Former NBA All-Star Baron Davis On His Entrepreneurial Journey, His Advise For Beginner Investors

Ex-NBA star Baron Davis has had entrepreneurial drives since he was in his teens. Since then, he has invested in various companies, funded his own tech startups way before startups were a thing, and still actively pursues ventures in tech, entertainment, and more. But how did he get started?

Even when he was still a junior in high school, Baron knew he would be destined to be a great baller. Having the entrepreneurial sprit already, he reached out to a basketball gear company that was run by his cousin and proposed an intriguing deal: he would wear and promote the company as he goes on to become a basketball star and in turn, they would give him 30% of the company. The deal did not work out as planned but Baron kept that spirit with him as he went on to college and later into the NBA.

In a recent discussion he had at an entrepreneur event in Los Angeles, Baron spoke about his drive to take risks, his tech startups, how he ended up as one of the investors of Vitamin Water, and his advise to new investors. We were there to capture it!

On Investing In Vitamin Water:
“…my season was over and I was hosting them [the team at Vitamin Water] in Vegas for the Bernard Hopkins fight at my house… and they came to me… and they were like you tell him, you tell him, and I was like, tell me what? They were like, we’re going to sign a rapper. I was like, who the f*** are you going to sign? He was like 50 Cent. I said, OH MAN….y’all about to be outta here!  This is about to be….They’re like, are you sure? I was like hell yeah, do you know who 50 Cent is?”

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On His Tech Startup, www.ibeatyou.com: 

“I started a company ibeatyou.com in 2004. We got like a million uniques a month. It was a social network based on competition…it was cool, but we had timed the market wrong. When we needed to go raise money, the market had dried up, so you just learn about building startups.”

On His Investing Advise: 

“If somebody says I need some money in the next 30 days or we’re closing our rounds in 2 weeks, run!” 

Watch the full video above for more advise and stories!