2 Minutes With … Jessica Robertson, Co-Founder and CCO of TOGETHXR

Jessica co-founded TOGETHXR with gold medalists Alex Morgan, Sue Bird, Chloe Kim and Simone Manuel in Jan. 2020. As chief content officer, she oversees creative, development and strategy, driving partnerships and revenue initiatives. Earlier, she led content at The Players’ Tribune, and she’s held posts at MTV, AOL and Rolling Stone. Jessica has also served as executive producer of several Emmy-nominated and award-winning series.

We spent two minutes with Jessica to learn more about her background, her creative inspirations and recent work she’s admired.

Where you grew up, and where you live now.

I grew up in a small town in western Kentucky, called Paducah. But moving to NYC was my dream, and I did that during my last year of college. After calling New York home for 15 years, I moved to Los Angeles in Jan. 2020 (talk about timing!) to build and launch TOGETHXR.

Your earliest sports memory.

Before I could walk, my mom was taking my twin sister and me to watch my cousin play softball. I started playing both basketball and softball at the age of 4. My first adjustable basketball hoop was one of the old ones where you’d insert a pen or pencil to hold the level in place. I had a picture of Larry Bird on the backboard. Iconic.

Your favorite sports team(s).

I work with so many incredible athletes and have throughout my career, which means picking teams usually coincides with whoever they play for. But lifelong, the Tennessee Lady Volunteers. Pat Summitt was an early icon for me. So was Coach K, and despite being from Kentucky, I root for the Blue Devils. It’s a point of contention in my family.

Your favorite athlete(s).

Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, Sue Bird, Simone Manuel 

Your favorite sports show or podcast.

In the past few years, I’ve trained to become an amateur boxer. I’m passionate about the sport, and while I don’t listen to a lot of sports podcasts, my weekly go-to is Boxing with Chris Mannix. Great analysis, news, interviews and recaps.

Your favorite sports movie and/or video game.

Movie: A League of Their Own. Video Game: NBA Jam.

Something coming up for your organization that you are excited about.

We have a feature-length documentary coming to Prime Video this year that details how the incredible 144 women of the WNBA took on a team owner, who happened to be a U.S. senator, and, in turn, flipped a Georgia senate seat in 2020. That project is executive produced by Tracee Ellis Ross, Sue Bird and Nneka Ogwumike; Dawn Porter directed. 

What sports can do that nothing else can.

Sports is such a singular unifier. It’s also an equalizer. It can propel social change and move culture forward. Sports can also inspire a whole planet of people at once. It can create communities, turn the average into the extraordinary, make people believe in heroes and break your fucking heart. There’s nothing like it.

What you’d be doing if you weren’t in the sports world.

I started my career as a journalist for Rolling Stone, and music is still (and always will be) central to who I am. But these days, I go to bed before the opening act even comes on. The throughline of my career is that I consider myself, first and foremost, a storyteller. I think less about which industry I’m in, and more about which stories I want to tell and why. If that doesn’t work out … dog walker.