Jesse Itzler's Rapper-to-Entrepreneur Journey
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Shaan tells the story of entrepreneur Jesse Itzler's diverse career path and success.
"Jesse Itzler started off as a white rapper. When he realized he wasn't going to make it as a rapper, he went to work at a record label. His intern was this guy trying to be a rapper - it was 50 Cent. 50 Cent went off and blew up.
He pivoted to creating jingles - rap jingles. He created the Knicks theme song and sports jingles for companies. He sold that company for $4 million, split between two guys.
After they sold, they met a rich guy who took them on a private jet. They loved it but couldn't afford a jet, so they thought 'what if we could just own a couple rides on a jet?' They created a timeshare for jets, which they later sold to NetJets, owned by Warren Buffett.
Now he owns a piece of an NBA team. He also invested early in Zico coconut water because he was an endurance athlete and saw that the running community loved coconut water. He thought mainstream would too. He put money in when it was a small brand, and they ended up selling it to Coke later."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.