I launched ProInfluence after recognizing a trend of startup companies and pro athletes wanting to work together. Our company has now evolved into a business development firm helping consumer-based startups connect with consumers, retailers, strategic partners and investors.Networking and relationship building are key ingredients to the success of our services. ProInfluence has matched over 20 startup clients with strategic partners and/or investors. Because of ProInfluence's extensive work with growth companies, I've become an Advisor to Stadia Ventures, SKU, SPORTS TECH TOKYO, Techstars Sports and SXSW Accelerators and a Mentor to FanWide, Start Right Foods and Cocina 54.

The Techstars Sports Accelerator focuses on innovation with goals to foster early identification of key trends for future technology in sport; meaningful engagement with early-stage sports tech companies; embrace technologies and business models that will impact the sports industry; and enhance a culture of internal innovation and the spirit of entrepreneurship.

Stadia Ventures is a St. Louis-based Sports Innovation Hub for entrepreneurs, industry partners and investors. The Advisory Pool is a selected group sports business executives, retired athletes and strategic investors.

SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event is part of the SXSW Festival, which runs March 9-17 in Austin, Texas. The Accelerator Pitch Event portion of SXSW Festival occurs Saturday, March 10th and Sunday, March 11th at the Hilton Austin Downtown (500 East 4th Street). https://www.sxsw.com/apply-to-participate/sxsw-accelerator/#advisory-board

Alts.co publishes weekly newsletters & podcasts analyzing alternative investing opportunities and trends, with over 50,000+ followers and growing. Helping founders to build consumer awareness via digital content & media, generate incremental ad sales revenue and build strategic partnerships.

Mamie's Pies founder, Kara Romanik, started the company as a single-mother of three using her grandmother's New England pie recipes. From her own kitchen she created the "hand pie", a convenient, single-serving of all-natural, great tasting pie.After numerous appearances on QVC and landing on Oprah's Favorite Things list, Mamie's Pies is now a multi-million dollar brand available online and in major grocery chains across the US. As the COO, I'm primarily responsible for all the day-to-day activities so that Kara can focus on being visible and tell her authentic story.

At Start Right we strive to deliver a high protein, convenient breakfast that is not only good for you but also tastes great. Mornings are always hectic and can be stressful. When you are on the go reach for Start Right because if you do...Breakfast is Solved! It is one less thing you need to worry about so you can focus on rocking the day. http://www.startright.com

In the early fall of 2019, after the endless media coverage of Antonio Brown and his feet, helmet, etc., the idea for UNRIVALED was literally scribbled on a piece of paper. The concept was simple, UNRIVALED would remind sports fans why they fell in love with sports. We'd cover the fun and likable stories about pro athletes and teams and we'd introduce sports fans to compelling, but lesser known players instead of more stories about LeBron James or Tom Brady.Through the COVID pandemic and a steep learning curve, UNRIVALED launched in July 2020. Everything required for launching this startup has been built brick-by-brick: content development & strategy, accounting & finance management, social and digital platforms, trademark & legal support, human resources, sales strategy and management, etc. - all from sweat equity and boot-strapped capital.Since launch through March 2020, UNRIVALED has published 12 unique features branded Inside The Jersey on pro athletes from across the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL + women’s sports. In addition, we've published over 15 features called Beyond The Scoreboard covering pro teams across the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL.We're consistently looking to improve and deliver unique, feel-good sports content to sports fans across North America. We're wide open to any suggestions or recommendations as we build this business.A Refreshing Look At Sports

In partnership with Dentsu, Scrum Ventures has launched SPORTS TECH TOKYO, a global mentor-driven accelerator program aimed at connecting cutting-edge sports technology start-ups of all stages to revenue-generating opportunities. The program places a particular and immediate emphasis on Japan, ahead of world-class events such as Rugby World Cup (2019) and the Olympic Games (2020), while strategically helping companies identify broader opportunities throughout Asia.

FanWide is a social network for sports fans that organizes viewing parties for every team in every city. We are the first service designed to connect millions of sports fans with other supporters of their favorite team at local bars and restaurants that are guaranteed to be featuring their game, no matter where they are located. https://www.fanwide.com

Mixing my passion for sports with my experience in sales and marketing, I launched Sports Marketing Partners (SMP). Our mission was to help professional athletes build their brands and endorsement value through social media and digital content.By developing authentic content and using cutting-edge analytical tools, our pro athlete client base grew to seven, including Doug Baldwin (Seahawks), Bret Saberhagen (Royals) and Max Unger (Saints).As an example, we helped grow Doug Baldwin’s social footprint from 22K followers on Twitter to over 1M followers across multiple platforms by creating engaging, organic content like the Fresh Files video series on YouTube. This generated over $200K of endorsement opportunities for Doug as a client.Another example of the impact of our work was increasing Bret Saberhagen's awareness well after retiring from Major League Baseball for an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.Our work with professional athletes soon opened the door to consulting work with corporate clients interested in leveraging the power of sports to generate incremental brand awareness and sales. Corporate clients included Tommy Bahama, Papa John’s, Vivoom and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Companies selected into the SKU accelerator participate in a 14-week program that serves as an MBA and all-star network platform. During the course of the program, founders and leadership teams attend organized classes, in-depth, breakout and problem-solving sessions and face-to-face meetings with SKU Mentors every week.

Shortly after joining FOX Sports, FSN Northwest and two other FSN regional sports networks (Rocky Mountain and Pittsburgh) were bundled together and sold-off a couple different times. First to Liberty Media then to DIRECTV, each transaction creating a startup-like environment. When the three regional sports networks were first bundled together, I was promoted to Vice President, responsible for Affiliate Sales across the entire organization. As the VP of Affiliate Relations, I became a member of the senior leadership team reporting directly to President, Mark Shuken and then Patrick Crumb. Over my tenure, I built the 5-person sales team responsible for leading the distribution of 3 regional sports networks across 16 states to 8.5M households, generating 85% of the company's gross revenue. In 5 years, my team grew affiliate revenue by 40%+ to $300M by negotiating 300+ contract renewals, including 10 of the 11 largest MVPDs in the US, such as Comcast, DIRECTV and DISH Network. Because stringent FCC conditions placed upon our regional sports networks after the DIRECTV acquisition, our affiliate negotiations and agreement became very complicated and required significant strategic planning. As a result, I had to establish cross-functional partnerships with our legal, operations and finance departments to align, execute and manage affiliate agreements.Lastly, I learned a lot about business law, working and negotiating with attorneys on both sides of the table. In one case, I actively participated in a formal FCC arbitration hearing, including depositions.

Joined FSN Northwest, the regional sports network covering Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Alaska and Montana, as the Director of Affiliate Sales and Marketing. This opportunity as a content provider was the other side of my distribution experience at DISH. With a single direct report, I was responsible for maximizing topline affiliate revenue of ~$80M/year from ~80 different cable and DSB distributors. My biggest success in the role was the 100% sell-in of a surcharge of additional Seattle Mariners televised games worth an extra ~$13M revenue/year.

During my career, I've worked at a number of difficult jobs with a lot of stress, but being a franchisee owner in the food service industry has easily been the most difficult. I decided to get into franchising because Jersey Mike's has a terrific product and brand story, much better than the competition. But managing young, unskilled labor on razor thin margins in an operationally intensive business was an incredibly difficult grind. I successfully constructed, opened and operated a Jersey Mike’s franchise location surpassing the national 1st year gross revenue average of $500K by focusing on product sampling and large catering orders. Using my Pepsi experience with prestige accounts, I established and nurtured catering relationships with the Seattle Sonics, the University of Washington Athletic Dept. and King County Schools resulting in incremental sales revenue of 10%. Lastly, I implemented a talent acquisition process that helped keep my P&L healthy with COGS under 30% and labor at 15%.

My first experience working in the entertainment industry, ultimately responsible for the day-to-day management of the $250M Pay Per View (PPV) business. Exceeded revenue goals by $19M in my last year and developed new strategies to help company with sub-acquisition, retention and ARPU goals. I last managed a team of 9 marketing and finance professionals, overseeing the strategic planning and execution of a $6M annual marketing budget.Two of the best bosses of my career, Susan Arnold and Michael Schwimmer, taught me many things including the art of negotiation. With their guidance, I improved revenue splits with content providers from 50/50 to 55/45 by re-negotiating contract terms. I also negotiated marketing budget policies with content providers to increase co-op marketing dollars by 25% to over $2M. At the time DISH was a stressful, demanding place to work. But for employees with the right disposition, it was a fantastic place to work together and take risks. In particular, I successfully collaborated with our engineers and senior executive team to leverage DVR technology and deliver unique PPV boxing content to targeted subscribers.

Now known as HomeAdvisor.com, I joined ServiceMagic as employee #89 and experienced the dotcom bubble firsthand. It was a big change from my previous Fortune 500 experience and my first taste of a traditional, scrappy startup culture. While everyday was all-hands on-deck, I was responsible for marketing acquisition and retention of our network of service professionals. My biggest success in this role was the launch of a monthly coupon book that helped reduce service provider churn by ~15-20%.

Promoted to my first dedicated marketing role and I loved it. Responsible for all trade marketing and brand activation across Nebraska and Kansas. Worked cross-functionally with sales teams to build impactful consumer programs across all business channels. This position also provided my first opportunity to engage in sports marketing by working with prestige accounts like the University of Nebraska athletic program.

Loved working for the Pepsi brand, especially during the hyper-competitive era of the "cola wars." I had ownership of the supermarket channel for the state of Nebraska and responsible for over 80% of the business unit's revenue and volume. Exceeded revenue budget 2 of my 3 years on the job and learned the value of managing up the corporate ladder.

First job out of graduate school. I remember reading about John Malone of TCI in Fortune magazine talking about the "Information Superhighway" and ordering pizza from your television. I spent my time at TCI drafting and presenting market analysis of using the company's existing digital microwave infrastructure to deliver internet access to Big Sky states, i.e. Montana, Wyoming, Utah, etc. No action was ever established from my analysis and I learned how difficult it could be for large corporations to make change.

From my entry level job in Philadelphia, this position was the first promotion of my career, a sales account manager role based in St. Louis, MO. I represented the full line of Chesebrough-Pond's products (Q-Tips, Vaseline, AquaNet, Pond's, many more) to drug and mass merchandise retailers across eastern Missouri, western Illinois and northern Kentucky. I don't remember specific numbers or results, but we did have quotas and I do remember that my learning curve was steep and I finally started surpassing my numbers in the last few months on the job.

First job out of college and working in a big city, Philadelphia. This was an entry level sales job and my responsibility was to merchandise the full line of Chesebrough-Pond's products, build relationships with retail store management and sell-in incremental floor displays. I was the first sales representative of our training class to be promoted to Key Account Manager.