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🏈GBA Investors Shine at Super Bowl LVIII



Chris Dyer and Tom Mumford, of GBA Investor Undergrads, spent Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium. Their Super Bowl experience looked a little different than the 70,000+ in attendance.


The co-founders and co-owners spent roughly 17 hours on the grounds — spanning 3 a.m. to 7 p.m. — just outside Allegiant Stadium, overseeing temporary staffers enlisted for serving at VIP parties that started pre-game.


By the numbers: The privately held company ranked among Charlotte Business Journal’s Fast 50 of fastest-growing companies last year with average revenue growth of 115% between 2020 and 2022.

  • Undergrads has another big sporting event on its staffing calendar — the PGA Tour’s Players Championship next month in Florida — and is targeting more sports work with the Super Bowl on its rĂŠsumĂŠ.

  • The company’s first taste of sports hospitality came in 2022, when they seized the chance to help with servers and other staffers at the Presidents Cup golf event at Quail Hollow Club.


“That was just kind of in our backyard,” Mumford said. Mixing sports metaphors, he added, “We got a little bit ahead of our skis there and said yes. We did anything we could to land that event.”


It worked.


As the company name implies, Undergrads focuses on finding area college students to work as temps, either in moving or hospitality, or both.

  • Mumford credits extensive vetting of candidates and close supervision for maintaining consistent quality.


What they’re saying: “They’ve been very helpful… It’s refreshing. They do a tremendous job.” Justin King, president and CEO of Charlotte-based Best Impressions Caterers, recently said.


For the Super Bowl, Undergrads pledged to assemble a team of 600 workers who would have to be cleared by national security background checks to be credentialed.


Undergrads, originally known as Student Movers Service, started in 2017, when Dyer and Mumford were classmates at Clemson University. They hoped to solve the timeless problem of cash-starved college students by helping people move in and out of apartments and houses, fishing for assignments on Craigslist.

  • The company was still focused on providing moving staffers but in the spring of 2021, they started hearing from hospitality companies in search of help for large weddings, corporate parties and other events.


During Covid-19, Undergrads had a surplus of applicants and began shifting some of them to hospitality: as bartenders, servers, greeters and so on.

“It started to pick up, we primarily went after country clubs and catering companies,” Mumford said. “Thinking high-end front of house, where could you find where people need premium staff. Front of house, you really want to represent your business really well and when you get the students out there, (they) do a good job with that.”


What’s next: And they have many more Super Bowls and other events ahead of them: The co-founders are all of 29 years old.

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