Michael O. Browning, Jr

Founder & CEO

Unleashed Brands

Michael Browning Jr. is an American entrepreneur, speaker, and business leader, and the visionary Founder and CEO of Unleashed Brands, a $1B youth enrichment platform and the parent company of some of the America’s most trusted childhood development brands, including Urban Air Adventure Park, The Little Gym, Sylvan Learning, Snapology, Premier Martial Arts, Class 101, XP League, and Water Wings Swim School. Under his leadership, the company has become the largest youth enrichment platform in the world, serving over 20 million families annually across 1,400+ locations.

Browning launched his entrepreneurial journey in 2011 with the opening of the first Urban Air Adventure Park, turning a dream into one of the fastest-growing family entertainment concepts in the U.S. He later expanded his vision with the creation of Unleashed Brands in 2021, uniting a fragmented industry into a scalable platform designed to help kids learn, play, and grow.

Browning is an Adjunct Professor and Executive in Residence at Texas Christian University, where he mentors the next generation of entrepreneurs. He is also committed to philanthropy through the Unleashed Brands Foundation, which has pledged millions to support children facing adversity, from funding childhood cancer research to hosting enriching experiences for foster and at-risk youth.

Participating in

  • Scale Up Lounge

    AWAccelerate is Advertising Week’s Global Startup program that provides education, business development and partnership opportunities to marketing and media-related technology companies across the globe. This year’s cohort will be businesses in the creator ecosystem.

    Startups will have the opportunity to learn and network with the world’s top marketers, thought leaders and early-stage investors. In addition, participants have strategic amplification access to the Advertising Week Global platform and Startup Community. The innovation program connects startups to Advertising Week constituents around the globe including brands, agencies, media companies, investors and more.

    Our 2025 program is open for all attendees!

    The schedule for the day runs as follows:

    2:40pm – AWAccelerate Opening Remarks

    2:45 – 2:50pm – Startup Pitch: BranchLab – Mallory Wils, EVP, Enterprise Solutions, BranchLab

    2:50 – 2:55pm – Startup Pitch: SWYM – Andrew Altersohn, Co-Founder & President, SWYM

    2:55 – 3:00pm – Startup Pitch: Katch Data – Andrew Tight, Founder & CEO, Katch Data

    AWAccelerate Briefing

    3:00 – 3:25pm – Marketing AI Success Stories: Notes from the Field

    Marketing AI – everyone’s talking about it, lots of people are experimenting, but is anybody s쳮ding in having an impact on their business? We’ll hear real life use cases from the makers of cutting age AI solutions as they highlight customer success stories you can relate to today. Join the founders of SWYM (AI media buying for digital advertisers) and Katch Data (creator AI for brands) as they discuss AI, where it’s going, and how you can get to ROI today!

    Andrew Altersohn, President, SWYM

    Andrew Tight, CEO, Katch

    Jeremy Kagan, Managing Partner, Textbook

    Mallory Wils, EVP Enterprise Solutions, BranchLab

    Start Up Pitches

    3:25 – 3:30pm – Cipher Cipher

    Cipher Cipher is the legal library of trending sounds for social media. Sourcing music from the biggest labels in the world, Cipher provides brands and creators the tracks that truly boost engagement for short-form content. Make culturally relevant content, avoid lawsuits, and get on your customers’ feeds using real songs, rather than stock music.

    3:30 – 3:35pm – Jam!

    Jam! Our mission is to empower the artist and reward their audience. Through bridging the gap between artists and music listeners on a social platform, we are streamlining artist career growth, community-building, and monetization while simultaneously rewarding, engaging, and consolidating the music-fan experience like never before.

    3:35 – 3:40p Start up Pitch 3 – Ranktify

    Ranktify is a light-touch tool that puts the power of authoritative content creation, AI search, and search engine optimization (SEO) directly into the hands of its users. Ranktify’s software — with its proprietary algorithms and AI — analyzes content (regardless of topic or length) and offers an array of easy-to-implement recommendations to ensure creators are publishing high-quality and trustworthy content that’s rewarded by search engines and conversational Large Language Models (LLMs), including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews and Anthropic’s Claude, as well as generates more revenue for its clients.

    AWAccelerate Briefing

    3:45 – 4:10pm – Change is a Constant: The Innovation Road Ahead

    Technology and innovation continue to march forward even as AI and its impact sweeps across the industry. We’ll convene VC, founders and innovation experts investing in the future to discuss what’s next and how it will impact your business. No crystal balls, but we’ll predict the future based on where the smartest entrepreneurs and startups are placing bets.

    Lynda Clarizio, Co-Founder and General Partner, The 98

    Michael Browning, Founder, Unleashed Brands

    Christian Tom, Co-Founder and CEO, AND Media

    Moderator: Jeremy Kagan, Managing Partner, Textbook Ventures

    4:10 – 5:15pm – Networking

    2h 20mIn person
  • Scale Up Lounge

    Technology and innovation continue to march forward even as AI and its impact sweeps across the industry. We’ll convene VC, founders and innovation experts investing in the future to discuss what’s next and how it will impact your business. No crystal balls, but we’ll predict the future based on where the smartest entrepreneurs and startups are placing bets.

    Lynda Clarizio, Co-Founder and General Partner, The 98

    Michael Browning, Founder, Unleashed Brands

    Christian Tom, Co-Founder and CEO, AND Media

    Moderator: Jeremy Kagan, Managing Partner, Textbook Ventures

    25 minsIn person