Originally posted by Willy Franzen on February 5, 2013. Updated through a sponsorship agreement.
Posted by Willy Franzen on February 5, 2013. Positions below updated every five minutes.
| Job Title | Location |
|---|---|
| Marketing Intern | New York, NY |
| Member Services Associate | New York, NY |
| Senior Business Development | New York, NY |
| Sports Marketing - Account Executive | New York, NY |
| Account Executive (Club) | New York, NY |
| Event Manager | New York, NY |
| Sports Management - Sales Account Executive | New York, NY |
In elementary school I had a kid in my class whose dad played Major League Baseball. He was a pretty good player, but by no means a star. I was still completely in awe of him. The day I found out that he was my basketball coach was pretty much the best day of my elementary school life. Everybody wants to be around professional athletes, and now you can be… for a price. Thuzio is a New York, NY based company that “provides an online platform that connects the public with professional athletes who have achieved the highest levels of excellence in their profession.” The company was started by Tiki Barber (of NFL fame) and Mark Gerson of Gerson Lehrman Group. If you know anything about GLG, the combination of co-founders makes perfect sense.
Thuzio allows access to athletes “from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, as well as Olympic Medalists, WTA, ATP, PGA, LPGA and Champions Tour professionals.” Some of them will do speaking gigs, others will have lunch with you. Each athlete offers different types of engagements for different prices. Thuzio is bringing transparency to a market that used to be pretty secretive, but they’re also opening new people up to the idea of hiring an athlete for an event. Many times it’s not nearly as expensive as you might assume (for instance flag football with Tiki Barber is only $1,000–though he has a strong incentive to keep his price low). If they really wanted to gain some attention, they’d offer birthday phone calls or something like that for 50 bucks. I’d totally try that. Thuzio already has a great cast of athletes, and they just got $1.5 million in funding. The company plans to “expand to include performing and visual arts, literature, lifestyle, and business talent,” so there’s a growth story that goes well beyond adding more athletes. Thuzio’s Careers page only shows one position that would be a fit for a new or recent grad (Talent Associate), but I have to imagine that more jobs will pop up as they start spending that $1.5 million.
Links to Help You Begin Your Research
Which pro athlete would you most like to meet?
