Daniel J. Porter

Last updated

Daniel Jonathan Porter (born June 13, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Overtime, a digital sports media company that is geared towards Generation Z sports fans. [1] He was previously the Head of Digital at William Morris Endeavor, the former CEO of OMGPOP and the creator of the Draw Something mobile game. Following the sale of OMGPOP to Zynga, he was the GM of Zynga New York for one year. [2] He also served as the first president of Teach For America. [3]

Contents

Background

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Porter was raised in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. His parents were college professors at the University of Pennsylvania and Bryn Mawr College.

His great uncle is the Nobel Prize–winning economist Milton Friedman. [4]

Porter is married to filmmaker Melanie Judd, and they have two sons.

Education

Porter graduated from Friends Central School, in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.

Porter is a 1988 graduate of Princeton University with an A.B. in History. While at Princeton, Dan focused on music, spending four years with the Princeton jazz band as a keyboardist and weekends earning money playing piano at Faculty Club brunches. [5]

He is a 1995 graduate of NYU with an M.A. in Latin American Studies.

Educational career

Porter began by teaching at Clara Barton High School in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

In 1990 he joined the early team of Teach America [6] at its first summer training institute. In 1994 he became the first president of Teach For America, where he worked on the expansion of the program to Phoenix and Seattle and the Americorps program. [7]

After leaving Teach For America, Porter ran Cities in Schools, a youth organization in New York City, which also was a partner with Goldman, Sachs in running the Metropolitan Corporate Academy.

Business career

In 1999 Porter served as the president of TicketWeb. He led its sale to TicketMaster (IAC) in 2000. [8]

Porter also worked for Richard Branson's Virgin Group, where he started the Virgin Festival in North America, [9] ran Corporate development for Virgin USA and invested in several companies.

In 2009 Porter became the CEO of Iminlikewithyou [10] [11] which subsequently changed its name to OMGPOP. In February 2012 the company released the mobile game Draw Something . In 50 days it had 50 million downloads, making it, at the time, the fastest-growing mobile game ever. [12] [13] On March 22, 2012 Zynga acquired OMGPOP for $180 million. [14] [15] Draw Something eventually recorded over 250 million downloads.

In 2012 he was named by Business Insider as the 6th most influential person in New York tech. [16]

In April 2013 Porter left Zynga. [17]

From 2013 to 2016 Porter ran digital at WME - IMG where he conceived of and launched the Esports practice, culminating in the E League; [18] led the digital talent division; launched the fashion network Made to Measure; [19] and launched and led WME Ventures. [20]

Overtime

In November 2016 Porter left WME - IMG to launch Overtime. [21]

Overtime raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Greycroft and former NBA Commissioner David Stern in January 2017. [22]

Overtime raised a $9.5 million A round, led by Andreessen Horowitz and included Kevin Durant, announced in February 2018. [23]

In 2018, its first year of operations, Overtime generated over one billion video views. [24] By 2019, Overtime was doing a billion video views every month and had expanded to basketball, football, soccer and video games. [25]

Overtime raised a $23 million B round led by Spark Capital and included Carmelo Anthony in February 2019. [26]

Overtime raised an $80 million C round led by Sapphire Sport and Black Capital and included Jeff Bezos and Drake in April 2021 . [27]

In March 2021, Overtime announced the launch of Overtime Elite, a professional basketball league for 16-to-19 year-olds. [28]

In March 2022, Overtime announced the launch of OT7, a seven-on-seven football league. [29]

Overtime raised a $100 million D round led by Liberty Media Corporation in August 2022. [30]

Controversy

Porter stirred controversy when, over Twitter, he slammed a former employee who decided to leave OMGPOP concurrent with the acquisition by Zynga. [31] He was involved in a back and forth over Twitter with Notch of Minecraft fame. [32]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Pincus</span>

Mark Jonathan Pincus is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com. Pincus served as the CEO of Zynga until July 2013, then again from 2015 to 2016.

Match is an online dating service with web sites serving over 50 countries in twelve languages. Its headquarters are in Dallas, Texas. The company has offices in Dallas, West Hollywood, San Francisco, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, and Beijing. Match is owned by Match Group, which owns several online dating services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Calacanis</span> American businessman

Jason McCabe Calacanis is an American Internet entrepreneur, angel investor, author and podcaster.

Silver Lake is an American global private equity firm focused on investments in technology, technology-enabled and related industries. Founded in 1999, the firm is one of the largest technology investors in the world. Its investment holdings have included Airbnb, Alibaba Group, Ancestry.com, Broadcom, Credit Karma, City Football Group, Dell Technologies, Endeavor, Expedia Group, Fanatics, First Advantage, Flixbus, Global Blue, GoDaddy, Jio, Lightbox, Motorola Solutions, New Zealand Rugby, NortonLifeLock, Red Ventures, Sabre Corporation, Skype, SoFi, GLG, Seagate Technology, SolarWinds, TEG, Twitter, Unity Technologies, Waymo, Weld North Education, WP Engine, Vacasa, the A-League football competition in Australia, and ZPG. Silver Lake is headquartered in Silicon Valley, and has offices in New York, London and Hong Kong.

Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. is an American holding company for talent and media agencies with its primary offices in Beverly Hills, California, United States. The company was founded in April 2009 after the merger of the William Morris Agency and the original Endeavor Talent Agency. Endeavor represents artists in film, television, music, theater, digital media, and publishing. It also represents the NFL and NHL. Endeavor owns the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It is headed by CEO Ari Emanuel and executive chairman Patrick Whitesell.

Ellen Siminoff is an entrepreneur and investor. Frequently quoted in The New York Times as an Internet industry commentator, Siminoff was named one of Forbes magazine's Masters of Information in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zynga</span> American social game developer

Zynga Inc. is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its mission as "connecting the world through games".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloom (company)</span> American film entertainment company

Bloom was an American independent film entertainment company engaged in financing, development, production and worldwide distribution of theatrical feature films in various forms of broadcast media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OMGPop</span>

OMGPop, stylized as OMGPOP and formerly known as i'minlikewithyou or iilwy, was an independent flash game studio. In 2013, it was purchased by Zynga Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indiegogo</span> American crowdfunding website

Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows people to solicit funds for an idea, charity, or start-up business. Indiegogo charges a 5% fee on contributions. This charge is in addition to Stripe credit card processing charges of 3% + $0.30 per transaction. Fifteen million people visit the site each month.

<i>Draw Something</i>

Draw Something is a video game developed by OMGPop based on its browser game Draw My Thing, launched on February 6, 2012. It won a Flurry App Spotlight Award in 2012. In the first five weeks after its launching, the game was downloaded 20 million times. On March 21, 2012, both Draw Something and OMGPop were bought by the gaming company Zynga for $180 million. The game's popularity peaked on the day of the sale, and the number of daily active users tumbled from 15 million to 10 million by early May.

Sunil Paul is an Internet entrepreneur who launched Spring Free EV in 2021, a fintech company designed to have climate level impact by accelerating adoption of electric vehicles. He has previously founded companies such as Brightmail and Freeloader, Inc. He was the co-founder and CEO of Sidecar, an on-demand peer-to-peer taxi service that was billed as a rideshare community with operations based in San Francisco, CA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baseline Ventures</span> American venture capital investment firm

Baseline Ventures is a venture capital investment firm that focuses on seed and growth-stage investments in technology companies. The company was the first seed investor in Instagram, an early investor of Twitter and has been called "one of Silicon Valley's most successful — and smallest — investment firms" by Forbes. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California. They also do commercial representation of some athletes.

SoFi Technologies, Inc. is an American online personal finance company and online bank. Based in San Francisco, SoFi provides financial products including student and auto loan refinancing, mortgages, personal loans, credit card, investing, and banking through both mobile app and desktop interfaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justin Waldron</span> American internet entrepreneur (born 1988)

Justin Waldron is an American internet entrepreneur known as the co-founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company, and Zynga.org, a non-profit organization to promote and facilitate the use of social games for philanthropic initiatives. In 2020 Waldron co-founded Playco, a mobile instant game company backed by Sequoia Capital, where he currently serves as president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arjun Sethi (entrepreneur)</span> American entrepreneur, investor and executive

Arjun Sethi is an American internet entrepreneur, investor and executive. He is co-founder and partner at venture capital firm Tribe Capital. He previously was partner at Social Capital and served as an executive at Yahoo! where he launched Yahoo! Livetext. Before that, he was co-founder and CEO of MessageMe and he was CEO of Lolapps, the developer behind Ravenwood Fair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DOWN (app)</span>

DOWN is a location-based social networking and online dating application for users looking for casual relationships and hookups. Users can swipe up for more serious dating, swipe down for casual hookups, or left to pass and continue to the next profile. DOWN bills itself as a open-minded, sex-positive alternative to other dating apps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overtime (sports network)</span> American sports media company

Overtime is a sports media company geared towards Generation Z sports fans. The company distributes original sports content on social media outlets, including Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube and sells apparel with its logos and branding. In 2021, Overtime launched Overtime Elite, a professional basketball league for 16-19 year-olds. In 2022, Overtime launched OT7, a low-contact, seven-on-seven American football league.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proletariat (company)</span> American video game developer

Proletariat, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded by Seth Sivak and former Zynga industry veterans in 2012. The company was acquired by Blizzard Entertainment in 2022. Proletariat, Inc. has developed multiple independent games and launched its best-known game, Spellbreak in September, 2020.

References

  1. ↑ "This founder who sold a startup for $200 million wants to build the next ESPN out of smartphone footage". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  2. ↑ Jeffries, Adrienne (21 March 2012). "OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter Is Now VP of General Management of Zynga New York". BeatBeat. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  3. ↑ George, Bill; Diana Mayer; Andrew MacLean (April 11, 2007). "Wendy Kopp and Teach For America" (PDF). Harvard Business School. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-18.
  4. ↑ Johnson, Eric (March 7, 2019). "Media startups trying to drive people to their websites are doing it wrong, says Overtime CEO Dan Porter". vox.com. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
  5. ↑ "The Ball Is in His Court". Princeton Alumni Weekly. 2022-09-22. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  6. ↑ Wilgoren, Jodi (12 November 2000). "Wendy Kopp, Leader of TEACH FOR AMERICA". New York Times. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  7. ↑ "The Ball Is in His Court". Princeton Alumni Weekly. 2022-09-22. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  8. ↑ King, Brad (30 May 2000). "Ticketmaster Grabs TicketWeb". Wired. Archived from the original on 24 April 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  9. ↑ Branson, Richard (2008). Business Stripped Bare. Portfolio / Penguin. ISBN   9781101513927.
  10. ↑ Kee, Tameka (11 February 2009). "Industry Moves: Iminlikewithyou; Acxiom; Nielsen; Warner Bros". CBS News. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  11. ↑ Frommer, Dan (4 February 2009). "I'minlikewithyou Hires New CEO, Changing Names. Next: Revenue". Business Insider. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  12. ↑ Fox, Zoe (5 April 2012). "Draw Something' Hits 50 Million Downloads in 50 Days". Mashable. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  13. ↑ "Draw Something is 'fastest growing' mobile game". BBC News. 5 April 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  14. ↑ Geron, Tomio (21 March 2012). "Zynga Acquires OMGPOP, Maker Of 'Draw Something". Forbes. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  15. ↑ Worthem, Jenna (25 March 2012). "A Game Explodes and Changes Life Overnight at a Struggling Start-Up". New York Times. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  16. ↑ Shontell, Allyson. "Silicon Alley 100". Business Insider. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  17. ↑ "OMGPOP Head Dan Porter Leaves Zynga A Year After $180M Acquisition, Former CityVille GM Steps In". 2 April 2013.
  18. ↑ Spangler, Todd (2015-09-24). "Turner, WME/IMG Form E-Sports League, With TBS to Air Live Events". Variety. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  19. ↑ "Apple TV's first exclusive may be a fashion channel". The Verge. 2015-09-09. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  20. ↑ "WME Launching Venture Capital Fund (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  21. ↑ Busch, Anita (2016-10-23). "Dan Porter, WME's Head Of Digital, To Exit Agency". Deadline. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  22. ↑ McAlone, Nathan (February 22, 2017). "This founder who sold a startup for $200 million wants to build the next ESPN out of smartphone footage". Business Insider. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  23. ↑ "Overtime gets $9.5M to build a new style of sports network that young people will actually watch – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  24. ↑ Jackson, Eric (2018-03-05). "A start-up found a smart way to build a sports media brand: High school basketball". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  25. ↑ McGrath, Ben (2019-06-19). "The Brooklyn start-up helping high-school athletes go viral". The New Yorker.
  26. ↑ Spangler, Todd (February 14, 2019). "Overtime Banks $23 Million From Spark Capital, MSG Networks, Carmelo Anthony and Others". variety.com. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  27. ↑ Patel, Sahil (April 22, 2021). "Overtime Raises $80 Million From Jeff Bezos, Drake, NBA Stars and Others". wsj.com. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  28. ↑ Draper, Kevin. "A New League's Shot at the N.C.A.A.: $100,000 Salaries for High School Players". The New York Times . Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  29. ↑ Koons, Zach. "Cam Newton, Overtime to Launch New High School Football League". SI. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  30. ↑ Fischer, Sean (August 9, 2022). "Overtime raises $100 million series D". axios.com. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  31. ↑ Tiku, Nitasha (2 April 2012). "OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter Gets Bitter on Twitter Over Disparaging Ex-Employee". BetaBeat. Archived from the original on 6 April 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  32. ↑ Good, Owen (April 1, 2012). "Draw Something CEO Backs Down When Notch Calls Out His Uncalled-For Twitter Rage". Kotaku. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.