How BLS Student Jacob Tilem '28 Runs a Sports Agency Side Hustle
Jacob Tilem '28 is cofounder of Slice Sports Management and has been running the business while attending Brooklyn Law School.
Brooklyn Law School students are known for embracing hands-on experience, but Jacob Tilem ’28 has taken it to a new level by running his own sports management company and earning his J.D., with a focus on sports law, at the same time.
Tilem is cofounder of Slice Sports Management, a full-service agency that represents Division I college athletes in the areas of NIL (name, image, and likeness), transfer portal, and marketing representation. He and former classmate Brandon Gilbert cofounded the agency as Syracuse University sophomores and have since secured more than 1,000 NIL brand deals with global companies such as Nike, Puma, Popeyes, and C4 and expanded their client base from men’s basketball to women’s basketball, baseball, and football. Across those sports, Slice has used their vast network of college coaches to negotiate out roughly 25 NIL revenue-sharing contracts between their athletes and their respective universities. Although Tilem studies law full-time and Gilbert is a part-time MBA student, they are still running and scaling the business.
In a competitive field, they have made being student entrepreneurs their X-factor. Hustling hard at multiple roles, bootstrapping the business without outside funding, and even embracing athletic wear over business suits have provided Slice Sports Management the unique selling proposition that startups crave.
"Every time we get on a call we say, 'We’re young, hungry agents.' We have a sense of relatability with the student-athletes, but beyond them, it works in our favor with networking," Tilem said. "Coaches and parents love that we are students. Brands love that we’re students on the grind, and that we started something at a young age."
A Focus on Sports Law
Of course, part of the grind is schoolwork. As a 1L, Tilem took a modest step back from the business to focus on studying, since he knew the first year of law school is the hardest.
"I had a great support system my first year, and I'm grateful to have Brandon and one of my other friends who has since gotten a job at a big agency working behind the scenes helping out with things when I couldn’t, along with our interns," Tilem said. "But this year I've been really pushing myself to be able to manage both."
As a 2L this fall, Tilem has also delved into sports law by taking Professor Jodi Balsam’s Sports Law course, and enrolling in the Sports Law Clinic, where he is learning how to represent clients in the legal context.
"It’s exciting," Tilem said. "The Sports Law Clinic is a really good step in the right direction in terms of just getting legal experience."
In addition, Balsam helped him get an externship this spring at Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (BSE) by connecting him with Jeffrey Gewirtz ’94, who is its executive vice president of business affairs and chief legal officer. BSE is the parent company of Barclays Center, where the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and WNBA's New York Liberty play. This summer, Tilem will gain Big Law experience with a summer associate position at Debevoise & Plimpton, where there is an opportunity to work in sports law and where he hopes to learn more about collective bargaining agreement negotiations.
A Brooklyn native who grew up in Park Slope, Tilem has always been deep into playing and watching sports, especially basketball.
"The second I realized that I wasn't growing past 5-foot-8 and was unlikely to play sports past high school, I realized that I wanted to pivot into working in sports," Tilem said. "And the most enticing, sexiest job to me was being a sports agent."
Launching and Scaling a Successful Startup
Tilem met his business partner, Gilbert, at Syracuse University, where they were sports management majors, fraternity brothers, and friends. Both knew they wanted to be sports agents and decided to stick together by taking the same classes, and applying for the same competitive internships, including a highly sought-after position to work as managers for the Syracuse University basketball team.
"We made it to the final stages and unfortunately didn't get it," Tilem said. "It was kind of a blessing in disguise in hindsight."
The two students worried that without internship experience, their dream of being sports agents was not feasible. Then, Gilbert had an idea: What if they created their own business helping college students obtain NIL deals with brands?
"It was low risk, because it was just putting ourselves out there, and it was high reward because, at the very least, we could discuss the experience in job interviews," Tilem said. "We started connecting athletes to businesses, getting them paid, whether that was locally or nationally. We were emailing brands, getting on Zoom calls with some and, approaching businesses in person with one-pagers and pitching them."
By senior year, they transitioned into the full-service model they maintain today. They have a new team leader for baseball deals and oversee a team of 60 to 70 interns. They have also expanded into the more lucrative business of helping student-athletes who want to transfer to a new school by guiding them through the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) transfer portal process—or talking them out of a transfer if they think being on a more star-studded team could diminish their ability to shine in the sport, and helping them renegotiate their preexisting NIL deals with their respective universities.
"And when athletes want to stay at school, there's still work to be done on renewing contracts, dealing with the numbers, assessing their market values, and negotiating out the terms," Tilem said. The team is constantly connecting with and supporting student-athletes, by attending games and checking in.
Juggling Two Jobs
Obtaining a law degree is not mandatory for being a sports agent, but a J.D. is one of Tilem’s family traditions. His father and uncles are lawyers, his mother is a professor, and since childhood his teachers have noted that his strong and persuasive voice would make him a good attorney.
"Ultimately, I embraced it," Tilem said. "At Slice, we’re living in a day-to-day mindset, but if I do make it a career, going to law school gives me the ability to wear multiple hats and ultimately as an entrepreneur, cut costs." While working as a sports agent, the critical thinking skills required to be a lawyer would still be helpful, and being less reliant on inside or outside counsel is another benefit.
There are no cookie-cutter days for Tilem as a law student and entrepreneur. Some days start at 4 a.m. Sometimes he is working until 10 p.m. To keep going, Tilem often remembers his father’s advice when they went running together. If you close your eyes and keep running, your nervous system will force you to re-open them after five or six steps so that you do not hit anything. The hustle is the point.
"What I do just about every day is like I close my eyes and go in a full sprint forward," he said.