Deliver repeatable, approachable pitches
Investor Update
Diamond Derby has moved from an idea to a patent-pending platform, a validated customer experience and an actively funded pre-seed round.
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.
Here's Where We're At
The category is defined, demand has been researched, the mechanism has been engineered and early investors are already backing the next step.
What We're Building
Derby Box is Diamond Derby's patent-pending pitch delivery platform. It is being built to deliver consistent, hittable pitches using real baseballs while leaving nothing standing between the batter, the pitch and the fence.
A prototyping firm is already engaged to build the full-scale Derby Box prototype.
The engineering is complete. The next step is building and testing the full-scale playable prototype.
Deliver repeatable, approachable pitches
Keep the hitting zone completely unobstructed
Work for first-timers and experienced players
Power a playable public demonstration of Baseball Lite
Here's What We've Learned
Demand exists among former players, lifelong fans and adults who never felt baseball was accessible to them in the first place.
Responses collected across the research
LinkedIn impressions generated while building publicly
Could name 10+ people they would bring
n=151Haven't played in 2+ years
n=83Why I'm The Guy To Build It
"I didn't move 2,200 miles to Raleigh to see if this might work. I moved here to build it."Meet Tanner on LinkedIn →
I have spent six years developing Diamond Derby from an idea into a defined category, a patent-pending platform and a validated customer experience.
For five years I said the same thing: "this makes too much sense not to exist" while building it on the side. In July 2025, I started posting about it publicly on LinkedIn. Since then, I have documented the journey through hundreds of posts, grown an audience of more than 5,600 followers and turned the original idea into a community following the build.
In November 2025, I was laid off from corporate America. That day, after spending five years saying Diamond Derby made too much sense not to exist, I decided I would be the person to build it. I put in notice on my apartment, pulled my savings and 401(k), packed up my life in Arizona and moved 2,200 miles to Raleigh — because that is where Location 1 will be, and I needed to be boots on the ground.
My background combines sales, marketing, customer experience and managing million-dollar business portfolios. More importantly, I understand the person Diamond Derby is being built for because I am that person: someone who stopped playing baseball but never stopped loving it.
Without institutional capital or a finished prototype, I built the research base, generated more than one million organic impressions, developed over 120 industry relationships and brought a former World Series champion into the early investor group.
I have already done the work required to prove that the opportunity deserves its next step. Now it is time to physically prove it.
Here's What's Next
Stage 1 is focused on protecting and proving the platform before advancing the flagship venue.
One Proof Point.
This Is What We Need
Diamond Derby is raising a pre-seed round to complete the prototype, protect the underlying technology, validate the system physically and prepare for flagship venue development.
We are looking for investors, strategic partners and meaningful introductions that can help complete the next stage.
Thanks for taking a closer look at Diamond Derby. Tanner will follow up directly.