Rich Kleiman (born November 27, 1976) is an American entrepreneur. A native New Yorker, he is
Kevin Durant
Kevin Wayne Durant ( ; born September 29, 1988), also known by his initials KD, is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball for t ...
’s longtime agent and later business partner with Durant in 35V (Thirty Five Ventures). Founded in 2016, 35V incorporates Kleiman and Durant's business entities, including Durant’s personal brand marketing portfolio and on-court contracts, an investment portfolio and the sports business media network
Boardroom.
''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' has called Kleiman a visionary with an "established track records in starting companies, investing in emerging brands and in disrupting existing markets."
Career
35V (Thirty Five Ventures)
Kleiman's early years at 35V included investments in more than 100 companies, including digital sports network
Overtime
Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:
*by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...
, digital currency platform
Coinbase
Coinbase Global, Inc., branded Coinbase, is an American publicly traded company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Coinbase is a distributed company; all employees operate via remote work and the company lacks a physical headq ...
, spare change app
Acorns, delivery company
Postmates
Postmates is a food delivery service, founded in 2011, and acquired by Uber in 2020. It offers local delivery of restaurant-prepared meals and other goods. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
, Postmates operates in 2,940 U.S. ...
and NBA Top Shot by Dapper Labs. Under Kleiman, 35V started investing in emerging sports teams such as
Philadelphia Union and
Gotham FC, as well as sports leagues including
Premier Lacrosse League
Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) is an American professional field lacrosse league, composed of 8 teams. The league's inaugural season debuted on June 1, 2019, and included a 14-week tour-based schedule taking place in 12 major-market cities. The le ...
and
Athletes Unlimited Volleyball
Athletes Unlimited Volleyball (AUV) is a women's professional indoor volleyball league in the US, founded in 2021. Players are not committed to one team but switch teams every week of a season. Players who earned most points each week become capt ...
.
35V's flagship project is Boardroom, a media network that covers the business of sports, entertainment and culture. Boardroom was launched in 2019 and includes editorial, video, social media content, daily newsletters and podcasts by Kleiman and Durant.
Kleiman and Durant media projects under the Boardroom umbrella include the Academy Award-winning ''
Two Distant Strangers'' (Netflix), the scripted series
Swagger (by
Apple TV+
Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...
) and the 2022
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
documentary ''
NYC Point Gods''.
Roc Nation Sports
In 2013, Kleiman helped launch
Roc Nation Sports
Roc Nation Sports is the sports management division of Roc Nation.
History
Roc Nation Sports was founded by Shawn "JAY-Z" Carter in Spring 2013 in partnership with Creative Artists Agency, a prominent talent agency based in Los Angeles. Roc Nat ...
, where he served as Vice President of the sports agency founded by
Jay-Z. He worked with athletes such as
Victor Cruz,
CC Sabathia
Carsten Charles Sabathia Jr. (born July 21, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily with the New York Yankees. He also played for the Cleveland Indians and Milwauk ...
,
Skylar Diggins-Smith and Robinson Cano. Kleiman started with Roc Nation in 2008 as a music manager representing artists, DJs and producers such as D Nice, Mark Ronson, Solange, Wale and
Meek Mill
Robert Rihmeek Williams (born May 6, 1987), known professionally as Meek Mill, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he embarked on his music career as a battle rapper, and later formed a short-lived rap group, ...
. Kleiman's career in entertainment began at Radical Media, where he was a music supervisor, as well as a producer on projects such as Jay-Z's feature-length documentary Fade To Black.
Personal life
Kleiman married Jana Ilyse Gold in November 2003. They have two children. Kleiman's family resides in
Manhattan, New York
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, where he grew up.
References
External links
Interviewo
ForbesProfile
o
Bloomberg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kleiman, Rich
1976 births
Living people
American sports agents
Sports executives and administrators
Businesspeople from New York City