The New Hot Thing
The industry that has piqued Kobe Bryant & Micheal Phelps’ interest
Excerpt from the Dana Barrett Show’s “Tech Tuesday”
Last week I had the opportunity to be a guest on Dana Barrett’s radio show. Every ‘Tech Tuesday,’ Dana has guests share on topics dealing with startups and technology as a whole. The following is an excerpt from my appearance, where Dana and I discuss the growth in popularity of venture capital.
To hear the full episode where I discuss how I got into VC and the importance of investing in underrepresented founders, check out the episode here. This transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Dana Barrett (D.B.): You gave us a little bit of your background when we were talking or chatting earlier in terms of where you’re from and all of that. How did you get into this world of [venture] capital? Because I feel like this is one of those things where people hear about it; they know it exists but they don’t really know what is the path to get into it on the investor side.
Earnest Sweat (E.S.): The popularity of venture capital has just grown a lot over the last five years thanks to programs like Shark Tank.
D.B.: Yep the awareness too.
E.S.: I was actually in an uber a couple of months ago and my driver asked me what I did for a living. I responded ‘venture capital’ just thinking I would have to explain. But my driver responded ‘Oh yeah, like Shark Tank and Mark Cuban.’ I was surprised and it made me think that [venture capital] is really growing in its popularity.
D.B.: Yeah because 10 years ago, not that you could have said this 10 years ago because you were probably like 2 — because now you’re obviously 12 now.
E.S.: (laughs) Yes, I am a genius.
D.B: Like Doogie Howser. But not so many years ago you would have [answered that question] with venture capital and your uber driver — who also wouldn’t have existed then…
E.S.: Yea, it would have been my taxi driver.
D.B.: [Your taxi driver] would have just said ‘that’s nice’ moving right along.
E.S.: Exactly. So back to your original question, it’s been a journey for me. Even before I decided about two years ago to get into it, I talked to a lot of people and there are so many different paths to get into VC. Some people are former entrepreneurs and have had huge exits — which means they sold their company or IPO’ed their company. Right. And so they had a boatload of money and so were like ‘What should I do with this.’ And so they wanted to invest in more entrepreneurs. Whereas other individuals have been journalists. So [these VCs] have followed the tech industry for years and then moved into the investor space because they acquired the knowledge and network — using that information to invest in startups.
D.B.: Oh, that’s going to be my path.
E.S.: Yeah I can see it.
D.B.: Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge.
E.S.: And then you’re seeing this large influx of athletes and entertainers now going into [startup investing]. And so essentially it’s a new hot thing for people to go into venture capital.
D.B.: Funny that you should mention that. I actually have in one of our tech headlines today that Michael Phelps is now going to be getting into that world.
E.S.: Is going to be called ‘Gold Medal Ventures or something to that effect. They usually come up with obvious names like that — not a dig at Michael Phelps.
D.B.: Now [in the article] he didn’t really specify how he was going to get involved. I mean it seems to me that it would be smart, if you’re somebody like that, to partner with someone experienced in venture investing.
E.S.: A lot these [entertainers] are are using that strategy. So you see them partnered with an established VCs. [The athletes or entertainers] bring the money and a lot of them want to learn more about how to become better investors. A good example is Kobe Bryant, who is speaking to high-quality investors like Chris Sacca — who is on Shark Tank — and is learning as much as possible from him.
D.B.: Which is a smarter way to do it.
E.S.: Exactly.
Dana Barrett is a Business Commentator, Social Critic, TV & Radio Host, Actress and owner of DB Media, LLC.She is the host of The Dana Barrett Show which airs weekdays at 9AM EST on biz1190AM in Atlanta or at biz1190.com. Follow Dana at @danahbarrett on Twitter for all things business and tech.
Earnest Sweat is an Entrepreneurial Engineer for Camelback Ventures and an Investor in Residence for Backstage Capital. If you have any questions or requests please connect with Earnest through LinkedIn or Twitter.
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