Career Path of a Head of Business Development at Xsolla Holding Company

I studied journalism in undergrad at the University of Missouri, focusing on radio and television. My original plan was to become a broadcast news anchor and reporter.

While in college, I gained experience working for a local news station and a local radio station as a DJ. I also worked for a digital news startup, which was new to the YouTube and online news space at the time.

My career path began with volunteering at the local college TV station to get experience. This led to opportunities at the university's NBC news affiliate, where I covered real stories in politics and the local community.

At that time, my entire focus was on journalism. I actively sought out every opportunity to gain experience in the field. I ended up working for over a year at the top 40 radio station that served mid-Missouri.

I got the radio station job through connections with classmates. The digital news job was technically a class, but I built a good rapport with the staff and was hired part-time, continuing until I graduated.

After graduating, I realized local journalism wasn't for me and started thinking about my next steps. I've always been interested in video games and technology, so I considered becoming a tech or video game journalist.

Since those jobs were in California, I reached out to a friend there and moved. Within two months, I leveraged my network to get a job as a research analyst on the gaming team at a consulting firm.

I started as a market research analyst, learning about focus groups and qualitative research specifically within the video game sector. After about two and a half years, I transitioned to account management and consulting.

I began consulting for various clients in the video game space, managing accounts and relationships. As I gained more exposure to the business side, I moved into business development.

This role allowed me to combine my understanding of the business's structural side with my established client relationships. I was able to look for new avenues within my company and identify other companies to sell services to.

In total, I spent 10 years at my first company. During the pandemic, in the middle of business school, I transitioned to a new role as director of business development for a competitor.

This company focused more on market research and consulting. I was brought in to help build up their gaming research and consulting division. I did that for about a year and a half.

About three months ago, I started my post-business school job as head of business development for a gaming FinTech company called Ola, as part of their holding company. The Ola brand has multiple subsidiaries, and I manage a team that supervises them for operational efficiency. I also advise on acquisitions or investments the founding team is considering.