Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman Are Proving With Thirty 5 Ventures That They Are Premiere Venture Capitalists
Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman have built Thirty 5 Ventures into a venture capital firm that has the vision to one day reach The Vanguard Group and BlackRock investment portfolio levels.
Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman are proving to be true virtuosos in the venture capitalist space. Relationships and the chemistry cultivated in relationships can determine individual and collective success. The relations between friends, family, significant others, and business partners and the chemistry present in those relations buoy success or anchor failure. Thirty 5 Ventures is the perfect illustration of the right relationships being the springboard for endless prosperity.
Kevin Durant’s decision to develop a new professional basketball relationship in 2016 has brought him and others associated with him success. The Golden State Warriors won back-to-back NBA titles from 2016–2018. Durant’s knew basketball relationship lead to new relationships off the court. The Golden State Warriors playing their home games in Silicon Valley dictated that those new relationships included founders of tech companies.
Rich Kleiman and Kevin Durant were prepared to leverage their new geographical windfall off the basketball court in 2016, as the two launched their venture capital firm Thirty 5 Ventures. It was the perfect symbiosis of leveraging intellectual capital and relationships in Silicon Valley, along with Kevin Durant’s basketball relationships to produce win after win for all parties.
Thirty 5 Ventures’ official website reads:
Thirty Five Ventures’ investment portfolio spans more than 75+ companies across a variety of verticals and growth markets, including fintech, cryptocurrency, health and wellness, media, & more. With deep relationships in venture capital and private equity, the 35V team works strategically with a subset of partners on strategy, content and marketing initiatives.
Their equity investments and partnerships is an all-star list of tech companies. It includes the like of Coinbase, OpenSea, Robinhood, XO, Imperfect Foods, Overtime, Skydio, Postmates, and more.
Thirty 5 Ventures has not limited its investments to tech companies, but has been keen to focus in on content creation and media as well. One can feasible argue that Thirty 5 Ventures’ Boardroom media company is the nexus of reporting business and technology news. The focal point of the media company is reporting on the business of sports, and as we see with Kevin Durant, the business of sports goes far beyond the realm of sports.
Thirty 5 Ventures initially invested in Coinbase in 2017. Kim Bhasin of Bloomberg News reported on Durant’s relationship with Coinbase, writing, “The former Most Valuable Player, who has won two NBA championships with the Golden State Warriors, started meeting with founders and investors in Silicon Valley’s tech sector in 2016, during the early days of their business.
In December 2021, Kevin Durant and Coinbase further cemented their working relationship, as Coinbase and Durant agreed to a multi-year marketing deal for Durant to promote Coinbase across his bevy of businesses. The deal makes Kevin Durant not only an early investor, but now one of the faces of cryptocurrency.
One can summarize Kevin Durant’s brief tenure with the Golden State Warriors by saying: He came, He saw, and He’s still conquering.
Life is about leverage. Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman are leveraging their business relationships, vision, financial acumen, and economic instincts to make Thirty 5 Ventures one of the most profitable venture capital firms in the world. The road to a The Vanguard Group and BlackRock like investment portfolio is definitely in Thirty 5 Ventures long-term reach.
