What It Means to Be a “Real” Entrepreneur | Michael Rubin, Fanatics
From David Senra · 1:08:19
Show by Scicomm Media
Michael Rubin is the founder and CEO of Fanatics. He grew up outside Philadelphia, started tuning skis at 12, opened a ski shop in his parents' basement at 13, and had a storefront in a shopping center by 14. At 16, after a winter without snow, he was facing $200,000 in bills and thought he was going bankrupt, until he learned minors can't legally take on debt. He settled for $35,000, then bought a bankrupt store's $200,000 of inventory for $13,000. That deal got him into the closeout business, and by 21 he was doing $150 million a year. Michael tells the story of nearly being margined out of GSI Commerce during the 2009 financial crisis, with hours to spare, two years before eBay bought it for $2.4 billion. He explains how Fanatics grew from a fan gear business into a $14 billion digital sports platform with 140 million customers, why he guaranteed the leagues the high watermark of a cyclical trading card market, and how debut patches and George Condo–painted cards turned collectibles into "art for sports fans." He also shares the advice Robert Kraft gave him when a partner broke a deal, why he gave investors their money back on NFTs and Mitchell & Ness, why there's a "0.0 chance" he'd put his own money into prediction markets at today's valuations, and the call from Silver Lake's Greg Mondre that saved him from a multibillion-dollar mistake. Show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/michael-rubin Made possible by Ramp: https://router.com AppLovin: https://applovin.com/senra Deel: https://deel.com/senra Chapters (00:00:00) Why so many billionaires are boring (00:03:47) Robert Kraft told him to sleep on it (00:08:25) How he almost went bankrupt at 16 (00:11:44) Hours from being margined out in 2009 (00:15:20) What a real entrepreneur is (00:17:21) "I'll stop playing when my heart stops beating" (00:21:03) The litigation, and why he loves the fight (00:25:12) "It's a currency of sports" (00:29:37) Selling more products to the fans they already have (00:32:42) "Number 3 is irrelevant, number 2 sucks, number 1 is everything" (00:33:48) "0.0 chance" he'd invest in prediction markets (00:35:49) $5.5 billion in collectibles (00:39:57) The debut patch: a $50 million card (00:45:14) "There was never an easier conversation" (00:50:00) "This is stupid": raising over $100 million and giving it back (00:53:26) "It's art for sports fans" (00:59:37) Winning the partnership, not the deal (01:06:19) "You saved me from something really dumb" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More episodes
- Building Robinhood, Surviving GameStop & A $500 Million Phone Call | Vlad Tenev
- How to Win Deals & Grow a $250B Business | Nikesh Arora, Palo Alto Networks
- a16z's First Employee on the History of a16z, Venture Capital & Fixing the Government | Scott Kupor
- High School Dropout to Multi-Billionaire: The Relentless Drive of Rafael Vivas
- From a $27,500 Charter Company to a $4 Billion Private Jet Giant | Kenn Ricci, Flexjet
- Competition, Intensity & Building a $115 Billion Global Bank | Nik Storonsky, Revolut
- Managing $525 Billion by Rethinking Wealth Management | Kurt MacAlpine, Corient
- Lessons from Napoleon, Steve Jobs, Joan of Arc & Other Leaders | Ben Wilson
- Creating Muse: The Fastest-Growing AI Product Since ChatGPT | Alexandr Wang, Meta
- Channeling Rage, Rolling Calls & Building an Entertainment Empire | Ari Emanuel, WME & TKO
PodSearch is a free, independent podcast search engine. Read about PodSearch, the privacy policy or contact us.