An easy assumption to make about athlete venture capital investments is that sports stars’ money would tend to go towards supporting companies directly connected to the search for success on the field, like wearables or sports equipment. Five years ago that may still have been true, but it is less so today, according to Casey Schwab, VP of business and legal affairs at NFL Players Inc., the licensing arm of the NFLPA, and Rouz Jazayeri, co-founder of Catapult Ventures and executive board member of the NFLPA’s OneTeam Collective.
“We had a OneTeam Collective board meeting a couple of weeks ago in Los Angeles, and it was right about the time Beyond Meat went public,” Jazayeri explained at the San Francisco 49ers and SportTechie Horizon Summit last week.