Name Daniel Porter | Role Entrepreneur | |
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Daniel Jonathan Porter (born June 13, 1966) is a Jewish American Internet entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Overtime, a digital sports platform. He was previously the Head of Digital at William Morris Endeavor, the former CEO of OMGPOP and the creator of the Draw Something mobile game. Following to the sale of OMGPOP to Zynga, he was the GM of Zynga New York for one year following the sale. He also served as the first President of Teach For America
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Background
Born in Cambridge MA, Porter was raised in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. His parents were college professors at the University of Pennsylvania and Bryn Mawr College. His great uncle is the Nobel Prize–winning economist Milton Friedman. He is married to filmmaker Melanie Judd and they have two sons.
Educational career
Porter began by teaching at Clara Barton High School in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. in 1990 he joined the early team of Teach America at its first summer training institute and in 1994 became the President of Teach For America where he worked on the expansion of the program to Phoenix and Seattle and the Americorps program. After leaving Teach For America, Porter ran Cities in Schools, a youth organization in New York City, which also was a partner with Goldman, Sachs in running the High School, Metropolitan Corporate Academy.
Business career
In 1999 Porter served as the President of TicketWeb. He led its sale to TicketMaster (IAC) in 2000.
Porter also worked for Richard Branson's Virgin Group where he started the Virgin Festival in North America, ran Corporate development for Virgin USA and invested in several companies.
In 2012 he was named by Business Insider as the 6th most influential person in New York tech.
In April 2013 Porter left Zynga
From 2013 - 2016 Porter ran digital at WME - IMG where he conceived of and launched the Esports practice, culminating in the E League, led the digital talent division, launched the fashion network Made to Measure and launched and led WME Ventures.
Draw Something
In 2009 Porter became the CEO of Iminlikewithyou which subsequently changed its name to OMGPOP. In February 2012 the company released the mobile game Draw Something. In 50 days the game shot to 50 million downloads making it at the time the fastest-growing mobile game ever. On March 22, 2012 Zynga acquired OMGPOP for $180 million. Draw Something eventually recorded over 100 million downloads.
Controversy
Porter stirred controversy when, over Twitter, he slammed a former employee who decided to leave the company concurrent with the acquisition. He was involved in a back and forth over Twitter with Notch of Minecraft fame.[1]
Education
Porter is a 1988 graduate of Princeton University with an A.B. in History. He is a 1995 graduate of NYU with an M.A. in Latin American Studies. He graduated from Friends Central School, in Wynnewood PA.