Doug Bernstein is the GM at Bleacher Report's House of Highlights. We discuss what he learned from launching his own fantasy sports website, predicting the future of sports fandoms, how he convinced Turner and Bleacher Report to buy House of Highlights, why he’s inspired by Faze Clan and 100 Thieves, and fulfilling his destiny as a sports media savant. 

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Chris Erwin:

Hi, I'm Chris Erwin. Welcome to The Come Up, a podcast that interviews entrepreneurs and leaders.

Doug Bernstein:

Very early on in House of Highlights' lifespan, I became a really big fan of the account. I think we had about 500,000 followers. At this point, we would have these quarterly board meetings, and I ran through this deck, which outlined our pivot to social, and on the last slide, I had something that I really did not want to be a throw away, but I kind of was like, there's a good chance this is going to be a throw away, was like was this pitch to acquire House of Highlights. Luckily enough, the people in that room, again, didn't dismiss it. They were like, "Okay, make it happen."

Chris Erwin:

This week's episode features Doug Bernstein, the GM of House of Highlights, which is part of Bleacher Report. Doug grew up in Long Island and actually predicted a sports media career in third grade. In just middle school, he was making his own football cards. And while in college, accidentally ended up running the school paper and public access TV channel where he cut his teeth learning how to sell ads, be on camera and inspire a team. Then Doug got his real digital education when he went to AOL to run sports and news blogs. There, he realized that the next fandoms would be powered by user generated content and social media. So, he made the jump to Bleacher Report.

Chris Erwin:

At Bleacher, he ended up leading the acquisition of House of Highlights and now runs one of today's most exciting sports media brands. Some highlights of our chat include what he learned from responding to 400 blogger emails per day, how he convinced Turner to double down on digital, why he is inspired by FaZe Clan and 100 Thieves and fulfilling his destiny as a sports media savant. Alright, let's get into it. Doug, thanks for being on The Come Up podcast.

Doug Bernstein:

My pleasure, very excited to be here.

Chris Erwin:

Let's zoom back a bit and let's talk about where you grew up and what your household and parents were like. So I think you mentioned you grew up in Long Island, is that right?

Doug Bernstein:

That is correct. So I grew up in a town called Garden City, which is a suburb of New York City. It was me, my brother who's three or four years younger than myself and my mom and dad. And we just grew up in a really, really big sports household. A lot of my earliest memories are in and around sports. My dad loves to tell a funny story like when I was one, he was supposed to watch me and he got stuck on the WFAN call radio. My mom came home, I had a wet diaper crying, screaming, and he was still online to talk about the Yankees. I grew up playing a lot of soccer, watching a lot of basketball, playing soccer, basketball, and lacrosse. And then really just became infatuated with the Giants, the New York Giants, at a very, very young age.

Chris Erwin:

I was actually going to ask, what were the teams of your household? Who did you guys root for?

Doug Bernstein:

I am a very big and loyal diehard New York Giants fan. My brother has been more Jets but also somewhat of a colors guy. Like if they had good colors, he'd go in that direction. And my dad has always ... We've never had a set team, but I've always been a really, really big Giants fan to the point that I think it scared my parents when I was younger. I remember when I was in the third grade, the Giants had a loss and I put a note under my door. I went upstairs, put a note under my door and was like, "I'm not coming out until the start of next season. Knock on my door, put rice crispy cereal at the door, I'll eat it, but I'm going to stay in my room until the start of next season."

Chris Erwin:

How long did that last for?

Doug Bernstein:

I think it lasted until the next morning. I think my parents gave me a full Sunday, we're not going to bother him, and then Monday, "You got to go to school." We went to a lot of St. John's basketball games growing up, and that was a really formative experience. I loved going to those games with my dad and with my brother and being part of that atmosphere.

Chris Erwin:

What did you like about the live experience?

Doug Bernstein:

It was just everything. It was so cool to be able to watch the games, but also I think what I really gravitated towards was the people and the connections that were being made. So, every year, there'd always be the same older couple that would sit right in front of us, the same people that would sit behind us, next to us, and kind of those friendships and that comradery. I even remember when you're in kindergarten, first grade, these people you see them and then you see them again all the way through middle school. It's a really unique experience to have that. I grew up in a very non-religious household, so we rarely went to church, we rarely went to temple.

Chris Erwin:

The sports arena was your temple?

Doug Bernstein:

Exactly. So sports was that place where you congregated. I always remember when I'd go to church, there'd be that moment where you take people's hands and say peace be with you. And I would always feel like when I was at a game, it was the heightened version of that where you're clapping, people going crazy and having that feeling. So, I love being able to go to games. I think that was really, really formative for myself.

Chris Erwin:

You're going to games with your family I imagine through your early years and in middle school, was there a feeling like I'm probably going to end up in sports in my career in some way? When was that early glimpse?

Doug Bernstein:

I remember in second grade I would have to write journal entries, and I would write these five-page journal entries every Monday about the Giants recap. And then every Wednesday would be this three-page recap on the St John's game. And the teacher was like, "Why are you writing such long things about these sports when you're supposed to write about what you ate for breakfast and what you did with your friends?" So I remember that very distinctly standing out. I remember very distinctly in third grade, and my mom saved it, we were supposed to write about what it was we wanted to do when we were older, when we had a real career, and I wrote be a professional soccer player or work for ESPN. So I really was not good enough to be a professional soccer player but did end up working for ESPN.

Doug Bernstein:

And I was really lucky that I have parents that fostered it where we went to Bristol when I was in fourth grade and visited the ESPN campus. All of our vacations, we went to watch Duke in North Carolina. I don't know how my mom tolerated all this. We went to watch like US soccer in San Diego. A lot of our vacations as a kid were geared towards going to these sporting events.

Chris Erwin:

Oh wow.

Doug Bernstein:

It was really fun. I didn't really have a great context for work because my grandfather had started a company, my dad worked for that company, my uncles had worked for it. So there was always this, "Oh, that's the path is we worked for this family business."

Chris Erwin:

Was it sports-related at all?

Doug Bernstein:

No, no. I like to say they make like widgets. They may start off making fuses for TV, they make computer components, just a lot of little electrical equipment type stuff. So it was the furthest thing from my interest area. But as I got older, I was lucky enough to break into sports and not have to pursue that.

Chris Erwin:

I think you had also mentioned too, did you, at an early age, have to create your own basketball cards and fantasy football mag? So you had some sports entrepreneurship in you at an early age too?

Doug Bernstein:

I'm definitely putting my sports nerd hat very heavily right now. I was going through all our old boxes of cards, when cards was having a big resurgence of late, and I stumbled across a Kobe that should've been worth 40,000 but the edges were dented, that was heartbreaking. But I also stumbled across all these cards that I would make. Tim Duncan, Randolph Childress, Samaki Walker, all of these guys, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, I would made ... They didn't make college basketball cards, so I would make their card. I'd have an index, I'd get the magazine. I'd print up a little ... Like cut out the picture, find all their stats, write the stats on the back, give them a little bio. When I didn't have the pictures, I would draw. I liked to do a lot of art as a kid, so I would do that. I'd make little fantasy magazines and things of that nature which were always really fun.

Chris Erwin:

Were these just f