Valleywag had a piece on The 4 Worst Athlete-Backed Startups of All Time.  In short, they name:

1. WePlay, a youth sports-related social network social.
2. Dunk.net, focused on promoting Shaq’s shoes and other wears, with backers, Shaq, Mike Piazza and DeLisha Milton
3. MVP.com, an e-tailer, with backers John Elway, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky.
4. Chatwithastar.com, a celebrity blog portal, with backers bestselling author Burton Rocks and Billy Wagner

The article made me think about athlete’s and their money. 

It’s interesting in what and how some of the guys put their money in. 

The What

If I had a dime for everytime I heard an athlete wants to do a clothing line or a restaurant, I’d have so much seed money to start two ventures.  One financial advisor, who works closely with Venus and Serena, Donovan McNabb, and a few more, told me he advises his clients that if they’re thinking about investing in a restaurant, they’re better of throwing away the money…it’ll be easier and lot less stress.

The How

Now, this is fascinating…

Many athletes don’t know too much about business so they have advisors (smart move).  But many of them have their friend from around the way as their businesss guy (stupid move).  It’s classic “the blind leading the blind”.  Decisions aren’t made on hard data (like financials, reputation/experience of management team and size/sustainability of the market…you know, the usual cast of characters. 

Instead, it’s how confident does the guy pitching them seem, or how cool does the idea sound, or how can it boost their ego (of either the athlete or the advisor).

Very fascinating…

To their credit, some are getting wiser…thinking about things as a business, and getting the right people in place to help them make decisions.  Look at Jay-Z!