Diamond MMA by starting out with making my own brand of t-shirts for MMA. I soon realized that there was a need for fight shorts which led to the Diamond MMA all-in-one fight short. In July we brought a few prototypes to the UFC Expo in Vegas http://bit.ly/sLwlL. We got a tremendous response from fans, fighters, and even a few CEO’s of the other big brands at the show. We walked away with a waiting list for our product and we knew we were in business.

The best thing about working at Diamond MMA is that we assembled the who’s who of top entrepreneurs and designers that are all passionate about the project and the sport of MMA. The market for MMA is huge - it’s exploding and that’s even without taking our products to other sports. Being a part of the MMA movement and seeing the potential for expanding into these other sports is exciting for me as an athlete and as an entrepreneur.


What type of people are best suited to work at a startup?
The type of people who are best suited to work at a start up are people with personalities who can go "all-in" and get totally engrossed and obsessed with their project, you have to be the type of person who is able to dive right in and be comfortable when your startup consumes every second of your life.

What advice to you have for entrepreneurs getting started?
For me I didn't and still don't have any seed money so I had to cash in on my connections. I called all the smart talented people I thought could help me or knew someone who could and assembled my team. That required great networking skills, you have to be able to pick up a phone and ask for help.