He Built a $20M Brand Without a Media Background
Moneywise
Choosing Investors with Strategic Buy-In
Adam discusses selecting investors who provide strategic value, and the importance of aligning investor incentives.
Stop making million-dollar decisions alone. Hampton gives you a personal board of eight vetted founders in your city who meet monthly to tackle your hardest problems. Find your group: joinhampton.com
Adam White didn’t set out to build a media company – he just wanted a job in sports. So at 19, he started posting informational interviews on a Wix site. Today, he runs a $20M brand with NFL partnerships and no background in media. Because in the end, it wasn’t about who he knew – it was about who knew him, and how he got in the right rooms by outplaying legacy media at their own game.
Here’s what we talk about:
- Building Front Office Sports out of his dorm room
- Why brand aura matters more than ever and how to create it from scratch
- The tweet that led to a $750K investment
- Why he gave up 51% of the business early – and doesn't regret it
- The role of soft touchpoints in landing major deals
- Growing to 800K newsletter subs without chasing SEO
- How an official NFL content partnership changed everything
- Diversifying revenue from newsletters, social, events, and brand partnerships
- The personal side: paying off student debt, buying his mom a car, and defining success as freedom
Cool Links:
- Hampton https://www.joinhampton.com/
- Lower Street https://www.lowerstreet.co/
- Front Office Sports https://frontofficesports.com/
- Adam White https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-white-85ab4389/
Sponsors:
- Protect your upside and get your time back at cressetcapital.com/moneywise
- Achieve your dream body with dailybodycoach.com/moneywise
- Join 700+ founders hiring A-players in Latin America at hirewithnear.com/moneywise
Chapters:
- (0:42) Building Front Office Sports: Growth & Early Days
- (1:40) Revenue Milestones
- (3:40) Building Brand Aura & Early Partnerships
- (10:34) Attracting Investors & Business Model Shift
- (13:24) Audience Growth During COVID
- (16:04) Monetization & Revenue Diversification
- (17:44) Philosophy on Investors
- (19:08) New Investors, Professionalization, & Validation
- (22:07) NFL Partnership
- (25:44) Networking Secrets
- (28:31) Personal Growth as a CEO
- (30:45) Personal Financial Journey & Mindset
- (33:40) Motivation, Competition, & Enjoying the Journey
This podcast is a ridiculous concept: high-net-worth people reveal their personal finances. Inspired by real conversations happening in the Hampton community.
Your Host: Harry Morton
- Founder of Lower Street, a podcast production company helping brands launch and grow top-tier podcasts.
- Co-parents a cow named Eliza.
The AI-powered Podcast Player
