Behind every successful business is a power player behind the scenes making it go.
For Boardroom, one of those people is Sarah Flynn, who serves as the CMO, where she oversees marketing, growth strategy and partnerships, and leading initiatives across the company’s cutting-edge events, brand partnerships, and audience development. Co-founded by Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman, Boardroom is a premier sports, media and entertainment brand focused on the intersection of sports and entertainment through top-notch storytelling, innovative experiences and unmatched access to talent. Spearheading the marketing division, Flynn works closely alongside the company’s growing investment portfolio of sports teams and leagues to create marketing opportunities and community engagement.
Full of innovative ideas and talent, she also produces award-winning film and TV projects, while helping to oversee Durant’s marketing/partnerships, including his lifetime deal with Nike. I sat down with Flynn ahead of Boardroom’s MLB All-Star Celebrity Softball afterparty in Atlanta, which is an extension of the company’s expanded strategic partnership with the MLB.
You can check out the interview below.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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SN: Thanks for chatting with us, Sarah! Let's start by having you introduce yourself to our audience.
Flynn: My name is Sarah Flynn, and I am the CMO of Boardroom. My background is very much in the entertainment industry, especially as it pertains to working with talent across the board. I got my start in the music industry working at independent record labels, and understanding the nuts and bolts of the industry when it comes to startups. My first job was when I was 21/22—I worked with five dudes in their thirties at a record label. It was the nuts and bolts of understanding every little thing that goes into working with an artist, working on an album and understanding how to promote a tour. Also, in those days, we had to navigate the early days of social media when Facebook was just a place where you had to have a college email address. I had to understand what we used to call new media, which has now become a standard.
Around 2013, I got the opportunity to work with one of my old bosses at Roc Nation, which was appealing to me because they had a label and a management company, and they were doing a lot of work with brands. I wanted to expand my knowledge base. A month after I went over there, they launched Roc Nation Sports and asked if I wanted to work with the athlete clients in digital marketing.
I said yes, and it very quickly took over my universe. I spent some time at The Players’ Tribune after that, and was then lucky enough to get a call from Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman. They had left Roc and were starting to build their own thing. We had worked together for years at Roc Nation, and sort of built a foundation of trust. They asked if I wanted to come work with them, and fast forward some years later, that thing is Boardroom, which is exciting!
SN: Awesome! What is a day in your life like for you?
Flynn: It varies by the day! I always tell people that 25 percent of the things I focus on for the day, I may not have known about when I woke up. I always keep myself on my toes. My world is a balance between Kevin’s marketing, which is separate from Boardroom, but lives in the world of 35V. I’m also heavily focused this month on many events we’re pushing into the world. We’re working with the MLB, and their afterparty for the Celebrity All-Star Game in Atlanta. We also have many upcoming events with the WNBA.
We have a flagship party that we host every year with Coinbase, who is a valuable partner to us, and I’m working on a smaller VIP brunch with Chase, which has become a great partner to athletes like A’ja Wilson and Steph Curry. They are starting to do more in the women’s sports space, and I’m working with them on something impactful for WNBA All-Star. I’m also doing all of the program planning for our conference in September with CNBC, "Gameplan." Separately, we have a new partnership with Yahoo we’re excited about, and a new show Rich is hosting that we’re in the planning stages of, which begins in August.
SN: Let’s talk about Fanatics Fest. There was that big moment with Kevin Durant getting traded. How was that overall?
Flynn: It was great! The interesting thing about Fanatics Fest is that Boardroom and our company showed up in multiple ways. First, we did a three-day athlete and immersion program where we had 25 athletes show up, and it was basically like— here’s all the things you need to be thinking about for the next phase of your career. They got to meet CEOs and leaders around the country. Bringing these athletes into our world and helping create a larger network for them was super important. We will be running that back in December for a lot of the women’s sports leagues and the MLB in their off-season.
On the floor of Fanatics Fest, we helped Major League Baseball do its programming, which was a very cool moment. The third layer in all of that was, of course, Kevin Durant is having this wonderful moment on stage with Taylor Rooks after getting traded, which created extra fun on top of everything. It was fun to talk to Taylor right after that.
SN: Could you talk a little bit more about the MLB All-Star Celebrity Softball afterparty in Atlanta?
Flynn: Yes! We have a comprehensive partnership with the MLB overall. They’ve been great partners. The through-line for us has been to work with them to get talent and reach out to our connections where we’ve needed to. We decided to have a celebratory moment after the game so that all the players could have a place to have fun. Quavo’s performing, and we’re leaning into the city in of itself. Our content team is going to be on the ground as well, capturing those moments.
Then there's the MLB Awards later on this year in Las Vegas, which happens in November, and is another event to celebrate the players. This event is important to us because it’s an opportunity to be in the room with these players and give them a fun experience when they’re not in season. These athletes have a very long season, and it’s hard for them to think about what they want to do from a marketing perspective during that time. To create off-season creativity and put them in a room with people they wouldn’t normally be in a room with is fun. Last year, Travis Scott came, and it was cool to see some of these very famous baseball players excited to be in a room with somebody like that.
SN: Let's get to the ladies. There’s a big weekend in Indy for WNBA All-Star. What do you guys have planned for that?
Flynn: This is our third year doing a welcome to the weekend event with Coinbase. They were a company that, very early on, was putting a stake in the ground with investing in the W in a way that you are starting to see a lot of brands do now. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate the players, influencers and creators that make the game as special. It’s going to be fun, and obviously, Indy is an incredible market for the W. We’re doing something smaller with A’ja Wilson and Chase, too. Also, fun timing as we’re talking about the Collective Bargaining Agreement going into negotiations about player marketing as a whole. From a personal perspective, that is something I am super engaged in, as I’m on the Board of Advocates for the Players Association.
Going into these kinds of moments thinking top of mind on how we show up for these players is super important.
SN: Awesome. Let’s chat a bit about Boardroom’s successful film and television projects. For example, there’s "Swagger" and "NYC Point Gods." Not a lot of people can say that they’ve won an Academy Award!
Flynn: Thank you! The distinguishing factor for us is that when we do those things, they’re passion projects. Film and TV are not a huge part of our business, so when we do them, it’s because it’s something we wanted to do. We have a lot of irons in the fire we’re excited about, but at the same time, what we do has to have the right thought behind it, and we have to have the right involvement. "Point Gods" is an example of a film that was made in large part because Rich grew up in New York City, a huge basketball fan, and experienced all of these players growing up.
It’s fun to take all of these stories, connect them, and talk about them in a way that honors each other and their history. "Swagger" is another example. We had never worked on a scripted show before, but we had a great relationship with Apple and Imagine Entertainment, and got to work with an incredible showrunner and writer in Reggie Rock Bythewood and his wife, Gina Prince-Bythewood, who needs no introduction.
Being able to work with that team and tell something that was loosely based on Kevin’s childhood, but also on the present, was incredible. It was a story we knew we could have the right input on and marketing for. We’re very intentional about what we go to market with.
SN: Last question, if there is anything you would like to accomplish in the next five years, what would it be?
Flynn: There are so many things! Boardroom has become an established brand, but we’re still just getting started. I think there is so much more on the table for us. We have some partnerships and film projects in the works that I’m excited about and can’t wait to talk about. We want to keep growing and putting stakes in the ground. The entertainment element is also very important. From a content perspective, we’ve been able to show over this past year that we’re not just a sports media company, but that we’re about the business of sports and entertainment. Our last cover story was Spike Lee and Michael Rubin.
We’re telling different stories from other people, and being able to continue to craft an ecosystem that hits content and direct consumers with the experiential stuff that we do, and our different programs—all of these things work together and talk to each other to leverage opportunities we’re not even thinking about right now.
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