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Brian Verne
CEO at Wave Sports + Entertainment
Brian Verne is the CEO of Wave Sports + Entertainment, a prominent sports and entertainment company based in Los Angeles, California.1 He has been leading the company since June 2017, bringing his extensive experience in sports media and entrepreneurship to the role.1
Career Highlights
Wave Sports + Entertainment: Brian has been instrumental in establishing Wave as a world-class sports and entertainment company that serves modern-day fans through content, products, and experiences.4 Under his leadership, Wave has:
- Partnered with over 100 leagues, rights holders, and IP partners3
- Launched popular shows like "New Heights" and "7PM in Brooklyn"2
- Raised significant funding, including a $27 million Series B round in February 20224
Previous Ventures: Before Wave, Brian's entrepreneurial spirit was evident in his role as CEO of Phenom, an angel-backed startup and 500 Startups Batch 16 company, from 2014 to 2016.1 Phenom focused on giving young athletes a voice in the sports industry.
Sports Background
Brian's passion for sports extends beyond the business realm:
- He served as a Varsity Hitting Coach and Outfield Instructor for Shaker Heights High School baseball team from 2010 to 20131
- He ran his own baseball instruction business, Brian Verne Baseball School, from 2002 to 2009, providing lessons to youth, high school, and college players1
Education and Early Career
Brian attended Oberlin College from 2005 to 2009.1 During his time there, he worked as a student assistant in the Oberlin College Sports Information Department.1 His early career experiences also include:
- An internship at IMG, focusing on the Arnold Palmer account1
- A role as Sales and Marketing Manager at Verne Gallery, a contemporary Japanese art gallery1
Through his leadership at Wave Sports + Entertainment, Brian Verne continues to shape the landscape of digital sports media, creating innovative content and experiences for modern sports fans.
Highlights
“Everything we had seen and known of him, his charisma, his intelligence,” Sovereign told Boardroom, “it became even more obvious when we got a chance to meet him.”
It’s evident that Sovereign’s search to find a proper basketball counterpart to the Kelces’ New Heights worked out in a massive way. Since its launch on March 6, 2023, Podcast P has grown into a juggernaut with more than 30 million monthly views and 1.75 million followers across its social channels, including 725,000 on YouTube.
The common thread, according to Sovereign? How they’re able to demonstrate their true selves on camera, revealing the fundamentals of who they are and being comfortable demonstrating that on air.
“With Paul, that comes through that he is a very curious person, very generous in the way that he shares the space with his guests so that they can connect with him,” Sovereign said.
And in just over a year of programming, the pod has found itself on various Best Of lists. Last July, Complex named it the NBA’s top-ranked player podcast. Less than nine months after its debut, the show was named one of the top 10 sports podcasts of 2023 in Spotify‘s annual Wrapped recap.
https://lnkd.in/gkH5f96e
Cc Mack Sovereign Thank you, Boardroom.
From day one, the goal for Wave Sports + Entertainment has always been to build a Sports, Media, and Entertainment Company for the next generation of fans, so the formation, and announcement, of Wave Media Agency, is just simply in line with our core mission and vision that began 7 years ago. During that time, Wave has built many of the largest and most highly engaged fandom centric communities on the internet, which has “made our team, some of the most—call it highly sought-after experts—when it comes to short form video programming and community building,” Wave CEO Brian Verne said. “We always believed that short form video is paramount when it comes to cultivating and building fandom.”
Partners “coming to Wave are looking to acquire new fans, strengthen relationships with existing followers, and—notably—generate revenue as social moves from being a marketing-focused engagement platform to a money-driving distribution tool.”
Short form video built for social is the next frontier for sponsorship dollars, thus while billions of dollars are spent annually across more traditional inventory, the vast majority of young fans are found on social, so it was merely a matter of time before sponsorship dollars would follow.
So in short, WMA marries our production and distribution expertise to help the top leagues, rightsholders, and sports properties reach, engage, and monetize the next generation of fans.
Congrats, Team.
