Career
Hello, OneFootball! ⚽️
From L.A. to Berlin with a Sense of Adventure!
After two and a half amazing years at UpKeep, and a life-long joy of a living in sunny Los Angeles, CA, I moved my family to Berlin to start a new adventure with the OneFootball team as Chief Product Officer.
We’re super stoked to be spending the next several years of our lives in one of the most vibrant cities, working on mind-blowing 🤯 innovations for some of the most passionate customers, at one of the hottest startups in the world.
Yes, I’m very blessed 🙏🏼
Goes without saying, moving an entire life from one of the most coveted destinations in the world to Europe in the dead of winter isn’t easy to say the least; it takes a toll on you in every measure.
But I must say, the OneFootball team made the whole experience as pleasant and as convenient as humanly possible. We’re very grateful for that 🙏🏼
So why the move? To some of our family and friends, it’s an eyebrow-raising, drastic disruption to an idylic life. To others, it’s an opportunity of a lifetime. For us, it’s definitely the latter.
One thing COVID has taught us was that tomorrow wasn’t promised to us. Carpe diem is literally the only way to live. So we seized the opportunity to move to Europe for the journey the lies ahead, the adventure that awaits, and the chance to create something extraordinary with the OneFootball team.
“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines! Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover!”— Mark Twain
Why OneFootball?
Joining OneFootball was an easy decision for me. Although I don’t come from the world of football — or soccer for my peeps back home — I know a thing or two about building engaging, scalable experiences for passionate fans and partners from my days at Ticketmaster, and most recently, UpKeep, respectively.
I also know sports and the sense of identity and belonging they give us really well having played rugby and squash in college and being a part of an amazing cycling community for over 15 years.
What specifically drew me to OneFootball was the following:
The Business
OneFootball is a two-sided platform where content providers (e.g. clubs, leagues, federations, and players, rights holders, etc) — many of whom are co-owners of the company — provide their unique and exclusive content to over 100M monthly active football fans worldwide through the OneFootball ecosystem, which includes its owned and operated platform as well as its distribution network. In turn, those providers get to engage with their fans in an intimate, personalized, and meaningful way.
My goal is to reach the 3.5 billion football fans out there in some capacity before 2025. Go big or go home, right? Being the lynchpin in an evolving global football ecosystem, OneFootball is perfectly positioned to transform the industry. I want to be a part of that.
The supply is strong and the demand is stronger. It’s a great business to be in, especially with the emergence of web3 and its implications on how fans interact with football in the future and the types of products we need to build to deliver on that. Very exciting!
The Brand
I was really impressed by how strong the OneFootball brand was when I did my research. The team has done a phenomenal job creating a statement — from the font we use to the video content we produce — everything is en pointe in capturing the joy and passion inherent in football.
No One Gets You Closer is the company tagline and I find it to be more of a statement than an aspiration. If you haven’t checked out OneFootball’s Instagram feed yet, I highly recommend you do. You’ll know what I mean.
Part of my job will be to transform the fan and partner experiences to reflect the amazing brand we’ve created. It’s every product leader’s dream to work with a brand this strong and this good.
The Industry
Football, and the sports industry in general, is at an inflection point as multiple forces converge to form its future. The rise of NFTs and web3 coupled with the unabated passion of football fans creates a force of (digital) nature the likes of which we haven’t seen in a very long time.
To be in the center of it all is beyond exciting to me, and reaffirms my decision to make the move from L.A. to Berlin for it.
Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but as the saying goes, “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
The Company
OneFootball has been growing at a dizzying clip. The team Lucas von Cranach —CEO and Founder — has assembled is quite impressive. Joining a team with such exquisite pedigree can be intimidating, but I’m confident I’ll add to it in my own special way 🙂
But what I love the most about the company is the culture we have and that I’ll help grow. A culture based on mutual respect, hunger for impact, and putting the fan at the center of everything we do as a company, and doing it all while having a ton of fun!
As I said, the journey is what matters to me the most and having fun is mandatory in the path I’ve charted my entire life. Cause if we’re not having fun, then what’s the point?
The Opportunity
Getting the chance to lead the product organization and build the vision for the products shaping the future of global football wasn’t gonna be something I’d say no to. I feel that everything I’ve done in my career up to this point has set me up for this moment.
I’m excited and nervous all in the same measure. But that’s how I get to do my best work, so here’s to the future of football!
Join The Revolution!
This is the time to join this team. Do you want to be a part of something exciting, transformational, and have fun doing it? Do you want to live in Berlin, London, or Lisbon (and a few more we’re about to announce), enjoying the European lifestyle while learning a ton? Do you want to be a part of the future of football? Do you want to have a unique life experience that you won’t soon forget?
If your answer is a resounding “YES!”, then Join me.
I can’t promise you much, but what I will promise is that you’ll have one of the most fun, exhilarating experiences of your life working with me and the rest of the team. Remember, life is about the journey not the destination.
Also, you don’t have to be a big football fan to join the team. It helps, of course, but it’s not mandatory. You need to be a fan of something, though 🙂
If creating something special and extraordinary makes you tick, you should be on our team.
“You could fill two internets with what I don’t know about football.” — Ted Lasso
OneFootball is the place to be right now. I’m reminded of that every day.
Hit me up on LinkedIn or leave a comment here if you like to chat about ways we can work together. Speak soon.
