James O'Connor

President and Co-Founder, Pittsburgh Knights

Industry/Field

E-Sports & Gaming, SaaS, Cloud/AI Systems

Bio

James O’Connor is a founder-operator at the intersection of gaming, SaaS, and AI. He built and exited MatchBot, an AI-powered platform integrated with Discord and deployed at premier Riot Games events, where it drove engagement and monetization at global scale. Previously, as President & CEO of the Pittsburgh Knights—backed by the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Pirates—he led multi-year partnerships with Fortune 500 brands and scaled revenues into eight figures.

James advises CMU founders on product-market fit, GTM sequencing, monetization models, enterprise/brand partnerships, and software development practices (agile execution, API/platform integrations, MVP-to-scale roadmapping). He also supports teams with financial modeling & P&L discipline, capital strategy & fundraising, pitch narrative & deck architecture, and hands-on startup consulting from zero to first revenue.