Metta World Peace

BY Andrew Polaniecki

Metta World Peace is nothing short of an icon. His extraordinary NBA career spanned 17 seasons, punctuated by a 2010 championship with the Los Angeles Lakers and a host of accolades, including Defensive Player of the Year, NBA All-Star, All-NBA Third Team (2004), and four All-Defensive Team selections.

Yet, these achievements do not define him, nor are they the legacy he seeks to leave behind. Since stepping away from the game, he has reinvented himself as a philanthropist, mentor, educator, and, above all, a visionary entrepreneur. To date, he has successfully founded over 40 portfolio companies.

His latest initiative, Tru Skye Ventures – named after his granddaughter, Tru, and his partner Steven Stokols' daughter, Skye – endeavors to generate enduring generational wealth through strategic and impactful venture capital investments.

When did you officially launch Tru Skye Ventures?

Metta World Peace: I started it two years ago with my partner Steve Stokols. It took us a little bit of time to build it. It takes a lot to launch a fund. We had to put some things into place, plan deal flow, and then find our thesis.

What inspired you to establish Tru Skye?

MWP: The fund, Tru Skye Ventures, is an offspring of Artest Management Group because we have about 40 portfolio companies and Artest Management Group is more of a service-providing company, and we wanted to take the venture capital model we had with Artest Management Group and give it its own identity, and we did that with True Skye Ventures Fund. Now, we have taken the burden off a venture capital model on top of the service model for Artest Management Group, and we gave it its own entity.

Where does the company currently stand in terms of its growth, impact, and current projects?

MWP: Two years later, we have general partners. Allison Lam is a former BlackRock and former Carlyle Group worker, she’s a general partner. Tarey Gettys is a former Navy Seal and Stanford grad, and he's a general partner. Gerard Casazza, a former Wall Street entrepreneur, he's a general partner. Stephen Stokols is the former CEO of Boost Mobile and the founder of FreedomPop. He’s also a co-founder with me on the entity. Right now, we made an investment into one company, Barcode. We haven’t raised capital yet; we just did that as a first investment because it was an opportunity.

Are you looking to get other athletes involved with you?

MWP: We definitely want to get other athletes involved. I went back to school for some extension courses when I retired, and because I was studying so much during those eight years since I had retired, I was pretty much just sitting back and watching as other athletes were investing in funds and launching their own funds. I was watching the type of businesses [they were investing in]. I didn't want to make it a thing where I felt like I was late. I made it a thing where, when I'm ready, I'll be early.

Sometimes when you rush, you get in trouble. Even though I missed out on opportunities in the past, I wanted to make sure I kept that patience. So now, we would like to start talking with athletes and have them learn a little bit more about what I'm doing.

Are you focused more on getting them involved in raising capital and managing the business or is your priority to help them launch and grow their own ventures?

MWP: Both. My holdings company just launched our sports management vertical. We have two sports agents and one attorney who can do football and baseball. So, we want to have golfers, and we want baseball players. We [also] have an entertainment manager on the team, and we have a party with Jay Bienstock, the director of Survivor. My production company Artest Management Group, which we’ve been building for five years, now has a sports and entertainment vertical.

My first company was a CPA accounting firm. It was called Intrinsic. I recently just partnered with one of the juniors from my CPA accounting firm, and now she's in-house with me, (along with my) CFO, and my general counsel. It’s taking me a little while to build this… but we're building it. We have different verticals with different stakeholders and account managers running each vertical. I'm the lead operator, but I'm also the chairman operator.

What's your long-term goal?

MWP: Long-term goal is to IPO hopefully within three-to-five years.

Where did you decide to go back to school, and what courses or areas of study did you focus on to support your current endeavors?

MWP: I retired in 2017. Around 2009, I wanted to get into an agency business. In 2010, I started to seek out mentorship from high-level people that took companies public. In 2012, I started to dabble with capture technology of my own. The new technology I was presenting was stuff like Shopify, Facebook ads, and YouTube ads. In 2014, I took to building my first CRM with some partners… that didn’t go too well. I was also getting into merchandising, and then I realized I didn't have the skill set. When I realized that I did not have the skill set, I couldn’t keep throwing money away, and I told myself that it’s going to take a long time.

Then in 2015, I launched my agency AMG at a $10-million valuation with no tangible assets. I didn’t know much about the space of private equity, but I did know that one day, my company would be worth $10 million at least. Early on, I was kind of going in blind. As I was playing, I was always on the (team) bus and I was doing different things; I was always working and thinking about how I couldn’t wait to get back to my laptop when practice was over. But when I'm practicing, I'm practicing. I'm going hard. But when my time is up, then I can't wait to get back.

What I found out when I retired, I tried to coach, but it was taking too long. I wanted to coach for five years and that's all. So, I said, I'm not going to start now because I'm not committed. But once I get my business up and running, and it can run on its own, then I'll coach, which is right now. So, I’m looking for the right coaching job right now because I have a great team, and I don't need to be around.

When I officially stopped playing, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. I was already getting equity in companies. I didn't have a thesis at the time, and I was just like, “Okay, what do I want to do?” ... I love coaching. I love the stock market, so I was thinking about getting my Series 7. At this point, I love digital (marketing), and I also love rapping. So, I said I'm going to do one of those things and that's it, I’m not doing two. I (thought) about rapping, which is what I really wanted to do, but the problem with that was the lifestyle and being away from the family again, having to be in the studio 14-16 hours a day, which I would have done, but it just didn't fit me as a 37-year-old.

With coaching, I thought that I wouldn’t want to get right back into coaching because I was gone for the last 17 years. I wanted to be with my family, and I needed something where I could be home, and I found that on my laptop. So, I studied for my Series 7 and then with the Series 7, I knew I really wanted to help athletes, but with the Series 7, it was like, “Man, I’m going to have to be behind a desk.” I wanted to be more in the action.

I figured that I could always launch a financial company, but I didn't know how I was going to get there. I signed up online for a UCLA extension course, and I did my first class online, but I couldn't learn online so I told them I wanted to come into the class. So, I would enter the classroom. I did digital marketing, social media, and I signed up for the coding class. When I found out that I had the endurance and I wasn't tired, I thought that I had really found something. That led me to learn how to work Alibaba, AWS, GitHub, even Terminal on a MacBook. I learned how to work all these different programs on the job. Not real fundamental training, so I had flaws, but over time the more you do, the more you learn. I figured I'll just be like a product manager at some point. I also did a two-week course in Google Analytics in Vancouver. That was my journey.

How has your NBA career shaped your current entrepreneurial journey, and do you feel it gives you an edge as you start this new venture?

MWP: You know what the NBA career did? It comes down to two things. One, the experience. And two, the missed opportunities. So, the missed opportunities… not being an Olympian, which I should have been in 2004, but because I was getting in a lot of issues, I wasn't able to make that team. When I got suspended, I missed out on another Defensive Player of the Year, another All-NBA, another All-Star, and more. So, my career is not complete.

Being a colorful character, I was one of the first athletes outside of Shaq to have their own signature shoe three times. Outside of Shaq, [I was] one of the only guys that was rapping. People were rapping, but they weren’t putting themselves out there like I was. People were rapping, but they were in the closet. I was out there putting out records. So, with that experience of sports where if you play well, you can market yourself, you can get endorsements… but I didn’t want the endorsements anymore. I didn’t want to be the influence anymore. I want to build a company. How do you do that? At that point in 2016, I didn’t know. But I think with my experience in brands, sports, content, and media, it definitely gave me the upper hand.

Kobe Bryant was known for his investments off the court. Did you ever turn to him for advice or insights when it came to business?

MWP: Not until after he retired. When he was into business, I was focused on finishing my career strong. It wasn't at the top of my mind. I was in my own world. I didn't know what anybody was doing on the bus. I didn't know if I was going to be an operator. I didn't know if I was going to be an investor. I didn’t know what path I was going to take in business, so I didn't even know what question to ask. But when I found out I loved digital marketing, I did text Kobe, and I said, “I need to speak to you.” We met in my office, he signed a bunch of jerseys for my family, and then I told him what I'm trying to do. We had a great conversation. I told him about my digital marketing and how I wanted to be the one to operate it.

With no experience, I just needed something to push me, because it's really tiring when you really don’t understand this world. He definitely gave me that extra motivation, and not necessarily motivation because he's Kobe, but he gave me confidence. And, even more than confidence, he gave me encouragement. And even more than encouragement, he was just so supportive. He just kept on saying to me, “You should do it; just keep working hard.”

One thing Kobe knows about me is that if I say I'm going to lock somebody up, I'm going to lock somebody up, I'm not doing something different. So, if I say that I want to do digital marketing, and even though I maybe should be coaching, the one thing I understand about Kobe, and he understands about me, is I’m going to do digital marketing. If I want to learn how to code, and if I say I want to learn how to code, that means exactly what I said. It doesn't mean anything different.

Is there a piece of advice from Kobe that has stayed with you over the years and continues to influence your approach today?

MWP: He did say that a lot of the greats made it in their 40s. I was in my 30s feeling old and getting discouraged. I felt like time was racing. He reminded me that a lot of greats made it in their forties, so that led me to believe that since it took me 11 years to make it pro from the age of 8 to 19, I said, “Okay, it’s just going to take me 11 years to make it pro in digital marketing.” And I said, “Fine, I'm all in.”

Do you feel a greater sense of fulfillment in your current endeavors compared to your playing days?

MWP: I think I will always be an individual athlete because I can control what I can control, and I know where my passion is, so I think it is really complete.  Business is different. It's relationship building. You have to have different types of skills. Depending on what you're trying to do, whether you're going to build an app, or you're going to build an institution, or you're going to build a digital modern company… it's all a different skill set. And, depending on what level you're trying to do it at, this has been fulfilling because I truly believe in academics. I truly believe people should work hard in school, and now I'm able to tell my part of the story from an academic perspective, which I think is more inspiring than how many times I dove on the floor for a loose ball.

You mentioned that you have one company under Tru Skye Ventures. What types of businesses are you looking to invest in, and how do you evaluate potential opportunities? What kind of research and due diligence are you conducting to ensure both the success of your holding company and the businesses you invest in? Could you walk me through your process?

MWP: In Tru Skye, we are looking for sports, tech, consumer, brands, media, and direct-to-consumer companies.  We have a really robust digital marketing company and that's why we like anything direct-to-consumer because we can really help the direct-to-consumer companies perform. And that's in anything. That's in entertainment, it's in consumer, media, and in SaaS (software as a service)… Sometimes you have a product, and you need marketing technology… Well, do you build that out or do you focus on your value prep? And sometimes, if you don't have all those kinds of wires and plumbing inside of your company, then you use somebody else. Maybe you’ll use HubSpot, or maybe you'll use MailChimp… Or you could use a one-stop-shop solution, and that's why we love digital D2C companies.

And that’s also what Tru Skye’s value with our capabilities through our digital marketing company called Just Slide Media, which is going to be a big multiplier for our portfolio companies. Then, the holdings company, Artest Management Group, we are an over-the-top service company with a sales force, so we add value to our portfolio companies and Tru Skye is one of our portfolio companies. It’s venture capital, but it is one of our portfolio companies. So, we have contractors and agents, so when we do make an investment out of Tru Skye, we're able to add value. Essentially, we might not have anchor capital, but we are essentially an anchor because we add value to the investment, which is why I have 40 companies.

Now, we’re trying to build up the venture capital fund and make investments. My holdings company is structured a little differently. It’s a service-based model, and sometimes we'll give free services for great economics.

Did you have any interest in business during your time at St. John’s, or did that develop later?

MWP: No. I wanted to be an architect major because I wanted to build community centers. The only reason that I got into business is because I wasn’t getting support with philanthropy.  Even though I was doing the most philanthropy in the NBA, and I got the NBA Citizenship award, just to prove it, [other] people were giving more money than me. But in terms of what I was doing behind the scenes, I was making more of an impact.

When the writers gave me the Citizenship award… it was just overwhelming because every day, I was giving my time to social impact. I [realized] I had to get into business because I wasn’t doing any business… When I wasn't getting support from the corporations, I said to myself that I’d have to build my own business so that I can give back.

My initial entity was Excel University in 2007, which is now Artest University. We went from just giving scholarships to kids, to high schools, and a few colleges… to now we are an online EdTech platform. We have built out our EdTech already, and we are getting our curriculums ready. We are also trying to launch a higher-learning EdTech. The technology is fully built out with my dev shop that we control in house.

Now, we’ve got the 501(c)(3), which since I wasn’t getting support, that’s what got me in the business. I knew nothing about business. I was playing basketball, doing philanthropy, and I was enjoying L.A. That was it, and I had to cut something out, so I cut off the enjoyment part.

Which company was the first to be added to Tru Skye Ventures, and what made it a good fit for your vision?

MWP: Barcode. It’s a drink that is another option from the already served beverages on the market. The founder, Bar Malik, used to be a trainer for the Knicks. The drink was everywhere, and we knew we could add value to the beverage and add value to the founder. The experiences that we had are awfully inspiring.

We know so much about different things, so we can talk to the founders and give them directions real fast, which is why they like working with us. Victor Wembanyama invested in Barcode. He’s the lead athlete investor involved. It's the official drink of a couple of teams. It's a great, healthy product.

We also have another company called FanUpm, which is doing approximately $70 million of revenue per year, so we did those two companies first, and that's before we raised capital. We just did it because it was an opportunity.

Where do you want to take those two companies?

MWP: Hopefully, billion-dollar companies, for sure. The first two companies we invested in under my holdings company, both went public. The other 30-plus companies that we have are just services for those companies. 

What does Tru Skye provide to a company that traditional banks might not be able to offer?

MWP: We offer strategic advisory, business consultation, marketing services, digital marketing services, networking across businesses, coaching, financial structure and consultation with finance partners, and our experiences. We offer different infrastructure and consultation, and we can really help the founder scale. We really dig into the staff, especially the C-suite. Tru Skye has a lot of different capabilities that we can help a founder with.

We are actually exiting the start-up phase. Even though we’re helping start-ups, we can now help Series-C and A-round companies, B-series companies also – not just the start-ups. We're leveling up slowly. When you're talking to a startup founder, for example, you get a lot of experience, especially when they get past my basketball career because sometimes people can’t get past that piece. But once they get past it, they forget that I play basketball quickly.

Have you encountered doubters or investors who hesitate to do business with you because of your past? How do you navigate those situations?

MWP: Yeah, for sure. I think sometimes there are two things an investor or someone may not want to work with you based on your past, or because you're just not ready. Everybody has their own opinion, and everybody deserves to think how they want to think, so I don't want to get in the way of somebody’s perception of my past, and if that's the reason why they don’t want to partner, I totally accept it because I have my reasons for things too. But I also got to accept the constructive criticism, which is like being drafted and you're a rookie on the team. You got to accept and listen to the reasoning, and not just assuming and making these assumptions, and that's what's really helping me grow.

Everybody has their own timelines, and their own thesis. Just because somebody is a billionaire – female or male – doesn't mean that they want to invest in your company. Maybe they want to invest in their (own) child’s. There could be many different reasons, now I realize, why people don’t partner. But I can't say that now, because people are looking beyond whatever [is in my] past, and they're looking at the hard work. Life is about execution.

What does a typical workday look like for you at this stage of your career, balancing your various ventures and responsibilities?

MWP: Every day is operations, and every day is administrative work.  The bulk of my business is administration. Sometimes there is travel involved, but for the most part, it’s more just updating and getting my operators ready… I don’t know if I’m the best, but I’m trying to be the best.

Going from the limelight of the NBA to doing administrative work every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., how was that transition?

MWP: What I’ve realized is if I do it every day, that means my work is done early. Stay ready so that you don’t have to get ready. There was a point in time we were like, “Oh my goodness, this is so overwhelming doing pitch decks, and updating pitch decks and updating documents, and doing all this stuff, updating models, and working alongside administration.” [But] everybody's working hard. It’s like if I practice on my left hand, my left hand will only get better.

In addition to Tru Skye and your other ventures, you’re also deeply involved in the mental health space. Can you share more about that work and what motivates you to focus on this area?

MWP: I've been involved for quite some time. I know a lot of the concepts, products, and services out there. I’ve been inspired by some of the products and services, especially the government services. Obviously, private services, such as therapy, and seeing what it did for me and how I was able to pay for multiple therapists in different areas. It was in 2007 that I really started talking about it.

People have underestimated me for being vulnerable and for, like, being a cornball, if that makes sense. People totally forget I'm from the streets and they just say things as if they were trying to bully someone, because now I'm a little bit different wearing a shirt and a tie. But, if I go back home, I'm very well-respected back home.

But from my perspective, on the mental health side, I felt like if I'm going to tell my story, if you don't have enough money to pay for a therapy session, if you’re hearing me, it should inspire you and maybe if you don't have $100 an hour, then at least you know that it's okay to be vulnerable and you know it's okay to seek help and you know that you can get through it.

Since starting like that, it led to me getting the NBA Citizenship award. It led me to be on the board of the UCLA Psych Ward and Psychiatrists of America. I feel like I'm a pioneer in the space. Our first curriculum is going to be a mental health curriculum for Artest University.

You’re also coming out with a new podcast. With so many people having one now, what sets your podcast apart from the rest?

MWP: I was the first one with a podcast, so let’s just start there. My podcast on YouTube called “Mettaphorically Speaking” was in 2012. Look at the timeline when everyone else started their podcast. The problem with our first podcast was that we couldn’t get it off the ground. We were all friends, we were all doing the same thing, and nobody was really doing anything different like PR or business or business development, sales, marketing, sponsorship. We didn't know what that was. We just did the podcasts. So, that was 2012 and a lot of athletes used to come to me and always say, “Man, you're doing something new, how did you do that? How do you know about this?” So then, when you go back to 2008, you'll see my first interview with Kobe. So, you'll see that I was the very first one there. But I wasn't able to execute, which is another reason why I went back to school.

People started to ask me to do podcasts, and I started to exit out the entertainment [and] fun side of, you know, Ron Artest/Metta, I didn't want to do any more sports and entertainment talk. I didn't want to talk about someone's bad game. I don't want to talk about what happened [like] why did they act like that?  I don't want to talk about why this coach got fired. I'm not interested in those types of conversations, so I had to turn down a lot of money from the podcast game.

I set out to launch an entrepreneurship podcast (based on) social impact, mental health, entrepreneurship, and rinse and repeat. It took me five-to-seven years to find that right partner and now we have a podcast called Crossover. I’m doing it with Greg Snow, who is my partner from my music CRM company together with Dead Maus. Greg and I are going to host the podcast, produced by our production company and our in-house producers. I really want to inspire people to get into entrepreneurship. I feel like sometimes people don't really know what to do because life can be hard.

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