Insights about athlete-investors #14
Shaquille O'Neal is co-investing with Sam Altman, how about that?!
Hi, it’s Arthur from Athletico Ventures. We help elite athletes invest in startups alongside top tier investors. Here is your regular shot of insights about athlete investors…
Deals that caught our attention
Shaq is joining Sam Altman in backing a $29m community college startup aiming to slash degree costs (Fortune // Watch the YouTube intro above)
Cristiano Ronaldo joins $40m funding for UFL soccer game (VentureBeat)
Travis Kelce, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade And other athletes support PlayersTV Digital as investors, content creators and partners (Yahoo)
Drake-backed Boomerang secured $5m in new funding, led by LightShed Ventures (Boomerang)
Guided Energy - software to automate EV fleet operations - raises $5m from Sequoia, with participation from Nico Rosberg (Automotive World)
Harry Kane becomes leading investor and brand ambassador for sustainable performance wear brand Reflo (Golf Business News)
AllCity raises $9m from Andre Iguodala’s Mosaic fund (Marketing Brew)
Aaron Rodgers set to lead a $5m investment in plant-based energy beverage company Yerbaé (GlobeNewswire)
Paris Hilton participates in $3m seed round of travel discovery platform Layla (tech.eu)
Companies founded by athletes & celebrities
Former New Orleans Saints star Marques Colston targets $100m in athlete-focused venture fund (Sportico)
Cricketer Shikhar Dhawan launches $75m sports tech fund (Sports Pro Media)
Double Olympian’s VC fund raises $125m along with Michael Phelps to back early-stage startups (Tech Funding News)
Why is Keisuke Honda Launching a VC Fund? (Forefront Runners)
Tom Brady’s businesses to merge with Mike Repole’s Nobull (Sportico)
Novak Djokovic announces surprise product launch aimed at athletes’ well-being (Essentially Sports)
Athletes & celebrities investing in sports teams
PGA TOUR launches PGA TOUR Enterprises, new program that transforms players into equity holders (PGA Tour)
Hexagon Cup announces new team owners in Andy Murray, Robert Lewandowski, and Rafael Nadal (Profluence)
A long list of athletes and celebrities incl. Issa Rae, Deontay Wilder, DeAndre Hopkins, join the ownership group of the US team of SailGP (Front Office Sports)
Joe Burrow (NFL) enters ownership group of pro volleyball team (Sports Illustrated)
…. and more at the bottom of this email….
Cool content worth watching, reading or listening
Podcast recommendation: Crucible Moments by Roelof Botha, Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital
A podcast about the inflection points that shaped some of the most important companies of our time. Hear from founders like Jack Dorsey of Block, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, and Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe about how they navigated the challenges and opportunities that defined their stories. Two of my favourites:
Quote from Roelof Botha in the Jawbone episode, looking at athletes as an inspiration when it comes to resilience (listen here / read below):
I think it’s inevitable in our business, as a venture investor, on the heels of failure to fret and to become more risk averse. And I’ve reflected on that often. It plays out in, in many, many different dimensions how we cope with failure. That’s really the essence of it.
And one of the things I’ve learned as you look at sports psychology, some of the best athletes that we know have an incredible ability to reflect on a failed attempt, a shot that didn’t work, a serve that didn’t work, a kick that didn’t go through–but they don’t let it encumber them. So there’s this incredible ability to actually learn from what happened because if you just brush it off, then you’re not gonna get better.
So you’ve gotta understand what went wrong before, but not have it debilitate you. You just let go, just forget about what happened. Lesson learned. Okay. Fresh, fresh eyes, new opportunity. And I think that same mindset helps investors, founders, product leaders succeed.
Other pieces of content we liked over the past weeks
Investing-related
Michael Ovitz (CAA & Broad Beach Ventures) - Knowledge is power (Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy / Podcast)
GenAI 101 (Financial Times)
Stanislas Polu (Dust) - The truth about what AI has in store for us (GDYI / Podcast in French only)
Metrics that matter: what a consumer VC looks for in a start-up’s numbers (DMG Ventures)
Metrics that matter: three practical observations on valuation (Index)
What are the top 5 metrics VCs care about? (Headline’s Deepdive)
2023 year in review and 2024 predictions
2023 Africa Tech Venture Capital (Partech)
The state of the French tech ecosystem 2023 (Overlooked by Alexandre Dewez)
Ten 2024 predictions on climate tech (LinkedIn)
24 predictions for 2024, Part I (Digital Native)
Celebrity & sports-related
Marc Andreessen argues celebrity-led brands—from Kim Kardashian’s Skims to Logan Paul’s Prime—are not ‘gimmicks’ but ‘the future of consumer products’ (Fortune)
Tom Beahon: building the Tesla of sportswear, why we're taking on Nike & Adidas (Business of Sport // Andy Murray’s involvement around min 23)
Ace Strategy: Andy Murray's once-bold apparel move is paying off (Sports Pundit)
Floyd Mayweather expands portfolio company and offers exclusive access to fans through Republic investment campaign (Yahoo)
Chad Hutchinson – Professional Athlete to Professional Investor in Sports (Capital Allocators / Podcast)
Portfolio news
Wethenew
Wethenew’s CEO interview: Generating €100m in eCommerce in 6 years (La Chapelle / podcast in French)
Wethenew crossed the 1 million orders mark (here)
Sorare
Sorare launched Rivals, a brand new head-to-head game mode (Sorare)
Sorare published its 2023 year in review (Sorare)
Oura
Interview of Oura’s CEO Tom Hale (WWD’ Behind The Tech)
Oura appointed Sean Brecker as its new Chief Financial Officer (Oura)
Oura won several awards as best sleep tracker (Womens Health Mag and NY Times)
Oura’s Dorothy Kilroy was interviewed ATN’s “Unscripted” Podcast (Athletech News)
Umiami
Umiami was certified B Corp (Umiami)
Cowboy
Harpreet Singh Rai, former CEO of ŌURA, and Kevin Cornils, former Chief Commercial Officer at Peloton join Cowboy as respectively board member and Strategic Advisor (Cowboy)
Cowboy launched new on-demand services for ultra convenient e-bike support (Cowboy)
Cowboy was recognised as the "Best Urban Commuter Ebike" in the prestigious Micromobility Industries Rider’s Choice Awards (Cowboy)
Scoreplay
Keith Stoler joined ScorePlay as Head of Sales for North America
ScorePlay launched On The Pulse, their newsletter (Scoreplay)
Job alert: ScorePlay is recruiting a Head of Strategy and Operations (here)
Bonus links
Deals that caught our attention
Raphael Varane invests in football tracker Footbar and becomes ambassador (Les Echos)
GolfForever secures $10m in Series A funding, with participation from World no. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler and PGA Tour champion Tom Kim (The First Call)
Andre Agassi, David Kass and Raine Ventures acquire controlling interest in Dupr (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating), invest $8m (Yahoo)
Activity app Muuvr secures $4m in post-seed funding round, with participation from 10-time Ironman World Champion Daniela Ryf and four-time Ironman Switzerland Champion Jan van Berkel
New KC drink wants to expand beyond soccer moms. $3M from ex-Chiefs player might help (The Kansas City Star)
Mathieu Blanchard (trail) participates in €3m round of Finishers, already backed by Stéphane Diagana (athleticism) and Thierry Omeyer (handball) (Les Echos)
Investing-related
Did OpenAI end the software industry with one release? (Nick Hernandez)
Access and outliers : the appeal of small venture funds (Pattern Ventures)
The ultimate FoodTech resource guide (FoodTech Weekly)
Celebrity & sports-related
Beyond the capital: how athletes are transforming venture capital (Ben Gauna)
10 of the best athlete-tech investors of all-time (Vetted Sports)
Michelle Wie West on making the switch from athlete to investor (Sports Pro Podcast)
Groundsmen Conversations - Michael Johnson (Are You Not Entertained / Podcast)
List of athletes investing in eSports (Jean-Baptiste Roy)
Must watch video
Until next time!