What It Means to Be a “Real” Entrepreneur | Michael Rubin, Fanatics

Michael Rubin is the founder and CEO of Fanatics. He grew up outside Philadelphia, started tuning skis at 12, opened a ski shop in his parents' basement at 13, and had a storefront in a shopping center by 14. At 16, after a winter without snow, he was facing $200,000 in bills and thought he was going bankrupt, until he learned minors can't legally take on debt. He settled for $35,000, then bought a bankrupt store's $200,000 of inventory for $13,000. That deal got him into the closeout business, and by 21 he was doing $150 million a year. Michael tells the story of nearly being margined out of GSI Commerce during the 2009 financial crisis, with hours to spare, two years before eBay bought it for $2.4 billion. He explains how Fanatics grew from a fan gear business into a $14 billion digital sports platform with 140 million customers, why he guaranteed the leagues the high watermark of a cyclical trading card market, and how debut patches and George Condo–painted cards turned collectibles into "art for sports fans." He also shares the advice Robert Kraft gave him when a partner broke a deal, why he gave investors their money back on NFTs and Mitchell & Ness, why there's a "0.0 chance" he'd put his own money into prediction markets at today's valuations, and the call from Silver Lake's Greg Mondre that saved him from a multibillion-dollar mistake. Show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/michael-rubin David Senra X: https://x.com/davidsenra Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidsenra LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsenra Facebook: https://www.linkedin.com/company/senrashow Threads: https://www.threads.com/@davidsenra Spotify: https://spti.fi/TVrr557 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4msoZtb Website: https://www.davidsenra.com Michael Rubin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelrubin X: https://x.com/michaelrubin Chapters 00:00:00 Why so many billionaires are boring 00:03:47 Robert Kraft told him to sleep on it 00:08:25 How he almost went bankrupt at 16 00:11:44 Hours from being margined out in 2009 00:15:20 What a real entrepreneur is 00:17:21 "I'll stop playing when my heart stops beating" 00:21:03 The litigation, and why he loves the fight 00:25:12 "It's a currency of sports" 00:29:37 Selling more products to the fans they already have 00:32:42 "Number three is irrelevant, number two sucks, number one is everything" 00:33:48 "0.0 chance" he'd invest in prediction markets 00:35:49 $5.5 billion in collectibles 00:39:57 The debut patch: a $50 million card 00:45:14 "There was never an easier conversation" 00:50:00 "This is stupid": raising over $100 million and giving it back 00:53:26 "It's art for sports fans" 00:59:37 Winning the partnership, not the deal 01:06:19 "You saved me from something really dumb"

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