In this episode, I sit down with Elliott Walker and Tim Hucklesby, co-founders of Nymzo — a modern chess brand rethinking one of the world’s most traditional games. Elliott and Tim are longtime brand designers, and their perspective on product, positioning, and credibility shows up in every part of Nymzo’s story.

We talk through how they identified a real gap in the chess market based on what they were seeing culturally and commercially, and how that conviction translated into a premium, performance-driven physical product. Elliott and Tim break down what it actually took to manufacture a chess set from scratch — from tooling decisions and material choices to the realities of minimum order quantities and early production constraints.

We also dig into bootstrapping, demand and distribution strategy, how they approached launching DTC, what they’ve learned from working with chess clubs as a discovery channel, and what it means to build trust and legitimacy in a legacy category that’s deeply rooted in tradition.

Tim and Elliott are exceptional brand builders, and I think it really shows. I learned so much during our conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.