NBA's Kyle Kuzma Is Expanding His Business Portfolio

Bloomberg

Watch NBA's Kyle Kuzma Is Expanding His Business Portfolio - Bloomberg on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00So we are here at Sport Beach in Cannes with NBA champion Kyle Kuzma.

00:04Thanks so much for joining Bloomberg Business and Sports.

00:06Of course, thank you.

00:06I want to talk from the beginning, from your entrepreneur journey,

00:10from your business journey.

00:122017, you're drafted into the league, you start making money.

00:15When do those wheels start turning about?

00:17How do I save my money?

00:18Where do I invest it?

00:19How does that work for you from the start?

00:21Right away, literally right away.

00:22And I think that I've been very blessed and grateful to have a lot of good,

00:26positive role models in my life, and I think maybe not my first check.

00:32My first check was a car, but other than that,

00:35I think my second check went towards a real estate investment.

00:38And I think right from then, you know, I knew right away,

00:42especially as an athlete, you don't have that much time to play.

00:45You know, you may have, God willing, 10 years, right?

00:48A lot, especially for us, the average career is three to four years.

00:52So I knew right away that I had to be smart with my money,

00:55because it can go quick, just like our careers, so.

00:59So why real estate?

01:00Why was that the first one?

01:02Safe.

01:03Yeah, yeah, the safest thing.

01:04You know, I think that for me, beyond it being safe,

01:08it's something that I'm drawn to.

01:11I love art, and I think architecture is something that's huge to me,

01:14and I think that, like I said, beyond the investment aspect,

01:17I'm just drawn to properties.

01:20So the art of like the architecture,

01:22that's what you're looking into when you're looking into real estate, or?

01:25Sometimes, for sure, 100%.

01:27I think some of the real estate things I'm doing now

01:30intertwine with that art perspective, so, yeah.

01:34Yeah, okay, so was it a mentor that told you to get into real estate

01:38when you first did it, or was it just, I know this is safe, I want to go into it?

01:42A little bit of that, but also, I have a pretty knowledgeable financial advisor

01:47that really kind of walked me through, you know, what investing looks like,

01:51outside of just stocks and bonds and the stock market,

01:55and real estate was obviously one of the things that he was knowledgeable about

02:00to put me into, and I think that from there, from that little house in New Jersey

02:06that I kind of renovated and flipped to all the great things I'm doing now,

02:11I can accredit it to that early age, you know, classroom class.

02:17Then you, in 2021, you co-founded the company Barcode, which is a sports drink company.

02:23Tell us about that and why you wanted to create something there,

02:27instead of joining a, being an ambassador for an existing company.

02:32Yeah, I would say, I think, for that perspective, prior to that, you know, I had a bunch of deals,

02:39being an ambassador, being an influencer, whether it was, you know, the Gatorades of the world

02:44and these other drink companies, and I wanted to do something that was, you know, my own, right?

02:52You know, I think a lot of times, you know, in this space, and especially as an athlete,

02:57you want to be able to call something your own, right? So, you know, co-founding Barcode was one

03:03of my first, you know, type of venture situations, getting in and starting a company,

03:08and I learned a lot of really valuable lessons from it, and it's a brand that's been around for,

03:14you know, five plus years, and we're moving the chain, so.

03:18Yeah. What were those early lessons that you learned that was different for you than

03:21investing and growing a business? Like, what were those different things that you learned?

03:25It's not easy. Yeah, it's definitely not easy. It's a lot of work that goes into it,

03:29and I think that, you know, if you're starting a business, especially as an athlete or really

03:36anybody, it's all about being in the weeds. It's all about understanding what you're getting yourself

03:41into and trying to learn as much as you can, because especially in like the CPG space, there's so

03:49many companies, right? There's oversaturation in every little instance, right? So, what's going to

03:56be the difference between you and somebody else? And I think that's, you know, knowledge in a sense,

04:01and learning how to move. How do you balance that, all being so involved in your businesses

04:07and playing at the same time? How do you balance all of these different hats that you wear?

04:12Um, that's a great question. I think I love what I do. I think I love being an entrepreneur.

04:20I love being a basketball player, first and foremost, and I have a great team around me.

04:27I think that's the biggest thing. If I didn't have a team around me that, you know, could handle

04:32every little thing that I'm doing, I really wouldn't be nothing, and I would only really be a

04:38basketball player, right? So, we're in Cannes, which is all about Rosé, but you have a tequila

04:44brand that you're a partner with, Casa Del Sol Tequila. Tell me about that and how you got involved.

04:49Well, like you talked about earlier with Barcold, you know, obviously, a lot of times we like to do

04:55things and have things for our own, right? But I'm a basketball player, and it's a little bit hard to

05:02have my own tequila or have your own tequila. So, partnering with somebody was huge, and

05:09Casa Del Sol was that for me. You know, I think for me, it's all about art and the storytelling of

05:14things beyond, you know, just, you know, the business avenues that you can kind of get into. And

05:23Casa Del Sol is amazing. You know, it's a tequila, which I love, you know, it's my favorite drink.

05:28And the storytelling of like, you know, Mexico and tequila, and we have an amazing co-founder,

05:38which is Eva Longoria, which is a really, really good personal friend. I really wanted to partner

05:44with them because they know what they're doing, right? I think that's also a big thing you should

05:48always think about when partnering with brands or getting into things like what's under the hood.

05:54You know, there's so many things out there. There's so many, you know, for instance, Ferraris with

06:01Honda engines, right? So, you know, seeing Casa, seeing where it's been from, you know, year one

06:10to now year three is amazing. And I'm just very, very happy to, you know, be a part of it.

06:16Yeah. And so it sounds like that intentionality also partnering with Eva because of the trust there.

06:21Can you talk about the, whenever you go into businesses, how you do intentionally with

06:27who you're getting into business with? A hundred percent. You know, Eva's a

06:32amazing woman, amazing businesswoman, entrepreneur in her own right. And I think that

06:40as an athlete, you know, you want to be around greatness and you want to surround yourself

06:44around successful people. And I think, you know, even looking at Casa beyond Eva, you know,

06:51there's a great infrastructure there. And I think that a lot of times when you go into partnering

06:56and investing, you know, beyond, you know, the glitz and the glamour of how things look or the packaging,

07:02like what's under the hood and who's operating is the most important thing. Because if you don't have

07:07that, then all the bells and whistles are just bells and whistles. So another thing that you're

07:12obviously very passionate about is fashion. And your ton of fits have become some of the most iconic

07:18notorious ever. I think I'm in just a much different space now. You know, I think that

07:24fashion for me is something that like you, like you just said, you just mentioned that in this

07:30interview, like, you know that about me. So I don't really have to, you know, overdo it and over show it

07:36as much, you know what I mean? You know, because it's not, it's never really been

07:41something that's I wanted to show. And, you know, this is look at me, you know, it's just,

07:46I love art, you know, beyond fashion, you know, art is here. And then fashion is like a subsector,

07:50right. And, you know, I just needed a break. You know, I think that if you look at like the fashion

07:57industry, you know, and also within athletes and sports, you know, it's a great cohesion place.

08:05And we collide. And it's great. And it's great, you know, symmetry. But

08:11I was just looking for much more in the fashion space that I wasn't getting.

08:17And what do you mean by that? Well, you know, there's so many brands that we wear, right?

08:21It's free marketing for them. It's literally free marketing. I'll give you a prime example. So

08:26you just talked about tunnel fits and the pink sweater that I wore. That was huge.

08:31That went to all over the world. It had about 65 million impressions. I think, I mean, that was

08:39like the last thing I heard years ago about it. But I didn't get paid for that. And I wasn't looking

08:45to get paid for that. But that shows you just the influence of what, you know, athletes have

08:51with fashion that kind of goes under the rug a little bit, right?

08:55So Kyle, we started off the conversation talking about how your first investment was in real estate.

09:00How has it evolved now? And what's your portfolio looking like these days?

09:03Oh, tremendously from just a single family flip. Going from that to, you know, working with multi-units

09:12into, you know, investing into pretty much ecosystems and resorts. You know, I partner with a great friend

09:24of mine, Axis Real Estate. And, you know, we really try to find properties and locations that are like,

09:33you know, really like once in a lifetime and things that you really can't touch. You know what I mean?

09:38Whether it's PGA National, Palm Beach Gardens, right? The Arizona Biltmore that is a unbelievable

09:45property landmark culturally in Arizona. Those are the things that like I'm really into, you know,

09:53when I speak about the art aspect and obviously the investment part that is also very, very important.

10:01Those are the things that I'm really looking into that really, really excite me.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended