Tom Jessiman

SUMMARY

Veteran entrepreneur of multiple start-ups— four in digital sports media; two in influencer marketing. Exits include IPOs and sales of businesses. Scaled one company from launch to 250-person organization in eight countries with annual sales of $60M. Raised more than $150M in venture capital, family office and angel funding. Management strengths include operations, product development, social media marketing and fund raising. Catalyst in formation of two corporate venture groups.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

CO-FOUNDER & CEO                                                                                                            2021 - 2023

Bragr, Denver, CO

Company provides a sports bragging app, where friends and fans share sports. 

• Devised head-to-head, free-to-play service for fans to compete in picking outcomes on favorite teams— including create-your-own challenges.
• Launched as iOS app. Technology designed to roll out private labels for sports, gaming and entertainment partners.
• Platform built on an AI machine learning model to maximize personalization.

CO-FOUNDER & CO-CEO                                                                                                   2014- 2020

Hashoff, Denver, C O

Company allowed brands to discover social media influencers to create original content on social platforms. Sold to Conscience Capital.

• Created a unique AI machine learning technology platform for brands to identify and engage creators and ambassadors within social media for authentic, organic content creation.
• Implemented SaaS sales model for Fortune 500 clients AB InBev, Dunkin’ and Universal Pictures to manage social talent networks. 
• Constructed search platform to identify efficient and effective creators in social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
• Specialized in finding influencers in rivalries of pro and college sports teams to spur passionate engagement from fans.

FOUNDING CEO                                                                                                                      2011 - 2013

Wayin, Denver, C O

Company provided a mobile and web “Hub” for brands and enterprises to engage with their customers in social media. Sold later to Cheetah Digital.

• Developed a suite of conversation tools for brands to communicate with customers in real-time, particularly around sporting and entertainment events.
• Secured Twitter partnership predicated on a social visualization and engagement platform for driving earned media.
• Co-founded with tech icon Scott McNealy formerly of Sun Microsystems. Ramped company to 50 people, mostly engineering.  

FOUNDER & CEO                                                                                                                             2003 - 2010

PicksPal, Mountain View, CA

Company allowed sports fans to make predictions on sporting events on web and Facebook.  Free to play and advertiser driven. Sold to Liberty Media.

• Concept based on wisdom of crowds: best predictors of sports outcomes were regular fans and not self-proclaimed “experts.” Allowed for those organic predictors to be ranked and paid for predictions. 
• Rolled out the first sports app to launch on Facebook, when FB opened its APIs to outside developers.  Led to app reaching millions of players in first year. 
• Established an offshore and in-house engineering team to design a platform scaled to multiple sponsor partners across social platforms.

FOUNDER & CEO                                                                                                                              1999 - 2002

Sports.com, London, UK

Company was leading pan-European digital sports media enterprise. Site was most visited European sports network during June 2002 with an audience of 15 million users. 

• Drove rapid growth of enterprise to eight international branches and 250 employees. Raised $81M from investors: Goldman Sachs, Reuters, Intel, Soros Private Equity, IMG, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal. 
• Company had a revenue run rate of $60M-- generated from advertising, syndication of content to wireless and fixed Internet, and gaming.
• Crafted partnerships with rights holders including Manchester United, Wimbledon and the British Open.
• Launched an online sports book which became one of the UK’s premier online sports books. 
• Company was leading distributor of sports wireless content in Europe, with partnership with nearly all major carriers, including, BT, Eircom, France Telecom, SFR, T-Mobile and Telecom Italia.

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS                                                                                      1997 - 1999

SportsLine, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Company was second largest sports digital media company, after ESPN. Supervised 110 of 150 employees, including marketing, production, engineering, operations, editorial, programming and leading fantasy sports service.  Company went public. Later sold to CBS Viacom.

• Oversaw in-house, home-grown ecommerce platform with multiple sourcing and distribution partners.
• Controlled subscription services including fantasy sports and premium sports information content.
• Innovated production of real-time animations of sporting events that generated half the site’s traffic.
• Let marketing in gaining a worldwide audience on an industry-level cost per click basis.
• Drove site excellence in editorial and design.
• Architected company’s international strategy and secured joint ventures with leading international sites.

DIRECTOR & ASSOCIATE                                                                                                                                      1992 - 1997

USWEST, Denver, CO & IBM, Palo Alto, CA

Championed launch of in-house venture groups designed to engage start-ups with strategic assets and resources of the parent companies.

• Acted as a change agent to lead IBM and USWEST to launch corporate venture groups. At USWEST, group invested $145M in Internet and communication companies. At IBM, Fireworks Partners was company’s first venture capital arm dedicated to interactive new media.

SKILLS

Start-Up Management

Operations

Influencer Marketing

Partnerships & Sponsors

Fund Raising

Strategy

Business Development

Ecommerce

EDUCATION

Post Graduate Program in AI and Machine Learning

McCombs School of Business. University of Texas at Austin, 2023- enrolled and ongoing

MBA

Harvard Business School, 1991

BACHELOR OF ARTS

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 1982. Morehead Scholar. Phi Beta Kappa. The Ernest Mackie Award for Most Outstanding Junior.

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