Brian Nichols is the co-founder of Angel Squad, a community where you’ll learn how to angel invest and get a chance to invest as little as $1k into Hustle Fund's top performing early-stage startups

Most people think of Kevin Durant as a basketball player who dabbles in startups. That framing undersells what he's actually built. Through 35V, his family office co-founded with longtime business partner Rich Kleiman, Durant has invested in over 100 companies spanning fintech, AI, health and wellness, media, and sports technology. The portfolio includes early bets on Coinbase, Postmates, Acorns, and Boardroom, the sports media company he co-founded with Kleiman that now runs the annual CNBC x Boardroom Game Plan Summit and activations at events like F1 Miami and Art Basel. Kevin Durant investments aren't celebrity photo ops. They're the output of a serious, thesis-driven operation.

From Thirty Five Ventures to 35V

Durant launched Thirty Five Ventures in 2016, the same year he made his controversial move to the Golden State Warriors. The timing was deliberate. He wanted to build something durable off the court while his on-court career was still generating maximum leverage. The firm has since rebranded to 35V and evolved into a full family office with deep relationships across venture capital and private equity. The investment team now works strategically with a select group of portfolio companies on content, marketing, and business development in ways that go beyond just capital.

The Boardroom media arm is a good example of how 35V functions as an ecosystem, not just a portfolio. Boardroom's newsletters, premium content, and live events serve both as media properties and as distribution infrastructure for the companies 35V backs. It's a flywheel that looks unusual for an athlete's investment vehicle but makes a lot of sense as a platform strategy.

The Portfolio Highlights

The Coinbase bet was the marquee early win. Durant invested in Coinbase alongside Nas, Ben Horowitz, and Union Square Ventures. When Coinbase went public in April 2021 at an $86 billion valuation, it was one of the biggest athlete investor paydays in recent memory. Postmates, another early 35V bet, was acquired by Uber in 2020. Those two exits alone validated the thesis that Durant and Kleiman were operating with real pattern recognition, not just name recognition.

The portfolio has expanded aggressively since. Acorns, the micro-investing fintech app, raised $300 million in 2022 at close to a $2 billion valuation and continues to target an IPO. Overtime, the youth sports media platform, has raised over $100 million and built a substantial digital audience across its properties. Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot and the Flow blockchain, represents 35V's early conviction in the intersection of sports and digital collectibles.

More recently, Durant backed TMRW Sports in a Series A round in June 2024, a company focused on modernizing major sports properties through technology and media. In September 2025, he participated in a Series A round for Rec, continuing a pattern of backing early-stage sports and consumer companies. The Spindrift investment in 2025, the sparkling water brand acquired by PE firm Gryphon Investors, shows the portfolio widening into consumer packaged goods with strong brand positioning.

Shiyan Koh, Hustle Fund managing partner, has noted that the most effective athlete investors are the ones who use their cultural platform to add real distribution value to portfolio companies, not just credibility. Durant's Boardroom operation is a direct expression of that model.

What Makes 35V Different

Most celebrity investment vehicles are reactive. Someone pitches a deal, a manager says yes or no, and a check gets written. 35V operates more like a strategic firm. The team evaluates companies through the lens of whether 35V can genuinely move the needle through content, network, or brand. When that answer is yes, they go deep. When it isn't, they pass.

That filter explains why the portfolio looks coherent rather than scattered. Sports technology, fintech for younger demographics, consumer brands with strong identity, media platforms at the intersection of sports and culture. These aren't random bets. They're expressions of a thesis about where Durant's network and platform create unfair advantages.

Eric Bahn, Hustle Fund GP, has talked about how the best early-stage investors are the ones who bring something specific and irreplaceable to every deal. Durant has built a firm designed to do exactly that. Shiyan Koh, Hustle Fund managing partner, has echoed that point, noting that platform-style investor vehicles consistently outperform passive portfolios because every investment compounds the ones around it.

Angel Squad and the Operator-Investor Model

This is the core lesson embedded in Kevin Durant investments, and it's one Angel Squad takes seriously. The community brings together 2,500 investors across 50 countries who are serious about being genuine partners to founders, not just check writers. Members invest alongside Hustle Fund in early-stage companies and develop the judgment that comes from doing the work repeatedly. If you've been inspired by how Durant built 35V into a value-add platform rather than a passive portfolio, Angel Squad is where you start building your own version of that. The membership is $3,500 across four months for lifetime access. Visit hustlefund.vc/squad to learn more.

The Takeaway

Kevin Durant investments work because Durant and Kleiman built the infrastructure to make them work. The media arm, the events business, the content relationships, all of it creates leverage that a passive investor never has. The lesson for angel investors is straightforward: figure out what your unfair advantage is, build the systems that activate it, and then invest in companies where that advantage actually matters. That's what separates a portfolio from a collection of bets.