2016 Super Bowl Champion Brandon Marshall to Keynote Seattle’s Inaugural Sports Venture Week

From Nov. 30 to Dec. 5, six days of summits, pitches and a charity league bring Seattle’s sports, tech, founder and funder communities together

SEATTLE, WA, UNITED STATES, November 12, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Athletes, founders, investors and nonprofit leaders will gather across Seattle Nov. 30 to Dec. 5 for the city’s first Sports Venture Week. Led by the nonprofit Venture Black and co-organized by the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA), Founders Live and Gametime Hero, the week opens with a keynote from Super Bowl champion and B.Marsh Acquisitions CEO Brandon Marshall. Featured speakers include Court Lorenzini, founding CEO of DocuSign and founder and CEO of Venture Executive Network.

Five signature events anchor the week, and a badge covering all five starts at $150. Sports, tech and venture organizations also host free events throughout the week.

“Sports and venture run on the same things: teamwork, taking smart risks and knowing the field,” said Evan Poncelet, executive director of Venture Black and lead organizer of Sports Venture Week. “Sports Venture Week puts sports professionals, current and former athletes, tech founders, investors and philanthropic leaders in the same rooms to learn about founding and investing in businesses that scale, sportstech innovation and causes. The relationships that start here will keep paying off long after the final whistle.”

The Venture Club League

The Venture Club League brings an active, charitable twist to the venture conference. Sixteen clubs compete in 2-on-2 pickleball, 3-on-3 basketball and one-on-one esports, moving from group stages on Nov. 30 to the championship on Dec. 5. Each club plays for a local nonprofit it chooses, and 60% of proceeds go to those nonprofits. Clubs and individual players can register at sportsventureweek.com, which runs on Gametime Hero.

“We built Gametime Hero so organizers can spend their time on people, and that’s what this week is about,” said Brittany Bell, co-founder and CEO of Gametime Hero. “It’s a chance for athletes, founders, investors and nonprofit leaders to get to know each other, and I think the city’s sports community will feel that for a long time.”

Week at a Glance

– Monday, Nov. 30: Opening Day Summit & Expo. Marshall’s keynote, talks from Lorenzini and other featured speakers, an expo and the league’s opening round fill the day at Hilton Motif Seattle.

– Tuesday, Dec. 1: GivingTuesday. The panel “Beyond the Game: Who Owns the Future of Women’s Sports?” leads into the Founders Live Athletes Big Bash at the Showbox, where current and former athletes pitch the companies they’re building.

– Wednesday, Dec. 2: Rising Sports in Film Screening: Stories of Possibility. After an afternoon session called “Start Like You Want to Finish,” badge holders close the day with new films from local and independent filmmakers on unconventional paths into business and the bonds sports create, including for athletes with disabilities.

– Thursday, Dec. 3: The Business of Women’s Sports. Rough & Tumble in Ballard hosts a full-day track for the women building the business of women’s sports. Learn more at thebusinessofwomenssports.com.

– Saturday, Dec. 5: The Venture Black Q4 Venture Conference. A half-day on fundraising and growth for underrepresented founders and investors at Hilton Motif Seattle leads into the league championships and awards ceremony.

The full calendar, including free events hosted by community partners, is at sportsventureweek.com.

Event Details

Event badges, individual event tickets and Venture Club League registration are available at sportsventureweek.com. Applications to sponsor, speak, volunteer or host a free community event are also open on the site. Media interested in attending can request credentials from Evan Poncelet at admin@sportsventureweek.com. Interviews with organizers and select speakers, along with logos, headshots and photos, are available on request. Follow Sports Venture Week on Instagram and LinkedIn.

About Venture Black

Venture Black is a Seattle-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to connect, empower and support the Black venture community. It brings social and working capital together for Black and ally founders, investors and service providers building venture-backable companies to scale. That work includes partnerships, founder education, capital readiness evaluation, investor training and amplification. Venture Black hosts quarterly Venture Conferences and pitch competitions and makes twice-yearly investments through its affiliated angel investors, including members of the Washington State Black Angel Network, which it recently absorbed, and new angels from its accelerator for accredited investors. Learn more at venture-black.org.

About WTIA

The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) is Washington state’s technology industry association. For more than 40 years, the nonprofit has brought together nearly 1,000 member companies to solve problems they can’t easily solve alone. Its work spans policy and advocacy, programs for founders and small businesses, and more than 40 events a year. Learn more at washingtontechnology.org.

About Founders Live

Founders Live is a global network that supports early-stage founders through community, feedback and connections. Nick Hughes started it in Seattle in 2014 as a small local gathering. It now spans more than 160 cities in more than 60 countries. At each event, five founders get 99 seconds to pitch to a live audience, followed by four minutes of audience questions. Then the audience votes to determine the winner. Winners advance through regional and national competitions to a global, livestreamed championship. Learn more at founderslive.com.

About Gametime Hero

Gametime Hero gives coaches, leagues, social groups and nonprofits one place to run and grow their communities, with nothing to stitch together. Organizers run events, collect payments, manage members and build their website in one connected platform they can shape to fit how their community works. Brittany Bell, DBA, and AR Bell, both lifelong coaches and organizers, built Gametime Hero after moving to Seattle and running into the Seattle Freeze. More than 12,000 organizers and participants now use it. Learn more at gametimehero.com.

Evan Poncelet
Sports Venture Week
admin@sportsventureweek.com
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn
Instagram

Media gallery