Jake Paul and Anti Fund: founder-first investing, Sora launch strategy, and why celebrity brands are distribution plays

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We have an exciting set of next guests. We have Jeff Lou and J.

Let's bring them in.

Joining TVP.

How are you guys doing? Welcome to the show.

Good. How are you? Thanks for having us.

We're good. Congratulations. Uh, can you set the table for us on the most recent raise? How did it come together? What's the goal of the fund raise? How how are you describing the the strategy of the fund these days?

I mean, I'm happy to kick it off. I mean, anti-fund um

we think that boomer VCs are boring and just like there are new AI companies

and the next generation of American entrepreneurs like taking over just the like just like the business ecosystem.

I think that the same opportunity exists for VC. What was the original anti anti-fund? Like how'd you come up with that name? Why? What are you anti?

The boomers.

Yeah, a lot a lot of a lot of time we're both founders and we know how hard it is dealing with VTs and move slow and updates and not providing any value and they just become a nuisance. And I think we were very founder first.

Um, and wanted to bring a value ad. I think what we can bring is like distribution, marketing, all of these things, expertise on social media, advertising. We worked with uh obviously invested into OpenAI, but then work with the Sora team to help launch the product,

brought in the content. So, that's just like one really good example.

But that's what we wanted to do is just be anti the establishment essentially and and bring something new to the table that wasn't just money. We believe money is a commodity and that uh things beyond that are way more valuable in helping grow the companies

and I think the double click on that

I think as founders and as VCs you have to be anti-establishment I mean we are disrupting existing large players if you don't want to take over existing large markets then you should not be in this business

so that should be what you expect as a founder but you should expect that from your investors if your investor is not as hungry as Maybe you choose other investors.

Uh what what can you say on fund strategy ownership targets? My my assumption is that you you guys are multi-stage so you're kind of flexible. I I imagine there's preede rounds that you'd be excited about leading but at the same time you don't mind participating in in a later stage round where it's a breakout company and you can you know add fuel to the fire.

Yeah. I think the way we think about it is that we've taken barbell but we call it extreme barbell. We want to be the first check and technical founders. Um, and that's people just dropping out and where their first phone call will put 100 250k just put them in the business. Um, or we identify and and built, you know, really great relationship with like Sam Alman and Mark Shin of Open AI and we want to support what we think will be generational defining companies.

Yeah. And I think everything in the middle is very hard

and I think we know where we're strong and where we're potentially, you know, weaker.

Yeah. Tell me more about this Sora partnership or or or that project like how did that come together? What was the reaction? Uh I feel like

Yeah. Did you hesitate at all about giving your name and likeness? I mean, you and Sam Alman, you guys kind of jumped first and I think it went it went surprisingly fine, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Uh

yeah. But yeah, what was the reaction?

Yeah. So the um they wanted to build a social media platform and we met at the inauguration with Sam Alman. We were like talking about how there needs to be a new social media platform, what does that look like, etc. And so we just started having idea brainstorms and it eventually turned into what what Sora is and then just helping them on the functionality. you know, me and my brother's expertise of however many years we've been making content, all the little dials, triggers, change this button, change that button, make this easier, boom, boom, boom. Th this is what fans are looking for. Super detailed stuff. Um, but then once it finally came to to launch, um, yeah, it was it I gave my name, image, and likeness, and I knew it was going to get crazy. I I wasn't uh hesitant. Um and [laughter] it just caught like fire and obviously we saw the the results and what happened and um it was a pretty phenomenal experience in marketing and like showcasing what the internet loves these days.

Yeah. One of our portfolio companies, archive.com, tracked a billion impressions in six days of Jake

Sora. So many [laughter] sense. What advice are you giving to uh folks who want to become creators in 2026? It feels like a completely different era from the Vine days. At the same time, there's some lessons that never change. But how are you seeing it?

Yeah, I would say authenticity is everything. I think showing your whole entire life is the key if you're a new and up and cominging creator. Like the struggles, what you're going through. Tell tell your audience about financially what you're doing or what you're having to do. Um talk to them about your ups, your downs. Share with them your your life story. And then you just have to be posting and posting. And I think a lot of people aren't good at editing like simple stuff, captions, music, video, timing, how long is the video? Um so it is very difficult and you're competing with every single platform. As a content creator, you're competing as a content creator. I'm technically competing against Netflix. Why are they going to

watch, you know, some Jake Paul Instagram videos versus going on onto Netflix? And so, you have to realize that you're actually playing one of the hardest games. And people think it's easy, but it's actually a very very um technical thing and you have to have a certain skill set to be able to do it. And you have to be entertaining. You have to be providing something that's a niche that no one has ever seen before. We we have the Paul brothers. We have the speeds. We have Mr. Beast doing his videos. We have Whistling Diesel blowing up trucks and cars. So you What are you doing that?

Yeah. John has talked about this. You You used to be able to get a million views by just having a Ferrari. Now you [laughter] blow it up.

The game's changed. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it went from it went from uh have the car or rent the car to uh give the car away where you take the tax deduction to now you must destroy it.

How do you uh so so 2025 there was a lot of founders doing like ragebait marketing.

Uh this style of like using rage bait in content was popularized on YouTube and various social media platforms. I would say Jake, you've done this very very effectively at times of being under knowing I'm going to put out this video. It's going to make a lot of people mad, but a lot of people are going to enjoy it too and they're going to become fans and I'm okay to alienate some people. Do you h how how have you kind of like evolved like that even like what is your framework? What is the right amount of rage to to generate in an audience and and and because you really need to thread the needle?

Yeah. So the way I look at entertainment is invoking emotion. You want to invoke fear, sadness, happiness, [snorts] joy.

That's good. I like good.

Not just fear, sadness. [laughter] But yeah, you need all of them. You need all of them.

That's what I'm committed to. And I don't care who likes it or not. That's what I'm doing. I posted a video where like I was acting like I was depressed like traveling around the world in like my jet and on vacation. I was like, "What is life?" I was like, "What is life even about?" And I was trolling and like my friends text me like, "Yo, bro, are you okay?" I'm like, "Yeah, bro." But the video got like 30 million views cuz everyone was like, "Oh, this is like I'm kind of sad, too." Yeah. What is life even about? And just different random things like that. So just be committed as an entertainer to invoking emotion and you can't care about the result of what anyone thinks because at the end of the day people will come back because they feel something. That's the key.

For sure. Someone asked me to ask you uh all time alltime record for bench press.

I've done 315

u like three times.

There we go. [laughter]

There we go. What uh what do you find yourself when you're talking with founders uh bringing up stories from like the fight game and and different cuz I cuz I met like

building a company kind of can feel at times like getting waking up opening [laughter] your email getting punched in the face maybe an investor is rejecting you a customer went with a competitor etc etc you're pretty used to getting punched in the face and and chewing glass at this point and I imagine some of those learnings uh carry over.

Yeah. 100%. You know, I say after boxing, everything is easy because you're actually physically having to fight every day and taking the licks and punches and you have to bob and weave. Sometimes after the first round, you go back to the corner. Boxing is a great analogy for life in your companies. You have to go back to the corner, talk to your coaches, reset, come out for the for the next round, and you can be losing a fight and still win in the end. Um, not me against Anthony Joshua. My jaw is broken. But um,

I'm sorry.

But [laughter] you're still yapping.

You're still here. People were wondering, hey, can he talk on the show? And you know, here it's proof.

Yeah, I have a little bit of a lisp right now because of it, but um, we're just pushing through. This is store Jake actually. [clears throat]

This is the AI version of me. I tapped in.

Yeah. Uh, can you talk maybe both of you could uh talk to me a little bit about focus? You're both involved in a ton of stuff, you know, boxing, content, investing, building companies. Uh, at the same time, yeah, W. At the same time, I think of you as uh very insightful early on on the importance of daily work, daily repetition. The it's everyday, bro, is a meme, but I actually think it's deeply insightful and and the key to many successes. And I credit a lot of the growth that we've had here with becoming a daily show instead of just this show that is every once in a while. Um, and I'm wondering how you deal with focus and and when when is the time to go all in and do something every single day.

Yeah, you have to figure out that org chart for yourself in terms of what do you know feeds the rest of the ecosystem the most. Um, and for me that's boxing, but I look to Elon Musk as an example, right? How he's buil built some of the biggest companies in the world and he's managing all of these teams and he's devoted and, you know, sleeps on the couch in the offices. You have to be that level of committed and it's a nonstop working, hustling, you know, whatever it is that you you have to do. But I I think the importance of having a great team around you allows you to be able to do um a lot of things. So I have Jeff um that boxing fuels the rest of the ecosystem, the content, the businesses, the attention, the all of these things, the networking, the connections. So um then Jeff can put his priority as antifund, etc. And it all turns into this great flywheel. Uh, but it's definitely just staying committed and working harder than, you know, anyone else that's doing it or just as hard and just really checking the temperature if you're actually doing that.

Have you guys uh have you guys done any recent deals?

Um, some [laughter] the most recent things that were excited. I was going to say

you're getting happy dad. They just happen to crack open a happy.

Yes, we are.

Yes, we're happy in ambassadors and happy dad. Uh, obviously the milk boys are are homies and bros are are great. So, great operating team. Plus, I think that influencer le CPG play I think is

yeah,

challenging, but like the very very best operator, the best celebrities we like to partner with. So, another example of that is Khloe Kardashian's Cloud Popcorn and obviously our own business is W

um

Yeah. What's your guys' framework for or for for investing in celebrity brands? Because people have the sense that oh, se they they they see celebrity brands that work and they just assume that all celebrities they don't see the Travis Scott with his canned cocktail brand that that uh looked like it had a lot of potential but didn't go anywhere. And there's a bunch of other examples like that. I'm curious like what you guys think the formula is. Is is is a creator limited to

you know one brand over a 10-year period? Do you do you see multibrand strategy emerging? What do you think?

Yeah, I think it's I mean similar I would say similar assessment as a normal investment right 90% of startups fail. So I think we just like look at that statistical norm and just expect and even for a celebrity letter or not to just have that statistical pattern. Um but then I think after that it looks at but what you do have is that you have a unfair distribution advantage and you need to make sure that the market in which that distribution uh focuses actually makes sense

right like I think happy Dad is a great example where Milk Boys to me is like the fat broer of internet [laughter] I don't know they're like 30 now so they um

but but to me it that that is a very good founder market product fit.

Yeah.

Right. And and I think if it's celebrity or not, you just look at that thing as an asset just like there's a technical advantage. Why are OpenAI researchers just like raising a ton of money out the gate? Because like there is an assumption that they have some technical ability to have to find product market fit. So it's the same thing with with a celebrity. It's just like very distributionoriented. Um and I think it's maybe a little bit less quantitative. It's it's maybe more taste driven. I think that's where I think Jake I I value and I think Logan as well where they have seen over you know 10 15 years of being famous how many people that have come and gone as famous people.

I think it's super rare to be top of field and relevant across multiple platforms for such a long time. So I think

those are patterns we we we pull out.

What about the launch of W? I thought it was interesting because you didn't do what I thought you would do, which is direct to consumer purely just sell just to the audience. You came out of the gate with a big retail partnership. And I think maybe some influencers or just celebrity type people, they forget that the CEOs of big retail establishments might be in their audience too. They might be able to get that introduction to Walmart sooner or sooner. And I was wondering how deliberate that strategy was. As you reflect on that strategy, would you recommend it to someone else in that position?

Yeah, well, 100%. I think playing across the the board uh also is key, but we wanted to go retail first and we saw the success of that with my brother's brand with Prime and the accessibility of, you know, all of our fans walking through the these stores on a daily basis. I would say a lot of my fan base is a Walmart shopper, etc. So, um, yeah, being able to have those contact points digitally, but also in person and people seeing the things in stores and, um, yeah, being able to have retail, DTOC, all of that, I think is is super important. But we decided to go with the retail first strategy and it's worked out great.

Part of I think the way that you guys have maintained uh, such relevancy is just reinventing yourself. Obviously, you reinventing going from a YouTuber to a fighter. Do you think about uh fighters have notoriously short careers? I mean, I'm sure you'll you'll be able to come out of the woodwork when you're 60 and do the Tyson thing, you know, lock up another 100 million pay-per-view, but I imagine at some point maybe maybe in your 40s, you'll reinvent yourself again. Do you think about are are you thinking 5 10 years out around how you want to reinvent yourself again or are you just tunnel vision on boxing at the moment and and nothing else matters?

No. Yeah, definitely no. Um I I naturally will lead myself into politics without a doubt. Like it's

it's within me. I'm passionate about it. I I follow it very closely behind the scenes and I try to speak up as much as I can to help my audience better understand it and um to state my opinion on things. Uh but I don't know what that exactly looks like.

Are you thinking like AISAR or president? What what

controller of a local city?

I just want to help the the world and I know it's needed um especially in the generations moving forward and um that's you know something that Charlie Kirk was doing. I don't know if it's something that looks like that, but it is needed and um it's very important. And I think since the beginning of my whole entire career, I knew I wanted to help kids and help the world. And that's what I've done with my charity and boxing bullies and renovating gyms and all of these things, but I know I can do it at an even greater level. And so, working on some things in that area in the future will definitely be exciting.

Well, chat's saying Vance Paul 2028. So, [laughter] Let's go.

Well, thank you.

Awesome. Well, great great to have you both on. I'm sure you'll be back on soon and uh yeah, congrats on the new fund uh and the recent fight and

portfolio. They got everything in there.

Yeah, you guys pretty much uh got them all. So, uh it's been uh very cool to watch.

Fantastic.

Thank you guys. We'll talk to you soon.

Talk soon.

Goodbye.

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