Startup founder aims to put ‘Pose with the Pros’ in stadiums nationwide

By Nate Doughty – Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal Feb 6, 2026

• Erik Muendel closed a $1.6 million seed round for Branded Realities.

• The startup's augmented reality platform generates revenue from advertising on stadium screens.

• Branded Realities is pursuing conversations with Washington sports teams about venue deployments. Serial Northern Virginia entrepreneur Erik Muendel is back with his next venture — and he's pulling a page from his last startup.

Muendel, who sold his Alexandria immersive‑tech agency Brightline Interactive to The Glimpse Group in 2022 for $32.5 million, just closed a $1.6 million seed round for Branded Realities, an Alexandria startup building augmented reality fan experiences for sports and concert venues. The startup is now raising an $800,000 seed‑extension ahead of a larger $4 million to $5 million Series A targeted for late spring or early summer. The startup traces its origins to Brightline, where Muendel originally developed the "Pose With the Pros" fan‑engagement experience at Dallas Cowboys home games. AT&T Stadium features eight 90-inch screens with built-in cameras that take photos of fans and superimpose images of their favorite players with them.

Fans get the images for free, but the team sells advertising on the screens. Branded Realities gets 25% of the advertising revenue. Muendel told me the concept proved so popular that the team doubled the footprint after the first season, and now all fans entering the stadium pass the screens. The stadium had an average of 93,000 fans a game across its eight games in the 2025 season. "One out of 10 fans do the experience to this day," he said. Muendel bought back the rights from Glimpse and spun it into Branded Realities, aiming to scale the technology beyond just serving the Cowboys as a one-off client. The new platform is designed to let teams, universities and venue operators create and manage multiple types of interactive content without relying on outside developers. "Now you can make revenue 365 days a year, not eight," said Drew Edwards, the company's co‑founder and head of sales, noting that venues can instantly swap content for concerts and special events. Branded Realities has nine full‑time employees and a similar number of contractors. It has a headquarters in Alexandria and a satellite office in Texas, where the Cowboys experience remains its flagship deployment.

The company is working with media partners for the Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins and the Walt Disney Co. to identify possible opportunities. It is also in conversations with Monumental Sports & Entertainment, owner of the Washington Wizards and Capitals, and the Washington Commanders about bringing its technology to their venues. Those discussions are still very early, Edwards said, with Monumental in the midst of a billion‑dollar renovation of Capital One Arena and the Commanders focused on building their new stadium.

Seed investors include Greg Darby, the president of convenience store chain Little General Stores, and Jack Richards, who backs companies in the sports marketing and financial technology sectors. As Branded Realities prepares for its Series A, Muendel sees the next few months as pivotal. The company has paused all custom work to focus entirely on the platform launch. "We’ve designed this platform so that they can create this inventory themselves," he said. "That combination of ease of creation and innovation, the fan experience is just going to increase dramatically."