Bozoma St. John has been a high-profile brand architect and marketing whiz for some of the world’s most innovative entertainment and tech companies. Her resume includes executive positions at Pepsi, Uber, Endeavor, Apple, and now Netflix. But as an African-American woman of Ghanaian parentage, St. John’s ascent up the corporate ladder has involved numerous struggles for rewards worthy of her contributions. Many of her early successes were created behind the scenes, including her notably arrangin...
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr 25 min
When Arianna Huffington co-founded The Huffington Post in 2005, it created a blueprint for a new kind of digital media company at a time news and social conversation were rapidly migrating from traditional to online media outlets. That success led to a $315 million acquisition by AOL, with Huffington remaining as President and Editor in Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. Five years later, she would start Thrive Global, which helped major companies and their employees build healthy habits ...
Apr 14, 2021•1 hr 9 min
Alex Honnold gained global fame after the release of the film Free Solo, based on his death-defying climb --with no ropes or safety equipment-- of Yosemite Park’s El Capitan. The film captivated audiences, won the 2019 Oscar for Best Documentary, and established Honnold as one of the world's greatest athletes. Though Honnold has not always appeared to revel in the fame the film brought him, he’s made good use of the opportunities. Now, the primary face of his sport, he's expanded the work of his...
Apr 07, 2021•1 hr 6 min
As a Managing Partner at Andreesen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley's most influential Venture Capital firms, Chris Lyons also runs its Cultural Leadership Fund, the first consisting of 100% African American Limited Partners. To date, CLF has invested in over 65 startups at the intersection of culture and innovation, and across multiple industries including consumer, enterprise, crypto, and fintech. Lyons also created Silicon Valley’s first “influencer network,” establishing numerous strategic pa...
Mar 31, 2021•1 hr 6 min
Jimmy Iovine’s legendary story was well-chronicled in HBO's 2017 docu-series, The Defiant Ones, but his impact on modern music, the media business, and technology continues to amaze. From his modest origins in Brooklyn, he worked his way up to legendary status as a music producer, working with artists like Bruce Springsteen and John Lennon, then later co-founding Interscope Records where he nurtured artists like Tupac Shakur, Eminem, as well as a subsidiary label, Death Row Records. Iovine would...
Mar 24, 2021•1 hr 8 min
Ray McGuire, former Vice Chairman of Citigroup, is a trailblazing African-American Investment Banker who’s currently running as a democratic candidate for mayor of New York City. As an advisor to global corporations and boards, McGuire has worked on an estimated $600 billion in total deals, including Time Warner’s $108 billion merger with ATT in 2018. Though McGuire grew up in a single-parent household in Dayton, Ohio, his smarts, work ethic, and vision for his future landed him at Harvard, wher...
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr 7 min
Dan Porter and Zack Wiener are co-founders of Overtime, the multi-platform digital sports channel that launched in 2016, then blew up in 2017 when, among other highlights, it posted a block from high school star, Zion Williamson. The Overtime website describes its mission as building the “sports network for the next generation of fans,” but Porter has also revealed the company's ambition to be the biggest global sports network on the planet. Currently, Overtime content has 14 billion views a yea...
Mar 10, 2021•1 hr 4 min
Josh Luber is an entrepreneur, long-time trading card collector, and co-founder of StockX, the on-line sneaker and collectibles marketplace he co-founded with Cleveland Cavaliers owner, Dan Gilbert. Luber talks to Rich and Gianni about his early entrepreneurial leanings, alternating between corporate jobs and startups after getting his MBA/JD from Emory University, creating Campless, a sneaker data company, while working at IBM, and his life-changing meeting with Dan Gilbert where they decided t...
Mar 03, 2021•1 hr 15 min
Justin Tuck is a 2x Super Bowl champion and former 2x Pro Bowl Defensive End for the NY Giants. A graduate of Notre Dame, Tuck earned his MBA from Wharton before landing in the Goldman Sachs C-suite. Tuck talks to his good friend, Rich, and Gianni about why he felt so well prepared for a successful career after the NFL, his favorite memories from his Super Bowl victories, what the public gets wrong about why some athletes go broke, and why his former teammate, Eli Manning, absolutely merits indu...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr 14 min
Mark Jackson is one of television’s best NBA analysts, calling multiple finals for ESPN and ABC, alongside his good friend and former coach, Jeff Van Gundy. A native of New York City, Jackson was a star at St Johns before being selected in the 1st round by the New York Knicks. A 1988 NBA rookie of the year and an All-Star, the elite point guard led several NBA title contenders during a 17-year NBA career. He’s the NBA’s 4th all-time assists leader, ranked right behind Steve Nash, and right ahead...
Feb 17, 2021•1 hr 10 min
Jamie Patricof is an accomplished independent film, tv, and documentary producer, and co-founder of Electric City Entertainment. His projects include the films Captain Fantastic (Viggo Mortensen); Blue Valentine (Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling); and The Place Beyond the Pines (Bradley Cooper). Early in the pandemic, Patricof kicked off Lunch With Jamie, a popular Zoom lecture series featuring luminaries from the worlds of politics, sports and Hollywood. In this episode, Patricof talks to Ric...
Feb 10, 2021•57 min
Omar Raja was a college student when he started an Instagram account to pay tribute to his beloved Miami Heat, and especially his favorite player, Dwyane Wade. That was House of Highlights, the IG account which mastered the creation of viral NBA-related clips, and transformed social media content for a new generation of sports fans. Bleacher Report hired Raja out of University of Central Florida, and acquired House of Highlights. After greatly expanding its content across multiple sports, House ...
Feb 03, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Lawrence Taylor, the NY Giants equally famous and notorious #56, is a Pro Football Hall of Famer, and one of the most dominant and influential athletes in the history of American sports. A fearsome linebacker, he was a defensive superstar of the ‘80s and early '90s whose impact on pro football is still strongly felt. The evolution of the modern Left Tackle (bigger, faster, more agile) was a tactical adaptation developed to help NFL teams protect their QB’s from a Lawrence Taylor pass rush. In th...
Jan 27, 2021•54 min
Jason Koonce is founder and CEO of Detroit-based OTIA Sports, a major player in the sports card and memorabilia industry, with ties to sports legends, including Magic Johnson, Hulk Hogan, and Joe Montana. The self-described “poker degenerate” is also a poker whiz, who once won over a million dollars in a single tournament. In this special episode of Out of Office, Eddie Gonzalez, co-host of the ETCs podcast with Kevin Durant, joins Rich and Gianni in this conversation about Jason’s start in trad...
Jan 20, 2021•1 hr 11 min
Josh Richards is an 18-year-old digital media entrepreneur, angel investor and social media personality, with over 25M followers across platforms. He’s also Chief Strategy Officer for Triller, the video and social media app company, and competitor with TikTok. In just a few years, Richards has co-founded digital talent management firm TalentX, co-founded Ani Energy, an energy drink business, and signed a record deal with Warner Records. He also co-hosts the podcast, BFFs, with Dave Portnoy, the ...
Jan 13, 2021•51 min
Jason Strauss is a co-founder and co-owner of the Tao Group, the world-renowned luxury hospitality company best known for its restaurant/nightclub brands: Tao, Lavo, Marquee and Avenue. Strauss talks to Rich (they've been friends since high school) about launching a nightlife business with long-time business partner, Noah Tepperberg. In 2003, the duo launched Marquee, the Manhattan restaurant/nightclub famous for its endless stream of celebrities and world-class hospitality. The club's success b...
Jan 06, 2021•1 hr 14 min
Brian Koppelman is the co-creator, showrunner and Executive Producer of Billions, Showtime’s acclaimed dramatic series exploring the high-stakes, cut-throat world of a hedge fund tycoon and the prosecutor trying to take him down. He also hosts the podcast, The Moment with Brian Koppelman. A Long Island, New York native, Koppelman followed his father’s footsteps into the music business, playing pivotal roles in the recording careers of both Eddie Murphy and Tracy Chapman, the multi-platinum and m...
Dec 30, 2020•1 hr 22 min
Los Angeles Lakers point guard, Quinn Cook, has had a fascinating career. Coming out of high school as a McDonalds All-American, he led the Blue Devils to a national championship in college, then shockingly went undrafted coming out of Duke. But after years battling in the G League to get to the NBA, he’s made the most of it, garnering two championship rings, and now a new deal with the Lakers. Cook’s story has been defined by his resilience, charisma, work ethic, and a commitment to learning fr...
Dec 23, 2020•55 min
When investor and innovator Dan Fleyshman trademarked the phrase "Who's Your Daddy" in high school & turned a merchandise play into an energy drink business that made him the youngest founder of a publicly traded company at age 23, it was just the beginning of his story. On this episode of Out of Office, Fleyshman talks about his investment strategy, his early ventures including the boom and bust of the online poker industry, and what "influencer marketing" meant to him in the pre-social med...
Dec 16, 2020•1 hr 13 min
Restaurateur and nightlife mogul Dave Grutman joins Rich Kleiman to talk about how he built Miami-based Groot Hospitality from the ground up, including the legendary LIV nightclub, and restaurants including Papi Steak, Komodo, & Planta. He talks about his approach to finding partners, how he identifies workers who have the "X factor," why he evaluates employees' potential by how professionally they do the "little things," and how he chooses celebrity collaborators, including his newest partn...
Dec 09, 2020•47 min
Curtis Martin, NFL Hall of Famer and former running back for the NY Jets and New England Patriots, shares what still nags him about losing the ’96 Super Bowl; explains why he set aside 12% to 15% of his annual NFL salary for charity; and names both his top five active running backs and the all-time best at the position. Martin also reveals his aspirations to own an NFL team, and much more.
Dec 02, 2020•1 hr 5 min
In this episode, Rich and Gianni have a wide-ranging conversation. Rich shares the story of how his early-career business with music virtuoso, Mark Ronson, prepared him for his current partnership with sports star, Kevin Durant. They discuss their favorite lifestyle brands, rank the top influencers in sports, music and fashion, and explore how Gen Z is currently consuming sports content.
Nov 25, 2020•57 min
Gary Vaynerchuk, the digital media visionary, angel investor, and CEO of VaynerMedia, talks to Rich and Gianni about why he often values street smarts over Ivy-League degrees in business, the perils of lacking self-awareness, the key lessons he learned as a teen working in his family’s wine business, and the technology he’s confident will revolutionize the consumer experience.
Nov 18, 2020•1 hr 15 min
Rich talks to Nick Kyrgios, the ATP Tour tennis pro who’s accomplished the rare feat of beating each of “The Big 3” (Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic). One of the sport’s biggest personalities and most polarizing figures, Kyrgios talks about his obsession with his favorite sport (basketball); what the sport's "old guard" misunderstands about him; and why he’s so impressed with Naomi Osaka. He also reveals how he managed to overcome a serious bout with depression, and why he feels ready to have his b...
Nov 11, 2020•1 hr 5 min
Rich talks to Brandon Marshall, former NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver, and co-host of Fox Sports One’s studio show, First Things First. Marshall discusses the highs and lows of his NFL career, and why his business, House of Athlete, is focusing on expanding elite athletic training to the general population. He shares his vision for changing the conversation around “mental fitness” so physical and mental wellness are given equal importance on the sports field and in the larger society. Marshall also ...
Nov 04, 2020•58 min
In this episode, Rich talks to Maria Sharapova, a former tennis world #1, and champion of each of the sport’s four Grand Slam events. During her career, she won nearly $40 million in prize money, while also building the foundation for sustainable wealth through savvy endorsement choices, visionary equity deals, and tireless hard work. In 2020, when Forbes Magazine listed the top 10 highest-paid female athletes, nine of them were current tennis pros. This is in part a legacy of the business road ...
Oct 28, 2020•1 hr 11 min
In this episode, Rich talks to Michael Vick, the Fox NFL Analyst and former Pro Bowl QB, who largely re-defined the quarterback position…and the perception of what constitutes a franchise NFL QB. They discuss his close relationships with Ravens QB, Lamar Jackson, and Chiefs Head Coach, Andy Reid. They talk about the Atlanta glory days in the early ‘00s when Vick shared center stage in the culture with local hip hop stars, including Outkast, TI, Jeezy and Gucci Mane. Vick shares a candid self-ass...
Oct 21, 2020•1 hr
In this episode Rich talks to Larry Jackson, Global Creative Director of Apple Music. The self-described “conduit of culture” is one of the music industry’s most influential behind-the-scenes savants. Jackson helped launch Apple's game-changing entertainment service, Apple Music. Along his ground-breaking journey, he’s worked alongside music giants like Clive Davis, Jimmy Iovine and Doctor Dre; championed artist-hosted radio (including L’il Wayne’s Young Money Radio); and produced legendary arti...
Oct 14, 2020•1 hr 40 min
Rich talks to Carli Lloyd, US Women’s National Soccer Team icon, about her childhood sports idols, her growing off-the-pitch business, and what she hopes to accomplish before hanging up her cleats.
Oct 07, 2020•47 min
For this episode, we switched it up. With no guest, Rich Kleiman and Gianni Harrell sit in the new 35 Ventures boardroom, socially distanced of course, to discuss the launch of KD’s new podcast, the ETCs, how Rich parlayed an early stint as a sports bookie into a successful career in the music business, what he learned about leadership from Jay Z, and how that Roc Nation experience helped him transition back to sports and the creation of 35 Ventures with Durant. And Gianni steps up and shows ser...
Sep 30, 2020•45 min
