Back in the saddle here with the 16th edition of the PGP Newsletter. Catching you up on some recent episodes…
Thanksgiving Week
Episode 92 went out with Bela Carrasco, she’s a former soccer player at Marquette and VP of Investor Relations at Origin Investments - a multifamily real estate investment firm.
She talked about:
A podcast she hosts called “How Do You Know?” about financial literacy for athletes
Understanding how your financial advisor is incentivized
Why she cares about real estate and helping athletes beyond the game.
Last Week
Last week’s episode was with George Boyd - he was a pro BMX rider, career got cut short by injury, and launched his video editing career with Disney, the NFL, and Meta.
He’s since started his own video editing company Cut The Pod, where he’s helping podcasts turn into premium video pods.
He’s worked on videos with Jamarr Chase, Dillon Gabriel, and made this video for the Eagles.
George talked about:
How growing up in the BMX culture and taking calculated risks translated into his video editing career
A mentor at an early job that changed his life
The decision to quit his job with the NFL that looked good on paper but was actually killing him and starting his own business
Some podcast tips - lighting, sound, clips and editing, self-promotion, etc.
This Week’s Episode
This week’s episode is with entrepreneur and VC with Courtside Ventures, Vasu Kulkarni.
He’s got an awesome story from attempting to play basketball at Penn and the Coach (assuming Fran Dunphy, I did not ask) basically laughing him out of the gym, founding his company Krossover which he exited in 2017, and becoming a partner at Courtside Ventures - where they’re investing in sports, lifestyle, and gaming companies.
He Talked About:
The lessons learned from playing sports that helped him when founding his own company
How he’s wrong 90% of the time when investing in companies
Working alongside Larry Fitzgerald as a limited partner in their fund
Their early investment in The Athletic and how they originally though it wasn’t a great idea
Bet on Yourself
This man has cojones.
Some Upcoming Episodes:
Chris Knowles - Former College Volleyball player at LIU Brooklyn. He’s working on a platform for former athletes called UNJERSEYED
Ben Nichols - Founder of Padel22 - The Global Communications Consultancy for the World’s Fastest growing sport, padel
Taylor Cohen - Former college and pro soccer player. Founder of AthletEx - building community for athletes after they retire through events, resources, etc.
Appreciate you checking out the pod and for the support.
Keeping it rolling, have some sweet episodes headed into the New Year. LFG.
Joe