Saquon Barkley on building trust networks to navigate the investment minefield facing professional athletes

but better. Um, um, we are working on that. Oh, I think he's here. Welcome to the show. How are you doing? What's up, guys? Thanks for having me. Thanks so much for jumping on. Um, been looking forward to this. Congratulations on a on a massive day in Ramp World. We'd love to get your story.

How did you meet Eric Glimman? Uh, what's it been like to work with him? Um, it's been it's been great. Uh, it's been great. The conversation and introduction kind of came from uh my manager cuz um who's been super helpful uh with me and learning and exploring more in the tech world.

Um but getting to know getting to know Eric and being involved Eric has been amazing. Uh he's been become a really good friend. My my favorite thing I like to tell people about Eric is he he has this contagious smile. He always has this big smile on his face every single time you're around him.

Um he makes you feel welcome and uh just him and his team like they've been doing an amazing job and excited for the the news that they announced today. Yeah, it's huge. Uh talk to me about the Super Bowl ad. We have your picture from the Super Bowl ad up on the stream right now. Um how did that come together?

Um how fast was that process? How was the shoot? Yeah, we've been talking to RAM for for a while, the Ram team for a while. Um, I had dinner with Sam and Max in PA. Oh, yeah. Um, a couple of them, they were able to come to a game. Um, and I forgot it was maybe like 10 days, a week or two before uh the Super Bowl.

Uh, my manager Cuz asked me about this idea of of running an ad. usually, you know, I probably would say no to Super Bowl commercial uh 10 days before, but the the ramp team uh they're they're super efficient and you know, they they made it so easy and they were so helpful for me.

Um and you know, they they obviously knew I had a lot at stake and wanted to make sure that was the main focus, but they did a great job. I think the ad came out amazing. They also showed me that, you know, in past these brands that I've worked with, they probably took too much of my time.

um when you're able to do this and under power and create something so special and that fans love. Um but the whole team, the whole ramp team is incredible. Uh Kareem, Sam, Max, all of them, they're all special people and I'm excited to be able to work with them.

What was the reaction from the rest of the team to see you in an enterprise software ad in the Super Bowl? Uh was that surprising or was everyone just kind of excited to to to see you take that step? Um yeah, I think it was more just exciting. More excited.

Uh, I've always, you know, always talking about how can I do, how can I be creative in new ways and, you know, we always talk about financial freedom and involving yourself with with the best companies and the best founders and um, you know, it it's it's been pretty cool just so far in my career, all the great things I've been able to do, but the platform that has been established because of football, the things football's able to bring me into and the world is is able to bring me into and um, I don't know all the stuff yet, but continue to learn in this space and continue to meet, you know, extremely incredible people and incredible teams.

Yeah, it's an exciting time. Uh, I want to talk about, uh, lessons from popular books. A lot of people in tech have read The Score Takes Care of Itself by the 49ers coach and borrowed ideas from football and taken them back to business. Uh, you you read 0ero to one.

uh what is a concept that you took from 0ero to one or you think other football players could take back into the world of football from that book? Um that's a great question. Uh Peter talks about, you know, when you're starting a company, um you never want to have two people doing the same job.

And an interesting thing that Nick Serani did this year, uh, well, my first year, I'm pretty sure he did in years prior with the Eagles, my first year with the Eagles, he he had all of us in a meeting and let all of us know what our role was and what was expected of us. Not saying that our role can expand.

Um, not saying it can't increase, but what's needed for us to be able to go out there and compete and accomplish what we ultimately want to accomplish the Super Bowl. And I I think the things you could take is just from might be losing you.

is it's all right to buy in knowing what you got to do, knowing what you got to accomplish. Um, sometimes your role is not doing what the team asks you to do to be successful and it takes a great team. And you guys hear me? Yeah. Yeah, you're back.

Yeah, it kind of dropped out for a second, but we're we're we got most of that. Yeah. Can you hear me? Yep. Yep. there. Oh, sorry about that. No worries. Yeah, you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, we're good on this end, I think. Yep, I can hear you guys. Okay, cool. Uh, let's move on to another question.

I want to talk about uh similarities between the offense defense dynamic on the football field to uh you know, these two units, they aren't necessarily on the field at the same time, but they both need to perform.

There's some similarities to business where maybe the sales team wants to go and sell a product that the engineering team needs to go and deliver and make. There are two two teams that need to be working somewhat in concert. Um but they're doing very different roles.

Uh what can you tell us about the team building that goes on between the offense and the defense to keep the whole group working in concert? We lose. Yeah. Super important. Um, team is the the most important thing when it comes to Can you hear me? Yep. Yep. Hello. Sorry, I think I'm in a dead spot. Um, I apologize.

It's okay. Uh, but I I think team I think team is the most important thing uh and especially in in my sport or just kind of any profession to be honest. I think the parallels um from business, from science, from sports, uh all those things, you know, have similarities and it all comes down to building a great team.

So, we know how important it is for, you know, on the offensive side for us to accomplish what we need to do in the line of scrimmage. But the same thing on the defensive side, establish the line of scrimmage.

A lot of games in football is one up front and it takes all phases, offense, defense, and special teams for us to go out there and accomplish what we want to do. And when you look at it in any profession, that's why I say the parallels are so simpy into the roles.

You need people doing all the little things it takes to be successful. And that's why you have, you know, successful teams and you have like I don't think I can name any individual. whoever you think is successful, whether it's a billionaire, whether it's an MVP, it takes everybody.

It takes a family, it takes it takes a culture, it takes a village to be able to have that um have that success. Uh I I I want to let you go because obviously you're very busy. Uh la last question for me and if Jordy has anything he can ask too. Um tell me about Big Dom, the chief security officer.

What's his role in the organization? What is Big Dom's role in the organization? I don't even know if I have an answer for that to be completely honest.

Like big dumb I know I know he gets a lot of love and you know ever since his uh the situation with the 49ers on the sideline you know he's I go to events and you know people asking for my autograph and Big Dom is probably getting more requests for autographs and pictures than than me to be honest.

But to be like the the best way I can put it, um he's just the glue to the team and it's I'm not even exaggerating when I say that. Like he is the glue to the team.

He he keeps everything in line and he he makes sure he has everybody's back and that's one person that I know outside of my family member and friends that if I need anything and I need to make one phone call, I'm picking up the phone and I'm calling Big Dom. I love it. That's amazing.

Jordan, you have anything else you want to run through? Yeah, I wanted to ask, you know, general, you know, how how you how you you and and and friends and maybe other players are thinking about investments today. You've invested in RAM.

You've invested in and these are some of you know the top companies in Silicon Valley. Um in in Silicon Valley, a lot of people, you know, uh will start a big company, sell it, and then make a series of of silly investments. How how do you avoid maybe making how do you avoid the bad investments?

What's your kind of framework for that? Um, yeah. How do you avoid making the bad investments? That's a that's a great question.

You you get u as a as an athlete um you get a lot of things thrown at you to say the least and you don't know what's the right thing to get involved in and um you just got to try your try to educate yourself as best as you can.

And to be honest, when you come from the NFL, a lot of us go to college, go to college for three years, maybe four, and you know, our financial educ how how educated we are on the financial side of things, it's not that great.

And I'm open and honest and I'm able to admit that to myself um that coming out the NFL, it it wasn't that great. And it still has so much room to improve. But the way I handle is by surrounding myself with the right people. And you have to trust people.

And one, I have an amazing manager cuz um and he's pretty good at saying no to be honest. Uh he he he will say no to pretty much everything unless Zack Franklin calls. And when Zach calls us, uh anything anything he say is kind of like, uh yeah, let's let's just do it right now. That's right. That's right.

Let's just go right to it. Um but it's God's like that. like you you just surround yourself with people like that who who are super smart and super successful and done it the right way and you're able to build relationships with them.

Um and you able to earn you able to earn their trust and you're able to trust them and uh make those decisions. So it it's tough because you get a lot of things thrown at you and I don't know if I have a the exact perfect answer but I that's a pretty good answer if you ask me. That's a pretty good answer. Yeah. Right.

Yeah, that's a great answer. I think a lot of people in in the tech world, you know, have spent decades investing, professional investors, but they should follow the same framework. Say no to those things, and then if a certain person calls you, you just say, "Yeah, you back up the truck. " You back up the truck.

That's amazing. Well, thank you so much for stopping by. Uh we'd love to have you back. Uh hope to see you soon in person. Uh yeah, congrats on the markup, too. First of first of many, I imagine. Thank you guys so much. And I apologize for the NFL. I'm leaving. I was coming back from uh an event at a hospital.

So, I might I might be a little shaky. I apologize, but thank you guys for having me. Yeah, we'd love to have you in the studio soon. Yeah. Uh we'll we'll we'll get you under the lights here for uh for a couple minutes. We can grab some of your time because this is fantastic. This is great. We'll talk to you soon.

Cheers, Saquon. Have a good one. That is an amazing answer. That's the best investment framework. I I know multiple smart very smart people that have basically the same. That's amazing. If it works, you know, it works. Wait, wait, wait for that one person to call. That was incredible.

Uh, anyway, we have our uh we have our next guest coming up in three minutes. In the meantime, let's run through some timeline. Yeah, we got we want to talk about Yeah, I mean the big thing for for the people monitoring the situation at home.

Uh apparently uh President Trump is warming to the idea of using US military assets to strike. I thought you were gonna make a joke about monitor the real monitoring the situation is the Microsoft open AI situation because that's the one that most people in tech are monitoring on a daily basis.

But we do need to cover the geopolitics. What's the update there? Uh yeah, apparently Trump uh Trump has been warming up to the idea of military action against Iran. Um so much so that the poly market is spiking up to 75% chance of military action against Iran before it's July. So couple weeks left.

Now there would be a difference between military action and boots on the ground. And I think that there's probably a a a bit of a Rubicon to cross there mentally for the American people.

Um obviously people don't like the idea or there are many people in America that don't like the idea of sending money to fight a foreign war and they think we should rep prioritize America and American paying down the debt for example all those different things.

Uh the Ukraine war has gotten some push back from a lot of folks in tech and beyond um for that reason. But the real red line for a lot of people is boots on the ground. Don't send our soldiers over there. It's a quagmire. We live through the global war on terror. Let's never do that again.

Uh and so uh it'll be interesting to track which way this leans because there's obviously multiple tiers to engaging. One is just you you know you sell the weapons or technology to another comp to another uh government that uses them.

Then you're deploying American military assets but no boots on the ground and then the final is of course uh boots on the ground. Uh but hopefully this whole thing resolves quickly and we can get to a uh a peace negotiation and a trade deal.

Um because uh we want we want freedom and we want capitalism, stability, we want business. We want we want we want 10 more whizzes out of Iran. Give me the Iranian whiz. That's what I want. Yeah. Give me some cyber security companies that we can flip to Google for 30 million. That's what I want. Crazy.

Anyway, um we have some more. Apparently, there's some news leaking about uh OpenAI's uh or sorry, XAI's fundraising. Oh, okay. What's going on there? They are uh spending 4. 7 billion in the next uh three months on a new out of their new $9. 3 billion raise.

Uh they're projecting 18 billion for new data center capex through 2027 and uh they are the XAI employee payroll has almost quadrupled since the series C. It's interesting to think about. Should we hit the G? Yeah, do it John. We'll give you one of these air horns too. There we go. Gong.

It's interesting that uh X was going through this like, you know, intense austerity, limiting spending, you know, keeping employee counts low. Boom. Now it's just scaling. Scaling. I love it. We love scale. It's great. Um so, uh what else is in the news?

Oracle uh has a new initiative to help companies sell technology to the Pentagon. Uh Larry Ellison, absolute dog working to help bridge the gap between startups, companies, and the DoD. We've seen this from a couple companies. Palunteer has the AIP program.

Uh Ander's been acquiring some companies and and leveraging their connections in the DoD to actually get distribution on these products once they're built.

uh every company has a different kind of angle on the problem, but it feels like the big narrative is like the we heard this from the secretary of the army like the DoD is ready to buy new capability from the private sector, but it's still really hard to actually get a program record.

It's actually really hard to get the products in, educate people, build the right consensus, figure out what the budgets are, and get the products in the hands of the war fighter. And so, uh Oracle is stepping up with a program called the Oracle Defense Ecosystem.

It's structured to help smaller companies break through the challenges they typically face in selling tech to the defense department. Uh it's far too hard to serve the American defense enterprise. We can provide an easy path for these companies to get better access to the defense market.

So shout out Oracle consistently underrated. I say put them in the MAG 7 right now. The uh if if you just saw the chart of Oracle, you would think it was a Bitcoin chart. Like it's just basically up and to the right like crazy. It's an absolute hockey stick.

Um, in other news, Morgan Barrett is posting uh just 30 minutes ago. He said, "When I heard that there was rampant payments corruption in Iran among the military, which is causing the regime to collapse, I initially thought that was a TVPN bit advertising ramp.

" So, yeah, we want to, you know, there's uh once once, you know, Iran is is uh we'll get them on ramp, free and