I’ll take a wild guess and bet you’ve never heard of Chamath Palihapitiya. Don’t worry if you haven’t; despite being very successful, he’s kept his personal life on the down-low. The 46-year-old is a venture capitalist, engineer, and founder and CEO of Social Capital.
He made his first fortune at Facebook, working as a senior executive from 2007 to 2011, and when he exited, he was sitting on a pile of cash and trying to figure out what to do with it.
He decided he wanted to put a big chunk into a professional sports franchise. By chance, he was offered the opportunity to invest in the Golden State Warrior’s new ownership team led by Joe Lacob. Luckily for Chamath, he picked the right team and ownership teammates because what he and his partners did with the Warriors is legendary.
His $25 million stake in 2011 got him 10% of the team; the Warriors were purchased for $450 million.
Well, four NBA championships and a new state-of-the-art arena later, the Warrior’s valuation is sitting at an incredible $5.5 billion. So, Chamath made a $275 million profit after selling his 10% back to the current owners.
$275 million, plus he had courtside seats to watch Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and company dominate the league for seven years.
The Warriors are the second most valuable franchise in the NBA, trailing only the Knicks. He walks away with a quarter billion dollars and four sick NBA championship rings.
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