Kobe Bryant's precision as a shooting guard in a Lakers jersey was legendary. But, the NBA superstar's acumen in the boardroom was his future.
The basketball phenomenon was laying down the groundwork for the next part of his career years before he retired as a five-time NBA champion in 2016. Bryant partnered with entrepreneur Jeff Stibel, a scientist and former tech chief executive, to form a venture capital fund. He threw the gauntlet down on Hollywood, forming Granity Studios to front streaming and movie efforts, and Kobe Inc. for some of his personal investments.
He was determined to avoid the financial mistakes that have plagued so many athletes, applying the same drive and work ethic that won him five championships to a successful new phase as an investor. Like Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who exited the Lakers with his investment business tied to a string of movie theater chains and other ventures, Bryant was setting up the next stage of his life.
"Kobe was a legend on the court and just getting started in what would have been just as meaningful a second act," former President Barack Obama tweeted Sunday.
Bryant earned $680 million in salary and endorsements during his two decade career, the most ever for a team athlete during their playing career, according to Forbes. But Bryant was determined to be more than just a celebrity athlete; He wanted to be respected as a venture capitalist who mentored entrepreneurs.
"The most important thing I enjoy now is helping others be successful," Bryant said in 2016. "I enjoy doing that much, much more, that's something that lasts forever, and hope they do that for the next generation."
Art by Shane Eichacker
In 2013, while still wearing the Lakers uniform, Bryant teamed with Stibel, to form Bryant Stibel, which provided strategic, financial, and operational consulting to businesses. Three years later, the duo announced a $100 million venture capital fund – funded with their own money – to invest in tech, media, and data companies. The portfolio included the sports media website The Players Tribune, legal-services company LegalZoom, mobile game designer Scopely, Alibaba Group, home-juicing company called Juicero, and enterprise voice communications platform RingDNA.
"He didn't want to just write checks but he wanted to be in the boardroom," said Brian Hollins, co-founder of BLCK VC, a group advancing black venture capitalists, who worked with Bryant's firm during its deal to back RingDNA. "He wanted to participate and be thought of as someone that was going to add high value."
Bryant purchased a 10 percent share for $6 million in 2014 for the sports drink BodyArmor, a stake ESPN reported became worth $200 million four years later when the Coca-Cola Company acquired part of the company.
It is difficult to overstate how beloved Bryant was in Los Angeles. When he transitioned from basketball to investing there was hope he would also have an outsize impact on the city in his new role.
"When we learned his next acts would be venture capital we certainly sat up and took notice," said Cinny Kennard, executive director at Annenberg Foundation, which co-runs PledgeLA, an initiative to improve equity and inclusion in the venture capital and tech industry. "We said who could be a better role model, who could link arms with this new wealth and this new tech community - who could be better than that?"
Bryant said he tried to apply the same lessons he learned on the basketball court to business, including the value of patience.
"A lot of time through the course of a game, you may notice a gap in defense or something you can take advantage of offensively," he told USA Today last year. "If you attack all at once, you show your hand too early, Team sports does a great job in teaching that and how to trust others."
When asked whether he thought hitting the winning shot in the playoffs or finding a winning company was more exciting and satisfying, Bryant quickly answered: "It's finding that winning company as an investor. Because I always expected to hit a game-winning shot growing up."
Staff writers Rachel Uranga and Tami Abdollah contributed to this report.
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The survey found 60% of the respondents, primarily women, were balancing increased caretaking roles with work or school responsibilities. And while caretaking responsibilities grew, 49% of respondents said their workload also increased during the pandemic.
“The pandemic threw a wrench into lots of folks' experiences both professionally and academically,” said Kathryne Cooper, a health tech investor who sits on the advisory board of WiSTEM. “So we need to acknowledge that.”
In the L.A. area, an increasing number of childcare startups are aiming to address this massive challenge that is a growing national crisis. The U.S. has long dealt with a crippling childcare infrastructure plagued by low wages and a labor shortage in preschools and daycares, but the COVID-19 crisis made it worse. During the pandemic, women left the workforce due to the lack of childcare and caretaking resources. By 2021, women made up the lowest percentage of the workforce since 1988, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Despite the pandemic forcing everyone indoors, caretaking duties fell disproportionately on women.
“I almost actually left my job because everything that I looked at was either waitlisted or the costs were so astronomical that it probably made sense for me to stay at home rather than pay someone to actually look after my child,” said Jessica Chang, the CEO of childcare startup WeeCare.
Brella's Playa Vista-based childcare center lobby.Photo courtesy of Brella
The Marina del Rey-based WeeCare, one of the startups that helps people open their own childcare facilities, announced it raised $12 million in April (to go along with an additional $5 million in bridge funding raised during the pandemic). The company helps people build daycare centers and works with employers to provide access to WeeCare centers and construct child care benefits programs.
Some of these startups strive to boost the number of daycare centers by helping operators with financial costs, licensing fees and scheduling. Wonderschool, a San Francisco-based child care startup, raised $25 million in January and assisted with hundreds of childcare facilities in L.A.-based Playground, which raised $3 million in seed funding last year per PitchBook. Playground acts as an in-house platform for childcare providers to communicate with staff and parents, track attendance, report student behavior and provide automatic invoicing services.
L.A.-based Brella, which launched in 2019, raised $5 million in seed funding in January to create a tech-enabled daycare scheduling platform that could meet the demand of flexible childcare as parents navigate a hybrid work environment, and recently opened a new location in Hollywood. The startup aims to address the labor shortage among childcare workers by paying its workers roughly $25 an hour and offering mental health benefits and career development opportunities for its educators.
“It's this huge disconnect in our society because these are really important people who are doing arguably one of the most important educational jobs,” said Melanie Wolff, co-founder of childcare startup Brella. “They often don't get benefits. They don't have a lot of job security.”
Venture capital funding has poured into the relatively new childcare sector. A slew of parent-tech companies aimed at finding flexible child care and monitoring children saw $1.4 billion worth of venture investments in 2021, according to PitchBook, largely to meet the demands of parents in a pandemic era who have more flexible work commutes and require more tech-enabled solutions.
“I think a lot of it has to do with what employers expect for workers,” said Darby Saxbe, an associate professor of psychology and family relationships expert at USC. “There's still a lot more stigma for men to build their work around caregiving responsibilities–there's a lot of evidence that men are often discouraged from taking paternity leave, even if it's available.”
WeeCare is one of several startups updating the childcare space with technology and flexibility.
Photo courtesy of WeeCare
Childcare benefits are also becoming a more attractive incentive as workers grapple with unorthodox work schedules in a hybrid setting.
“Employers, because of COVID, were having a hard time retaining and recruiting employees,” said Chang. “And they were actually incentivized to actually find a solution to help the employees.”
WeeCare primarily partners with employers of essential workers, like schools, hospitals and grocery stores, and the benefits programs account for the majority of WeeCare’s revenue.
Childcare works are part of a massive labor shortage in caretaker roles that also include nurses, and health aids for the eldery. These workers, which allow women to maintain careers in STEM and other high-paying industries, are vital, according to Saxbe.
“Women can advance in the workplace,” Saxbe said. “But if there's no support at home and there is no one who is helping take care of kids and elderly people, women can't just advance in a vacuum.”
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