Adam Riess
2011 Nobel Laureate in Physics | Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Johns Hopkins | Discoverer of Dark Energy | Leader, SH0ES Team
AJ Vaynerchuk
CEO, VaynerSports | Co-Founder & Former COO, VaynerMedia | Certified NFL Agent | Founding Partner, VaynerRSE
AJ Vaynerchuk co-built VaynerMedia into a $100M+ digital agency, then co-founded VaynerSports to disrupt how professional athletes are represented and branded. A certified NFL agent, early investor in Uber and Venmo, and founding partner of VC fund VaynerRSE, he speaks from the rare vantage point of an operator who has built at every stage — and kept building through the personal challenge of managing Crohn's disease.
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AJ Vaynerchuk biography
AJ Vaynerchuk is a serial entrepreneur, certified NFL agent, venture capital investor, and one of the most operationally accomplished executives to emerge from the intersection of media, technology, and sports. He is CEO of VaynerSports, the full-service athlete representation agency he co-founded with his brother Gary Vaynerchuk in 2016, where he oversees contract representation, marketing, and client services for a roster of professional athletes spanning the NFL, MLB, and beyond. Before building VaynerSports, AJ co-founded VaynerMedia alongside Gary in 2009 and served as its Chief Operating Officer for seven years, scaling the company from a startup into one of the most influential digital agencies in the world — growing it past $100 million in annual revenue, expanding its global footprint, and building a team of more than 600 employees serving Fortune 500 clients including Budweiser, Chase, and PepsiCo.
Entrepreneurship speaker AJ Vaynerchuk has demonstrated an equally sharp eye for early-stage opportunity as an investor. Before founding VaynerRSE, the venture capital fund he leads as a founding partner with a focus on emerging platforms and technology, he was an active angel investor who backed Uber and Venmo — two of the most consequential consumer technology companies of the past two decades — before either had achieved mainstream recognition. That track record reflects a consistent ability to identify platform shifts and cultural momentum ahead of the market: the same instinct that drove VaynerMedia’s early dominance in social media marketing and that underpins VaynerSports’ disruptive approach to athlete representation.
Building the Modern Athlete Brand
VaynerSports was built on a premise that traditional sports agencies were leaving enormous value on the table: that professional athletes, when given the right combination of expert contract negotiation and genuine marketing sophistication, could build personal brands with the durability and commercial power of media companies. Under AJ’s leadership as CEO, VaynerSports has represented Pro Bowl and All-Pro NFL players including Allen Robinson, Leonard Williams, and Super Bowl champion Jordan Fuller, as well as a growing roster of athletes across baseball and combat sports. The agency has been at the forefront of the NIL revolution in college athletics, helping student-athletes secure brand deals that were unthinkable a generation ago.
AJ’s entrepreneurial journey has also been shaped by a deeply personal challenge: managing Crohn’s disease while building businesses at scale. His willingness to speak openly about navigating chronic illness alongside high-performance entrepreneurship has resonated powerfully with audiences and given his talks a dimension of honesty and humanity that distinguishes them from conventional business keynotes. As a speaker, AJ Vaynerchuk brings the operating perspective of someone who has actually built organizations — not consulted on them — and whose lessons about culture, hiring, scaling, and resilience are grounded in lived experience at every stage of the entrepreneurial journey.
AJ Vaynerchuk Speaking Videos
Entrepreneurial Success - With AJ Vaynerchuk
AJ Vaynerchuk on Building VaynerSports
AJ Vaynerchuk Keynote Topics
From two co-founders to 600+ employees and $100M+ in revenue — the story of VaynerMedia's growth is a masterclass in what it takes to scale an organization without sacrificing the culture that made it worth building in the first place. AJ Vaynerchuk takes audiences inside the operational reality of that journey: the hiring philosophies, the culture decisions, the moments of near-failure, and the leadership frameworks that allowed VaynerMedia to grow faster than almost any agency in its category while retaining the creative energy and people-first values that defined it. A grounded, specific, and highly practical talk for anyone navigating the complexity of organizational growth.
The business of sports has fundamentally changed. Athletes are no longer passive recipients of endorsement checks — they are media platforms, content creators, and brand founders in their own right. AJ Vaynerchuk has been at the forefront of this transformation as CEO of VaynerSports, combining decades of digital marketing expertise with deep knowledge of athlete representation to build what modern sports agency looks like. This keynote explores the new economics of athlete branding, the NIL revolution's implications far beyond college football, and what brands, organizations, and individuals can learn from the way elite athletes are now building audiences and commercial value across platforms.
Before Uber was ubiquitous and Venmo was a verb, AJ Vaynerchuk backed both as an angel investor. Before social media was considered a serious marketing channel, VaynerMedia was building a business on it. This keynote explores the pattern recognition, intellectual humility, and market intuition that underpins AJ's track record of identifying platform shifts early — and what that methodology looks like as a repeatable discipline rather than a series of lucky guesses. An invaluable talk for investors, entrepreneurs, and executives who want a sharper framework for navigating uncertainty and recognizing the signals that precede significant change.
Building companies is hard. Building companies while managing a chronic illness — as AJ Vaynerchuk has done throughout his entrepreneurial career — adds a dimension of personal challenge that most business speakers never address. In this candid and deeply personal keynote, AJ speaks about navigating Crohn's disease alongside the demands of high-growth entrepreneurship: the discipline of managing energy, the importance of radical honesty about your own limitations, the role of culture and team in sustaining performance when personal capacity is constrained, and the leadership philosophy that has allowed him to build at a high level for two decades without burning out. A rare and genuinely human talk about what resilience actually looks like in practice.
FAQs on Booking AJ Vaynerchuk
Why AJ Vaynerchuk?
Booking AJ Vaynerchuk means bringing to your audience an entrepreneur who has built not one but multiple organizations from the ground up — and who speaks about that experience with the operational specificity that only comes from having actually done it. He scaled VaynerMedia to $100M+ in revenue and 600+ employees as COO. He co-founded VaynerSports and disrupted the athlete representation industry. He backed Uber and Venmo as an angel investor before either was a household name. And he has navigated all of it while managing Crohn's disease — making his talks on resilience, culture, and entrepreneurship unusually authentic and personally resonant. For audiences in business, sports, marketing, or technology, AJ delivers insights that are both strategically rigorous and genuinely human. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to check his availability.
What is VaynerSports and what makes it different from traditional sports agencies?
VaynerSports is a full-service athlete representation agency co-founded by AJ and Gary Vaynerchuk in 2016. What distinguishes it from traditional agencies is its integration of media, marketing, and brand-building expertise alongside conventional contract negotiation. While most sports agencies focus primarily on securing contracts, VaynerSports treats each athlete as a media brand and brings the same digital marketing sophistication that built VaynerMedia's Fortune 500 client base to the world of athlete representation. The agency has represented NFL Pro Bowlers and All-Pros, expanded into MLB and combat sports, and been a prominent force in the NIL (name, image, and likeness) space in college athletics.
How did AJ Vaynerchuk help build VaynerMedia?
AJ Vaynerchuk co-founded VaynerMedia with his brother Gary in 2009 and served as its Chief Operating Officer until 2016. During that period, he was responsible for the day-to-day operational leadership of the agency — building the team, managing the culture, overseeing hiring and HR infrastructure, and driving the organizational growth that took VaynerMedia from a small startup to a global agency with 600+ employees and over $100 million in annual revenue, serving Fortune 500 brands including Budweiser, Chase, and PepsiCo. His operational role was complementary to Gary's public-facing vision, and his ability to build scalable systems inside a fast-growing creative business is a central theme of his keynotes.
What topics does entrepreneurship speaker AJ Vaynerchuk cover in his keynotes?
AJ Vaynerchuk speaks on entrepreneurship and company building, scaling organizations and managing rapid growth, company culture and talent strategy, the future of sports marketing and athlete branding, early-stage investing and identifying platform shifts, the NIL revolution and the changing economics of sports, and resilience — including his personal experience building businesses while managing chronic illness. His presentations are well suited for entrepreneurship summits, sports business conferences, marketing and media industry events, venture and investor forums, and leadership gatherings where audiences want the unfiltered perspective of a serial operator. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to explore how AJ Vaynerchuk can add real-world edge to your next event.
How to book AJ Vaynerchuk as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book AJ Vaynerchuk as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about AJ Vaynerchuk's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for AJ Vaynerchuk or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is AJ Vaynerchuk speaking fee?
AJ Vaynerchuk speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire AJ Vaynerchuk to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book AJ Vaynerchuk.
How can I contact AJ Vaynerchuk?
We only work with AJ Vaynerchuk on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking AJ Vaynerchuk and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having AJ Vaynerchuk speak at your event. We will be your sole point of contact throughout the process. Get in touch with Aurum Speakers Bureau today, and we will reach out to any motivational speaker or celebrity you want to enquire about speaking at your event. If you wish to contact AJ Vaynerchuk for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Can I book AJ Vaynerchuk for a virtual keynote?
Yes, AJ Vaynerchuk is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book AJ Vaynerchuk for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
