Our story · Since 2020
It started with a small thing.
In the summer of 2020, a locally owned Denver restaurant was doing everything right and still losing ground to one small thing it couldn't get to. Seeing that, and the chance to help a good business reach more of its neighbors, is where The Underdog Family began.
Summer 2020
A closed sign that shouldn't have been.
Chin Weerappuli stopped by a locally owned restaurant in Denver, one of countless neighborhood spots trying to survive a year that was shutting places down for good. Their hours were wrong online. Google had them closing earlier than they actually did, so customers assumed the doors were already shut and never came. When he asked, a staff member just shrugged: they hadn't been able to get it fixed in months.
It was such a small oversight, and that was exactly the point. A business fighting to stay alive was quietly losing customers it could not afford to lose, over something nobody had the time, the know-how, or the spare hands to fix.
Fixing the hours was just the start. The restaurant needed its whole digital footprint brought current: an accurate Google Business profile, a real website, and a way to take orders online, right when online had become the only storefront that mattered. So that is what we did. And it was not just this one place. That year, it was everywhere you looked.
The idea
Skills on one side. People who needed each other on the other.
The Underdog Family started as a response to that, and then it became something more. A lot of people had exactly the skills small businesses needed. And a lot of those same people, stuck at home through the loneliest stretch of the pandemic, were looking for a way to feel useful, to feel connected, to be part of something.
So they found each other. Volunteers showed up not for a paycheck or a line on a resume, but because giving back to their neighbors turned out to be its own kind of belonging.
The founders
Built by people who know what it means to be the underdog.
Chin, a first-generation Sri Lankan-American, built TUF alongside Derrick Knudsen and a group of people who understood the underdog from the inside. What they created was never just a service for small businesses. It was a community that takes care of its own.
How it comes back around
The best thing you can do with what you have is give it away.
In 2020, a local spot called Genna Rae's Wings cooked the meals we delivered to Denver's firefighters. A few years later, they were voted Best Wings in Denver by Westword Magazine, and we honored them on stage at our 2023 gala.
That is the whole idea. You show up for your neighbors, and somewhere down the line, it finds its way back to everyone.
The road so far
Five years, one instinct.
From fixing a broken listing to funding whole community events, the throughline never changes: show up for the people the city overlooks.
- 2020
One restaurant, one favor
Founded June 8, 2020. Chin grabbed a few friends to help a locally owned restaurant in Five Points get online, and a one-time favor became a mission. In the first stretch the crew built 16 digital storefronts for locally owned businesses at no cost, right as pandemic shutdowns hit.
- 2021
The first Fall Ball
The family threw its first annual Fall Ball at Denver Field House, turning a group of volunteers into a real community.
- 2022
Saving a gem, feeding neighbors
A Soul of the Caribbean benefit rallied around that same Five Points restaurant, TeaLee's Teahouse joined the family in Five Points, and meals kept going out to local heroes: firefighters, healthcare workers, and teachers.
- 2023
The Third Annual Fall Ball
The Fall Ball filled Green Spaces Market in RiNo, Summer Sizzle at Number 38 drew 150+ guests and 10 volleyball teams, and the crew kept showing up for park revitalizations.
- 2024
The Fourth Annual Fall Ball
Four years in at The Passport, celebrating partners like Konjo Ethiopian, Comal Kitchen, and La Catrina Grill, and announcing small business workshops for the year ahead.
- 2025
Five years, and a new chapter
The Fifth Annual Gala took over Snow Leopard Barbershop and the El Chalate Community Mingle brought the neighborhood out. TUF also launched its Small Business Workshops, where owners build a digital storefront and leave with a website of their own. Five years in: 16 storefronts, 200+ meals to local heroes, and a family that keeps growing.
Where we are now
Still rooting for the underdog.
TUF is not a program. It is a family of people who believe the best thing you can do with what you have is give it away. Come to one event and you'll get it.
Friends doing good things.
