Adam White started Front Office Sports as a freshman class project at the University of Miami in 2014. Today, FOS is majority-owned by Jeff Zucker's RedBird IMI at a reported $40 million valuation, with 70 employees, projecting $20-24 million in revenue this year, and on track for its first profitable year. We get into the full cap table history — from giving up 51% to his first investor to RedBird taking majority control — how FOS actually makes money, the NFL and league content partnerships, the studios bet that landed a number-one Netflix film, and why FOS still doesn't charge readers a dime.
Timestamps
0:00 — Intro
1:25 — The founding story and building FOS at Miami
10:49 — How to start a media company from nothing
19:09 — Why brand matters more than audience
25:06 — The "prosumer" positioning and who actually reads FOS
35:33 — The investor journey: SC Holdings, Crain, and RedBird IMI
38:03 — What Jeff Zucker actually changed
42:37 — Editorial independence when your owner invests in sports
44:34 — The numbers: $24M projected revenue, first profitable year
48:00 — Revenue mix: digital, social, branded content, and events
49:15 — The Yahoo partnership
51:47 — Faces and franchises: building sub-brands inside FOS
58:00 — The events business and getting Adam Silver on stage
1:04:17 — The NFL deal and why FOS pays for league IP
1:09:05 — FOS Studios and the Netflix Brett Favre film
1:14:37 — Why FOS doesn't charge readers
1:18:28 — Profitability and what comes next
1:22:27 — The exit question: who buys FOS?
1:30:12 — What every media operator should focus on
1:32:11 — What Adam is obsessed with right now
