Dan Shevchik has established himself as a key player at Sports Media Advisors, overseeing more than 30 clients and helping to negotiate $10 billion worth of media rights deals, including with Little League, the U.S. Tennis Association and NASCAR.

But there was a time that Shevchik wondered if he made the right career choice. Having just earned a Stanford MBA, Shevchik recalls walking into Sports Media Advisors’ New Canaan, Conn., office in 2009.

“Doug Perlman and I were subletting a single room of a bigger office that had no windows and one desk,” Shevchik said. “We quickly moved offices and got two rooms and had windows. While my business school friends were off to high-flying hedge funds and private equity jobs and, probably, decorating budgets, I found myself assembling Ikea furniture in between working on Excel models and presentation decks.”

The move paid off. In the ensuing nine years, Shevchik has been instrumental in helping to build this startup into an established company in the business, getting promoted, helping to bring in millions in revenue and making a name for himself with rights deals.

“The NASCAR deal was particularly interesting with a number of strategic elements coming into play — shifting telecast partners, the number of packages with partners, multiple series, lots of industry constituencies to consider,” he said.

It’s the deal between the Westminster Kennel Club and FS1 that Shevchik will remember most — not necessarily because of any deal terms.

“We wrapped up the last contractual terms, and I headed home thinking I was going to have a relaxing weekend,” he said. “I had a few emails to get out, and as I’m pressing send on the last one, my wife told me to come look at something. She was pregnant and still a few weeks away from her due date. … It turned out that her water had broke, and I became a dad the next day.”

— John Ourand