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Shaq refused to pay $80,000 for security and made a surprising choice. He invested in a company that Bezos later bought for $1 billion
Shaquille O’Neal is known for his dominance on the basketball court, as well as his dominance the business community disappears from the field are just as impressive. One of the most surprising stories about Shaq isn’t about a slam dunk or winning a championship; it’s about how he turned a simple homeland security problem into a multi-million dollar investment.
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Shaq has three homes in Atlanta, where he has lived for years, and one of them needed a new security system. When he contacted a security company, they quoted him $80,000. Even though he’s worth millions, Shaq knew the price was way too high. So he did what many of us would do and looked for a cheaper solution. While shopping at Best Buy, he saw some Ring cameras and decided to buy one.
“The funny thing about it is that I plugged it in myself,” Shaq saidclearly proud of his DIY skills. He installed the camera and during a trip to China he realized how powerful the system was. He could see and speak to someone at his front door from all over the world. That’s when it clicked for Shaq: this was not only a good product, but a game-changer.
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Excited about what he had discovered, Shaq decided to take it one step further. He tracked down the company’s booth at a technology conference and made a bold offer to the CEO. “I said, ‘Hey, my name is Shaquille O’Neal. I want to invest in your company, and you’re going to pay me to make commercials, and then whatever happens,'” Shaq said. The CEO agreed and Shaq became an early investor in Ring.
A few years later, Jeff Bezos bought Ring for $1 billion. Shaq’s decision to invest in this relatively unknown company saved him money on home security and made him a lot of money. How much exactly? He never disclosed it.
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But this wasn’t Shaq’s first smart investment. In 1999, while he was still in his NBA prime, Shaq’s agent introduced him to Ron Conway, a top venture capitalist. Over lunch at the Four Seasons, Conway pitched him about investing in a little known company called Google. Shaq invested $250,000, which grew significantly as Google became a tech giant.
He said, “We had a meeting with them and it looked good, and I put some money in and forgot about it.”
Shaq’s portfolio doesn’t end there. He has also invested in companies such as Lyft, Apple and Vitamin Water. He joined Lyft just a year after its founding, and when the company went public in 2019, it was valued at $22 billion.
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This article Shaq refused to pay $80,000 for security and made a surprising choice. He invested in a company that Bezos later bought for $1 billion originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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