Ryan SpoonSVP, Digital and Social Content, ESPN

    Ryan Spoon is currently the Senior Vice President of Digital and Social Content at ESPN. He was previously named Senior Vice President of Product Development in July 2012. In this role, he is responsible for digital product development across all screens, including ESPN.com, ESPN Mobile, WatchESPN, ESPN3, Fantasy, and Social Media. Prior to ESPN, Spoon was a venture capitalist at Polaris Venture Partners and specialized in early-stage consumer internet, social media and e-commerce investments. At Polaris, Spoon was a director or observer at companies like WordPress, ShoeDazzle, LOLapps, ReadyForZero, Wantful, Formspring, Offline Labs, and Movity (acquired by Trulia). Additionally, Spoon was responsible for leading Dogpatch Labs, an early-stage incubator that was home to companies like Instagram, TaskRabbit, TurnTable.fm, LOLapps, Recurly and Shareaholic. Previously, Spoon served as Vice President, Marketing and Business Development for Widgetbox (now Flite) – a platform for brands and publishers to create dynamic, shareable ad units. Prior to that, Spoon spent 2003-2007 at eBay Inc focused on internet marketing, user acquisition and social products – most recently, he launched and managed eBay’s US Classifieds business. As a collegiate swimmer for Duke University, Spoon founded beRecruited, an online recruiting platform for high school student-athletes and colleges coaches and universities. beRecruited was acquired in 2007 by RVS Ventures.