About Jason
Through meaningful content, strategic insight, global partnerships and good old-fashioned experience, Jason Bernstein has thrived in developing processes and removing the ambiguity that can plague a team looking to disrupt a traditional market environment. His experience includes oversight of editorial content, public relations (healthcare), global sports content media rights, activations, sponsorship and promotions, sports technology, agency content and original content distribution, and 0-to-1 management of a startup operation. Jason was most recently the Senior Vice President of Content & Operations at a content marketplace startup. As the company’s first employee, he worked closely with the founders to drive strategic initiatives, optimize operations, and facilitate communication across the organization. He was responsible for the development and oversight of the company's operations, client services group, personnel management, key enterprise partner relationships, and working alongside its lead investor on developing the go-to-market (GTM) approach for its product marketing and content initiatives. He thrived in developing processes and direction where none previously existed and remains focused on helping organizations by way of his extensive cross-functional experiences and content monetization efforts. Prior to that, he led content strategy & distribution at Intersport in Chicago. Jason was largely responsible for developing the sports marketing company’s multimedia content distribution efforts through media partnerships showcasing their live events, linear programming, mobile, social & digital content initiatives. In 2018 alone, this led to the creation of a first-of-its-kind live stream broadcast on Twitter called #TheDebut, featuring a “little-known high school phenom” named Zion Williamson (and then a subsequent documentary series on ESPN). Other games reached more than 4.1 million viewers/game. Jason also created a high school football series with Twitter, dubbed #FridayNightStripes, that yielded more than 30 million views across the inaugural 8-game schedule, and delivered almost 40 million views in season two. He also was instrumental in the distribution of the #ThreeStripeLive series of live events and content management as part of the She Breaks Barriers adidas global sports initiative designed to raise awareness of issues and break down the barriers that stand between girls and sport – namely lack of access, negative stereotypes, visibility, and inequality. The series delivered another 25 million views during the first-of-its-kind campaign. He also led the evolution of the iconic Jordan Brand Classic high school all-star basketball event from television to a first-ever Twitter livestream experience. More content-meets-monetization. Prior to Intersport, Jason Bernstein was Managing Director for Hawk-Eye Innovations North America (a Sony company) where he oversaw the growth and development of new business and technology advancements of the professional sports technology & instant replay service for MLB, NHL, and NASCAR clients in North America, including the development of the first-ever U.S. Video Assistant Referee (VAR) programthat led to implementation of VAR in the 2018 World Cup. Prior to joining Sony, Bernstein led & managed content acquisition and scheduling strategy for ESPN’s tennis business. He led negotiations totaling more than $2 billion in media rights, including long-term agreements for the Australian Open, French Open, ATP & WTA TV and digital season-long content, the Wimbledon acquisition bringing The Championships exclusively to ESPN beginning in 2012, and a landmark 11-year agreement making ESPN the exclusive TV and digital home in North & South America of the US Open. He also managed digital media programming content acquisition, scheduling and distribution for ESPN’s live digital sports network, ESPN3, and its authenticated service WatchESPN, and created the first content plan for ESPN+. Bernstein is also the architect of the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest as a made-for-TV event, bringing it to television for the first time. Expertise - Business Consulting - Content, Sports Marketing & Operations - Strategic Partnership Development - Customer Success - Business and Brand Strategy - Project Productivity Analysis - People & Culture - Strategy Development
Where I Am Right Now
I’m currently consulting some great clients while also on the lookout for my next career adventure after a four-year run as the first employee at a content marketplace startup serving in a chief-of-staff/head-of-operations role leading customer success, sales strategy, content & marketing, and the organization's operations. I now spend time supporting clients and sharing my thoughts regularly on issues of the day via this site.
Throughout my career, I’ve been trusted by CEOs, executive leaders, and shareholders to help create meaningful content for monetization, manage teams and future leaders, and grow operations with a focus on attention to detail and developing processes where none previously existed.
My superpowers are communicating, being relentless, and being strategic. I’m a strong cross-functional expert who brings energy, entrepreneurial spirit, strong work ethic, organized creativity, intellectual curiosity, empathy, and a growth mindset.
My Next Role
I thrive in a cross-functional role and I’ll be looking to join a team where I can help contribute to an amazing culture, lean into my media, content, customer success, data, and operations nature, and help unlock value across individuals, teams, and clients.
Corporate/Agencies
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A CEO and/or executive leader in a larger business can rely on me to be a committed right-hand man. I can support strategy and execution planning, building, and developing culture, acting as a thinking partner, collaborating with leaders and departments (including promoting best practices and increasing efficiency), and compiling communications to inform decisions. I’m also able to support special projects, monetize content, manage key stakeholder relationships, recruit, and put together key communications for internal and external use.
Startups
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Startups can rely on me to bring my entrepreneurial experience, broad media, sports, content, customer success & operations knowledge base, strong communications and people skills, intellectual curiosity, and energy to a team or executive leadership group. I can lead an operation, run discovery meetings, client meetings (from pitch to renewal) and relationships, formulate ideas & propose solutions, develop & execute strategies, and create processes where none previously existed.
Content-Driven Teams/Orgs
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Teams focused on efficient content creation to support a greater cause (e.g. broadcasting & industry relationships, sponsorships, investments in new content, promotion of existing products or content) can rely on me to be a data- and purpose-driven contributor to their mission to improve the outcomes provided by current resources. I can formulate strategies, original content for monetization, consultation, and coach creatives, collaborate with internal and external stakeholders and public and private sector partners, keep decision-makers fully in the loop, analyze data to inform decisions, and identify opportunities to unlock new value for portfolio companies and clients. I have a track record of monetizing content.
Some of My Achievements
✅ Rewrote the way the sport of tennis is consumed in the U.S., Canada & Latin America by negotiating more than $2B in consolidated live rights to every major tennis event in the world, culminating with the Wimbledon and US Open events moving exclusively to cable and retiring “tape-delayed tennis” as a common practice
✅ Authored the first content plan for ESPN+, now the No. 1 subscription sports app.
✅ Scaled a startup to grow revenue by more than 150% over three years
✅ Created, developed, and implemented onboarding and offboarding processes for employees and clients for a startup that featured 13 FTE and more than 150 clients
✅ Secured partnerships with Twitter, Gatorade, and Adidas for separate first-ever live event projects reaching more than 50 million unique users across volleyball, football, and basketball (won a Hashtag Sports Award for most creative partnership without an athlete)
✅ Evolved the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest from a private event to a made-for-TV event, resulting in a global audience of billions of impressions each July 4th
✅ Led a sports tech team in testing the first-ever Video Assistant Referee (VAR) that led to implementation in the 2018 World Cup (and beyond)
✅ Only non-grand slam tennis executive ever invited to deliver a talk on improving the audience reach of the sport on a global basis by the Grand Slam Committee (comprised of members of the Aus Open, French Open, Wimbledon & US Open)
✅ Directly managed more than (50) professionals over the course of the last decade, with multiple direct reports advancing to leadership roles at major Fortune 500 companies
Interviews & Online Content