Building community-first brands ft. Edreece Arghandiwal, CMO & Co-Founder of Oakland Roots SC

In this episode of The Confident Commit, Rob Zuber sits down with Edreece Arghandiwal, CMO and Co-Founder of Oakland Roots Soccer Club, for an inspiring conversation about building purpose-driven organizations from the ground up. Edreece shares how the Roots challenged traditional sports business models by putting community first, turning a simple question—"Why isn't there professional soccer in Oakland?"—into a movement that raised $3.5 million from 6,000+ community investors with zero paid advertising.

The conversation explores the parallels between building tech products and sports organizations, from using merchandise as a "landing page" to prove market demand, to the critical importance of obsessing over customer-facing touchpoints while maintaining operational flexibility behind the scenes. Edreece discusses the challenges of scaling while preserving authentic brand identity, why purpose should lead to profit (not the other way around), and how hiring good humans with strong moral compasses becomes the foundation for sustainable growth. Whether you're a startup founder looking to build authentic community engagement or a leader working to maintain organizational purpose at scale, this episode delivers actionable insights on creating brands that people proudly represent in their daily lives.

Have someone you'd like to hear on the show? Reach out and let us know on X at @CircleCI!