GumGum Sports’ Director Who Does It All: Neha Gupta
We are proud to announce that Neha Gupta, GumGum Sports’ Director of Business Operations, has been awarded the Cynopsis Top Women in Media — Directors Who Do It All. We could not imagine a better summary of Neha’s contributions to GumGum Sports. Neha has made a significant impact on the growth, development and organization of our rapidly growing global sports sponsorship analytics business. She joined GumGum Sports in its second year, and quickly applied her vast operating experience to drive efficiency, structure and leadership to our business and team.
We stole a few precious moments out of Neha’s day to chat about the award and her great leadership at GumGum Sports and within the Operational team.
Also — in case anyone out there is counting, this would be the SECOND prestigious industry award our Operations leadership team has won thus far in 2020. So yeah, we are pretty psyched about it!
Maya: Neha, as our Director of Business Operations, first, a huge congrats on the award of Cynopsis Top Women in Media, Directors Who Do It All!
Neha: Thank you!
M: Would you mind outlining your responsibilities as Director of Business Operations?
N: I lead three teams within GumGum Sports’ Customer Success team: 1) the Business Insights Partner team, which is responsible for delivering insights, recommendations and best practices to our clients; 2) the Sales Operations team, which is responsible for deal structuring and profit margins, and with overall opex cost monitoring; 3) and finally the Operations team — they are responsible for the accuracy and delivery of our client’s data on a daily basis.
M: Amazing! That very much sums up “doing it all!” What brought you to GGS and into this role as Director of Business Operations?
N: I was first exposed to what Operations really is when I worked at Apple. They are a world class organization and I was so amazed about how they ran operations at that company. To be an operations person, it’s a specific brain type or personality type…and Maya, you’re like this, too!
M: 😬
N: You either are an operations person or you’re not. In my time at Apple, I realized this was the work I wanted to do: I want to help businesses build structure to scale in a healthy way. Specifically to GumGum Sports, two things drew me in: 1) I loved the idea of diving in at the ground level to develop an operations function and 2) the opportunity to lead and align teams toward the same strategic goal.
M: Definitely not easy tasks!
N: I figured the only way to learn how to lead a group of 30 people working towards the same vision was to actually do it, and the role here gave the opportunity to do that.
M: Sounds like a great metaphor and a coaching question that comes up a lot in sports — how do you get a team to win a championship? Though we are in sponsorship measurement, we are a nascent company working towards scaling, which can be deemed our “championship.” Do you have any key initial insights into what makes you successful so far in leading us toward that goal?
N: I have the benefit of coaching a really high quality team. Being the coach is a lot easier then because the team is self driven and they want to accomplish their goals and be successful, so it’s more guidance based. My first key learning would be as a small company, you’re only as good as the quality of your people, so hiring is super important. Second, engagement is also important, and showing your support by developing your people is essential.
M: Love it. On the note of winning teams — any favorite sports teams?
N: All teams UCLA!
M: Go Bruins! So random but I saw a UCLA sweatshirt in an H&M here in London…
N: I’m not sure if it’s still true, but at one point UCLA was either the most or one of the most globally recognized schools in the world.
M: It’s all about the sweatshirts.
N: And Hollywood!
M: Oh of course. Any good Hollywood memories from your time at UCLA during undergrad?
N: Ones that I can share in a work setting….let’s see…a good sports one — one time I was walking to class and Tom Brady was walking in front of me with his son. And he was wearing a TB12 shirt, and I was kind of guessing it was him and so I just said…. “Tom!”
M: Nooooo you didn’t!
N: Yes, and he just turned around and said, “Hey!”
M: Like longtime friends, unreal! Speaking of rockstars, tell us more about how it feels to win this award!
N: Being in operations, the title of this award really captures the nature of an Ops role, which is essentially doing a little bit of everything.
M: Definitely. You are a true Operations guru for us at GumGum Sports. I think it’s important to note you are one of three women in senior leadership within GumGum Sports. How have you seen the landscape of sports and tech evolve in terms of gender representation?
N: In my ten year career working in tech and sports and tech, I have seen significant underrepresentation that I thought would improve over time, but unfortunately I haven’t seen that much change. Bottom line, I want to encourage more women to work in sports or tech.
M: Yes!!! So, it’s important to note 2020 has been a year some would say they may rather forget. But, it’s also brought some really interesting and valuable moments for us in the sports industry: fan-less environments, tarp coverings over empty seats, how to engage with fans when they’re all watching from home….it’s been different. Do you have any thoughts about the future for GGS?
N: I think going back to leading teams which was a big draw to coming to GGS, success is going to be how we can maintain alignment and connectivity in a remote environment.
M: Couldn’t have said it better. Thanks for your time Neha — we’re lucky to have you leading our teams and this is a very well deserved award!
