Keith Knee

Keith Knee is a successful entertainment media, technology, finance executive, advisor and investor who launched Spartan Venture Group at the 2024 annual ICR Conference. 

"Launching Spartan Venture Group was an unparalleled opportunity to take what we have been doing successfully for over 15 years and pair it up with infrastructure to allow us to provide an even better service to our many clients."

Knee has a unique perspective on entrepreneur-founded and owned businesses, partnering with over 20 businesses in the last 15 years. Knee's most recent work has primarily focused on senior-level advisory and strategy work for companies, including CSSE/Crackle, Redbox, ICR, Paramount, I-Heart and T-Mobile. Knee worked closely with Ron Meyer when he was the Chairperson of NBCU and helped bring an entertainment tech company into the NBCU fold. 

The company had five employees and zero revenue when Knee met them. The company grew to 65 full-time and 150 part-time employees through Knee's work, generating millions in revenue. Knee joined the company on a one-year contract as EVP of strategy.

After his time at the company, Knee continued to work with emerging companies and leverage his senior-level advisory work. 

Knee has also helped many founders with their new companies helping with market validation and creating new revenue. In this role Knee has had the chance to do transformative work for clients including, Octopus Interactive, Lottery.com, Wrapify, Vatom and many others. 

Knee's recent M&A work involved developing the thesis and running due diligence for the $375 million acquisition of Redbox by client CSSE/Crackle. Knee also sourced the $200 million capital to acquire one of the largest privately owned studios in Hollywood on behalf of a client. 

In ad tech and marketing, Knee has helped several companies find exits. Recent advisory work includes senior-level deal structuring between Uber and Octopus Interactive, which resulted in an exit of Octopus to T-Mobile in early 2022. T-Mobile hired Knee as a senior advisor to help launch their entertainment advertising business. When Knee's deal ended in October 2023, he had hit all his milestones for T-Mobile, setting the division up to drive tens of millions of dollars in new revenue based on his work. 

Knee also works closely with the chairperson of the Ashton Kutcher co-founded SMS marketing company Community. Knee also recently invested in the Josh Flagg (Million Dollar Listing) founded Real Estate Media company, Estate Media.