How Athletes Get Into the Top VC Funds | Ryan Nece, Next Legacy

Ryan Nece runs Next Legacy, a $4 billion fund of funds that connects athletes and philanthropists with the top venture capital firms in the world.

Ryan is the only player in NFL history to win a Super Bowl as a rookie and go 0-16 in his final season. His dad, Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, started one of the first athlete-backed venture funds with Joe Montana in the late '90s.

Ryan rebuilt that playbook a generation later, so almost nobody is better positioned to explain the similarities between pro athletes and the top founders / investors, how athletes actually break into Silicon Valley, the biggest mistakes they usually make, .

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Timestamps:

(0:00) How a football family broke into Silicon Valley

(4:33) A Super Bowl rookie year with four Hall of Famers

(8:09) What separates the top 0.1% of athletes?

(12:18) The mistake of having "a guy"

(18:41) Vetting who to trust

(20:18) The dumbest investments athletes make

(22:45) How athletes can help founders

(29:44) VC Power Law is just like sports

(34:24) How to break in without connections

(38:05) Building Next Legacy to $4B AUM

(40:44) Why they give away all the profits

(43:20) Early firm building mistakes

(48:19) Learning to pitch institutional LP's

(53:03) The emerging-manager barbell

(55:45) “Your starting five tells me who you are”

(57:47) The other AI: Authentic Interaction

(59:55) Getting LP attention with the rule of three

(1:03:40) Working the whisper network

(1:06:03) Pick the kid who gets picked last

(1:12:26) The Lions 0-16 season

(1:14:43) The “Next Play” mindset

(1:19:28) Mental toughness

(1:21:32) What it’s like commentating an NFL game

(1:27:14) Getting cussed out by Warren Sapp

(1:31:13) His favorite athlete: Jerry Rice

(1:35:15) Abe Lincoln and his grandfather's restaurants

Referenced

Next Legacy: https://www.nextlegacy.com/

Give and Take: https://www.amazon.com/Give-Take-Helping-Others-Success/dp/0143124986

Three Feet From from Gold: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Feet-Gold-Obstacles-Opportunities/dp/1402784791

Team of Rivals: https://www.amazon.com/Team-Rivals-Political-Abraham-Lincoln/dp/0743270754

Follow Ryan

Twitter: https://x.com/ryannece

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-nece-abb07b8

Follow Turner

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak

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