“These are assets with qualities that cannot be replicated by technology. Iconic franchises and cultural institutions rooted in tradition, identity, and shared experience.
In a world shaped by abundant intelligence where creation scales and distribution fragments, we believe they will matter even more.”
– Josh Kushner, Thrive
Kushner, known for his massive positions in companies like OpenAI, Stripe, and Databricks, just bought a stake in the San Francisco Giants.
Part of his firm’s newly announced permanent capital holding company, “Thrive Eternal”, the platform is designed to hold category defining cultural assets indefinitely. It’s the institutional inverse of his bleeding edge tech book.
While many people were shocked by this move, UTN readers know that more and more venture types are wading into these waters.
Sideline Group (remember them from The Presence Premium?) announced their over-subscribed close of $155m for Fund I
Ari Emanuel’s MARI (a Sideline Group portfolio company) acquired Collect-A-Con last week
HOF Capital (a firm with a portfolio full of Biotech, Frontier, and AI/ML companies) announced it’s leading a consortium to acquire Porsche’s stakes in Bugatti.
HOF called Bugatti a “category-defining brand whose long-term value compounds with patience, craftsmanship, and disciplined stewardship.” Not exactly typical VC verbiage.
The common thread here is that these things are visceral. You feel these things in your body before you process them in your head. A stadium roar, the bass of a UFC walkout, the weight of a vintage car door. None of this can be prompted, rendered, or streamed at 1.5x speed.
The most AI-pilled people on the planet are the ones making these moves. Sideline’s Founder Greg Mazlin, who spent nine years as a partner at Tiger Global, is building his whole thesis on the Offline Economy and is ‘Long Offline, Long Humans, and Long Friday.’
When intelligence becomes abundant and content becomes infinite, the assets that can’t be synthesized get repriced up. The barbell hardens, the middle gets crushed. In visceral categories, a 100-year head start is the moat. The closer you are to the AI frontier, the clearer this bet becomes.
Human nature does not fork. Visceral capital is betting on what will never change.
P.S. — How great is this image of the 2007 crowd anticipating Bonds’ record-breaking homer?
I publish an essay every other Thursday.
Stay tuned and share this with someone who should be paying attention to where the Sports Economy is headed.
If you’re building, investing, or advising within the Sports Economy — please reach out!
Email: [email protected]
– Brent
ICYMI: This week’s podcast episode with Dr. Jason Wersland, Founder of Therabody
