Athlete CEO

Kobie Fuller is the perfect venn diagram of the Athlete CEO – he was a track star at Harvard, used his background in tech to invest early in some of the top winners of emerging technologies including Oculus and Exact Target, and now works as a partner for Upfront Ventures where he continues to help discover and fund innovative tech companies.

He has seen startups rise and fall and knows what it takes to be successful in founding a company, and shares with us what he’s seen over the years. He also is uniquely familiar with how the worlds of sports and business intersect in their values and daily practices, which he has used to help advise new business owners as well as find his own success as a co-founder through Valence Community, a social network for Black professionals started in November 2019.

Prior to Upfront, Kobie was the CMO at REVOLVE in Los Angeles, one of the world’s largest fashion e-commerce sites. Earlier in his career he was an investor at Insight Venture Partners and a founding member of Openview Venture Partners. He was the captain of the Harvard track team when he attended and ran the 200m, and the 400m events.

Topics discussed include:

• Why Kobie got kicked off the basketball team growing up
• Accomplishing big things by taking on the mentality of “It takes what it takes”
• Putting in the work needed to achieve your goals
• The similarities between athletes and venture capitalists
• How to surround yourself with elite performers instead of bozos
• The founding of Valence Community in 2019
• How start up founders can be successful by leaning in to what they’re uniquely equipped to do
• How to find a mentor
• Tips on balancing your life and being a good example to your kids
• Investing in yourself by being selfless and selfish at the same time
• The importance of investing in your health and wellness

Most economic news continues to point to things not looking great – including a 2nd quarter contraction of US GDP by an annual rate of 32.9%. However, the stock market still seems to have some positive moves. What’s behind the majority of the returns in the public stock market? Tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google. In fact, the disparity in the S&P 500 is from the 5 largest companies, which have accounted for all the growth, but the remaining 495 have been producing negative returns. 

Does that mean now is the time to invest in these companies? In this episode, Brandon & Erik discuss this and more including:

• What is contributing to the majority of returns in the US stock market?
• If the 5 biggest companies are driving all growth in the S&P 500, why even consider investing in the other 495 companies – let alone international options?
• What are the risks of investing in individual equities if I’m trying to grow wealth in a long-term, risk-adjusted way?
• Is there ever a situation where you might recommend taking concentrated risk? 
• Where would an investor have the best change of growing wealth through concentrated investments?

Gold is a topic that tends to pop up anytime there’s uncertainty in the market or conversations of where the economy is headed. We’ve seen gold hit all-time highs over the past week joined with increased nervousness of the pending stimulus package in congress and upcoming elections. This has resulted in more voices who recommend investing in gold as a safe alternative to a volatile market.

In this episode Brandon and Erik discuss some of the arguments made for investing in gold and potential alternatives for long term investors. Topics discussed include:

• How should we think about gold?
• Where/how does gold fit in an investment plan?
• How to think about investments
• Why we don’t include gold in our investment portfolios
• How has gold performed historically as an asset class?
• Should I purchase physical gold in case things go bad?
• Is gold a safe hedge against a volatile market?
• What’s a better way to provide some protection if you’re worried about the economy over the short term?

Growing a business, serving your community, taking a leap in your career, spending time with friends and family, developing a hobby - often our interests and desires overshadow the simple fact that there are only so many hours in a day. It can be hard to find time to tackle all our goals let alone find balance and mastery in our current commitments.

Becca Van Dyck has proven it can be done.

Becca jumped into her career head first with a 12-year stint at Wieden+Kennedy as Nike’s global account director.  She then moved to Apple as marketing communications executive, working on ad campaigns for the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Macs. Following that, she was named the chief marketing officer at Levi’s where she oversaw the “Go Forth” campaign. Then in 2012, she moved to Facebook where she now works as VP, Product Operations of AR/VR including overseeing Portal from Facebook and Oculus VR. In the midst of all this, she’s also served on the boards of Strava, the New York Times, and more, is a Mom of two girls, and a wife.

In this episode, she describes how she drew courage for each step in her career and seeks to find excellence in all aspects of her life – touching on topics like:

• Her team’s work on Portal from Facebook and Oculus VR and how it’s helping people stay connected amidst a pandemic
• How she considers outside opportunities for maximum impact and growth
• The principles and paradigms she uses to build and hone diverse teams
• How to take bold leaps in your career
• Finding balance amidst career, volunteering, and family
• How her experience playing soccer translates to her business career
• The silver linings found in strange times

With a looming election this fall, an ongoing global pandemic, and companies declaring bankruptcy left and right; there is currently no shortage of speculation framed as certain advice everywhere you look. Mainstream media pundits and social media influencers alike are quick to share the latest stock tip, advice on market timing, speculations on bankrupting companies, or even urge you to exit the markets entirely and wait until they calm back down. 

While it is entirely likely there will be market impacts from the upcoming presidential debates and election, COVID-19 vaccine trials, and whether or not the government adopts an additional stimulus plan – the full effect of those impacts and even how they play together are entirely speculative. The truth remains that no one has a crystal ball.

So what should you do in the midst of all the noise?

Don’t abandon your plan.

In this week’s episode, Brandon and Erik address some of these speculations and cover other topics and questions like:

• Was Peter Schiff correct when he recently said that a market crash is inevitable?
• How to avoid FOMO (fear of missing out) in the current market climate
• The greatest dangers investors face
• The difference between being an investor and a speculator
• Understanding how to participate well in public markets
• Why the mainstream media is not the best source of financial advice
• What advice can you give on having confidence in my investment plan?
• How can I wade through all of the speculation that I’m receiving the economy, stock market, and investing?

One of the most important distinctions we like to make with our clients is that our primary job is not only investing. We re-center our clients’ definition of success by asking them if simply investing is the goal or if it’s actually to increase their net-worth after taxes and expenses?

The answer is always: net worth.

Investing is really just a means to an end. Our primary job, and the ultimate value we deliver, is in increasing our clients’ entire net worth.

Unfortunately, the act of investing is typically the sole focus of retail financial advice. The average broker and financial advisor will spin their wheels trying to sell their investment strategies in the public markets, yet this is rarely the main driver of wealth. Most investors miss out on other financial moves to grow and keep wealth including tax planning strategies that can produce double digit returns on their net worth.

This week, Erik and Brandon discuss some of these strategies and why they should be important to you covering topics like:

• Why should I consider taxes in my investment conversations?
• Why aren’t more financial advisors talking about this integration of investing and tax planning?
• What are conversations I should have with my financial advisor to keep the returns from taxes that I deserve?
• What are some other ways to manage, defer, and reduce taxes when it comes to your investment plan?
• Are there ways a 1099 employee can reduce taxes?
• Why those in the highest tax bracket might want to consider asset location and tax-loss harvesting in their tax strategy plan

As a professional athlete, all of your passion, focus, and attention is on your sport. However, whether it’s 5 years, or 20, it’s only a season of your life – what comes next?

This week, Erik & Brandon are joined by Olympic legend Michael Johnson to discuss finding your passions beyond your sports career.

Over his 12-year career as a professional athlete at the top of his sport, Michael became a household name as he earned 13 Olympic and World championship gold medals and broke world records in multiple events.

And he was only getting started.

Michael knew from a young age that he had a passion beyond the sports world, and since his retirement as a professional athlete, has gone on to become a prolific businessman and entrepreneur. 

Michael shares his wisdom and experience about his time at the top of his sport, and then what it was like to pivot his career to successful ventures including the Michael Johnson Performance Center, which has partnered with some of the biggest organizations in sports performance and medicine. Other topics discussed include:

• When in his career that Michael began to think about life after sport
• Hard advice for the athlete who says there isn’t time to focus on the next stage of his or her career
• How to find your passion
• His path and lessons learned to founding the Michael Johnson Performance Center
• Other ventures Michael is working on
• A framework to consider for athletes trying to decide between lending their name to a brand they believe in vs rolling up their sleeves and helping to lead it
• Wisdom when considering private investment opportunities as a professional athlete
• Taking ownership over your comprehensive health and wellness
• Learning from and growing out of adversity in your life or career

As you see in the major media and financial publications, earnings season is coming soon, but what does that mean for the typical investor? Articles and TV segments abound with the results and guidance of some of the best analysts in the business on their predictions of how some of the top companies are doing, but does that mean that you should be acting on those claims?

Put simply, “earnings season” is the time in which most of the major publicly traded companies release their quarterly earnings reports. As a result of these reports, more updated information is then available to the public followed by market adjustments. What makes this upcoming earnings season of particular interest for many is the fact that it’s following the best quarter since 1987.

In this week’s episode, Brandon and Erik discuss earnings season and cover topics and questions like:

• What exactly is earnings season and why do people get excited about it?
• How earnings season can highlight the difference between the stock market and the economy (for more on this, see episode 11: Stock Market vs Economy)
• How and why earnings season causes market adjustments
• Why some of the best analysts in the world still can’t predict future outcomes based on earnings season information
• What should I know about earnings season? Should I take any steps to prepare or react to it?
• What’s the best way to secure long-term, positive financial results?

Over the last couple weeks, we've seen the return with a vengeance of volatility in the markets with some of the biggest highs and lows in history all within a short time span. With these swings, we're starting to see non-investor voices give investing advice that really boils down to gambling.  The message from these media personalities is loud and clear: now is the time for people to become active investors. 

Is there room for this type of investing? The answer revolves around your current situation and your long-term goals. In this episode, Erik & Brandon give some helpful thoughts on how to view this concept and address topics and questions including:

• Why Shaq’s free throw record relates to investing
• The myth of entertainment-based trading
• Should we pay attention to what the media is telling us? How much credence should we give to news sites advice on the investment decisions we should be making?
• Day trading vs long-term investing
• How the active investing we're seeing in mainstream conversations is similar to sports gambling
• How do we most effectively grow our wealth over the long-term?
• How do you stay disciplined over the long term and not fall for the get rich quick gimmicks?

In this episode of the Athlete CEO Podcast, Erik sits down with Alex Mather, the co-founder of The Athletic.

Valued at roughly $500 million The Athletic has disrupted the sports media world.

They dive into the vision, strategy and tactics that led to the quick rise of dominance for the Athletic in a saturated market that seemed impenetrable.

Alex offers advice and lessons learned from the founding of The Athletic covering topics like:

• The characteristics he learned growing up that helped give him tenacity, resolve, and a positive outlook
• How Alex and his co-founder Adam built The Athletic to be different
• How to understand and work to refine your brand
• Putting people first and using analytics to optimize
• The burdens of leadership and the importance of caring for and supporting your team
• What leadership looks like
• Why helping your team to win is more important than being right
• The 4 daily actions he encourages his team to take to stay focused and support others during tumultuous times