[downandout]

A lifetime ago (~17 years) I pitched Michael Jordan on investing in my tech startup. I got the meeting through someone that had previously run one of his golf ventures. While I pitched to Michael himself, his investment decisions at the time were essentially all made by his money manager, a shrewd and difficult guy named Curtis Polk. I believe he still runs Michael's financial affairs.

At my meeting with Michael and his team, Michael said "you've convinced me, now you have to convince Curtis". I assume that's his standard response, so that he doesn't have to reject anyone and can blame Curtis. But in this case Michael called my contact that setup the meeting after the fact and said he actually wanted to invest, but Curtis told him that he would make him sign a waiver saying he was doing it against his advice if he did. Michael liked what he saw enough that after he turned us down, he setup a pitch meeting with another very high profile potential investor.

The point of this story is that if you see a big celebrity name attached to an investment, odds are that the decision wasn't actually made by that celebrity investor. The smart ones have built very high walls around their fortunes, and the gatekeepers are the people you should be talking to if you want a celebrity investor. My mistake with Michael was spending most of my time talking to him, and barely addressing Curtis, who turned out to be the actual decision maker.

[mathattack]

Your last sentence captures a common Sales blunder that happens even when celebrities aren't involved.

[notyourwork]

Curious, if you were pitching how would you try to identify the decision maker?

[mathattack]

Situational. Sometimes you can ask, "Who needs to approve this decision?" or "Who controls the money?" It helps to have a good rapport with whoever your first contact is. In many ways, today's large enterprise Salespeople have to be good at helping their sponsor navigate their own company to get a sale done.

[dopamean]

Is it crazy to just ask?

[notyourwork]

No but do you think in context of original article I'm not sure a celebrity would openly admit this. This is a power play question so the answer depends on who is in the room.

[puranjay]

Now I'm curious to know about your startup. Care to share?

[downandout]

Not really, it ended up burning through millions and eventually crashed. This was at the height of the dotcom era. Not my finest accomplishment.

[jazoom]

I like your honesty.

It sounds like MJ was right to listen to Curtis. Smart people listen to even smarter people.