Meet Grant Cohen | Fan Controlled Sports and Entertainment, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Grant Cohen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Grant, what do you attribute your success to?
In 2021 Fan Controlled Sports and Entertainment’s (FCSE), Fan Controlled Football (FCF) set out to democratize professional sports creating an unprecedented immersive live fan experience for digital age fan. Led by Southern California natives Co-Founders’ Sohrob Farudi (CEO), Patrick Dees (Chief Gaming Officer), Grant Cohen (Chief Growth Officer) as well as Ray Austin (Commissioner of FCF) created the first ever fan controlled professional football league. FCF is the only professional sports league that empowers fans to make key decisions for their favorite team, including calling plays on the field in real time. Together the leadership team produced a lean forward real-life hybrid sports and gaming experience fully integrated across Amazon’s global Twitch, NBCLX / Peacock, FUBO Sports Network and DAZN (200+ territories globally) created by the fans. To-date FCF has totaled a record 114+ million impressions across social platforms, 255,000 app downloads and over 21+ million fans tuning in to live programming. In 2023 FCSE will launch Fan Controlled Hoops (FCH) pro basketball league, the newly announced FCH will bring the same interactive format from FCF to the sport of basketball. FCH will feature an unprecedented, 4v4 full court brand of hoops with never-before-seen real-time fan interactivity. FCH will be the first league played on a dynamic, fully interactive LED court, providing viewers with a fresh way to watch and even control the game.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Just like the sports we operate, the business itself has been full of wild highs and lows, with adversity at seemingly every turn. From launching our first season in the midst of the pandemic to now working to scale amidst a bear economy, it seems that we have had to overcome challenges at every stage. Having an awesome group of co-founders to lean on when times get tough and to celebrate with when we win has made the rocky road all the more enjoyable and I can’t imagine having done this with a better crew.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oh man – so much to eat and so little time. It’s been cold lately but I’m going to assume they are visiting when it’s warm since that’s the main reason we all pay the big bucks to live on sunny SoCal. So, I’d start on the west side, pickup Godmothers at Bay Cities and hit the sand at Will Rodgers, my favorite stretch of beach is just below where Temescal Canyon hits PCH. For dinner we’d go to Cassia and play all their hits (most importantly the chickpea curry) and then end the night with cocktails on the rooftop of the Proper Hotel. Over the next few days, we’d make our way east – play 9 holes at Penmar then eat wings at their awesome bar, take down an ocean worth of sushi at Uzumaki, crush the Chefs Favorite at PlanCheck on Sawtelle and catch a UCLA game at Pauley Pavilion, then of course an ice cream sandwich from Diddy Reese. Get Marty’s on Pico and scarf it down while hitting a bucket of balls at the range at Rancho Park. We’d cruise Rodeo and Sunset, do the Runyon Canyon hike and a tour of my favorite tacos – including the crispy shrimp ones from the Jalisco Mariscos truck and the massive carnitas tacos at Tumbras at Grand Central Market. Would be sure to stop by the Melrose Umbrella Company for a couple of rounds of their White Old Fashioneds and do a dinner at Bavel, where their awesome version of my favorite cocktail includes lamb fat and plumb brandy. We would finish the week taking a quick excursion up to our cabin in to enjoy Lou Eddie’s pizza on the pristine waters of Lake Arrowhead. Then of course we’d have to hit Mama Lu’s in Monterey Park for dumplings on our way back to LA. All that and we didn’t even have time for the Fathers Office burger – they’re going to need to come back and visit again soon!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Aside from my co-founders Sohrob Farudi, Patrick Dees, Ray Austin and our awesome team at Fan Controlled Sports including our irreplaceable Communications Director Bryan Kirsch, it has certainly helped to have a great support system at home. From my amazing wife Chanel to my three energetic kids (Hayes, Greyson and Henley), them putting up with my weekly trips to Atlanta and rooting from the sidelines through the highs and lows has been a driving factor in our success thus far.

Website: https://linktr.ee/FCSE

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fcfl

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fancontrolledsports

Twitter: https://twitter.com/fancontrolled

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FCFL/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FanControlledSports

Other: Discord: https://discord.com/invite/fcse Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/fancontrolledsports