#5
My hire number. The roster and staff were already there.
CASE STUDY · ENVY GAMING · CMO, EMPLOYEE #5
Building Envy's marketing team.
CMO and employee number five, 2016 to August 2018. Marketing began with one intern.
I joined the Charlotte-area organization alongside the first small outside investment from the VC firm I worked with. It also had one of the best rosters in the world. I built the marketing engine while that team was named Esports Team of the Year, won world titles, moved to Dallas, and launched an Overwatch League franchise. Years after I left, a publicly traded broadcaster invested in the company at a valuation near $400M.
Day one · 2016
#5
My hire number. The roster and staff were already in place.
Early backing
I joined when the VC firm I worked with made its first small investment.
1 intern
The entire marketing team on day one.
North Carolina
A Charlotte-area org, before the Dallas move.
The roster was already championship caliber. I built the marketing function around it.
The starting line
Building marketing alongside Envy's first outside investment.
By the time most people found Envy, it was a Dallas franchise with tens of millions behind it. I found it earlier. When I joined in 2016, the venture firm I worked with was writing its first small outside investment check into Envy. The company was incorporated in North Carolina in 2012 and based in the Charlotte area. What it did have was a roster good enough to win worldwide, a full house of players and staff, and a marketing function that was one intern. I was employee number five.
My job was to build the marketing team, brand, and audience strategy around that roster. The first investment was in place. The much larger rounds and the Dallas move came later.
The climb
Thirty months, one direction.
Every marker here happened inside my tenure, 2016 to August 2018. The titles are org and team wins I supported as CMO, not competitions I played. The capital events are associated with the company while I was there, not things one hire caused. What I owned was the marketing engine running underneath all of it.
2016 · I join as employee #5 and CMO
I join the Charlotte-area org as the VC firm I worked with makes its first small investment. Marketing is one intern. The roster is already elite.
2016 · Esports Team of the Year
At the first Esports Awards, Team Envy is named Esports Team of the Year, over Fnatic, OpTic, TSM and Team Liquid.
Sep 2016 · Call of Duty world champions
The org wins the Call of Duty World League Championship, the biggest title in the game that year.
Dec 2016 · Overwatch champions in Seoul
Team EnVyUs wins OGN Overwatch APEX Season 1, the first Western-owned team to take a major title on Korean soil. This roster becomes the Dallas Fuel.
2017 · The Richards Group on launch creative
As the org builds toward its franchise, we work with The Richards Group, the largest independent ad agency in the country, on Dallas Fuel launch creative.
Sep 2017 · The raise and the Dallas move
A reported $35M investment from Kenneth Hersh moves the company from Charlotte to Dallas. A capital event associated with the org while I was there, not one I drove.
Oct 2017 · The Dallas Fuel is revealed
Envy buys one of the twelve inaugural Overwatch League slots, a reported $20M, and reveals the Dallas Fuel. I help carry the marketing and the story around the launch.
Jan 2018 · Dallas Fuel play their first match
The Fuel open their first Overwatch League season on Jan 10, a season that ran inside my tenure.
Aug 2018 · Where I left it
Marketing had grown from one intern to a 20-plus person org, with a 10-person team I ran directly and a fan base past a million across core channels.
What I built
The roadmap, brand and audience strategy.
I built the roadmap, brand and audience strategy, then hired against that work. By 2018 marketing was a 20-plus person organization, including a 10-person team I ran directly.
Marketing headcount
1 → 20+ intern to a full org
Marketing function only. I directly ran a 10-person team inside it.
Audience I helped scale
+1M fans across core channels
1,000,000+
Net audience growth across the org's core channels during my tenure. My firsthand figure.
10-person
Marketing team I ran directly.
20+
People in the marketing org I built the structure for.
30 mo
2016 to Aug 2018. Intern to franchise.
The four builds
Four things I built as the org scaled.
Brand
An identity a network could shake hands with
Team Envy read like a gamer tag. I built a brand a corporate sponsor and a broadcast partner could sit next to without flinching, one that still meant something to the fans who were there first.
Audience
Reach turned into an owned relationship
I set the audience strategy across the org's core channels and grew it by more than a million fans. Not rented impressions. A following the company owned and could bring to any deal.
Team
A marketing org that could keep pace
I hired against the roadmap, helping build a 20-plus person marketing function and running a 10-person team within it.
Franchise launch
Big-league creative for the Dallas Fuel
When Envy bought a Dallas Fuel slot in the Overwatch League, the org had to read as a franchise, not a fan club. I helped carry the launch marketing, working with The Richards Group, the largest independent ad agency in the US, on the creative.
Where the foundation went
I left in 2018. The roadmap did not.
$400M
Valuation Gray Television invested at in 2021
I built the marketing function during Envy's early investment years, before the larger rounds and Dallas move. In 2021, three years after I left, Gray Television, a publicly traded broadcaster, led a roughly $40M investment into Envy Gaming for about a tenth of the company, a valuation near $400M.
I am not going to claim I caused a number that landed years after I walked out the door. What I will claim is the part that was mine. I joined with early VC backing in place and one intern in marketing. I built the marketing function through the next phase of growth.
The point
The contribution was the team, brand and audience strategy during my 2016 to August 2018 tenure. The later investment valuation belongs to a different period. The distinction also matters when evaluating what a CMO owns.
One intern to a marketing organization. That was the work I owned.