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If a private equity firm functions ideally, it purchases a struggling company or organization, fixes what’s broken, and returns that entity to the world in better condition than it was found.
When Nicole Jeter West looked at the sports, media, entertainment and nonprofit sectors, their cultural environment was typically the broken element. West made a nearly three-decade career as a marketing and strategic executive with the New York Knicks and Liberty, the United States Tennis Association, Legends and the campaign to bring the Olympics to Los Angeles in 2028, before joining Underdog Venture Team as its CEO last year to help diverse founders build their brands.
“You have the CEO who’s Black and Puerto Rican and a woman; the majority of my leadership team is made up of women from all backgrounds; you have people in our company who identify as gay; then you have people in our company who have vast experience in sports, others in media, others in entertainment,” West said. “We bring together a mini U.N., and it is a reflection of the communities we serve. … That’s what brands want, and it’s what they should want.”
Today, private equity firm NewSpring announced the acquisition of Underdog with the intention of forming Underdog & Company—a firm all its own designed to acquire companies within the sports, media, entertainment and nonprofit sectors, and address their lackluster commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
By giving companies the resources to find and afford diverse talent, make strategic acquisitions and open a far broader worldview, Underdog & Company intends to prepare them for a world in which myriad streaming services, niche sports leagues, and athletes with name, image and likeness deals have no need for a monoculture.
But if an organization’s approach to DEI involves hiring an arbitrary number of people on a short timetable while doing nothing to address the culture surrounding them, it’s courting catastrophic failure. West—who will still serve as Underdog Venture Team’s CEO as it becomes an Underdog & Company subsidiary—asserts that real commitment to inclusion is a long-term proposition, and that they’re prepared to wait for investments to yield their desired returns.
“In Adweek recently, there was an article about why marketers of color are quitting: That’s a real issue at the brand level and at the agency level,” West said. “The unfair expectations that are being put on those marketers to deliver and not get supported in the way that they need to… that’s an issue for our industry.