Meet Ishveen Anand
This week’s guest is Ishveen Anand, the founder, and CEO of OpenSponsorship, a VC-backed startup connecting brands to pro athletes, teams, and events. Ishveen, a graduate of Oxford University, was named on Inc’s Top 100 Female Founders list in 2019 and on the Forbes30under30 sports list. She has grown OpenSponsorship into the largest and smartest platform globally, completing 6000 deals to date using AI, social insights, and ROI data. Brands that have used OpenSponsorship to find athletes include Anheuser Busch, Verizon, Draftkings, Draymond Green, Rob Gronkowski, and Todd Gurley.
Becoming a Disruptor in the World of Sports
When Ishveen played sports at university, she found that the agencies who promoted athletes didn’t care about change or innovation. So she decided to start her own company to change the environment of sports promotion in 2015.
She not only works with big names in popular sports, but Ishveen also includes other non-traditional sports such as Cross Fit. Her current client base is 80/20 male to female, although this is representative of gender in sports. While more than half of the athletes on the platform are signed up by agents, anyone can match up with a deal that is less than six figures because the platform is so simple and easy to use.
Discover how Ishveen uses her diversity as a part of her personal brand, how she challenges the norm in the world of sports, and how she overcame the challenges of growing her startup.
Here’s your highlight guide to the episode:
[02:07] Ishveen’s journey and how she became a sports booking agent.
[05:01] How Open Sponsorship works for athletes.
[09:04] Turnaround time and the process of hiring an athlete.
[11:04] How she defines her personal brand and how her brand promotes her business.
[18:42] Seeing her brand with human elements and what she loves about her brand.
Quotes
“We’ve created a business that is doing business in the biggest sports leagues in the world.”
“We’ve simplified the sponsorship process to be more like recruitment.”
“Knowing that even small brands and local businesses can utilize athletes on the platform is amazing.”
Links mentioned in this episode:

Podcast Resources
Visit Open Sponsorship on the web
Connect with Ishveen Anand on LinkedIn

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