With the NFL in its offseason, New England Patriots Safety Devin McCourty says he's focused on securing generational wealth for himself and other athletes through a new venture capital mission called Broad Street Ventures. Co-founded by Malcolm Jenkins of the New Orleans Saints and Ralonda Johnson, current president of the organization, the group looks to educate athletes while helping them gain financially.
"For us, we wanted to create a vehicle that would allow Black and brown investors to learn about venture capital but also have access to some of the best deals in the tech and consumer space," Johnson told Cheddar.
McCourty said that his close friendship with Jenkins is what spawned his decision to invest with Broad Street Ventures.
"We played in an all-star game coming out of high school and we do a lot off-the-field things together, and I think from there he started to talk about a vision of having NFL players having access to a different kind of wealth," he said.
Both grew up in New Jersey before going on to their collegiate and professional careers.
For NFL players, unlike in some other sports like the NBA and Major League Baseball, contracts are not guaranteed, the average length of a career is significantly fewer years, and as a result, players often have to find other means to secure finances for their futures. McCourty said that Broad Street Ventures allows all athletes to learn about venture capital investing.
Ralonda Johnson added that the group provides information sessions where potential investors can not only learn the ropes but also about emerging technologies.
"Not everyone [who] attends may invest or not, but just so that they at least have an understanding of tech investing. We'll go over from seed through late stage, just as much information that we can give them," she said.
For McCourty, Broad Street Ventures presents an opportunity for professional athletes to change the perception that the general public may have of them. He said with this opportunity, sports figures aren't limited to just making plays on the field. They can invest and lift up areas and industries that they are passionate about, offering fans a closer look at the human and not just the athlete.
Square is changing its name to Block. It comes as the company expands beyond its original credit card reader business and into blockchain and crypto technology.
The name change will go into effect on December 10th, and the company says the name change, "creates room for further growth." Jim Anderson, CEO, SocialFlow joined Cheddar Movers to discuss.
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Not only has the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency become the 13th most valuable cryptocurrency by market cap with a worth of over $23 billion, but it has made one duo, known as the Shiba Brothers, millionaires. The brothers, Tommy and James, and Oskar Kowalski, Founder of The Global Incubator, join Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where they discuss their collaboration on Legends of Bezogia.
Fintech startup UNest is providing financial planning tools for parents saving on behalf of their children and has raised $26 million to accelerate its mission. Ksenia Yudina, Founder and CEO at UNest, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she discusses how her company is closing the wealth gap and leveling the playing field for the next generation.
Stocks closed sharply higher Thursday after several days of investor skittishness over the COVID-19 Omicron variant. This rebound comes despite several cases of the variant being reported in the United States. Gene Goldman, Chief Investment Officer at Cetera, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss today's close, the Fed's recent announcement about speeding up their taper timeline, and more.
Austin Winsberg, creator of the NBC series "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" joined Cheddar's "Closing Bell" to dish out some details about the holiday movie special "Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas" now on Roku. Despite initial plans for producing a new Season 3 despite being canceled by the network, Winsberg said that it is not necessary to have seen the first two seasons in order to enjoy the movie. He noted that following cancellation fans rallied behind the show, campaigning for it to come back, which led to a movie being greenlit by Lionsgate to be completed within just a four-month window, according to Winsberg.
As the Leonardo DiCaprio-backed, pure-play electric vehicle company Polestar plans to close a SPAC IPO with Gores Guggenheim, CEO Thomas Ingenlath talked to Cheddar about how the company positioned itself to be able to go public. With competition tightening in the electric vehicle sector, Ingenlath noted what differentiates his cars from the competitors. "Scandinavian cool design and of course the road to zero emissions is something that we take very, very seriously," he said.
Bitcoin is slowly coming back to life after plunging recently, but everyone's favorite cryptocurrency needs to chart a 77% rally in the next four weeks to reach the widely forecast year-end value of $100,000. Bitcoin was trading more than 0.8% percent lower on Thursday morning, Ethereum was also declining. David Nage, portfolio manager at Arca, joins Cheddar News to talk discuss the market.
