Built
for This
Will Custis sold his house to build a nutrition company for basketball players. Some people really will do anything for the game.
@thecorporatehooper · HoopFuel · Corporate Hooper
Will Custis is what the basketball world calls a Corporate Hooper. Wake Forest University for the degree, intramural leagues for the obsession. He works in business. He lives for the game.
And for years, he watched every hooper he knew — from AAU kids to rec league veterans — hydrating on Gatorade and pre-gaming on whatever energy drink was on sale. Nobody had built anything for them. Not really.
The supplements industry had spent decades designing products for bodybuilders, runners, and generic athletes. Basketball — a sport that demands lateral movement, explosive bursts, sustained focus, and elite-level communication across 90-plus minutes — was borrowing formulas built for someone else. Custis knew it. His co-founder Hudson, a college friend with a degree in health and exercise science, knew it too.
They spent seven months testing formulas, sourcing ingredients, and consulting Tim DiLeo, an Assistant Director of Sports Nutrition at a Division I basketball program. Then Custis sold his house to fund the launch. That's not a metaphor. He sold his house.
"There is no quick program or hack… just years and years of consistently finding what worked best for me."
197K
Views on the founding question
Built for Basketball. Backed by Science.
HoopFuel launched with two products built from the ground up around basketball's specific demands. HoopFuel Hydrate: a clean electrolyte mix formulated for an hour on the court — 1,000mg sodium, 200mg potassium, 120mg magnesium glycinate, 500mg taurine. Zero added sugar. No borrowed formula.
HoopFuel Performance: pre-game fuel with 100mg caffeine calibrated for on-court focus (not the jolt-and-crash of energy drinks), Alpha-GPC for cognitive clarity, and L-Citrulline for sustained output. Both manufactured in a GMP-certified facility. Both designed for the 99% who will never sign an NBA contract but play like it matters anyway.
"This is not an anti-running post… this is a pro-basketball post. Running culture is just massive for people in their 20s, and I see the appeal. But if you can hoop, please keep balling out." That's the brand in a sentence. Not against anything. For something specific.
The Movement Around the Product
HoopFuel has partnered with Miami VIS and runs the HoopFuel League with Hoops Klub, Brooklyn's premier basketball facility. It partnered with UConn Women's Basketball to build a first-of-its-kind on-campus creator studio. At NYC Tech Week, HoopFuel was on the court with five other basketball startups under the banner: "Six Startups. One Court. Infinite Hoops." The ecosystem being built around the product is as important as the product.
The company's own origin story — told live in the content, to 52,000 views on the announcement post — is unapologetically real: "Follow along as I create and scale a supplement and nutrition brand for hoopers." No hype. No pretending the outcome is known. Just the founder, the camera, and the work.
Founder Transparency
"HoopFuel has made money. I have made $0 though. This last year was about learning, understanding, and really proving why I'm the person to build this brand."
— Will Custis · @thecorporatehooper
Built for Basketball.
Backed by Science.
Why This Matters
For a long time, the assumption was that grassroots basketball didn't need premium tools. The NBA had sports science. Everyone else had Gatorade. HoopFuel disrupts that assumption because the person playing at 6am on Tuesday before work is just as committed to their game as anyone under broadcast lights. They've just never had a product that treated them that way.
Will Custis sold his house because he believed in the gap. The market is starting to prove him right.
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HoopFuel
The first nutrition brand built from the ground up for basketball players at every level. Founded by Will Custis — Wake Forest alum, Corporate Hooper, founder who sold his house to prove the gap was real.
Story No. 02 · Nutrition · Basketball Culture
By 248 Editorial