Love hearing about professional athletes taking their finances seriously. Based on the article, seems like he's taken the same approach as Rob Gronkowski--investing all of his NFL contract, living only on endorsements.
Being a generational running back with a huge NFL contract makes it much easier to invest like this than the average back who only lasts a couple of years in the NFL. Plus Barkley is also the beneficiary of plenty of endorsements. When the average player is out of the league in 3 years, often due to injury, it's not unexpected that they may have financial difficulties. Most of the degrees they get aren't worth much, and while the minimum salary looks enticing, the taxes eat it up quickly, as do all the people clamoring for a cut.
Being a famous sports figure in general makes it easier to invest in these assets. Many VCs will bend over backwards to have a famous sports personality involved in their firm or investments.
Even a non-famous person with ~$20mm to invest (somewhere around the after-tax amount of his rookie contract) would not get a seat at the table at these VC firms.
His change of direction, elusiveness, and vision are all generational. His durability is not or at least he has not displayed it yet. I don't think anyone would put his durability up against AD, Frank Gore, or even Derrick Henry and come out on top.
Bold statement two hours before kickoff but I'm expecting a significant regression this year and for him to be out of the league in two years.
He did a commercial and helps sales for Ramp and he only has $500k into them? That is either the deal of the century for Ramp or the reporting is inaccurate.
i feel like it'd be great if players could get comped with equity in their franchises.
for an aging star that's on the downhill side of their prime, it'd help with salary caps and letting them build new stars around them. and the franchise doesn't have to worry about shipping off a beloved player once they get too expensive.
besides, lets player take ownership of the teams that they're building just feels right.
There's an argument to be made about conflict of interest when players move to other teams. It would probably be better for players to get equity in the League and maybe the League have equity in the teams.
>startups in his portfolio include Anthropic (currently valued at $183 billion), Anduril ($30.5 billion), Ramp ($22.5 billion), Cognition ($9.8 billion), Neuralink ($9 billion), Strike (~$1 billion), and Polymarket (~$1 billion). He’s also a limited partner in funds including Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Silver Point Capital, and Multicoin Capital.
> He’s also a limited partner in funds including Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Silver Point Capital, and Multicoin Capital.
Dividing the entire rookie contract amount across so many investments and so many funds means relatively small investments in those funds.
No way any non-famous-athlete individual would be able to LP in those funds without athletic stardom attached. It's a selling point for those LPs to say he's part of their funds and they get to rub shoulders with a professional athlete.
Some guys have all the talent, apparently... seems like he took his $30M rookie deal and turned himself into a sharp investor. May make a lot more doing that than playing football.
I think the angle of the story is compelling for being different: look at this athlete investing in startups.
What I'm more interested in is how is he getting dealflow:
>The high-growth startups in his portfolio include Anthropic (currently valued at $183 billion), Anduril ($30.5 billion), Ramp ($22.5 billion), Cognition ($9.8 billion), Neuralink ($9 billion), Strike (~$1 billion), and Polymarket (~$1 billion). He’s also a limited partner in funds including Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Silver Point Capital, and Multicoin Capital.
If he has sizable investments in these companies at an early-ish stage then one has to ask: is this guy nostradamus? Or is he doing the classic early stage playbook and investing everywhere? Is there someone else making the bets?
It's really easy to look in hindsight at this guy and said he did a good job with his money, but I'd argue for any angel that wasn't already tapped into the network, this would be an impressive portfolio. It's not like Anthropic was hurting for investors. And if it is the case that Anthropic said "why not, I'd love to have a check from 2024 superbowl champion Saquan Barkley", then it's not really repeatable.
I have plenty of friends who made quite a bit of money from previous exits and have also read Zero to One, and their angel portfolio isn't as lucrative.
Anyone shilling for cryptocurrencies is immediately suspect in my book. Most of his investments are in companies I don't have a very positive view of. That's not saying he won't make a great return or that those companies won't make a lot of money, I just don't care for them.
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 46.1 ms ] threadEven a non-famous person with ~$20mm to invest (somewhere around the after-tax amount of his rookie contract) would not get a seat at the table at these VC firms.
For players on the roster opening day, the average career is 6 years.
For players with 3 years of experience, the average career is 7 years.
First round picks have an average career of 9.3 years.
And if you make a Pro Bowl, your career average is 11.7 years.
League minimum is $840K. Cut it in half for taxes and agent fees and that's still $420K.
Bold statement two hours before kickoff but I'm expecting a significant regression this year and for him to be out of the league in two years.
He won ROY, and last season was amazing, but the rest of his career is far from generational level production.
for an aging star that's on the downhill side of their prime, it'd help with salary caps and letting them build new stars around them. and the franchise doesn't have to worry about shipping off a beloved player once they get too expensive.
besides, lets player take ownership of the teams that they're building just feels right.
Reminds me of Steve Young
Dividing the entire rookie contract amount across so many investments and so many funds means relatively small investments in those funds.
No way any non-famous-athlete individual would be able to LP in those funds without athletic stardom attached. It's a selling point for those LPs to say he's part of their funds and they get to rub shoulders with a professional athlete.
Fly Eagles Fly!
What I'm more interested in is how is he getting dealflow:
>The high-growth startups in his portfolio include Anthropic (currently valued at $183 billion), Anduril ($30.5 billion), Ramp ($22.5 billion), Cognition ($9.8 billion), Neuralink ($9 billion), Strike (~$1 billion), and Polymarket (~$1 billion). He’s also a limited partner in funds including Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Silver Point Capital, and Multicoin Capital.
If he has sizable investments in these companies at an early-ish stage then one has to ask: is this guy nostradamus? Or is he doing the classic early stage playbook and investing everywhere? Is there someone else making the bets?
It's really easy to look in hindsight at this guy and said he did a good job with his money, but I'd argue for any angel that wasn't already tapped into the network, this would be an impressive portfolio. It's not like Anthropic was hurting for investors. And if it is the case that Anthropic said "why not, I'd love to have a check from 2024 superbowl champion Saquan Barkley", then it's not really repeatable.
I have plenty of friends who made quite a bit of money from previous exits and have also read Zero to One, and their angel portfolio isn't as lucrative.
Because he's Saquon Barkley. Other than your lead + maybe 1 or 2 others, everyone else is pretty interchangable. At least Saquon is interesting.
> To date, none of Barkley’s investments have flamed out or depreciated, largely because he prefers to come in at later stages of a company’s growth.