Michael Pedicano is the Founder and Managing Partner at Up From Here, a boutique consulting studio delivering digital media + brand solutions to early-stage ventures so they can achieve growth and sustainability.

Before founding Up From Here, Michael spent two years at BITKRAFT Ventures, a gaming-focused VC firm with $1B in AUM and a portfolio of 140 companies, including Epic Games and Discord. As a one-person brand and communications team, he consulted founders on positioning, go-to-market, and digital strategies, while also leading investor and industry events.

Before BITKRAFT, Michael oversaw brand social at MTV. Under his leadership, the team achieved record audience growth on TikTok and Instagram while also delivering the second-most social event of 2020 in the MTV VMAs (41.1M interactions - behind only the Super Bowl). Managing a department of 20 through the COVID-19 pandemic remains the greatest leadership challenge of his career.

Prior to MTV, a deep interest in building a "third space" that blends sports and video games led Michael to HEED, a Series A sports tech startup co-founded by WME | IMG. As VP of Strategy, he shaped a direct-to-consumer product to gamify fandom, launching first-of-its-kind partnerships with UFC and Chelsea FC that leveraged IoT analytics as storytelling mechanisms.

Michael began his career at Bleacher Report, transitioning it from an SEO-driven blog to a global sports culture brand. He held critical roles across analytics, content, partnerships, and operations. Notable contributions include being the company's first video analytics hire, leading program planning across the company for all major sports and sales tentpoles, and building the content partnerships function from the ground up, resulting in 2300% year-over-year revenue growth in Year 1. In his final year at the company - as Head of Content Operations - B/R was named to Fast Company’s “Most Innovative” list.

At the dawn of his career, Michael aspired to write professionally for Saturday Night Live, an ambition heavy on want and light on ability. It led him to some of the most magical moments of his life developing and performing sketch comedy at ColdTowne Theater in Austin, Texas, and later at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB) in New York City.

Michael studied government and US history at The University of Texas at Austin and currently lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife, two children, and Boxer dog, Trooper.