Kobe Bryant is moving on from his NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers and he’s beginning the next chapter in his life. The former Lakers star is still willing to help out some of the young talents in the league but it appears his attention will be centered on his new company.
Bryant’s 38th birthday is on Tuesday and it appears he’s giving himself a nice birthday present worth about $100 million. Kobe, along with his partner, Jeff Stibel, will formally announce the launch of their new venture capital fund, “Bryant Stibel” later today.
The retired NBA legend and his partner will use the venture capital fund as a vehicle for investing in technology, media and data companies. Stibel is a New York Times best-selling author and an entrepreneur who has been at the helm for numerous tech and marketing companies including ‘Web.com’ and ‘Interland’.
Following from Dennis K Berkman of the Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Bryant, who turns 38 Tuesday, isn’t going it alone: He is partnering with 43-year-old Jeff Stibel, a longtime entrepreneur and investor who was introduced to Mr. Bryant by a mutual friend. They have named their firm ‘Bryant Stibel’ and will be based in the Los Angeles area.
The two have been invested in 15 companies since 2013, but only after Mr. Bryant’s retirement from basketball have they decided to formalize their relationship and fund.
The two men are contributing the $100 million—which they expect to invest over the next few years—and aren’t seeking outside investors yet.
Current investments include sports media website The Players Tribune, videogame designer Scopely, legal-services company LegalZoom, a telemarketing-software firm called RingDNA and a home-juicing company called Juicero.
In an interview, the two men said their skills complement each other, with Mr. Stibel bringing experience building companies and Mr. Bryant contributing a creative, if obsessive, flair for details around marketing, branding and storytelling. He, in fact, designed the company’s new logo with inspiration from piano keys.
“We don’t want to be in the business of investing in companies so someone can use Kobe as an endorser. That’s not interesting,” said Mr. Stibel, who began his career in brain research and later founded and developed tech companies. “The point is to add real value.”
“Sometimes you can spot it right away, other times not so much,” said Mr. Bryant. “It’s the inner belief that a person has that he will endure no matter what the obstacle may be. It’s that persistence, the entrepreneur doing what he or she truly believes in and truly loves to do.”
Kobe Bryant is a one of a kind personality and a notorious hard worker so it’s believe to think he’d simply get into a business without a legit plan behind it. Bryant already started to dip his toes into the business world with his own company,’Kobe Inc.’, which had it’s biggest project last year with the ‘Kobe Bryant’s Muse’ documentary. His personal business will take him into the realm of film and story telling, something Bryant has wanted to do for a long time.
The ‘Bryant Stibel’ company could become a major power player in the business world in no time, especially with this dynamic duo leading the charge.
