In Development

Baseball Lite.
A Real Homerun Derby Experience
Built for Everyone.

Real bats. Real baseballs. Real homerun walls. Real homerun moments. In development for Raleigh-Durham. This is yours.

Investors & Partners
  1. 1Reserve a spot with your friends
  2. 2Show up — no equipment needed
  3. 3Swing for the fences

We never stop loving the game. We just stop being allowed to play it. What if we didn't have to anymore?

Casually. On your terms. No team to join, no season to commit to, no experience required.

1.1M+
LinkedIn impressions — organic, since November 2025
100M+
Baseball fans in the U.S.
78%
Still remember their first homerun swing

For Every Fan

The Game
Is Yours.

Welcome back. We missed you.

Baseball has over 100 million fans in the U.S. — and almost nowhere for adults to actually play the game. Baseball turns you into a fan for life, then quietly takes the ability to play the day you stop keeping a roster spot. If you still feel something when you hear the crack of a bat, but can't commit to a season, this is built for you.

Diamond Derby is creating Baseball Lite—a casual way to experience real baseball without running on a field, joining a team, committing to a season or having years of experience. Derby Box makes it approachable. The Homerun Park makes it memorable.

Baseball Lite — The New Category

Diamond Derby is the venue for the space between fan and player. Not a league that asks for a season. Not a cage you swing through alone. Not a screen standing in for the real thing. Just real swings, with your crew, and a shot at feeling like the hero for an hour.

The Venue

Diamond Derby
Homerun Park.

Step into an indoor cage, swing out toward an outdoor Homerun Park, and pick your wall — tiered fences set at different distances and heights, so there's always one just past what you think you can reach. Book a time slot with your group — that's the whole ask. No instruction, no gear to bring, no experience required. Nobody's grading your form. Food and drinks come to you, so nobody has to peel off from the group to go grab a beer. The group brings the energy. You bring the swing.

Side-by-side scale comparison: Little League field vs Diamond Derby Homerun Park — same baseball experience, fraction of the footprint

Batting Cages

Semi-private, built for your group — nobody's swinging next to strangers.

Real Equipment

Real bats. Real baseballs. No screen has ever gone yard for anybody.

Progressive Walls

Tiered fences mean there's always one within reach — no matter who's up.

Integrated F&B

A full bar and social space built in. This is a clubhouse, not a cage you leave the second your time's up.

Closer To You

Most venues like this need 3–10 acres, pushed to the edge of town. Ours fits in the neighborhoods people actually live in.

Raleigh-Durham

Deep baseball roots, 2M+ people who grew up on this game — and nowhere to play it as adults. Until now.

The Experience

Baseball.
Simplified.

No teams. No pressure. No instruction. Just a bat, a ball, and the chance to launch one over the wall — together.

Empty batting cage at sunset looking out at the Homerun Park range
Step In.
Swing.
Go Yard.

Group play. 60-minute sessions. Bring your crew.

The Pitch

Built on
Derby Box.

Every Homerun Park experience is powered by Derby Box — our patent-pending autonomous pitch delivery system.

Patent-Pending · Provisional Filed Sept 2025 · Utility Filing In Progress

Nothing In The Way.

Everything else in baseball puts something in the hitting zone. A person. A machine. A safety screen. Derby Box puts nothing there — a free swing and a clean ball path, with no stops, no eyeballs staring back at you.

The Same Pitch, Every Time.

The ball rises into the zone on the same close, hittable trajectory batting practice has always used. The trajectory isn't new — the mechanism is. Derby Box removes the person standing in front of you, and makes it consistent every time.

You're Not Going To Strike Out.

Everything in baseball wants to challenge you. Derby Box wants you to win. Calibrated for contact. Tuned for confidence. Right down the heart of the plate, every time. The intimidation is the bug. Derby Box eliminates it.

Nothing Left But The Swing.

No pitcher. No coach. No screen. No projection. No simulation. Just real bats, real baseballs, and a wall asking to be cleared. The most direct version of baseball that exists.

You just swing — and when it goes, everyone around you watches it go with you.

By The Numbers

The Fans
Have Spoken.

The feeling was never the question.
The numbers just confirm it.

1,700+ total question responses · 10 survey questions · 4 research instruments · November 2025 – Present

The data made one thing clear: the audience isn't waiting for us to convince them. They're waiting for us to open.

78%

still remember their first homerun swing — whether it happened in a game or in practice.

75.3%

of survey respondents are 25 or older — the generation baseball stopped building for is the one asking for this most.

57%

haven't swung a bat this year — the moment's still there, waiting on the opportunity.

Our Story

Everyone Watches.
Nobody Gets To Play.

"The moment the ball cleared the wall was always the point."

Diamond Derby started in the gap between watching baseball and still being allowed to play it. Leagues require skill, time, and commitment. Traditional batting cages are usually solitary. Simulators remove barriers by replacing the thing people miss: real ball flight.

Diamond Derby closes that gap. Derby Box is the platform. The Homerun Park is the destination built around it. Real swings, a reachable wall, and the chance to feel that moment again.

Founder's LinkedIn

Tanner Bykowski

I said for five years this has made too much sense not to exist. I started posting about it in July 2025. That November, I was laid off from my corporate job in Arizona. By February 2026, I was in Raleigh — building the thing I'd been talking about for half a decade.

Guests gathered at the Diamond Derby baseball lounge and patio at dusk

Patent Application In Progress

Patent-pending Derby Box pitch delivery system. Provisional filed September 2025. Full utility filing actively in progress — due early September 2026.

120+ Industry Relationships

Athletes, venue operators, real estate, construction, finance, and technology.

The Raise Is Open

A pre-revenue round to fund the Derby Box prototype, full patent filing, and architecture. The technology is what makes the venue defensible. Structured as a North Carolina LLC, bootstrapped since 2020.

Got Questions?

Who is this built for?

The people who never stopped loving the game but lost access to playing it — former players, lifelong fans, adults who haven't picked up a bat in years. Not teams. Not hitting coaches. Not a place to get better. A place to feel it again.

What makes Diamond Derby different?

Baseball has always forced people to choose between real and accessible. The real options are difficult, intimidating, and built around failure. The accessible options often replace the game with screens, arcade mechanics, or modified equipment. Diamond Derby bridges that gap. We're creating Baseball Lite—a casual way to experience real baseball without running on a field, joining a team, committing to a season or having years of experience. Derby Box makes it approachable. The Homerun Park makes it memorable.

When and where does Diamond Derby open?

Raleigh-Durham, NC — exact site details lock in as the round progresses. The Homerun Park isn't built yet; this raise funds the technology and proof needed to earn the construction round. Get on the list to hear the moment that changes. Click the Raleigh tab above to learn more about why we picked this region.

What is Derby Box?

The patent-pending pitch delivery platform that makes the whole thing work — real, hittable pitches with nothing standing between you and the ball.

How do I invest or partner?

Fill out the investor form, or email tanner@diamondderby.com to start the conversation directly.

Founding Members

Want To Swing?

If yes, get on the list. Founding members get first access when we open.

Diamond Derby is creating Baseball Lite in Raleigh-Durham.

Investors & Partners