Tiffany Kelly is a total girl boss. From making strides in the corporate world to carving her own path as CEO, it’s clear why.
Kelly’s past employer lineup includes the Miami Heat, LSU and even ESPN. Talk about some big names. With knowledge of data science and analytics and a love for sports, Kelly burst her way into the usually male-dominated field.
“There were only a few roles and positions that I guess were just normal for women to have [working in sports],” she says. “I took a very different approach. My parents were always very open growing up, like, ‘If people discriminate against you, don’t be surprised if that happens… But don’t expect it to happen either.’”
|
|
|
Now, Kelly is an entrepreneur as the founder and CEO of Curastory, a video enablement tool that helps creators make content and monetize it. It provides music, equipment and software and allows distribution across multiple social media platforms.
The idea to start something like Curastory came to Kelly after seeing her ESPN co-workers, including famous talent, break away from the big network to start thier own podcasts and projects. After Kelly left ESPN, NIL became a hot new topic, too.
“All of that going on was fascinating to watch in real time,” she says. “You’re just seeing this empire crumble so quickly—watching all of that and understanding OK, this isn’t going to last or it’s going to look very different, and media over time is actually going to be made up of all these little independent creators and niche media companies that have two to three people.”
Curastory, based in New York, also helps creators make ads using their own voices that can be used within their original content. Kelly says the platform is the first “programmatic ad-tech platform for creator ads,” which means that it automates the process of connecting brands with creators.
Since launching in 2021, Curastory now has about 500,000 creators who use the platform to streamline content creation. It has also received over $3 million from investing firms. What started as a platform focused on sports and fitness has grown to include a multitude of subjects like cooking, beauty, travel, fashion and more.
The success of Curastory has helped Kelly make a name for herself in both the entrepreneur and media world and even secured her a spot on Forbes’ 2023 30 Under 30 media list. Add that to her already impressive list of career feats.
Entrepreneurship has had its ups and downs, but Kelly says she’s glad she left behind the nine-to-five grind. When she’s not working, Kelly says she loves to read fiction and travel outside of the country.
|
|
|
Though the CEO lives in the hustle and bustle of New York City, Kelly still fondly remembers home. From her supportive parents to the positive impact of her high school years, she says her upbringing here in Baton Rouge is one of the reasons she’s where she is today
“The confidence that I had, that you need to have when building a company because you kind of have to be a little crazy and overconfident,” she says, “I think part of that was built at home, but I think a lot of it was built at [St. Joseph’s Academy] as well.”
This story originally appeared in inRegister. To keep up with inRegister, subscribe to the free inRegister@Home e-newsletter here.