Next Legacy Perspectives

Meet Next Legacy Partners. While many members of both the Next Play and Legacy Venture communities are aware by now, the start of 2023 has been an eventful one for both firms. Having joined forces, Next Legacy now stands poised to deliver lasting impact and superior returns to our partners.   Next Play Founder Ryan Nece and Legacy Founder Russ Hall join a conversation with Next Legacy Venture Partner Hunter Hillenmeyer to discuss the rationale and the goals behind the formation of Next Legacy. They also dive into the current state of VC, a trip down memory lane to the founding of each firm in 1999 and 2014, and a glance out towards the goals for the future. The conversation also provides more color into how and why funds of funds exist than has ever been shared in this format.   While Next Legacy Perspectives is usually about sharing the brave exploits of our broader community, this momentous occasion felt worth celebrating through this quick acknowledgement of all the hard work that made Next Legacy possible. Here's to the next 25 years!

Next Legacy is no stranger to serving the needs of athletes, but when Oren Gabriel and Next Play Capital Founder Ryan Nece, now Managing Partner at Next Legacy, first discussed the challenge facing athletes as they transition beyond the world of sports, both of them saw an opportunity.    NextPlayU is the product of that brainstorm. Oren and his talented co-founders have been building a platform to help athletes, both college and professional, find success in their careers beyond the world of sports. Oren's journey as a founder is a fantastic story and one that is very close to home for the Next Play team. Tune in to hear about the exciting vision of NextPlayU and the ways they hope to support this underserved, but hyper-competent talent pool as they transition from sports into the workforce.

While immigration is a polarizing topic in the US, Welcome Tech and their vision to become the digital Ellis Island somehow manage to rise above the politics. Amir Hemmat, Welcome Tech's founder, explains that if you think of a country like a company, attracting the best talent and then creating ideal conditions for their success is a no brainer. This is Welcome Tech's mission.   With millions of immigrants in the United States now leveraging the Welcome Tech platform, the company is well on its way. In this conversation, Amir digs into the many reasons why a company like Welcome Tech needs to exist, including why the government itself is not well positioned to serve immigrants this comprehensively. Regardless of your stance on immigration, Amir's no-nonsense views on how to empower immigrants to contribute and thrive in a new country will have you nodding in agreement. Check it out, and let us know what you think.

Harry and his teammates at Mill do not look like your typical early stage startup. For one, they come with a pedigree from some of the most iconic tech companies ever, names like Apple, Google, and Nest. He and Mill Co-Founder Matt Rogers have been in the trenches together, most notably building Nest from $0 to more than $1B in annual revenue, culminating in their acquisition by Google.   Startups that include hardware + software scare many VCs. The added complexity and working capital requirements are just a few reasons to validate those fears. Harry articulates wonderfully both the "why" behind Mill's bold vision and the ways that their experienced team gives them an unfair advantage. Mill's vision to "outsmart waste" by equipping families everywhere to keep food waste out of landfills, and even from becoming waste in the first place, will inspire listeners to be a part of solving what Harry describes as the "dumbest climate problem," the fact that nearly 10% of the total greenhouse gas problem comes from wasted food sitting landfills.   Mill is coming out of stealth now and is ready to share their vision with the world.

Most venture-funded startup founders begin their journeys with grand ambitions from the outset. Such was not the case with Natalie, who started Babylist in 2011 to improve upon her own experience setting up a baby registry while expecting her first child. Now almost a dozen years later, she has both a tween and a company who are maturing rapidly.    From those humble beginnings Natalie turned her side hustle into a force in online commerce, where Babylist now manages a registry for nearly half of expecting parents in the U.S. Her lessons learned and plans for future growth will inspire anyone who has a side project that they dream could one day become their main thing. Her personal growth, from engineer & expecting mother into CEO, and the growth of Babylist from side hustle to juggernaut, both offer models for personal and professional development that the rest of us can follow.

Chase Griffin is a quarterback at UCLA and perhaps the most pioneering NIL athlete in college sports. Despite having not yet regularly started at QB for UCLA, Chase has more brand partnerships than many of the best known names in the college game.    Whether you love the new world of college sports where athletes can monetize their Name, Image, and Likeness or you think this new dynamic has ruined the game, you will be inspired by the story of Chase Griffin. His marketability has as much to do with his personality and his values as it does with the strength of his arm or the caliber of his play. Is Chase a model for the future of college sports or an anomaly amidst the transition of college athletics from amateur game to professional farm league? Hear about his journey to decide for yourself.

Matt Pohslon has spent the last decade innovating on what it means to serve non-profits. Omaze, a for-profit company that raises money for great causes by offering once-in-a-lifetime experiences, has a mission grounded in going beyond raising awareness to making huge impacts (and raising lots of money) for the causes it supports.   Matt and Omaze are well on their way, but it hasn't been a straight line. Omaze has continued to evolve its business. Matt himself suffered a near death experience that precipitated a huge change in the Omaze model. Hear from this inspiring founder who is blurring the lines between capitalism and the nonprofit world in the best possible way.

Wes started FPV with co-founder Pegah Ebrahimi with one goal in mind: to back truly exceptional founders who are attacking a problem "they've been thinking about their whole life." Wes knows what a successful founder looks like. His track record as an investor at both Felicis and Google Ventures (now GV) speaks for itself. On top of that, his experience leading product teams at Google, including Analytics and Voice, gives him both the insights and scar tissue to spot the best builders before it is obvious that they will succeed.

Whenever a manager "spins out" of a more established firm, they are trading security for opportunity. Hear Wes discuss why he and Pegah felt like now was the right time to start FPV and how they plan to work with founders in the years to come.

Andrew Brandt knows the business side of sports about as well as anyone. He followed up a career as an agent by joining the Packers in 1999 to negotiate player contracts and manage the cap. He is now a blogger, ESPN expert, professor and leader of the Moorad Center for sports law at Villanova, and podcaster. He was an insider for some of the most definitive moments of the modern NFL, including the decision to take Aaron Rodgers with a 1st round pick in the 2005 NFL Draft despite having future Hall of Famer and NFL ironman Brett Favre at quarterback.   Hear Andrew relive some of these stories from the inside, get his perspective on how to get a job in sports, and listen to Andrew's philosophy that any job should be looked at as a chapter and not a career, especially if your current job has an expiration date, like playing pro sports. Andrew is experienced enough to cut through all the industry BS, yet real enough to stay in sync with the humanity of sports. Enjoy his reflections on this week's podcast and follow him on Twitter @AndrewBrandt to see for yourself.

Many incredible people in this world recognize a need and conceptualize founding a company, but very few bring their ideas to life. After noticing the impact that Breast Cancer Awareness has in only one month of the year, Jake Kloberdanz set out to create something that gives back every single day. He and seven other cause-minded entrepreneurs founded ONEHOPE in 2007 with the mission to “share wine and give hope”. Today, ONEHOPE is one of the largest direct-to-consumer wineries in the world, and proceeds of their award-winning wines have allowed ONEHOPE to donate over $8 million to local and global causes including access to clean water, hunger relief, health research, and education. 

 

Since launching ONEHOPE in 2007, Jake has successfully raised more than $75 million to help grow the brand from zero to over 1.5 million bottles a year, and build a flagship vineyard, home and winery from the ground up in the heart of Napa. In this episode, Jake shares headwinds and tailwinds of starting a business, realities of fundraising, and the absolute essentials to keeping your business successful (spoiler: relationships, brand and hard work). Tune in to learn more!