222: From NFL Field to Finance Titan: The Unconventional Playbook for Building Wealth & Legacy
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Ever wondered how a Super Bowl champion pivots from the gridiron to the world of finance and venture capital? Join us as we dive deep with former New Orleans Saints superstar Marques Colston, co-founder of Champion Venture Capital. Discover the secrets behind his unlikely transition, the mistakes athletes and everyday individuals make in wealth management, and his how-to guide for building a lasting legacy. Marques shares his unique perspective on identifying game-changing opportunities in sports tech, real estate, and beyond, and reveals how CVP is democratizing access to this traditionally exclusive asset class for everyone. Don't miss this inspiring episode packed with insights on strategic diversification and the future of fan engagement—you can't afford to stay on the sidelines!
In this episode, we’re discussing…
Early Financial Literacy is Crucial: Even during a successful athletic career, planning for the future and seeking sound financial advice is paramount for a smooth transition.
Transferable Skills Drive New Ventures: The discipline, work ethic, and ability to connect with people honed in professional sports can be powerful assets in the business world.
Strategic Investing Bridges Passions and Profits: Aligning investment strategies with personal interests, like sports, can create a deeper understanding and connection to opportunities.
Democratizing Access to Exclusive Markets: Champion Venture Capital aims to break down barriers, allowing both accredited and non-accredited investors to participate in the lucrative sports investment ecosystem.
Value-Driven Partnerships are Key to Success: Beyond capital, a strong team with operational expertise and genuine engagement with portfolio companies drives significant growth.
The Future of Fan Engagement is Immersive: Expect groundbreaking technologies like VR/AR and enhanced data analytics to revolutionize how fans experience sports.
Resources from Marques Colston
LinkedIn | Instagram | Champion Venture Capital
Resources from Mike and Nichole
Gateway Private Equity Group |Nic's guide | Franchise With Bob
+ Read the transcript
Mike Stohler: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Richer Geek Podcast. Today we
have a very special guest. It's probably a household name to most of the people here, a seasoned business leader. A New Orleans Saints superstar. I think he has a ring around that finger and around the arena Marques Colston is joining us today.
His business career is shaped by the perspectives and lived experiences gained from his journey, becoming an unlikely NFL standout. His journey from small school prospect through a decade long NFL career. Taught him how success has to be earned every day. The philosophy is the foundation of Marque's post football journey.
As an entrepreneur, educator, and financial advisor, he has started Champion Venture Capital. It represents an opportunity for marquee to leverage his passion, skills, influence, and access to build a firm with the potential to build a legacy of doing well and good by creating access to wealth, building opportunities to a more diverse group of investors.
How are you doing, Marques?
Marques Colston: I'm doing well. I appreciate you having me on today.
Mike Stohler: Absolutely. It's a pleasure having you on. Give us a little bit of a background, after football. What made you wanna sit there and say, 'I need to do this, I need to go into financial advisor'?
What was the transition, from catching footballs to going into finance?
Marques Colston: For sure. So, for me it was a transition that started. I was fortunate enough to play 10 years in a world where the average career is three and a half years and was just blessed and fortunate to have some really good advisors early in my career that got me thinking about life after, while I was still playing.
So, right around my third or fourth year is when I started to think about opportunities off the field, started to look at investment opportunities, and I wanna say about year four, I made my first off-the-field investment. It was in a sports-related company. I tried to stay in an avenue that I knew well and try to shorten the learning curve a little bit.
And for me it became a place where I could connect with the entrepreneurs, like my journey from trying to get recruited, trying to build a career as a college player, then ultimately go and get my seed funding in the NFL contract. I was able to connect my journey with the entrepreneur's journey and that was a light bulb moment for me.
I started to think that, I started to realize that I can fit into this industry, I can understand what the entrepreneurs are doing and what their goals and their vision are. As a player, I'm coming into some money, so I have some capital that I can invest, and it became a place where I came of age as a business person, just because when you jump into entrepreneurship and venture, the whole venture ecosystem.
You can take as deep of a dive as you want in any place, and that's really what I did. And I took full advantage of the fact that my planned career gave me access to the ecosystem. And once I got in there, I was just a curious person by nature, and I went to find any opportunity to learn that I could.
And 15 years later, I'm still in it and having a good time doing it.
Mike Stohler: It's been that long.
I just remember yesterday you beat my Indianapolis Colts, but I guess that was, was it 2009?
Marques Colston: That's when I started my journey yeah.
Mike Stohler: You got your ring. You might as well look at some other stuff and build it up from there. How difficult is it being a pro player athlete to get that knowledge and sit there and say, you know what,' I'm making a lot of money.'
What does that mindset switch where you say, you know what, I need to protect maybe my family and my future. Tell us a little bit about that mindset, and maybe some of our listeners can sit there and say, maybe I'm dealing with that same thing also.
Marques Colston: Yeah, the mindset's an interesting one.
Because to get to that level of success on the field, you have to have this level of what I like to call irrational confidence, right? The odds are what they are. You understand the odds, and you understand that the odds are stacked against you, and your work ethic and your preparation puts you in position to be a 1% success rate, I'm gonna be the 1%.
You're wired that way as an athlete, and it's really hard to turn that mindset off. The thing that I learned is the transition becomes really tough when anything becomes real, when you haven't laid the groundwork and you haven't done the prep work to walk into the next circumstance.
Right. So, for me, the transition is no different. It's how can you, even while you're playing, how can you start to find these avenues to go explore? So that look, any career transition, for any one of us is a difficult transition, especially when you're going from one industry to a completely new industry, right?
There's no way around that. There, there's gonna be some adjustments, and there's gonna be just some challenges that come with that. The only thing that you really can control is how high the cliff is that you fall off of. And the thing that sports taught me is you always fall to the level of your preparation.
And the more that you can explore, the more that you can learn the things that you don't wanna do while you're actively in that spot, and you have that security and you have that job, that job security and safety, the more you can explore the different avenues that you might be interested in.
The quicker you start that clock because it's time on task and it's reps. And if you can put yourself in those positions to find those risk-free reps and that time on task, then again you put yourself in position to make that transition less strenuous because that's really all you can hope for 'cause transition to transition is always gonna be tough.
Mike Stohler: Well, I know several pro golfers being out here in Arizona, and it's hard once you start making money. It's hard to stay in that top 1%. Right. It's like going, I'm worth X amount of dollars.
Maybe I started a family. That Tiger Woods mentality of I don't care what's going on, I'm gonna beat, it's that keeping that level is extremely hard. So, let's talk about Champion Venture Capital. Ladies, gentleman, Marques Colston with Champion Venture Capital. What made you start that? Get out of the financial world and say, you know what, I gotta go out and do it myself.
Marques Colston: So I started NVC as an investor about 2010. Quickly became an advisor consultant to go along with the investment that I was doing. I had always been a hands-on investor to where, again I knew I wasn't, I didn't come from this world, so I didn't really have the institutional knowledge to feel great about every investment decision that I made.
So, the way that I de-risked those investments was I'd roll my sleeves up and I'd get engaged with the company and figure out ways to contribute. So that's how I started my investing journey. Fast forward, I did that for a good seven, eight years and built a decent portfolio doing that.
Worked at ran business development at a smoothie company I invested in, ran biz dev for a cannabis company I invested in, done a bunch of advisory work over the time and. It got to a place where right around Covid right around 2020, life just started to shift for me, and that's when I officially exited venture capital.
My kids were getting older, a little older. We had the school lockdown, so I'm homeschooling. So I walked away from my venture portfolio at the time in the whole consulting business, and I transitioned into, of all things, executive coaching. And in doing that work, I got a chance to work with some really high-level execs at Nike, Jordan, and Boathouse Farms, and just built that experience.
And it was an experience I had no idea existed three years before. When I got into it, I wasn't sure that I could do it, and sure enough, I got into it, loved it and just fell in love with it. That kind of set me on this trajectory where I just wanted to try new things. So, I did executive coaching for a couple years at the same time.
I went and got my financial licenses, my Series 7, Series 66 with this vision that I can do financial advising and kind of layer in the executive coaching with the athletes that I was working with. So that was my big vision and everything went well until compliance had something to say.
I realized that I couldn't execute my vision in the traditional financial services world. And when I left the last brokerage firm I worked at in 2023, the end of 2023, I had really no intentions on getting back into venture capital.
I was content in the consulting and coaching world, and I reconnected with a partner of mine. We had done some work together in some sports tech startups, and we started to spitball what it could look like to build something in sports that was an investment vehicle that got outside of the traditional 1% of folks that are able to invest in the big five leagues, right? You typically see sports investment, and it's all about NFL franchises, NBA, MLS, those big five leagues. There's only a handful of people on earth that can cut checks that move the needle in those deals.
So, we started to brainstorm and ideate around what we could do. Is there something that we could build that made sports more accessible because he's a former athlete himself? Sports is that thing that connects us all, right? Whether you're a professional athlete, played intramurals, you have your kids are playing and you're paying into the club and travel sports ecosystem, all of us to a to a man invest somehow in the, into the sports ecosystem.
There's not many ways to get your capital back out of it. So that was our North star when we started to think about a platform, and that was when the idea of CVP was born. And we spent about six months perfecting it on paper before we went public with it.
And right around January of last year, we launched officially, and we've been off and running ever since. And it's been able to gain some traction, and I think a lot of it is just based on the accessibility piece. There's a lot of people that want access to alternatives.
There's a lot of people that want access to sports. And in a world where those access points don't exist, it makes what we're doing that much more valuable.
Mike Stohler: So, talk about a little bit, I've always said on all of our podcasts, the importance of diversifying your investment portfolio.
And can you give us some examples, ladies and gentlemen, Champion Venture Capital CVP, and the power of strategic diversification end of the sports tech, medical real estate. Can you give us some examples? You've talked about some sports tech. What does that mean for us regular people? What is diversifying inside sports?
Marques Colston: So, what's interesting is if you look at sports, the entire sports ecosystem, it's a diversified ecosystem by itself, right? Most people think about the teams and the team ownership angle, but when you think about a team, you don't, most people don't think about the stadium.
They don't think about the parking lot, which is a real estate deal. They don't think about the smart cities and the retail operations like you see in Atlanta at the battery, right? So there are all of these different asset classes that become the picks and shovels that make sports what it is, right?
So, everything from the hospitality and real estate on the stadium side, the retail side. You've got all of these technical innovations that are really driving sports forward in a different way. You turn on a Thursday night football broadcast, and Amazon with all the analytics and the wearable components.
So, when you look at sports as an asset class and you start to break it down, what is this really diverse business landscape that has everything from service businesses to high-growth technology businesses, to real estate to, you name it, it's in the sports ecosystem.
And again, when we started to peel back the layers of the onion, making sure that we're creating an asset, an investment vehicle that is accessible for folks. Diversification is huge in that because we wanna make sure that folks that maybe are new to alternatives get an opportunity to get into a vehicle that.
Isn't going to be as volatile as we've seen some of the even the publicly traded companies that have become.
Mike Stohler: Oh yeah.
Marques Colston: So, diversification is core to what we do, and for us it's beneficial because it's core to what makes up sports and the whole value chain of sports.
Mike Stohler: It's the first time I saw that Amazon broadcast. I was like, oh, it's like I see the little circles, I see the routes. Finally, it's like the Madden game on TV. And I am sure, with the sports tech, I cannot see the rest of the networks. They've got to do something like that.
I mean, the future of watching football is just absolutely amazing in other sports.
Marques Colston: It's coming, and the funny thing is it's been around for a while, even like the yellow line, the yellow first down marker. Even simple things, the technology enhances the entire experience, the entire fan and viewing experience.
Mike Stohler: Yeah. Shot link with the golf, we can see the tracer. It's just amazing how that works. How does CVP balance the social impact with financial returns and all the different decisions that you guys make?
Marques Colston: Yeah, I think the financial returns is a priority for us, obviously as an investment firm.
You make your hay on the capital that you can return for your LPs and your investors. The thing with us is the social impact component, it's built into the platform and the structure in that our goal is to make this accessible to more investors.
We realize and we understand that particularly as a former athlete myself, you have this platform and you have this ability to guide people and shine a light in the right direction. And we very much see ourselves in that role. And again, it starts with curating really high-quality deals.
And making sure that we execute on those deals to create returns. But if we can do that for a more diverse pool of investors, then we've achieved our double bottom line mission of driving significant returns for more types of investors that have typically been left out of the conversation.
Mike Stohler: So, how do you talk a little bit about how you identify some things, can you discuss a little bit how you guys identify those types of game-changing opportunities in the sectors that you guys have?
Marques Colston: Yeah. A lot of the opportunities come through the strength of our team, and we were very intentional about making sure that we build a team of high performers.
Or not just investment professionals, but we have a team of operators that have built businesses in the sports ecosystem, sports and tech ecosystems as well. We've got the gentleman that runs our value add strategy, the consulting firm that kind of comes into all of our portfolio companies.
He ran the sports tech program at Comcast for four years before he joined us. Also on that staff, we've got the one of the founders of Amazon Alexa, ran innovation at Nike for a handful of years. He joined our team, was a former SVP at MLS, and Jamil worked in the front office at the NFL, the SEC, and the NCAA.
He's a part of that management team. So we've got a really high-level, high-performing team of operators that, when you create outcomes and you create success in those worlds, people tend to lean on you. And that's where a lot of our deal flow comes through, these organic relationships with people that we've either worked with in the past, people that we've delivered significant value for in the past.
And quite honestly, people that understand our expertise and understand how we can help to grow companies. So a lot of our deal flow has become organic. We are the true value add, because that's how our model's built. A lot of folks in venture talk about value add and then they open up their Rolodex and know, make some email intros and I'm out the door.
Mike Stohler: Yeah, ladies, it's all about networking. It's all about people. Don't just sit there and say, how can I do stuff? Get off your butt and start meeting people, ladies and gentlemen. It is Champion partners.co. That is the website someone clicks on there.
What are some of the opportunities out there? We've talked about venture capital, we've talked about what happens and what you guys are doing. So, I go and click on Champion Partners co. What's on there? What kind of education, what kind of materials, and how can I get involved?
Marques Colston: Sure. So, the current website is really an overview of who we are, what we do. So you'll get a little bit of education just around the sports asset class and the different verticals in there that we're focused on. What we'll quickly be doing, probably come into Q1, Q2 of 2025, that Evergreen Fund is coming. So you'll start to see some marketing and some information around that.
And our whole website and digital presence will start to shift a little bit to highlight some of the projects that we're working on. We've got some pretty interesting stuff in the queue. A couple sports tech companies that are really focused on fan engagement, looking into a couple professional sports clubs as opportunities. We're in a really good position to start 2025 and really excited about the evergreen fund coming online because I think it's something unique and something that it's gonna give a lot of people access to an asset class that they're excited about.
Mike Stohler: And what type of investor who can invest with you.
Marques Colston: Once the evergreen fund goes live, we are actually open to accredited and non-accredited investors, again honing in on and really focusing on that access piece. We know that structure and that setup is unique specifically in the sports asset class. Accredited, non-accredited, we'll be able to get some institutional investors in there as well.
Excited as this asset class grows and continues to get more and more attention. We're excited about how we're positioned.
Mike Stohler: What do you think, you know at Sports Tech? We're amazed now from when I grew up in the 70s and 80s. We can barely see the TV, barely see the ball going through.
What do you think in five years, ten years, what's the fan experience? I remember the 3D games that kind of went away, man. I bought that $10,000 3D TV, that's junk but what do you think is the next thing out there for sports?
Marques Colston: I think the fan experience is gonna continue to get more and more immersive. We've already started to see some of the VR . The VR opportunities, the augmented reality opportunities. Sports betting is gonna do nothing but keep heating up. Some more immersive media opportunities that kind of come out of this technological wave.
I think at the end of the day the fan experience is one that is probably the last appointment viewing left on TV, right? Everything else you can watch on demand. You can get to it when you get to it, but sports and entertainment, that live component is always gonna be important and always gonna be valuable.
So, I think you're gonna continue to see technology enhance that experience, make it more immersive for people in the game, let 'em customize their experience, their viewpoints, their perspective. The End Stadium experience is gonna keep getting better. You're gonna have digital wallets that allow you to make the whole process more seamless.
You'll be able to order from your seat, you'll be able to engage from your seat. I think this wave towards a completely immersive fan experience is really at its infancy, and it's just gonna continue to ramp up over time.
Mike Stohler: Yeah. It's amazing, I can't wait. I've tried out the VR, the whole Meta thing being sidelines, front row the basketball court, and I can't imagine what's gonna happen five, ten years from now. Marques, how can people get a hold of you or your team members for more information outside of championpartners.co, or is that the route to go?
Marques Colston: Yeah. That's our homepage, and we're pretty active on LinkedIn and Instagram. Our Instagram handle is CVP Invest. You can find us on LinkedIn, Champion Venture Partners. We're a pretty good presence there. Try to be mixed in some news and updates with a lot of information and education.
And then on a personal level, you can find me on LinkedIn and also on Instagram. My handle is Marques Colston.
Mike Stohler: Marques Colston. And before we leave, is there anything that I have not hit on about today's topic that you'd like to share with our audience?
Marques Colston: No, I think we've done a really good job of covering all the bases.
If we covered everything, you won't invite me back.
Mike Stohler: Well, that's true. I almost did, 'cause I was like, his quarterback went to Purdue, so I just don't know if I could do that. But Drew Brees is a great guy.
Marques Colston: He finished up in that other black and gold, so I think he got a pass.
Mike Stohler: That's right. He did. Marques, thank you so much for coming on The Richer Geek Podcast and hope you have a wonderful day.
Marques Colston: I really appreciate the opportunity.
Mike Stohler: Thank you.
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ABOUT MARQUES COLSTON
Marques Colston is a seasoned business leader whose career is deeply shaped by the perspective and resilience gained on his journey from small-school prospect to unlikely NFL standout.
Over a decade in the NFL, Marques learned that success must be earned daily—and sustaining it at the highest level requires humility to remain a lifelong learner, curiosity to discover new ways to create value, and confidence built through preparation and repetition.
These principles continue to guide him in his post-football career as an entrepreneur, educator, financial advisor, executive coach, and strategic consultant. He has worked with dozens of organizations, from early-stage startups to Fortune 100 companies.
At the core of Marques’s work is a commitment to empowering underserved and underestimated communities—helping individuals and organizations envision and achieve more than they ever thought possible.