Speaker 1: Well, Alexis o'hanian. He co founded Read It. He's a
Speaker 1: serial entrepreneur. He's got a VC firm, the seven seven
Speaker 1: six Fund, He's got a foundation with a similar name.
Speaker 1: He's also all in on sports, co founder and leading
Speaker 1: investor at the Angel City Football Club, the women's soccer
Speaker 1: team based in LA We had a long ranging conversation
Speaker 1: earlier today. But sports that's where we began, you tweeted,
Speaker 1: I think just a few days. I love sports. Have
Speaker 1: you always loved sports?
Speaker 2: Always? I did not always love women's sports, though, to
Speaker 2: be clear, I'm not. I jumped on this bandwagon really
Speaker 2: when I met my wife. That was the first time
Speaker 2: I even ever watched tennis as a sport. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: then really went whole hog in twenty nineteen, so I'm
Speaker 2: new to it.
Speaker 1: Well, talk to us about Angel City in terms of
Speaker 1: how it came on your radar. I mean, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of well known actresses. Mia Ham's involved. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of incredible women behind it. What was it, I
Speaker 1: don't know the conversations you had with him that said
Speaker 1: I want to be a part of this.
Speaker 2: Well, so back in twenty nineteen and I dug up
Speaker 2: these old tweets. It was March. I was just, you know,
Speaker 2: reading the news the US women's national team was fighting
Speaker 2: for pay equity, and I started looking at the numbers
Speaker 2: and I realized women's sports, and chiefly soccer, was being
Speaker 2: so so undervalued. And again I only just come of
Speaker 2: this as a businessman, as an investor, and you know,
Speaker 2: seeing the amount of attention that team was able to capture,
Speaker 2: seeing the number of follows their biggest stars had on
Speaker 2: social media, right, this is these are facts over feelings.
Speaker 2: This is just the democratic nature of social media, which
Speaker 2: says you are someone I want to pay attention to,
Speaker 2: I will click follow. Showed that these women were incredibly popular.
Speaker 2: They were individually capable of generating, you know, millions of
Speaker 2: dollars in brand deals. And yet the league, the NWSL,
Speaker 2: was still kind of a mess. I didn't even know
Speaker 2: it existed. I think a lot of sports fans didn't.
Speaker 2: It was showing its match is on lifetime Lifetime. No
Speaker 2: offense to Lifetime, but come on, you're not watching sports
Speaker 2: on Lifetime. And at the time a team had sold
Speaker 2: for like three million dollars and it was the same
Speaker 2: team that Megan Rappino played on, and you don't have
Speaker 2: think the smartest guy in the room to realize Megan
Speaker 2: Rapino can generate at least a few million dollars a
Speaker 2: year in brand deals, and she is worth at least
Speaker 2: that much and soon money her entire team is only
Speaker 2: worth three millions. Someone was epically messing up, and so
Speaker 2: I started tweeting, and I just said, I was like, look,
Speaker 2: this is a huge opportunity. I want to buy a team.
Speaker 2: Who do I talk to? I want to start a team?
Speaker 2: Who do I talk to? And you know, Twitter showed
Speaker 2: up in a big way. The diehard women soccer fans
Speaker 2: were like, all right, you know, don't just talk about it,
Speaker 2: be about it. And then there were also trolls who
Speaker 2: were like, you're going to waste all your money. This
Speaker 2: is stupid. No one cares what women's sports. So I
Speaker 2: started talking to existing owners. I realized pretty quickly I
Speaker 2: didn't want to inherit someone else's team. I needed a
Speaker 2: blank slate. And because I was so proactively honestly tweeting
Speaker 2: about it, one of the owners of La FC, the
Speaker 2: men's club in la introduced me to Kara Julian Natt
Speaker 2: created who at the end of I think twenty nineteen
Speaker 2: were out to market and couldn't find anyone who wanted
Speaker 2: to invest, and so I said, well, look I'm doing
Speaker 2: this and getting connected to them. You know, they shared
Speaker 2: a similar vision and you know I wrote the check
Speaker 2: off and running that's yeah, it was. It was kismet
Speaker 2: and I think tweeting, I mean seriously, and it's it's
Speaker 2: this show.
Speaker 1: Is like it can work. It's like incredible and connecting people.
Speaker 2: Yes, and look, I'm also the kind of person who
Speaker 2: likes being early and right. So I love calling my
Speaker 2: shots on Twitter because I love having those receipts later
Speaker 2: when everyone's like history, right, Yeah, bring the receipts baby.
Speaker 1: Well okay, god, I feel like there's a million places
Speaker 1: I could go. Well does that show?
Speaker 2: Do you?
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to take a sidebar here, go for it.
Speaker 1: So social media, Twitter, TikTok. There's a lot of things
Speaker 1: that are on you know, everybody's radar about usefulness, the
Speaker 1: problems that are created, you know, elin and Twitter is
Speaker 1: a whole other story. What's your take on social media?
Speaker 1: Has it run its course?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: We and I love a lot?
Speaker 2: Wow? Yes, okay, Look, it has transformed the world. There
Speaker 2: have been good outcomes. There have been bad outcomes, right,
Speaker 2: I very publicly left read it in protest a few
Speaker 2: years ago, and and I was thrilled. They didn't response.
Speaker 2: You know, they did finally ban hate communities, They did
Speaker 2: replace me with a black directory. They made changes as
Speaker 2: a result of my resignation that I was so happy
Speaker 2: with at the end of the day. But I realized,
Speaker 2: for me, I think social media is very much going
Speaker 2: to occupy a space that our children's generation will look
Speaker 2: back on with a raised eyebrow. I mean, that's a
Speaker 2: big part of the reason I left. I got a
Speaker 2: she was three at the time. Now she's five and
Speaker 2: a half, a daughter who I think is gonna grow
Speaker 2: up with a very different experience on social media. And
Speaker 2: so I think part of that is cultural. You're seeing
Speaker 2: a generation of young people and their parents who are
Speaker 2: like yo, Actually, maybe this was pretty terrible for you know,
Speaker 2: going through adolescents where everyone has a little like button
Speaker 2: and follower account floating above their heads, right, you know,
Speaker 2: adolescents measure. It's hard enough to go through that time,
Speaker 2: and then you now productize and weaponize it. Probably not
Speaker 2: great long term. So I think you can already see
Speaker 2: the culture shifting, right, you can already see this generation
Speaker 2: looking to other platforms. I'm not an investor. You know
Speaker 2: the ascent in companies like be Real that are more
Speaker 2: about not living on your phone chasing hearts, but just
Speaker 2: sharing with people you actually care about, like what's going
Speaker 2: on in your life. I think you're gonna see that
Speaker 2: cultural shift, and you're gonna see more technology. So I
Speaker 2: social media is not going anywhere, but it will evolve
Speaker 2: in the way that we use it, for sure.
Speaker 1: I'm curious how your daughter and your wife influence you
Speaker 1: in terms of you know, equities, equality, women. Your daughter
Speaker 1: as an investor, yes, I made sure so I the
Speaker 1: owner of a professional sports team.
Speaker 2: That's right. I set aside a few bucks to personally invest.
Speaker 2: I mean it was via her trust. She doesn't know this,
Speaker 2: by the way, so hopefully she's not listening to the podcasts.
Speaker 2: I mean, she's five and a half. I'm not to hear.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it was important, right. I wanted her not
Speaker 2: just to be the youngest center in pro sports, which
Speaker 2: is kind of cool. Yeah, but you know, like any parent,
Speaker 2: you want to create, you want to give your children
Speaker 2: something and a legacy. And frankly, also I wanted to
Speaker 2: give her what she was doing. So it was because
Speaker 2: of Olympia that really galvanized this in many ways because
Speaker 2: during the final the Women's World Cup that year, we
Speaker 2: were all watching at the home we were staying in Wimbledon,
Speaker 2: and I'd gotten Olympia in alex morgan Jersey and She's
Speaker 2: running around kicking her ball, and I'd commented to my wife,
Speaker 2: like any proud dad, it wouldn't it be nice one
Speaker 2: day if she played on the wom's national team, wouldn't
Speaker 2: it be cool? And without missing a beat, Serena says,
Speaker 2: not until they pay her what she's worth, and I said, okay,
Speaker 2: challenge accept it, like all right. And so so you
Speaker 2: know this, this little three year old was part of
Speaker 2: the reason why I finally was like, no, I really
Speaker 2: this needs to happen, and so the least I could
Speaker 2: do is give her her due. And so yeah, look,
Speaker 2: I'm very aware of the fact that I am a
Speaker 2: now wealthy but a white dude who occupies space his
Speaker 2: entire life very differently than my wife has and my
Speaker 2: daughter will, and so it has given me perspective. But
Speaker 2: I want to stress it is nothing about the moves
Speaker 2: I make or the things I do are charitable? What
Speaker 2: do you mean?
Speaker 1: What is she thinking because you're an investor?
Speaker 2: What I mean is none of this is None of
Speaker 2: this is because of charity. This is what I believe
Speaker 2: is going to lead to the most effective outcome long term.
Speaker 2: One of the I really believe, and this is something
Speaker 2: I talk about with my team all the time at
Speaker 2: seven seven six and with CEOs that I counsel now,
Speaker 2: is I really believe the long term greedy mindset is
Speaker 2: just a very different way of thinking about building businesses,
Speaker 2: being more intentional about everything from the way you build
Speaker 2: teams to the way you deploy capital to the partners
Speaker 2: that you decide to have. And I actually, like, I
Speaker 2: worry the one thing I don't want people to hear
Speaker 2: is like, oh, well, this dude has you know, a
Speaker 2: black wife, a black daughter, and now he cares about
Speaker 2: these things, right, Because I don't think you should need
Speaker 2: to have those things in order to care. You shouldn't
Speaker 2: need to have a daughter to care about women's sports.
Speaker 1: But if you didn't, do you think, oh, you'd have
Speaker 1: gotten to this point.
Speaker 2: Probably a lot slower, if at all. So no, I can't.
Speaker 2: So yes, it absolutely played a huge role in helping
Speaker 2: build my perspective in the same way. You know, it's
Speaker 2: a kind of education. You know, I didn't go to
Speaker 2: Harvard Business School, clearly, but my you know, I had
Speaker 2: a different kind of very formative education that's come from
Speaker 2: being in a relationship and then a marriage to someone
Speaker 2: like my wife, and having the lived experience of a daughter.
Speaker 1: But some would say much richer and much more real.
Speaker 2: Understand I think so oh one hundred percent, So I
Speaker 2: think so yes, I can't deny how formative it's been.
Speaker 2: But I just want to stress that it's not Do
Speaker 2: not take away from this that that has to be
Speaker 2: the reason why it's exciting. Women's sports is not exciting
Speaker 2: just because because a bunch of dudes have daughters and
Speaker 2: now feel like, oh we got to support this. No, like,
Speaker 2: women's sports is exciting because it is a massive business
Speaker 2: opportunity that men and women, even dudes who don't have daughters,
Speaker 2: are going to be excited to pay attention to.
Speaker 1: Since I have you, I'm going to get in trouble.
Speaker 1: Fin don't actually if your question, sorry, well we did
Speaker 1: social media. I know you talked about this with our
Speaker 1: TV cogs. Yeah, artificial intelligence. You knew I was going
Speaker 1: to ask. Sorry, sure, that's fine, I'm using what's more
Speaker 1: interesting right now? Well, okay, so what has better investment
Speaker 1: opportunities AI?
Speaker 2: But interestingly enough, if we assume let's go down, let's
Speaker 2: I just think in ten year terms a gift and
Speaker 2: a curse. But so ten years down the road, AI
Speaker 2: continues to ascend. Like you can now spin up anything.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's the ability to generate let's say, content
Speaker 2: is trivial. Right, we could sit here, you could have
Speaker 2: you could say you want a birth day song sung
Speaker 2: by Beyonce naming you and your favorite puppy, and like
Speaker 2: you could customize everything and mention like I don't know
Speaker 2: pizza because you love pizza?
Speaker 1: Cool? Is that valuable?
Speaker 2: I think so? And so you need to figure out that.
Speaker 2: You need to figure out the dollars so that artists
Speaker 2: get paid and all that stuff's going to get sort
Speaker 2: of stim But okay, imagine content is everywhere and anyone
Speaker 2: can create all the content they want. It actually now
Speaker 2: comes full circle back to why having a decentralized global
Speaker 2: ledger is so important because with a blockchain, you can
Speaker 2: now prove the prominence and authenticity of the original the
Speaker 2: day one content and so weirdly, I think in the
Speaker 2: long term the proliferation of a actually makes a strong
Speaker 2: case for the blockchain because.
Speaker 1: Blockchain, But what about crypto. You've invested in crypto, how
Speaker 1: do you feel about that at this point after the
Speaker 1: carnage of the lasts.
Speaker 2: So I seeded coinbase in twenty twelve. I have been
Speaker 2: through every winter, and every winter I put on my
Speaker 2: parka and I go talk to people building and they build.
Speaker 2: And it's actually the best time to be investing in
Speaker 2: crypto because every cycle, the winter is the best time
Speaker 2: to be doing my job because when you're early, you know,
Speaker 2: this is when the noise is gone. This is when
Speaker 2: the builders are building things people actually want. They're not
Speaker 2: worrying about what the ETH price is today. They're just building.
Speaker 2: They're shipping software, investing yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1: And AI are you investing?
Speaker 2: Yes? And So in another two three years will come
Speaker 2: out of this cryptocycle. It'll probably be I think gaming
Speaker 2: will be a big thrust of it. It'll be very
Speaker 2: consumer facing as well as infrastructure, and it's not going
Speaker 2: to use any of those words. You're never gonna hear
Speaker 2: about NFTs, nor should You're never gonna hear about crypt
Speaker 2: it's just going to be dope software that happens to
Speaker 2: be on chain, all right.
Speaker 1: That, of course was Alexis o'hanian, co founder I've Reddit,
Speaker 1: founder of a VC firm, the seven seven sixth Fund.
Speaker 1: He's also got a foundation, the seven seven six Foundation,
Speaker 1: that aims to fight inequity, most recently giving about twenty
Speaker 1: million to young people of the next decade. It's all
Speaker 1: about working on climate. And then he's into sports, co
Speaker 1: founder and leading investor at Angel City football Club. Eva
Speaker 1: Longoria is invested in it. Jennifer Garner, I'm leaving out
Speaker 1: Natalie Portmant. I mean, there's a lot of people who
Speaker 1: are involved in it, but interesting and I thought it
Speaker 1: was interesting when he had to say about blockchain. That
Speaker 1: is something I understand a little bit more, I feel like,
Speaker 1: and I can understand maybe the productivity by using it
Speaker 1: or the usage of it, and crypto is still I
Speaker 1: don't know some questions.
Speaker 3: But it's great to get his perspective because he is
Speaker 3: one of those I was born on the Internet people
Speaker 3: co founding Reddit. I mean, he gets it, and I
Speaker 3: feel like that leads a lot of credibility to his
Speaker 3: commentary on things like the future of AI and crypto.
Speaker 1: Right, exactly right, and looking at kind of where things
Speaker 1: are going. And you know, if you google on him,
Speaker 1: he's got some thoughts on TikTok and the social media space,
Speaker 1: which I do feel like, you know, we're all going
Speaker 1: through a little bit of I don't want to use
Speaker 1: the word revel but rethinking you know, privacy issues, how
Speaker 1: much time we use and some of the you know
Speaker 1: concerns right, and then there's the good side of like
Speaker 1: really connecting people in a really easy way.