Athlete, Investor, and Venture Capitalist: The Brain of Kobe Bryant

With the passing of NBA legend Kobe Bryant on January 26th, the whole world seemed to have stopped after losing a future hall of fame player at such a young age. Bryant was known for his relentless work ethic and mentality, which allowed him to revolutionize the game of basketball during his twenty-year career. Although there are those who may view professional athletes as uneducated and undeserving of their wealth and status compared to other fields and careers, none can deny that Kobe is an inspiring figure who strived constantly to better himself and motivate others to do the same in that process. He did this in ways such as learning and becoming fluent in new languages such as Spanish and Italian, winning an Oscar in 2018 for his animated short film “Dear Basketball”, and opening his own 100,000 square foot Mamba Sports Academy in December 2018. However, what stuck out to me personally about Bryant’s post-NBA endeavors was his career as a Venture Capitalist and investor.

Bryant was aware that his earnings from basketball and endorsements weren’t going to last him and his family forever. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he said “When you’re a young player in the NBA, you have a lot of meetings with financial people. They explain to you how you need to save and how post career if you continue to live the lifestyle that you're accustomed to your money is going to run out. So I started to think what is a counter to that? How can I use the influence that I currently have now to build something of value that won’t dwindle over time?” (Youtube/WSJ) Towards the end of his NBA career, Bryant started investing his money in 2014 by purchasing about 10 percent of the well-known sports drink BodyArmor, or about $6 million. When Coca Cola acquired a minority stake in the beverage company on August 14th, 2018 Kobe’s shares jumped to an estimated $200 million. (Newport)

Aside from investing into BodyArmor, Kobe became a Venture Capitalist in late 2016. He started his own investment fund Bryant Stibel with former Web.com president Jeff Stibel. In the previously mentioned interview with Wall Street Journal, Kobe mentions to interviewer Dennis Berman about how he started to think about how to invest his career earnings after he tore his Achilles in April 2013 at the end of the regular season. Bryant announced in late 2016 that he and Stibel put $100 million into the fund, and focused on media, technology and data companies. Immediately there were 13 companies in the portfolio including The Players Tribune (a website founded by Derek Jeter for athletes to write on), Legalzoom, and a video game design company called Scopely. (Ogus/Royse) Bryant also got to ring the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange when he publicly announced his collaboration with Stibel. The two have been invested in these companies since 2013, but they didn’t publicly announce it until August 2016. 

Before his unfortunate passing, Bryant also participated in a funding round for a company called ringDNA. This company, which was also included in his original portfolio with Mr. Stibel, was one of many prominent groups to be involved in this funding round. The enterprise sales management platform had this round of funding led by Goldman Sachs and also involved Palisades Growth Capital. (Ogus) Bryant Stibel continues to invest in ringDNA partly because they have had some high-profile customers which includes Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Amazon Web Services, Autodesk, and Lyft. The company also claimed that they have been profitable the last two years at the time of Bryant Stibel’s investment. When speaking about their decision, Bryant and Stibel stated “When we led the initial investment for ringDNA in 2014, we did so because of a great entrepreneur, strong team and a large and untapped market opportunity...With this latest growth equity round from Goldman Sachs, ringDNA has added another world-class partner aligned with its goal of helping enterprise sales organizations analyze and learn from their game film to become smarter and more effective."

Therefore, one of the many things that Kobe Bryant has changed is the way athletes invest their money after retiring from their respective sport. Many athletes have tried to become successful entrepreneurs post-career, as they have a better chance than the average person due to their amount of resources and dedicated following. However, most do not end up as successful in their endeavors as Kobe Bryant. One example of a failed business venture is when former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling made his own video game company in 2006, with the help of Rhode Island government agencies. The company eventually failed and filed for bankruptcy in 2012. (Berman) 78% of former NFL players go bankrupt or are under financial stress from joblessness or divorce, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are struggling financially 5 years after retirement. (Torre) With Bryant’s translated work ethic from the basketball court to the business world, hopefully his example serves as an inspiration to future generations of athletes looking to properly manage their money after their playing days conclude. 

Works Cited

“Kobe Bryant On Starting His Fund.” Kobe Bryant On Starting His Fund, Wall Street Journal, 26 Oct. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=71&v=Fi-qiC0NuTM&feature=emb_title.

Newport, Kyle. “Report: Kobe Bryant's $6M Investment in BodyArmor Sports Drink Now Worth $200M.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 15 Aug. 2018, bleacherreport.com/articles/2791197-report-kobe-bryants-6m-investment-in-bodyarmor-sports-drink-now-worth-200m.

Ogus, Simon. “Kobe Bryant's Latest Investment Is Taking Part In $30 Million Funding Round For RingDNA.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 13 Nov. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/simonogus/2018/11/13/kobe-bryants-latest-investment-is-taking-part-in-30-million-funding-round-for-ringdna/#3cadd8df289d.

Royse, Dave. “'Inspire The Next Generation': A Look At Kobe Bryant's Career As A Venture Capitalist.” Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo!, 27 Jan. 2020, finance.yahoo.com/news/inspire-next-generation-look-kobe-170028486.html.

Torre, Pablo S. “How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke.” Recession or No Recession, Many NFL, NBA and Major League - 03.23.09 - SI Vault, Sports Illustrated, 23 Mar. 2009, web.archive.org/web/20090814002428/sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1153364/2/index.htm.