Episode #105
The Athlete Influencer Marketplace: Ishveen Jolly, Founder & CEO, OpenSponsorship
It’s probably no surprise that Ishveen Jolly ’s parents both wanted her to become a doctor. They’re both successful doctors, after all, and they were probably measuring her for a stethoscope when she got into Oxford. What mom and dad Jolly probably didn’t expect was that their daughter would major in economics, get bitten by the sports business bug, and launch a start up that counts Serena Williams and David Blitzer among its investors. No, it’s not a medical career, but I suspect Ishveen Jolly’s parents are pretty proud nonetheless. Ishveen is prone to finding exploitable niches. Her first venture connected sports properties in India and the West at a time when almost no one was thinking about cross-border sponsorships. But around 2014, while watching Uber and Airbnb reshape entire industries through marketplace efficiency, she had her lightbulb moment: why couldn't this happen in sponsorship? In 2015, she launched OpenSponsorship . Eleven years in, what started as a marketplace connecting brands and sports properties has evolved into what Ishveen calls a “tech-enabled agency for athlete and influencer marketing”. The platform now has over 33,000 athletes in its network, and crossed into profitability in 2024. In our conversation, Ishveen and I talk about that pivot from team and property deals to athlete marketing (and why she had to learn to love that pivot). We dive into what's driving the sharp increases in athlete marketing deal sizes, the NIL boom and what brands often misunderstand about it, and the questions she thinks brands should be asking right now to get more out of their influencer spend. She also shares what blisses her out more than a well-organized inbox — and the answer is, honestly, very on-brand. ABOUT THIS PODCAST The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners , a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved. YOUR HOST Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners . FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: LinkedIn: adc-partners Instagram: adc_partners_podcast Threads: adc_partners_podcast Youtube: @adcpartners Homepage: adcpartners.com/podcast
