Kris Mathis, Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Kris started the company in 2008 to address a core business problem he noticed while starting and working in the sponsorship division of global marketing and PR agency, Edelman. After experiencing first hand the amount of cost and time inefficiencies created by uninformed sponsorship solicitations, Kris enlisted a core team of developers to build an online platform where sponsorship professionals could learn about latest industry happenings, form new relationships and research potential partners in a more efficient new way.
Prior to SponsorPitch, Kris represented Fortune 500 clients at Edelman sponsorship consulting division where he made sponsorship buying, activation and renewal decisions for brands such as Johnson & Johnson, Home Depot, Schering-Plough, 20th Century Fox, Samsung, Wyeth and Siemens. In addition, Kris has served as International Product Manager for Paris-based mobile gaming startup, Gameloft, at the time named the fastest growing company in Europe by Business Week. Joining Gameloft prior to the rapid adoption of mobile content, Kris managed the product lifecycle from concept formation to product launch, working alongside a global team of software engineers and country sales managers, to develop licensed products with sports and entertainment rights-holders such as And 1, CAA and Sony Pictures.
Kris’ insights on sponsorship and sports business have been featured in numerous business and trade publications including Advertising Age, Sports Business Journal and Bloomberg TV. He has been featured as a “Rising Star” by PartnershipActivation.com and hosted various panels on sports business and sponsorship; on behalf of the Women’s Sports Foundation, SportsNetworker.com and others.
Kris' passion for start-ups began at Vanderbilt University, where he received an MBA while serving as the Vanderbilt Entrepreneurship Association president. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Kris currently resides in New York City.
Michael Munson, Founding Partner & Chief Marketing Officer
Michael has over 10 years studying sponsorship marketing and developing Internet-based technology companies. Prior to SponsorPitch, he founded, raised money for, and ran Sponsorwise, a company that provided Internet software to automate the capture and sharing of information about sponsorship opportunities and brands that receive sponsorship solicitations. He conceptualized and drove the implementation of the programmable mailbox metaphor; a receipt, review, response and archive service now the foundation of the company, and developed the marketing strategy that drove thousands of sponsorship seeking organizations to the Sponsorwise website each month through corporate customers at no cost to the company. Michael grew Sponsorwise (now DBA Versaic) from $0 to $1 million in revenue from 2001 through 2005 during the “dot-com” bust, selling to hundreds of sponsorship seeking organizations and over 30 major corporations including Allstate, AT&T, Gillette, Kraft, Motorola, Toyota, Verizon, and others.
Michael joined SponsorPitch as a strategic consultant and content contributor in 2009. In 2010 he helped conceptualize and implement SponsorPitch's strategic shift to a collaborative business intelligence network.
Michael earned his B.S. in Business Administration from Sonoma State University. He received an M.A. in Sports Management from the University of San Francisco after doing a thesis on sponsorship marketing efficacy.
Rick O’Toole, Lead Developer
Rick is a skilled programmer, specializing in scalable web solutions. For SponsorPitch, Rick has worked across the entire Ruby on Rails stack, providing technical insight and advice regarding long term strategy and improvements to SponsorPitch. Prior to joining the SponsorPitch team, Rick designed analytics web applications, working with Rails, mySQL, and javascript frameworks. Rick is also the founder and owner of Postulates, LLC, a mobile and web application development company. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Economics from Harvey Mudd College.
Geoff Hutchison, Community Manager
Prior to joining SponsorPitch, Geoff was an associate at global advertising agency, Mindshare, where he worked on the Kimberly Clark Corporation account, purchasing media for its assortment of family-care and child-care consumer brands. In the Community Manager role, Geoff combines his experiences at Edelman PR’s Sports and Sponsorship Division with his active role in internet start-ups, most recently as an Analyst at TheLadders.com, to manage data entry, facilitate social exchanges and expand external awareness of the SponsorPitch brand. Geoff is a 2010 graduate of Vanderbilt University.
Advisors
David Alioto, Veteran MLB and MLS Senior Executive
As Senior Executive Vice President of the San Jose Earthquakes, and the team’s first employee in 2006, Alioto oversaw all aspects of the Major League Soccer franchise including venue development, hiring of all staff, budget management and P&L responsibility. He was also responsible for executing the financial, operational, and organizational plan. In addition, Alioto oversaw all aspects of sales development including corporate sales, ticket sales and new revenue opportunities. Under Alioto, the club saw a significant increase in sponsorship, finishing 2010 with over 30 partners. His vision played a key role in the team’s first jersey sponsorship agreement, as the Earthquakes signed a multi-million dollar three-year deal with Amway. Alioto joined the Earthquakes organization after serving 15 years with the Oakland Athletics as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
Alioto is a graduate of the University of San Francisco, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He resides in Walnut Creek, CA with his wife Debby and two soccer-playing sons, Justin and Conner.
Steve Flatow, Head of Marketing, Bloomberg Sports
Steve is currently Head of Marketing for Bloomberg Sports, which was was launched by Bloomberg L.P. in early 2010 with the goal of becoming the global leader in data and analytics for the sports industry. Throughout his 30-year career, Flatow has served as a senior marketing and business development executive, building and managing integrated marketing partnerships for a number of well-known global sports, entertainment and technology properties including Wilson Sporting Goods, Princeton Video Image (acquired by ESPN) Cablevision/Rainbow, the NHL and the NBA. Prior to joining Bloomberg, he served as the Senior Vice President, Business Development at NYC & Company, the official marketing, tourism and partnership organization for New York City where he managed the Partnerships Department, supported City Hall and City Agency initiatives and oversaw all NYC & Co. marketing programs such as Restaurant Week.
Flatow holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Cornell University as well as an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and resides in New York City, NY.
