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Summer MBA Role Assistant Chief of Staff / COO

UpStaged Entertainment Group
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Upstaged Entertainment Group

Empowering our Nation’s Student Performers

Job Description: Summer MBA Role

Assistant Chief of Staff / COO

 

For portfolio of Growth Stage Tech/Media/Sports/Ent. Properties

About the Role

We seek an operationally minded MBA for the summer as an assistant Chief of Staff / COO to founder of 3 small growth Sports/Ent/Media properties (and 1 Wall Street M&A/BD Bus.). The candidate will help drive process, operations and execution across:

  • UpStaged Entertainment: NCAA of College/HS/Amateur Performing Arts (PA), early version of Varsity Cheer business sold to KKR for $3 Bil. Focused on 1) Events 2) Content 3) Priority, the Max Preps/Team Snap type tech, including SAAS, platform
  • United States Sports Film Festival (USSFF): The Canne, Sundance, SWSX of sports film, a property focused on a 4-day Festival “Hub” with cities pitching to be annual host celebrating intersection of sports and cinema.
  • Varsity Pickleball Holdings (VP): A venture to build and accelerate, collegiate/HS pickleball ecosystem/championships.
  • Unrelated M&A/BD Business – Focuses on researching, identifying and advising on M&A/BD targets for corp. clients.

See outline of each of the 3 properties on pg. 2. As relates to UpStaged, it is in a critical stage of leveraging its track record of PA event production, content and knowledgebase to build - or partner to build with one of many PE/Industry backed similar sports management platforms - “the” tech platform for PA group management, communication and content. Role includes helping oversee this process.

The candidate will report to the Co-Founders, including CEO, Stephan Hartman, a Wall Street Executive and Sports/Ent/Media industry entrepreneur and have support from a well credentialed Board of EdTech, Sports & Ent. and Media Execs. Mr. Hartman and firm, have a long track record of helping successful interns find jobs in the media/sports/Ent and other industries and on Wall Street.

Key Responsibilities

  • Manage Process across Ventures – Help manage, drive, oversee execution of initiatives and timelines across all entities.
  • Operational Development: Design and improve internal systems, including SOPs, trackers, dashboards, and communications.
  • Review Software Platforms – Evaluate comparable sports management SAAS platforms as partners on PA platform.
  • Facilitate Stakeholder & Board Communication: Among stakeholders including advisors, partners, BD. members.
  • Special Projects: Help oversee/coordinate investor presentations, partnership development, prototype product initiatives.

Ideal Candidate Profile  

  • Track Record of “Managing Process”, Driving Tasks - Ability to organize processes, help to manage small teams, lead internal and external communication and drive projects to completion to achieve bottom line results. 
  • Strong Communication and Research Skills - Ability to create outlined plans, write and edit clear, structured copy, oversee and efficiently communicate internally and externally and research and .
  • Entrepreneurial Mindset - High comfort level of proactive work in a lean, entrepreneurial, and nimble organization, and a demonstrated professional leadership.  Ability to self-manage and stay flexible to challenges that arise.
  • Effective Working in Diverse Teams – We have a small, diverse virtual team, varying in age, location, background, experience.  Candidates should practice empathy, social awareness, and cultural competency, internally and externally.
  • SAAS Build Experience a Bonus - Experience with SAAS platform builds and/or review/evaluation of software/platforms.

Key Details

  • Timing: Immediate - Summer 2025, Hybrid/Remote, optional travel to NYC, Phil, or other meeting locations
  • Compensation: Modest Bi-weekly salary, TBD, along with potential summer end bonus
  • Applying: Email resume and note outlining background and interest to: Victoria Duruh at victoria.duruh@upstagedu.com

     

UpStaged Entertainment (“UpStaged”)

UpStaged, and our National Collegiate Performing Arts (NCPA)TM & National HS Performing Arts (NHSPA)TM – is the NCAA of College/HS/Amateur Performing Arts (PA), early version of Varsity Cheer business sold to KKR by Bain for $3 Bil. Focus on 1) events 2) Content 3) building Max Preps/Team Snap type tech platform. See with Founder &  Kellogg Sports/Ent/Media investors.

As background, 480K NCAA athletes (25K teams, 24 sports): well organized, generate $19B+. But a 40M+ PA Ecosystem (15M performers, 1M groups, 35 genres): fragmented, unmonetized white space. We empower performers like athletes, superimposing sports models (Competition, NIL, App) including in our NCPA/NHSPA “March Madness” type championships. 

UpStaged is now in process of building a Max Preps/Team Snap type Tech PA platform, leading with a management app (calendar, communication, fundraising) similar to, or in partnership with (current discussions), analogous sports management apps/platforms like SportsEngine (NBC Owned), Team Snap (Kellogg VC Owned), Gamechanger (Dick Sporting Goods owned). 


 

U.S. Sports Film Festival (“USSFF”)

The Festival celebrates sports through film, bringing together athletes, artists and audiences to experience sports stories as powerful, communal art. It was created to fill a surprising gap in the film festival world: a major, national-caliber event that honors the drama, humanity, and spectacle of sports — on the screen and behind the camera. See attached program from 1st Festival

in locations from Philly to Super Bowl in Miami, NYC, Hamptons, the USSFF attracted the biggest sports filmmakers: Mark Ciardi (Miracle, Invincible, The Rookie, Secretariat) Mike Tollin (The Bronx is Burning), ESPN’s 30 for 30 team, Ken Burns’ and his Baseball, giving audiences a front-row seat into great sports moments transformed into cinematic legacy. The 4 day Festival features: 

  • Best in new and Old Sports films – I.e. Old classics like Miracle, Secretariat, Hoosiers, etc., and best new feature and doc films 
  • Featured Panel after Every film – Of actors, producers, athletes involved with, each moderated by sponsor, or celeb, host 
  • Impact Sports Film Program– Films showing sports impact (”Kicking It” World Cup of Soccer for Homeless, Colin Farrel) 
  • Additional Bells & Whistles – Sports film Casting, conferences, sports & Ent lawyer events, potential  

The festival had been on hold, but partners in several cities – Chicago, Atlanta, OKC leading to its 2028 Olympic events – have interest in helping re-launch it, initially as a powerful storytelling leading up to 250th anniversary in 2026, with the longer team goal of it becoming annual event, helping brand a city – as with Canne, SWSX, Sundance Tribeca - as “the” place for sports film.

 

Varsity Pickleball holdings (“VP”)

While pickleball has exploded in popularity, the College/HS/Alum segments remain fragmented and unmonetized — a white space similar to early days of other scholastic sports ecosystems. Leveraging UpStaged’s experience in launching dynamic, media-ready collegiate properties, VP has worked with the two major Pickleball to help launch properties, including in process on the following: