Daniel J. Porter

Daniel Jonathan Porter (born June 13, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Overtime, a digital sports platform.[1] He was previously the Head of Digital at William Morris Endeavor, the former CEO of OMGPOP and the creator of the Draw Something mobile game. Following to the sale of OMGPOP to Zynga, he was the GM of Zynga New York for one year following the sale.[2] He also served as the first President of Teach For America[3]

For persons of a similar name, see Daniel Porter (disambiguation).

Background

Born in Cambridge MA, Porter was raised in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. His parents were college professors at the University of Pennsylvania and Bryn Mawr College. His great uncle is the Nobel Prize–winning economist Milton Friedman. He is married to filmmaker Melanie Judd and they have two sons.

Educational career

Porter began by teaching at Clara Barton High School in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. in 1990 he joined the early team of Teach America[4] at its first summer training institute and in 1994 became the President of Teach For America where he worked on the expansion of the program to Phoenix and Seattle and the Americorps program. After leaving Teach For America, Porter ran Cities in Schools, a youth organization in New York City, which also was a partner with Goldman, Sachs in running the High School, Metropolitan Corporate Academy.

Business career

In 1999 Porter served as the President of TicketWeb. He led its sale to TicketMaster (IAC) in 2000.[5]

Porter also worked for Richard Branson's Virgin Group where he started the Virgin Festival in North America,[6] ran Corporate development for Virgin USA and invested in several companies.

In 2012 he was named by Business Insider as the 6th most influential person in New York tech.[7]

In April 2013 Porter left Zynga [8]

From 2013 to 2016 Porter ran digital at WME - IMG where he conceived of and launched the Esports practice, culminating in the E League,[9] led the digital talent division, launched the fashion network Made to Measure[10] and launched and led WME Ventures.[11]

In November 2016 Porter left WME - IMG to launch Overtime.[12] Overtime raised a seed round led by Greycroft and former NBA Commissioner David Stern in January 2017, and an A round, led by Andreessen Horowitz and including Kevin Durant, announced in February 2018.[13] In its first year Overtime generated over one billion video views.[14] By 2019 Overtime was doing a billion video views every month and had expanded to basketball, football, soccer and video games.[15]

Draw Something

In 2009 Porter became the CEO of Iminlikewithyou[16][17] which subsequently changed its name to OMGPOP. In February 2012 the company released the mobile game Draw Something. In 50 days the game had 50 million downloads making it at the time the fastest-growing mobile game ever.[18][19] On March 22, 2012 Zynga acquired OMGPOP for $180 million.[20][21] Draw Something eventually recorded over 250 million downloads.

Controversy

Porter stirred controversy when, over Twitter, he slammed a former employee who decided to leave the company concurrent with the acquisition.[22] He was involved in a back and forth over Twitter with Notch of Minecraft fame.[23]

Education

Porter is a 1988 graduate of Princeton University with an A.B. in History. He is a 1995 graduate of NYU with an M.A. in Latin American Studies. He graduated from Friends Central School, in Wynnewood PA.

References
  1. "This founder who sold a startup for $200 million wants to build the next ESPN out of smartphone footage". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  2. Jeffries, Adrienne (21 March 2012). "OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter Is Now VP of General Management of Zynga New York". BeatBeat. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  3. George, Bill; Diana Mayer; Andrew MacLean (April 11, 2007). "Wendy Kopp and Teach For America" (PDF). Harvard Business School. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-18.
  4. Wilgoren, Jodi (12 November 2000). "Wendy Kopp, Leader of TEACH FOR AMERICA". New York Times. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  5. King, Brad (30 May 2000). "Ticketmaster Grabs TicketWeb". Wired. Archived from the original on 24 April 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  6. Branson, Richard (2008). Business Stripped Bare. Portfolio / Penguin. ISBN 9781101513927.
  7. Shontell, Allyson. "Silicon Alley 100". Business Insider. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  8. "OMGPOP Head Dan Porter Leaves Zynga A Year After $180M Acquisition, Former CityVille GM Steps In".
  9. Spangler, Todd (2015-09-24). "Turner, WME/IMG Form E-Sports League, With TBS to Air Live Events". Variety. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  10. "Apple TV's first exclusive may be a fashion channel". The Verge. 2015-09-09. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  11. "WME Launching Venture Capital Fund (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  12. Busch, Anita (2016-10-23). "Dan Porter, WME's Head Of Digital, To Exit Agency". Deadline. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  13. "Overtime gets $9.5M to build a new style of sports network that young people will actually watch – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  14. Jackson, Eric (2018-03-05). "A start-up found a smart way to build a sports media brand: High school basketball". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  15. McGrath, Ben (2019-06-19). "The Brooklyn start-up helping high-school athletes go viral". The New Yorker.
  16. Kee, Tameka (11 February 2009). "Industry Moves: Iminlikewithyou; Acxiom; Nielsen; Warner Bros". CBS News. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  17. Frommer, Dan (4 February 2009). "I'minlikewithyou Hires New CEO, Changing Names. Next: Revenue". Business Insider. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  18. Fox, Zoe (5 April 2012). "Draw Something' Hits 50 Million Downloads in 50 Days". Mashable. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  19. "Draw Something is 'fastest growing' mobile game". BBC News. 5 April 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  20. Geron, Tomio (21 March 2012). "Zynga Acquires OMGPOP, Maker Of 'Draw Something". Forbes. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  21. Worthem, Jenna (25 March 2012). "A Game Explodes and Changes Life Overnight at a Struggling Start-Up". New York Times. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  22. Tiku, Nitasha (2 April 2012). "OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter Gets Bitter on Twitter Over Disparaging Ex-Employee". BetaBeat. Archived from the original on 6 April 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  23. Good, Owen (April 1, 2012). "Draw Something CEO Backs Down When Notch Calls Out His Uncalled-For Twitter Rage". Kotaku. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
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