I knew it was going to strike: how Shaqs' investments in Google, Lyft and Ring created a new class of venture capitalists

I accidentally entered Google, he said. I was in a restaurant and I played with children. The children belonged to a high-level investor whom Shaq refuses to name.

He said, Shaq, I love you, I have something for you, remembers the basketball star. I watched it.

Shaq already knew Google and it seemed like a good deal. He remembered hearing the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos say that if you invest in things that make the world a better place, it will always be a good deal. A search engine, enter what you want and it appears? It will be the business of the future, Shaq thought. After his agent introduced him to another Google investor Ron Conwaya pioneer of the Silicon Valley angel investing through his first spending in the search giant and others, including PayPal, Twitter, Dropbox and AirbnbShaq plowed cash. (Conway politely refused to be interviewed.)

Google went public on August 19, 2004, jumping 18% on its first day of trading; Shaq wouldn't reveal the precise valuation at which it entered Google, but it was far ahead of regular investors. In a decade, an investment of $ 1 turned in $ 15. Shaq had understood one of the main advantages of his fame: taking advantage of celebrities to enter the winning companies before they were listed on the stock market.

He was introduced to me, I knew it was going to strike, he explained. My only regret is that I wish I had bought more.

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In the years that followed, Shaq became a serial owner-endorser, appearing in advertisements for companies such as Lyft, Ring and Vitaminwater. Why? They gave us a lot of stock, he said. As the founder of Ring Jamie Siminoff sought local grants to roll out its product as a crime-fighting tool, the company touted a pilot program in Los Angeles that reduced burglaries by up to 55%, though that number is interrogates in a report from MIT technology reviewShaqs rolodex from its days of law enforcement has proven to be perhaps even more precious than its fame. If Siminoff told Shaq about an initiative in the Miami area, for example, his biggest investor would hand him the phone a few moments later and the city's police chief would be online.

Meanwhile, Ring had developed an even more prominent admirer: Amazon, which started investing in Ring after turning its attention to Alexa and the connected home in late 2013. The two companies worked together on a number of products. Although Siminoff was not really looking to sell, he changed his mind when Amazon offered more than a billion dollars.

Stimulated by this agreement, Shaqs' fortune has been estimated at several hundred million, although he does not go into details of precise amounts. My mom would be disappointed if I talked about numbers, he said. It gives the impression of bragging, and I don't want to do that.

But like a growing number of his peers, he confirms that even as a retired athlete, his best years in the venture capital world now rival the best years in his playing career. Even if he won't say it, Chris Rock probably would: Shaqs' investments ultimately moved him from wealthy to wealthy.

Extract of Angels A-list: how a bunch of actors, artists and athletes hacked into Silicon Valley by Zack OMalley Greenburg, published March 10 by Little, Brown and Company. Copyright 2020 by Zack OMalley Greenburg. Reproduced with permission from Little, Brown and Company. All rights reserved.

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