Champion's athlete-investors and its VC partners share several traits, which may explain the manly camaraderie that has developed between them. The athletes who can actually pony up $250,000 in cash to invest in Champion are typically at or near the end of their playing careers. That makes them about the same age as many hot-shot VCs -- in their thirties or maybe early forties. Plus, both venture capital and professional sports are male-dominated milieus. "I was talking to Joe Montana," says Hoag, "and we agreed that in a sense our worlds had similar characteristics. I think the athletes are part of an overall trend in America of trying to get good investments in the Internet."
Indeed, today's sports-page profilees are more Motley Fool, less Mean Joe Green. Financial planners Lintz and Griege describe their athlete-clients as lovers of laptops, cell phones, dot-com IPOs, and day trading. "I often get calls from clients asking about certain stocks, and you can hear the clinking of weights in the background," Lintz says.
Even more striking -- and amusing -- is that the athletes themselves sound like a pack of yuppies. "When a new cell phone comes out, all of us have got to have it," confesses Broncos cornerback Ray Crockett, a Champion investor.
There are other reasons why the two groups can come together and commit to Champion. For starters, the VCs buy Barton's claim that "our guys can help brand tech firms." The idea, not yet tested, is this: a company backed by a Champion venture-capital partner like the Mayfield Fund or New Enterprise Associates could arrange to get a prominent Champion investor to endorse it in return for equity or maybe even a board seat. "A lot of businesses are real consumer focused, and someone like Joe Montana would be a great spokesman," says Hoag. (Top pro athletes can normally charge six figures or more for appearing in a commercial.) Barton predicts that companies backed by Champion's venture partners could represent some athletes' endorsement "deal flow" for the next "10 or 15 years."
Another possibility: athletes could partner with start-ups and then, through Champion, help those start-ups get funding. For instance, when Champion backers Wayne Gretzky and John Elway teamed up with basketball great Michael Jordan to start MVP.com, Elway called Harris Barton. Barton arranged for Elway to meet with several Bay Area VCs to discuss MVP.com. Benchmark Capital, a Champion-backed venture-capital firm, ultimately financed Elway's start-up.
A third idea -- hold onto your helmets for this one -- is that Champion-backed companies could recruit Champion investors for management-track jobs both during the off-season and after their sports careers end. Though the notion may seem far-fetched, Champion's founders swear that it's feasible. "We're always looking for smart people, and we'd love to leverage the talents of a group of 20- to 25-year-olds, who are by their nature achievement oriented," says Sukhinder Singh, cofounder of Champion-backed Yodlee.com Inc., a hot start-up in Sunnyvale, Calif.
No, Singh is not kidding, and perhaps that should come as no surprise. This is the new economy, after all. If Martha Stewart, Dr. C. Everett Koop, and even Punky Brewster can take companies public, why can't a three-point shooter reposition himself as a dot-com doyen? Hasn't one of the lessons of the past 10 years been that the market can turn anyone into a billionaire? "Michael Dell -- he was at the University of Texas when I was at Baylor," notes the Broncos' Crockett, as if to say, "I could have been that guy."
Barton and Lott have been able to get Champion up and running precisely because they understand Crockett and other athletes like him. "When a guy retires from football due to injury or whatever, he doesn't want to sit and play golf all day," Barton explains. "It's just not very fun." But doing big deals and making big money -- that's as much fun as winning a Super Bowl.
Mike Hofman is a staff writer at Inc.
The Stats
Company: Champion Ventures
First fund: $40 million
Management fee: 1% per annum
Minimum individual contribution: $250,000
Managers' take: 5% of every dollar earned after each investor has earned back his or her investment plus 6%
Complete list of participating venture-capital firms: Accel Partners; Benchmark Capital; ComVentures; Crosspoint Venture Partners; Greylock; Highland Capital Partners; Mayfield Fund; Mohr, Davidow Ventures; New Enterprise Associates; Redpoint Ventures; Sequoia Capital; and Technology Crossover Ventures
Number of investors: 99
Big-league investors: Baseball players Barry Bonds, Ryne Sandberg, and Eric Karros; hockey icon Wayne Gretzky; quarterbacks Joe Montana, John Elway, Dan Marino, Steve Young, and Drew Bledsoe; sportscaster Bob Costas; golfer Hale Irwin; basketball player Steve Kerr; and executives from Visa and Charles Schwab.
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