Chad Gruen

A lifelong entrepreneur, Chad joined 3STEP in 2022 following the acquisition of SMP Sports Group — the company he founded and scaled over two decades. What began as a grassroots startup out of the trunk of his car grew into one of the Midwest’s premier youth sports organizations.

At 3STEP, Chad drives enterprise strategy, operational alignment and digital transformation. He champions a “Grass to Clouds” approach to modernizing youth sports — connecting grassroots experiences with technology, data and scale while keeping the athlete at the center — and continues to drive PlayerFirst, the platform he spearheaded to create a more connected athlete journey.

Chad holds a B.S. in Marketing from The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. He lives in Chicago with his wife and four children and spends weekends on the sidelines, proudly cheering them on in basketball, soccer, flag football and lacrosse.