GrandEx
Austin, US · Founded 2012 · 6 known investors
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Austin-based digital media company behind Total Frat Move, Total Sorority Move and Post Grad Problems, plus apparel brands.
Also known as Grandex · Grandex Inc. · Grandex Media
Founders & leadership
GrandEx was founded in 2012 by Ryan Young and Madison Wickham.
Investors · 6
Also in the syndicate · 6
Reported raises · per SEC filings
Form D private placements$1.2M disclosed across 1 of 3 rounds · 2014–2015
▶$1.2MraisedDec 2014 · 10 investors · OtherRule 506(b)
- Ryan YoungExecutive Officer, Director
- Madison WickhamExecutive Officer, Director
- Offering amount
- $2.3M
- Amount sold
- $1.2M
- Minimum investment
- $10K
- First sale
- Nov 2014
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2012
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
Source: SEC EDGAR Form D. Amounts as filed; amended filings shown once at their latest values.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Grandex Inc. is an Austin, Texas digital media and content company founded by Texas State University fraternity brothers Ryan Young and Madison Wickham. Its first property, Total Frat Move, launched on June 1, 2010 as a user-submission feed of short comedic one-liners tagged "TFM," and later expanded into longer-form articles. The company added Total Sorority Move, aimed at sorority members, and Post Grad Problems, aimed at recent graduates. By 2014 the three sites together drew roughly 18 million monthly unique visitors and 22 million monthly pageviews, with the sorority site accounting for nearly half of traffic; by mid-2015 the content properties were reported at a combined 10-20 million monthly unique visitors, with article traffic roughly flat, attributed in part to changes in Facebook's algorithm.
Alongside publishing, Grandex built consumer apparel businesses. Its Rowdy Gentleman brand, whose best sellers included "Back to Back World War Champs" and "Dadbod" T-shirts, accounted for about 75% of company revenue as of 2015. A second clothing line, Man Outfitters, launched in February 2015 and was projected to generate about $1 million in its first year without third-party advertising spend.
More recent company-profile data describes the business as Grandex Media, a digital production house in Austin operating a portfolio of podcasts and digital media brands reaching millions of people monthly, classified in the entertainment sector, with an estimated $1M-$10M in annual revenue and 11-50 employees. Its reported technology stack includes Cloudflare, RackSpace Cloud, Ubuntu, PHP, Laravel and Apache.
Founding story
Ryan Young and Madison Wickham were members of the Kappa Alpha fraternity at Texas State University, graduating in 2007. Wickham had studied psychology and was working as a front-end web designer and developer in Austin; Young was training to be a firefighter when, in 2010, he proposed building a site around the fraternity catchphrase "total frat move," reasoning that it could spread online like earlier acronyms such as FML and TFLN. Young left firefighter training, Wickham designed and coded the site, and Total Frat Move launched on June 1, 2010 with roughly $150 in upfront hosting costs, later supplemented by some credit-card debt. Readers could submit their own TFMs, and the site also popularized the tags NF ("Not Frat") and GDI. The founders named the parent company Grandex.
Business model
Grandex combines advertising-supported digital content with direct-to-consumer e-commerce. Its websites monetize audience attention through advertising and content, while owned apparel brands sell merchandise; as of 2015 apparel (Rowdy Gentleman) supplied about 75% of revenue, making commerce the larger contributor. The company has described operating profitably enough to avoid cash burn. In its later form as Grandex Media, it produces podcasts and digital media brands, with potential monetization through advertising, sponsorship and branded content.
Revenue comes from advertising against digital content and from sales of owned apparel lines, principally Rowdy Gentleman, which represented roughly 75% of revenue in 2015, plus Man Outfitters, launched February 2015 and projected at about $1 million in its first year. The company was reported to clear several million dollars in revenue in 2014, and a 2026 profile estimates annual revenue in the $1M-$10M range.
Traction
Total Frat Move passed 1 million monthly unique visitors by December 2011. In March 2014 Grandex's three sites together generated about 18 million monthly unique visitors and 22 million pageviews, with the sorority site nearly half of traffic, and the company expected to clear several million dollars in revenue that year. In June 2015 the content sites were reported at a combined 10-20 million monthly unique visitors, with the $2.2 million round priced at roughly twice projected 2015 revenue; the company had just under 50 employees and was projecting about $1 million in first-year sales for Man Outfitters. A 2026 profile lists 14 employees and estimated revenue of $1M-$10M.
Latest developments
The company is described in a 2026 profile as Grandex Media, a digital production house in Austin maintaining a growing portfolio of podcasts and digital media brands that reach millions of people monthly, operating in the entertainment sector with 11-50 employees (approximately 14 listed), estimated annual revenue of $1M-$10M, and a website at grandexmedia.com.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Grandex is a small independent digital media operator in the U.S. young-male and college-lifestyle content segment, competing with Barstool Sports, Guyism, BroBible and other sites serving a similar demographic. Business Insider described Thrillist, which owns the apparel retailer JackThreads, as a larger competitor pursuing the same combination of commerce and advertising revenue. Comparable-company listings also group Grandex with Thought Catalog, Elite Daily and BuzzFeed.
Grandex built a defined, highly specific audience niche around Greek-life humor and identity, using reader-submitted one-liners and acronym-driven language (TFM, NF, GDI) as its growth mechanism, then converted that audience into apparel sales through owned brands rather than relying on advertising alone. It also remained bootstrapped for its first several years, operating without cash burn, which allowed the founders to retain control after raising outside capital.
Technology
Wickham, a front-end web designer and developer, built and coded the original Total Frat Move site, which launched for about $150 in hosting costs. The company's reported technology stack includes Cloudflare (content management and DNS), RackSpace Cloud, Ubuntu, PHP, the Laravel framework, and Apache HTTP Server.
Go-to-market
Early growth came from organic social distribution rather than paid marketing. The founders focused on Twitter, whose 140-character limit suited the one-liner format, and manually followed users whose profiles matched the site's target audience in the expectation they would share content with friends. Growth was gradual and achieved without guerrilla or paid advertising. The apparel line Man Outfitters was likewise reported as scaling without third-party advertising spend, relying on the company's owned audience.
College-aged and recently graduated consumers in U.S. Greek life and adjacent culture: Total Frat Move targets 18- to 24-year-old males, Total Sorority Move targets sorority members, and Post Grad Problems targets recent graduates. Apparel lines address the same demographic. Advertisers and sponsors seeking access to that audience are the commercial customers.
Geography
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with a 5,000-square-foot office in Westlake Hills as of 2014, following an original 500-square-foot office off South Congress Avenue. The audience is primarily U.S. college students and recent graduates. A later company profile lists employees distributed across multiple continents, including North America, Europe and Asia.
History
Total Frat Move launched in June 2010 and reached 1 million monthly unique visitors by December 2011, growth the founders attribute to accumulated one-liners rather than any single story. Grandex added Total Sorority Move and Post Grad Problems, and by March 2014 employed 24 people in a 5,000-square-foot office in Westlake Hills, Texas, having moved from an original 500-square-foot office off South Congress Avenue in Austin. The company was bootstrapped and never operated with cash burn; it took its first outside money in January 2014, a $100,000 investment from former Dell CFO Jim Schneider, taken mainly to bring him on as an adviser. An 18-month fundraising process, concentrated in about three months around the end of 2014 and start of 2015, closed a $2.2 million round announced in June 2015, after which the founders retained a controlling stake. The company later positioned itself as Grandex Media, a digital production house with a portfolio of podcasts and digital brands.
Risks & controversies
Grandex content has been criticized as racist, sexist and classist. Early Total Frat Move one-liners included material read as joking about nonconsensual sex, and a November 2013 article arguing that women with short hair are less attractive — one of the site's most-read stories at the time — drew public criticism from a Missouri State student, while a Stanford sorority member objected to posts mocking liberals and women and celebrating wealth. Wickham has characterized most content as "PG-13 and below," saying explicit material is rare on Total Frat Move and hardly appears on Total Sorority Move or Post Grad Problems. Business risks noted include flat article traffic tied to changes in Facebook's distribution algorithm, and concentration of revenue in a single apparel brand.
Compiled by commissioned research from 3 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 4
launches, deals, and filingsGrandex closed a $2.2 million round from strategic angel investors at a $20 million pre-money valuation after an 18-month process; the founders retained a controlling stake.
$2.2M source ↗
Grandex launched Man Outfitters, a clothing line projected to generate about $1 million in its first year without third-party advertising spend.
After bootstrapping, Grandex took a $100,000 investment from former Dell CFO Jim Schneider, primarily to bring him on as an adviser.
$100K source ↗
The founders launched Total Frat Move, a site of user-submitted comedic one-liners tagged "TFM," with about $150 in upfront hosting costs.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 3
primary sources listed
- Grandex Raises $2.2 Million at a $20 Million Valuation - Business Insiderbusinessinsider.com · web
3 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does GrandEx do?
- Austin-based digital media company behind Total Frat Move, Total Sorority Move and Post Grad Problems, plus apparel brands.
- Who founded GrandEx?
- GrandEx was founded by Ryan Young, Madison Wickham in 2012.
- How much funding has GrandEx raised?
- GrandEx has disclosed $1.2M raised across 1 of its 3 known rounds.
- Where is GrandEx headquartered?
- GrandEx is headquartered in Austin, US.