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Game Changers

Game Changers: Julie Kikla

Photo: COURTESY OF WILLIS WIGGINS

T
here are job changes that people think are career risks, and then there’s the move made by Julie Kikla, head of content partnerships and digital strategy for The Whistle.

Julie
Kikla
THE WHISTLE
Kikla had spent six years at Google, mainly as a key figure in YouTube’s sports content development efforts. By all accounts, it was a plum, secure gig. But last year, Kikla left to join The Whistle, the New York-based startup focused on creating sports programming for a youth audience. The company has prominent backers and a series of partnerships with major U.S. sports leagues, but Kikla was still venturing very much into the unknown.

“It was a bit terrifying at times but also really exciting because we were creating something completely brand new,” she said.

Twelve months later, Kikla has played a prominent role in the creation and accelerating growth of the Whistle Sports Network, an aggregation of the company’s many league partners, popular YouTube fixtures such as trick-shot artists Dude Perfect, and instructional sports outlets. The network boasts more than 7 million combined subscribers on YouTube and a quickly expanding presence on youth-focused platforms such as Xbox gaming consoles.

“There’s really no comparable out there to what we’ve built,” Kikla said. “It’s a completely new type of network for a different audience than what’s typically targeted. But we set out to be different.”

— Eric Fisher

  • Biggest professional achievement: Bringing together our pro league partners and digital superstars Dude Perfect, Brodie Smith and Shot Science to launch the Whistle Sports Network this January and keeping our team successfully focused on scaling quickly has been my biggest success to date. Watching the community grow in size and facilitating collaborations and cross-promotion has been personally rewarding.
  • Biggest professional disappointment: All the time spent worrying about things I could not control.
  • Woman in sports business you’d most like to meet: Amy Trask. She is a pioneer for women in sports, and from intern to CEO, she worked her way through the Raiders organization and earned the respect of Al Davis and the entire city.
  • Best advice received: Do your homework and be prepared. Devour everything you can about a person, team or company before you go into any meeting.
  • Outside of work and family, I’m spending a lot of my time on … : Planning my wedding! Walking down the aisle in late October to marry the man of my dreams and adventure buddy.

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