The Athlete Influencer Marketplace: Ishveen Jolly, Founder & CEO, OpenSponsorship - Sports Business Conversations

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The Athlete Influencer Marketplace: Ishveen Jolly, Founder & CEO, OpenSponsorship

Episode 105 • 4th August 2026 • Sports Business Conversations • ADC Partners

00:01

Dave Almy

So, Ishveen, take me back to: 2014

00:28

Ishveen Jolly

Love the question, actually, because not many people researched a bit before open sponsorship. And so, yes, I was.

00:35

Dave Almy

You got a whole team back there doing nothing but crunching the numbers, Ishveen. Right. You know, so we gotta ask these kinds of questions. These are the probing questions.

00:42

Ishveen Jolly

ust started, if you remember,: 2014

01:29

Ishveen Jolly

Zocdoc was a company I was using in New York for, like booking doctors. And so I think I was just like, wait, something's happening. This is like, efficient. Yeah. And why can't we have this in our industry? So very naively thought, that's it, piece.

01:46

Dave Almy

Of cake, we'll just make this happen. So how did you literally stop doing one and begin the other? Or did it sort of phase into one another as you got rolling with open sponsorship?

01:59

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah, a bit of a. Yeah, it was definitely a bit of a phase. And at first, you know, you're like circulating the idea. You're like, does it make sense? And some people ask me, like, how do you know when you know you should launch? And I, I remember, like, I would wake up in the morning and I'd be scared that like someone would send me something. Be like, this reminded me of our conversation that we talked about this company and I was scared that someone else was building it. And I was like, right, I need to get on this, because I am thinking about this all the time. And then obviously made all the mistakes, like, got a technical advisor, not a full time person, like, made all the rookie mistakes. Being a non technical founder, like, you know.

02:43

Dave Almy

Yeah, you don't know what you don't know.

02:45

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah, yeah. You have literally no clue.

02:47

Dave Almy

launched open sponsorship in: 2015

03:31

Ishveen Jolly

Share resilience. I think the trick is to. There's a few things. One is being so passionate about the mission that like you keep going. Right. So I love sponsorship. Like I fell into sponsorship many years ago and I was like, wow, this is, you know, like this is a thing. Obviously I love the sports industry, having grown up playing sports. So, you know, I was really passionate about this connecting of the dots. I'm not that I was not. I was never that obsessed about being in the room with the athlete or being seen at the super bowl or whatever else. Like, it's nice that I've like had the opportunity to do those things. The glass, you know. Yeah. So I think I was very obsessed about like the problem on the business.

04:23

Ishveen Jolly

So, you know, if someone said to me, $20,000, come to this conference and do this, I'd be like, well, are there going to be brands there? Is my buyer going to be there? You know, and so I used to go to a lot of the sports business confidence because I'm like, if you're already in the room, you don't need us. You already know everyone. Right. And so I think I was like, it was probably like a good combination of a few things. I was an outsider to the American sports industry, you know, like, I knew sponsorship and I've worked in cricket and golf and field hockey and, you know, whatever else, but I didn't know America. So again, I think like, would I necessarily like have kept at it if I could have been like a VP at caa? Maybe not.

05:00

Ishveen Jolly

Like, I think it's quite hard to innovate when you've got like a path. Whereas I was like on the outside, I think. One, there. Two, you've got to not run out of money. Like, that's it and so frugal founder over here, for better or for worse, like we could have probably spent more on growing quicker and 11 years in still doing it. But like, I think what it allowed you to do is like ride the waves of COVID work from home, change in social. And now is all like, heyday, right? Like creat influencer athlete, it's never been stronger. So again, like the pivot away, not away from properties, but realizing that. So I think like not running out of money and not running out of passion.

05:45

Dave Almy

But that's an important point here too. This pivot from property to content creation. Was there a point where you thought, okay, was it during COVID And you're like, man, everybody's about, everybody's really churning out great content. You know, the properties themselves aren't playing. Is that the moment where you felt like, because you talk about being passionate about spot, there's been a ton of change in that industry in a very short amount of time. So talk about that transition.

06:12

Ishveen Jolly

Well, it's so funny because I remember when we first went out to raise money, you know, we mentioned like, I lived in San Francisco for six months, joined 500 Startups and at the end of that, you know, you have this big demo day and you're raising money and you're speaking to people and everyone was like, a few people like, oh, see, alike influencer marketing. And I was like, no, like, nothing like that. Nothing like that. Like dirty words. Whereas I'm like sports sponsorship, like cool, $60 billion industry. This is what we are. And then also they were like, so you like an agency? And I'm like, are you kidding? We're in a tech accelerator. Like we're a tech site today. We are a tech enabled agency for athlete and influencer marketing.

06:55

Dave Almy

There you go.

06:56

Ishveen Jolly

So like, there you go now. When did it happen? I remember when we got Walmart as a client and the title approached us was Influencer Marketing. I'm like, you could call us whatever you want by you, whatever you want, give us your business. But like, I think I will move to Fayetteville. Exactly. So it was that like, you know, and it, but it was linked to the business. They were, you know, we had people basically saying like, I remember Sperry's when we signed them, you know the shoe company. And they were like, we know fashion and we know that you know our verticals. We don't really know sports and athletes. So you're our athlete influencer solution. And I'm like, oh, am I. Yeah, yeah, sure, yeah. Did you have.

07:52

Dave Almy

Did you resist it at first? Like, because you said earlier, like, you love the idea of sponsorship. I don't really hang out with the athletes. It's not my thing. And this kind of gets a little adjacent to that. So I'm wondering if the pivot was. Was it emotionally difficult for you to make that switch or was like, man, this is where the opportunity is.

08:11

Ishveen Jolly

I think, again, like, being so focused on the problem. Like, I love team deals. Like, I love a good team deal. Like, last year, we did a couple of team deals, and I absolutely loved it. But doing it through a marketplace without, like, touch is really difficult. And there's like, it was almost like this, like, tough. Okay, the athlete thing, we can solve through a marketplace and tech and use data and do better deals. And this thing, we really can't. And it's not like, I mean, I love doing, ask me deals. Like, I think they're awesome. Like, we're hopefully about to grow something with the Knicks player. And, like, that is so cool to say.

08:48

Ishveen Jolly

Like, you know, there's like a junior team member that it's, like, so cool to say, like, you have been able to, like, back in the day, like, you have to be 20 years in the industry to close the next deal, right? And, like, so like a Knicks idea. And so I really. I think with this, the athlete side of things, I think I definitely had a little bit of a moment with, like, being social because, you know, we didn't grow up, we didn't like. I mean, I love a. Like, I love a logo placement on a hat in golf for tennis, because that's kind of right when it's well.

09:20

Dave Almy

Done, that kind of thing, you know, nothing more serious.

09:24

Ishveen Jolly

Exactly. So do I love. But that. But that's like a whole sociable thing, right? Like, social is where everything's at. It does work for brands. We can do those deals quite easily. Our platform is built for that. So I would say on a. On a business level, I absolutely love it. Society wise. My views on social are, you know.

09:48

Dave Almy

Well, it's also sort of changed, particularly with a newer fan, a younger fan. The nature of fandom has changed a little bit too, with the advent of social media, too, because it allows them to connect with individual athletes in a way that they never were able to before. So the team used to be the pathway to connect to those athletes, but it's not the case anymore. Like, I grew up a Celtics fan because I grew up in Boston, but I know, like, my son is interested in specific players on that. So he. And if they move oftentimes, sometimes he'll root for another team. God help me that he does that. But, but it has changed the nature. It has changed the nature of fandom and so open sponsorship has to reflect that too. It's. It is a pivot that's important.

10:29

Ishveen Jolly

And to be honest, like, there is many elements of it that I absolutely love. We actually just ran a report on our data where I was. I.

10:37

Dave Almy

We're going to talk about it.

10:40

Ishveen Jolly

Well, not that one actually. I've got another one that I'm just. I just, I was like, I went to court and I was like, I've got this hypothesis that since COVID more female athletes have talked about their family life and they talked about non sporting things, which is what has led to like all the engagement and the eyes and whatever else. Could you help me verify this? And it did. And it gave me the numbers and I thought that was so really interesting. And so what I do love about what we do is we are giving athletes like, you know, you do a brand deal and it's like, show me the life behind who you are.

11:15

Ishveen Jolly

And like, we didn't, I didn't grow up knowing, you know, again, like United, like, I didn't grow up knowing what Alex Ferguson's wife looked like or like all of these things. I think, yeah, I think it's like kind of cool to be part of that movement that is connecting fans to athlete and making them more of an individual. Like a. Yeah.

11:38

Dave Almy

So you're going to identify with. Now you brought it up and I would do so. I know Cloud is producing a lot of content for you and things like that. Right now I know you've got. Your other machine is turning away on Cloud right now, working on crunching data. But you did just release the state of the Athlete and Influencer Marketing report for this past year and I think there were. We're going to jump into some of the findings on that because it is fascinating to see what some of the numbers say, particularly when you're talking about a marketplace as large as yours and that you're working with. At least get the. The numbers become very interesting.

12:05

Dave Almy

There's a lot of detail in there, but I'm wondering if there was anything that you read when it first was produced that made you go, oh, didn't expect to see that. Was there anything in the report that really caught you by surprise?

12:20

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah, I think the female numbers, like, I, I knew it was going up and then obviously we Have. We're not just athletes, so we're like adjacent to yoga influencers, obviously, gets thrown into athletes and peloton instructors. So I knew. But I was surprised by it because the year before I think it was like 56%. So it was the first year it flipped to be more. But I think the female numbers is really interesting. But again, it goes with the idea that, like, the social side of things, the content, they're better at producing content, probably better value. So all made sense. But I was surprised that, like that number for sure.

12:56

Dave Almy

Right. Because it's. I think that's the headline number there. It's like 75% of the deals on the platform go to female athletes. Do you think that is just an indicator that these are just that women are more productive and effective online, in social media, using social media. So that's where the brand dollars are headed, or is it brands looking to exploit new opportunities with women's sports?

13:21

Ishveen Jolly

I think a little bit of all of it. I think what the consumer is a female. So, like, you know, that's the way you go. Obviously, female sports, lots of eyes on that. That we have a lot of, like female athletes who do a lot of deals because they like it. And, you know, there's a lot of categories, whether you're thinking like protein shakes or whatever else. Even when we're talking to brands selling to males, they'll often say, like, the wife might buy it. Well, the wife buys it for the kids. Sorry. The mother buys it for the kid. The wife buys it for the husband. So you. I think there are more brand dollars focused on that, which again, you just didn't see it before in TV because it was never targeted to one or the other.

13:58

Dave Almy

Right. So then again, so it's that female head of household. It's a way for engaging. It's a way for brands to connect. And female athletes and influencers tend to be a great pathway to be able to do that. I also saw that deal sizes are increasing. I think they. They more than doubled from 24 to 25. So is this, do you think, a function of brands becoming more sophisticated about these opportunities and then wanting to spend and allocating more budgets or have the athletes behave. I'm a little more sophisticated now. I know what I do is worth More than 10,000, you know, $5,000 here or $2,000. Right. So there's like a sophistication that's growing.

14:39

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah, I would say all of that plus us probably understanding what works so you can build more value into a Deal, say for example, you know, like, hey, let's, this has worked. So a lot of the deals we do, the way that we work with brands often is like there's a lot of ab testing, so a lot of like one offs if you can. Obviously that doesn't work with like a big NBA player or like golfer, whatever else. But you know, if you're doing smaller deals, like do 10 smaller deals, an equestrian, a track and field, male, female, non athlete, and then see what works and double down.

15:15

Dave Almy

Okay.

15:16

Ishveen Jolly

And so we get a lot of repeat deals and then the repeat deal could be for like three months or they're more built out and that's like the perfect partnership because back in the day you'd have to either sign long term or none at all. And now it's like you can do a bit of everything. So I think that probably also a little bit of like we as a company are maturing, so signing bigger clients, which is quite nice, and therefore doing bigger deals.

15:39

Dave Almy

So that idea then that there's an efficiency in working with different athletes that allow you to really dive in and test what's going on, then take those test results and move them over to the athletes as a whole too. It's just that it's that flexibility and the ability to pivot fairly quickly that really seem to be elevating the market.

15:58

Ishveen Jolly

Fair to say, yeah, absolutely. And the thing being is because like again, whether you do one deal or 10 deals is quite similar through us. And then as an athlete I come, it's not. We've taken away like contracts and payment issues and all of that. And so like before you might not do a deal unless it was worth X amount or the agent that was making that. Now if I click of a button, yeah, your payment details are in there. So I think like the friction to do these smaller deals is gone down. And a big part of this is authenticity because you might say, well, I like the brand, I would like to be paid more, but hey, if the brand's cool, I'll take it and hopefully repeat.

16:41

Dave Almy

Yeah, it's interesting too, like you bring up this, the simplicity of it and taking away the friction of creating these kinds of deals. And in a world in which companies and marketers are used to buying, you know, AdWords and creating these markets that are just so easy to both create and evaluate effectiveness, there's sort of a tail that you're putting on open sponsorship that's replicating that for these kinds of partnerships.

17:09

Ishveen Jolly

Fair to say, yeah, 100% in fact actually One of the biggest markers for our success was when we, it was one of our advisors and he was like, you think about ROI and most people think about I as a monetary number return on dollar investment. He was like, have you thought about I as time? And I was like, oh, okay. And he was like, how does your platform feel on time? And we know that, you know, we're a two sided marketplace. We were, we are, were. But as a brand, you then deal with an agent and then they're like, you're at the finish line and they say no or like you're chasing someone and you have to send 20 messages, you have to log in and say like, hey, where's the content? Or it doesn't look good and whatever else.

17:57

Ishveen Jolly

So we realized like the eye of the dollar value was good, but the eye of your time was pretty rubbish. And hence why we then implemented like this full service model where we're like, we'll give you the time back, pay us a bit more, trust us a bit more. And I say we win. The friction. Part of that friction is the process and the tech and part of that friction is reacting do a lot more for you. Which is a bit ironic because it's a bit more like an agency actually. It just works really well because you know, the programmatic, we don't know when we're doing things how much is going on in the background. You think you press the button and that might, you know, whatever else.

18:39

Ishveen Jolly

So like it's quite funny that people like, oh, it's all automated and you're like my account management team would say yes to some extent and some extent it's ours.

18:47

Dave Almy

nning influencer marketing in: 2026

19:13

Ishveen Jolly

So there's a few questions of themselves and internally and then there's a few questions of us and then there's a few questions of the athletes and the influencers. Right. So that's the biggest thing very quickly. So the biggest thing internally is what is success? What do we need? I think too many people, you know, you've been in the sponsorship world, sponsorship like this thing that you do on the side over here because your CEO likes goal and it's not connected to marketing. And in fact marketing, like why do they get an infinite budget whereas every dollar of Mine has to be like, you know, and. Yeah, exactly. And so basically I would say like, the first thing is like, treat influencers athletes. Treat this as like part of your marketing thing and be like, what is your success? What is your goals?

20:03

Ishveen Jolly

Where are your pain points? If your meta ads are not performing this content could better. If your PR is a bit rubbish, this could better. If you want to have a podcast strategy, this could be useful. So it's like, you mean I should.

20:13

Dave Almy

Have a strategy podcast?

20:16

Ishveen Jolly

You would be the strategy.

20:17

Dave Almy

Wait a minute.

20:22

Ishveen Jolly

So like one is like. I'd say like one is like, what is success? Yeah, and that is like the big question internally. And then the second is of us, which is like kind of what I talked about that time. Here are the things that we as a company are good at and here's what we're not and here's what's really important. Like when we deal with a Walmart, they have to go through lots of like, legal stuff. And so it delays deals, which means that we can't do 100 athletes for them because it's quite, you know, taxing. Whereas, like someone else has like built for that. And so I think it's just like understanding the relationship between us and then it's the athlete influencer, which is like, why should we genuinely pick you?

21:06

Ishveen Jolly

And the other thing is, what we're seeing more is what's your idea for the creative? Which was never being asked because we used to just feed, there's a script, but now it's like, well, what's your idea? What are you bringing table? What's going to resonate? Because at the end of the day, like, if it tanks, most people are judging this on like, indeed, you know, virality engagement rates. If it tanks me, athletes, like, well, you gave me the script, it's not my fault then. So I think it's like the question really being is like, why should we work with you? Give me something quality and what's going to work? And it's just a bit more collaborative.

21:39

Dave Almy

Doesn't that also get back to the idea of authenticity too? I mean, it's, you know, you look at an athlete influencer and if they're reading a script, it's almost, you can tell. I mean, it was written by marketers versus tell us what you want to do. Like, what's that going to look like for you? People talk about authenticity, but it's such a simple thing. That's how you engender to make them part of this process isn't it? And I realize there's risk taking there, but the payoff, I'm assuming, can be much more. Yeah. Now there's this little thing going on in the. Now you're based in London, a little thing going on here in the US with college athletes, name, image, likeness, and which almost overnight, you had half a million college athletes essentially become eligible to be on your platform.

22:30

Dave Almy

So does that new funnel, is it like an overwhelming opportunity or do you feel like there has to be caution for all the triad of people for your company, but also the brands and the athletes themselves? Like, how does that filter out from your perspective?

22:50

Ishveen Jolly

this ruling hit, right. July: 2021

23:45

Dave Almy

Yeah.

23:45

Ishveen Jolly

And. And so, you know, it created a little bit of hassle when our investors were like, why are you not doing more? And it's like, it's not. These are not marketing deals. Yeah. And then it was like, what do we do with this? Should we, you know, we thought about, like, should we work with collective? Should we work with schools? And I just. Again, back to that thing that I said right at the beginning. I'm. I love sponsorship. I want to do sponsorship deals. So, like, if you want to do a sponsored deal with an athlete, great. But I can tell you we have like student athletes and these deals are a couple of thousand dollars. You know, like, yes, some of them, the big ones exist, they get the headlines and then. Exactly.

24:27

Ishveen Jolly

And then the other thing is like the other thing that people throw around, like, they're not, like we say it, we've got 33,000 athletes and imports in our network. But what happens is, what's the point if they're not doing deals? You know, like, you don't need a marketplace for that. Truly. So truly, like investors, sophisticated people will say, okay, but how many are active? How many have done deals? And so I think there was like this big thing at the beginning which was like, we have 100,000 polyjasis. It's like, okay, great, but how many have you actually done a deal for? 3% Otherwise. Yeah, exactly. So what's the point? And so I would say, like, is it a great business? Yes. Do I. I truly believe that, like, everyone.

25:08

Ishveen Jolly

I don't know if you thought there was like, some controversy this week because the Olympic, the ioc, cea maybe. I think it was. She said that Olympians shouldn't get paid. And so I think athletes should get paid, but there's like, payment and then there's like the sponsorship. And I think they should be able to do sponsorship deals. But it's also like, there has to be a market. Like having sold sponsorship for 20 years, like, you need to have a brand who's willing to pay you. And that's the hardest bit.

25:38

Dave Almy

I think there's another interesting point too. Like, you've been in this business for, like, we talked about 11 years. You've called, collected a lot of data, and you've collected a lot of information. So does that almost become the real asset of the company to be able to. Right. Size and measure all with that history, here's what the market should be like.

26:00

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah, so we do a lot with pricing. It's really complicated because, you know, you transfer from, let's say, college, right. You transfer from one school to another. Your market rate of. Has changed that. The big market, the small market, and, you know, all of that. And then, you know, you might be at the top here. And that's what we're seeing where they don't want to go to the. The pro leagues because then they might be on the bench and then their marketability goes down. And so, you know, pricing athletes, all of this stuff is. It's nuanced, and then it's nuanced based on the brand and whatever else. So, yeah, like, we think about pricing a lot because it shouldn't just be what the moment, they should be market rate, and then you can decide if you want to take it.

26:43

Dave Almy

crossed into profitability in: 2024

27:13

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah, I'd say it is a Focus on what's going well, like doubling down on it. So you know, we know that the balance of athlete, like athlete is our differentiating point. It's why people come in. But then having the non athlete side of the business is really impactful. So I'd say like focusing on what's going well, focusing on the fact that we service and making sure our account managers are world class, like you know, really awesome. Our business model. I think so many people die because of like incorrect business models and like incorrect margins and things like that. So like just, you know, we're about to raise our prices a little bit and again it's because we service so much and you want to make sure and so things like that.

27:57

Ishveen Jolly

So I'd say like one is focusing on what's going really well and then the second is of course like with AI, like you need to figure out where do you, what's your true value? Because does someone need us for discovery? Not really. But you do need us to do outreach because you know, it's great that Gemini or whoever chat GPT can give you a list of 10 people, but then what you're going to do, DM them from your brand channel and like start negotiating over ig and so like I think and then what do you even like, what do you pay them and what's the deal look like? Yeah, yeah, well exactly. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then it goes back idea of.

28:36

Dave Almy

Time that you brought up previously, right? You just let's bring efficiency to.

28:40

Ishveen Jolly

This process 100% and then really focusing on success, right? And success across the board. Success for the customer, success for the athletes, success for what our team looks like. So I think we're really clear, like we want to double revenue every year. We want to do innovative things. We want to like have clients that love us and you know, not be a churn factory. It's just like how do we make those happen?

29:06

Dave Almy

A couple of questions about the company as we start to wrap up here. You count Serena Williams and David Blitzer as investors. The concept of the athlete investor has really elevated a lot in the last few years as they've really started to understand what their value is. I'm wondering what you've learned from working with folks like that in the investment community versus the more traditional path of VC investment. What, what's been the good and what's been some of the challenge?

29:38

Ishveen Jolly

So the good is obviously the validation, the marketability that comes out of it. Right. Like I could never afford to pay to win A big brand ambassador, and this way she's actually given us the money. So, like, that is like second to none. You obviously get the validation hit once when you announce, and then it's up to you to like, figure out how do you keep doing that. And again, authenticity. Right. It works because it's Serena, she's sports, she's female, you know, she's business savvy. So I think, you know, and David, similar vibes. So I'd say, like, the validation is the upside. I would say the downside is obviously a bit of access. You know, like, they're very busy people. And like, even though there are lead investors, like that check sizes,.

30:28

Dave Almy

A couple different spoons and a lot of different pots kind of thing.

30:31

Ishveen Jolly

Exactly, yeah. And so, you know, one of my. I'm not going to say favorite because they're all. They're all your favorite investors, but, like, they're all my favorites. But so one of our investors is David Stern, who is a former MBA commissioner at Stern Son, and every year he invites me to NBA All Star, and I get a ticket to the NBA Tech Conference, which is one of my favorite summits. And you know, and he's. It was a much smaller check size, but he. I don't know, like, he's just like a bit. It's a different kind of invested. Right. And so. And then you've got like a few friends. Actually, last night I had dinner with Oxford, the Oxonian Ventures team, which is on the Oxford Angel Fund, based out of San Francisco. And so, you know, everyone has, like, different.

31:20

Ishveen Jolly

Some people are good for, like, matching. Some people are good for, like, inviting you to things. Some people are good for this. And so I think it's. And it's hard to know in advance what's going to be useful and what do you even need. Right. Because what I needed five years ago is different to what I might need now. But I would say when people think about fundraising, like, you know, if you're a great AI company and you're selling Altman or Elon Musk, fine, you can be picky. But I would say take money from wherever you get it, as long as you feel like you feel good with the person. Because you never know what's going to happen. I mean, they could leave their vc, right? And then you'll gone.

32:03

Dave Almy

Is it important to look for. At it beyond just the dollars? Like, the dollars are attractive, but is it important to feel that they have. They have category expertise here that I can really draw on? Or maybe they've got A lot of sports background or is it more about having confidence in self and confidence in your own mission that makes that more or less not irrelevant, but less important.

32:27

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah, I think no one here, I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't think about fundraising by going, okay, first I want to get the, maybe like the celebrity names then plus the Andreessen Horowitz and then industry specific people because that's validation.

32:45

Dave Almy

Sure.

32:46

Ishveen Jolly

So I think like, yes, all of that matters, but at the end of the day, like, fundraising is about technology. It's a definite like takeaway from the business. You're not, you're not building your fundraising. And so I would say like wrapping it up quickly. And as I said, like, you never really know who's going to be. That's what I think I have found. Like you don't know who's going to be helpful and people like helpful in different ways and ultimately they've given you a check. They're not maybe like if they've got a big stake, but ultimately like they investing in you to go run.

33:21

Dave Almy

And they want you to be successful.

33:24

Ishveen Jolly

They want you to be successful. So, you know, if you even have a monthly call with someone, how much can they help you? And you can't fill them up on like 29 days worth of contacts within like one hour. So I think the money is the biggest benefit and the validation. Yeah.

33:43

Dave Almy

Now you're a female founder working in sports and technology. Those two industries haven't always been the most accommodating to women. So I'm wondering, based on your experience, for others who are thinking about moving into those worlds and want to explore their own new ventures in sports and or technology. I'm wondering what thoughts or advice you might have for people who are listening to this conversation and thinking, yeah, okay, that's a person I want to emulate.

34:19

Ishveen Jolly

Well, I credit sports for the reason why, because you get on the pitch at the court or whatever and nothing matters. Color of skin, length of hair, gender, like, it's truly how good you are, the effort you put in. So I think I had never really thought. I'm also like with three sisters, so I think never having a boy in the family made like. And then it was funny because someone said this like, I went to a, a girls school growing up in England and they were like, one of the benefits is you never think about gender. And I was like, oh, yeah, you're right. Because no, like you don't do science or you don't do math because there's no other gender there. So I feel like I certainly would say, like, don't think of.

35:01

Ishveen Jolly

Don't think of your gender too much or your sex. Like, it's really a case of, like, what we talked about, like, passion, resilience. What I will say is it's a way longer journey than you realize. Like, you know, like 10, 11 years on, I'm like, wait, this is the longest relationship I've had. Like, you know. So I'd say, though, it's more a case of the resilience, the.

35:29

Dave Almy

Yeah.

35:29

Ishveen Jolly

The passion for the mission. And that will come across. I don't personally love when you get pigeonholed. I'm lucky that women's sports wasn't such a big thing, maybe when I started, because otherwise I might have been like. People might have been like, oh, you're on women's sports. And I. Yeah, you know, and I. I did walk into rooms saying, I'm going to change the base of NFL athlete marketing. And I'm sure there were some people that were like, probably not, but whatever. Like, it doesn't really matter. But I think, like, I don't think women should do. That was the thing that was like, women invested in beauty and pregnancy and menopause and it was like. And men invested in space or men got in, you know, and maths and bikes. So that, I think, is changing. But that's the biggest thing, I think.

36:17

Ishveen Jolly

Just be wary of the fact that there are some people who are going to go over, are you doing it for women's sports? And you have to be like, well, no, just.

36:23

Dave Almy

Just sports work on both sides.

36:25

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

36:27

Dave Almy

I'm with Ishveen Jali. She is the CEO and founder of Open Sponsorship. Ishveen joining us from London today. So thanks very much for the time, Ishveen. Before I let you go, though, I'm going to put you in the lighting room. I got some questions for you. All I want from you is a quick response. First thing that pops into your mind. Are you ready to go?

36:46

Ishveen Jolly

Okay,.

36:48

Dave Almy

It was a little wary. Okay, here we go. Question number one. You were a netball captain for Oxford. Explain why netball should be more popular in the United States.

37:02

Ishveen Jolly

Verse clarification. I was captain for my college at Oxford. It's very important because someone hears that and think, all right, that is.

37:09

Dave Almy

That is the American ineffectiveness of question asking right there. That is a fault of your host. That is not issuance.

37:15

Ishveen Jolly

No, no. That's not. Like, why should netball Be more popular. Well, it's. It is, I believe, one of the most widely played female sports across the world. And it is weird that it is not in America. Also, I think it would be really helpful for everyone who has grown up playing netball, which is like all of England, all of like Singapore, Australia, South Africa, all these other countries, to not have to live in America and explain netball and say it's I basketball for girls and then go, well, there is basketball for girls, so it's not really.

37:48

Dave Almy

Yeah, I think we have that.

37:51

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah, exactly.

37:52

Dave Almy

Okay, so netball coming to a community center near you. Both of your parents are doctors. How did they take it when you told them you weren't going to medical school?

38:04

Ishveen Jolly

I had. This puts it perfectly. It was parent teacher evening and I had already got into Oxford to study economics, which, you know, most parents would probably be proud of.

38:17

Dave Almy

Probably pretty excited about.

38:20

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah. And my dad was speaking to my biology teacher and she was like, she's doing really well. And he was like, so she still has a chance to go into medicine. And I was like, I'm not gonna.

38:30

Dave Almy

Give up that dream yet.

38:32

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah, exactly. But now I think they're very happy.

38:36

Dave Almy

So, yeah, very proud. I'm sure you made the Forbes 30 under 30 sports list. That's quite an accomplishment. I'm sure your parents are very proud of that. But what award would you gladly trade that one for? Oh, it's a toughie. That's a toughie. I put you on the spot on that one. I mean, it could be like an Oscar. I mean, you know, it could be like an sb. You know, it could be anything. Nobel Peace Prize.

39:06

Ishveen Jolly

Yes. Yeah, yeah. The fact that I don't know probably shows how, like, unaccolatable I am right now, where I'm like, what, what am I? What am I, Achie myself? Well, I mean, obviously growing up in England, my dad has an mba, which is like, you know, the, like you've, you know, you've got like sir, which was like David beckons or so and whatever else. Like, it's like there's different ones, so maybe. Yeah, I would get like a lady. Yeah.

39:38

Dave Almy

Would be pretty sweet.

39:40

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think so.

39:42

Dave Almy

Can I borrow it when you get it? I'd just like to try that for a little bit. All right, A couple more. Couple more. What? What? Blisses you out more than a well organized inbox,.

39:56

Ishveen Jolly

I would say. A good looking Excel sheet.

40:06

Dave Almy

Just orderly columns and rows. There's nothing better.

40:10

Ishveen Jolly

Like formatting your bold. Your headline like your bold. Yeah. Bold is in the right place. Yeah, like, good. Excel sheet makes me happy.

40:24

Dave Almy

Okay, last one who is a mentor or peer you'd like to give a quick shout out to.

40:30

Ishveen Jolly

Oh, my gosh, I've got so many. I have a point of view on, like, mentors where you. You need kind of like, investors, you need things at different times. And I'm like, okay, well, is it an old school mentor who's, like, now like, friend, or is it more like a new school mentor? I think right now, actually, I would say, like, good vibe. People who just are, like, really encouraging about where you're at and whatever else.

40:56

Dave Almy

Where the great energy comes from.

40:58

Ishveen Jolly

Yeah. Where the great energy, like, hey, you've been trying, you've been going, you're doing really well. One of them, actually one of our investors is a woman called Alexandra Jong. She's quite big and well known in the finance world, and she's just always been amazing. I remember when were losing a lot of money before we became profitable, she was like, it's called expensive lessons. And I was like, okay, well, I'd rather not have them. But, you know, so I think, like, she's always just been, like, really supportive. And again, you know, on the sports side, being a female, definitely, I look up her a lot.

41:31

Dave Almy

Yep. Ishveen Jolly, thanks so much for the time today. I appreciate it.

41:34

Ishveen Jolly

Thanks, David.