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Kevin Durant’s Tech Investments In Silicon Valley Are Nothing But Net

Kevin Durant’s Tech Investments In Silicon Valley Are Nothing But Net

Written by Ann Brown

May 26, 2018

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Golden State Warriors basketball player Kevin Durant is a boss on the court and off, making a name for himself as an NBA player and as a savvy businessman.

In addition to numerous multimillion-dollar endorsement deals, he has made smart investments in Silicon Valley.

Durant has the most endorsements in the NBA (at one time more than 10), ESPN reported, and he has one of the most wide-ranging investment portfolios in the NBA.

On the endorsement side, he has deals with Nike, Alaska Airlines and American Family Insurance.

He has many projects in the works.

“Durant’s Thirty Five Media not only produces his content on YouTube but also other original content for the platform. The company recently sold to Apple its first scripted series, called ‘Swagger’, loosely based on Durant’s AAU days, and has two other projects in development with major TV networks,” ESPN reported.

Durant Company, which handles the pro player’s investments, has early-stage investments from $250,000 to $1 million in about 30 companies through a network of venture capitalists. Many of these are tech related. They include online digital-currency platform Coinbase; spare-change app Acorns; cloud-computing startup Rubrik; drink company WTRMLN WTR; fast-casual pizza chain Pieology; bike-sharing company LimeBike; and delivery company Postmates.

Durant’s choices have been interesting. Acorns is an investing app that allows users to monitor their daily purchases and automatically invest the leftover change into a low-cost, exchange-traded fund.

“The company has opened more than 1 million investment accounts in just two years. More than 70 percent of Acorns investors are ages 18 to 34,” The Undefeated reported. “Durant bought a stake in Postmates, an on-demand delivery service, after he spent a day in New York as a bicycle delivery guy.”

Durant has been able to hook up with “good mentors,” he said, such as Ron Conway (early-stage Google and PayPal investor) and Ben Horowitz (co-founder of Silicon Valley venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz) and good friendships with guys like Chris Lyons (chief of staff for Andreessen Horowitz). ”

I mean, you just go to dinner with these guys, hang out with them. You start to meet these types of people at games. It’s a little easier being here than saying, ‘Let’s meet up when I come in from Oklahoma,’” he told ESPN.

So will Durant invest next in an NBA team?

“I wish I had the money,” he told ESPN. “It’s crazy. Obviously, the financial part is definitely going to be the hardest part. I’ve been part of two great organizations. I know the game inside and out and I know the players. And I feel like these NBA franchises just change lives. They change cities. I would love to do that. All the aspects of owning a team, I would love to be involved in — from the financial and marketing side to the team-building to the camaraderie to the coaching.”

Golden State Warriors’ Kevin Durant waits during a timeout during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies Monday, Nov. 5, 2018, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

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