Shaquille O’Neal invested in a startup due to Jeff Bezos’ recommendation

While you’re contemplating funding recommendation, taking a tip from one of many world’s wealthiest individuals might be place to begin.

That is why Shaquille O’Neal says he turned to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for inspiration earlier than deciding to put money into Campus, the net neighborhood faculty startup that is already raised more than $29 million from buyers like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Discord founder Jason Citron.

Even with these big-name backers already in tow, O’Neal recently told Fortune that his determination to take a position an undisclosed quantity within the startup in the end got here right down to his perception that Campus may “change people’s lives” — which reminded him of recommendation he’d beforehand heard from Bezos.

“I heard Jeff Bezos say, if you invest in things that’s going to change people’s lives, you’ll always get a great return on your investment,” O’Neal mentioned. “But this particular investment is not about great return because I feel that everyone should have access to world-class education.”

Launched by tech entrepreneur Tade Oyerinde, 29, in 2022, Campus is an accredited on-line neighborhood faculty that provides lessons taught by professors who additionally educate at universities comparable to Princeton, Vanderbilt and Spelman Faculty. Oyerinde, himself a university dropout, said in a statement last year that he based the startup to make “higher education more accessible, more affordable, and more relevant” to college students throughout the nation from numerous backgrounds and earnings ranges.

It isn’t the primary time Bezos has influenced one among O’Neal’s enterprise selections. In 2022, the basketball Corridor of Famer said he was “scared” off from making a bid to purchase the NBA’s Phoenix Suns after studying stories that Bezos may be contemplating his personal provide for the group. O’Neal, who has an estimated net worth above $400 million, mentioned on the time that he’d slightly not compete in opposition to Bezos and every other “heavy hitters” who have been eyeing the group, which eventually sold to billionaire Matt Isbhia a yr later.

And, O’Neal has lengthy touted Bezos’ recommendation to hunt out funding alternatives that he really believes can “change people’s lives.” 

“If something comes across my desk and I don’t believe in it, I don’t even look at it,” O’Neal informed The Wall Street Journal in 2019. 

O’Neal’s funding monitor file contains various profitable performs. (O’Neal claims he by no means really invested in doomed crypto trade FTX, although he did function a paid spokesperson.) The basketball legend’s portfolio contains investments in Google, Lyft, Ring and Vitaminwater, together with owning franchises of companies comparable to Papa John’s, Auntie Anne’s, and 5 Guys.

Bezos’ recommendation helped O’Neal belief his conviction in a enterprise’ mission, even over pure monetary motivation, although he informed WSJ in 2019 that it is definitely paid financial dividends, as effectively.

“Once I started doing that strategy, I think I probably quadrupled what I’m worth,” he mentioned.

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