I once had a gun pulled on me mid conversation; pointed directly at my head, no more than 6 inches from that spot you stare at when you try and go crosseyed. Think about what you would do in that moment. Are you the tough guy who says “try me”. Are you the negotiator who thinks you can talk him down with reason; your pen mightier than his sword?

Me… I was frozen. Incapacitated. No thought. No action. No life flashing before my eyes or regrets of how I came to this situation. Just complete and utter paralysis.

Certain moments in my life pop back up as if to remind me of some special purpose I had lost along the away. And this one, I’ve reflected on many times. If I had to do it all over again, what would I do? I mean, I’m here now, alive, getting to share my most inner thoughts with strangers who read my diary. Would I choose to do something different, or in the moment, if nothing was what was supposed to happen, should I try and change it, knowing where I am today.

If you think you’re trapped, it’s probably because you are. And if you think you made the wrong decision somewhere along the way, it’s probably because you did. But if you’re where you are right now without a sense of meaning, maybe it’s because you haven’t searched hard enough for what it means to have one.

I’m still trying to figure shit out. Who I am. What do I want to be when I grow up. Am I just going through the motions. Answering emails and picking kids up from school. Once in a while laughing with friends and more often than not, visiting funerals of loved ones I’ll sure I’ll soon forget.

Being in the moment is the thing I’ve found, I miss the most. So many distractions keep me from making core memories like I used to. Truly taking in the little things throughout my day that I’m sure as the calendar pages turn, I’ll wake up soon and wonder where all the time has gone and what memories are there for me to grasp back on to.

But when I was 16, and that gun was pointed to my head, there was no phone, no social media. It was just me and that barrel… and nothing.

I wish that on no one, but I do wish for you to make more core memories, by losing the distractions of your phone and others who could care less about you watching them, and focusing on what is right in front of you, right now.

→ Every Founder Must Know: JPMorgan Chase just put Dwyane Wade, Tom Brady, and A'ja Wilson on a formal advisory council. Not an ad campaign. A governance role.

→ The Ownership League: Unrivaled just closed at a $340M valuation. The players own 15%. One college athlete got equity before going pro.

→ The 9-Year Head Start: Victoria Beckham trademarked her daughter's name when she was five. Nine years later, the brand launches this summer.

Dwyane Wade just became the chair of a new advisory body at JPMorgan Chase. Not the face of a campaign. Not the voice in a 30-second spot. The chair of a council that will sit across from JPM executives and shape financial products for athletes.

The JPMorgan Chase Athlete Council launched this week with a roster that reads like the ownership economy's starting lineup: Tom Brady, Sue Bird, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, A'ja Wilson, and Jalen Brunson.

Seven of the most recognizable athletes on the planet. Zero ad scripts.

Here's what they're actually doing. The council will advise JPMorgan's wealth management division on programs designed for athletes from college through retirement. JPM is also launching an Athlete Center of Excellence with sports-experienced financial professionals and an NIL content hub to educate the next generation on building wealth from day one.

Read that list again. Brady. Wade. Wilson. Bird. Rapinoe. Morgan. Brunson.

Every one of them has built businesses, made investments, and operated outside the lines of their sport. Wade is a venture partner. Brady runs a production company and an apparel brand. Wilson just signed with Unrivaled on terms that reset the women's sports market.

These are not spokespeople. These are operators.

And JPMorgan, the largest bank in the world by total assets, didn't call them to pose for a print ad. They called them to shape the product.

That's not an endorsement. That's a board seat with a different name.

The old model is familiar. Every bank, every wealth manager, every financial services brand runs the same play: sign the athlete, shoot the commercial, plaster it across airports and halftime breaks. The athlete gets a fee. The bank gets awareness. Nobody gets alignment.

JPMorgan's move matters because of what it tells you about where the leverage is going. When a $4 trillion institution decides that athletes are more valuable as product advisors than as commercial talent, the power balance has shifted permanently. The bank isn't buying reach anymore. It's buying judgment.

And the NIL content hub is the part that should keep founders up at night. JPMorgan is going directly to college athletes, the ones building audiences and making money before they turn 22, and positioning itself as the trusted financial partner before any competitor can.

That's pre-seed investing applied to banking relationships. Lock in the talent while the audience is still growing and the relationship is still cheap.

The founders who understand this are the ones who stop asking "which creator has the most followers?" and start asking "which creator thinks like an operator?"

Because the operators aren't taking flat fees anymore. They're taking seats.

That's what OWM was built to find. The creators who don't want a check. They want a chair at the table. We help you identify who they are before your competitors do.

Most professional sports leagues are built by billionaires and operated for billionaires. The athletes show up, perform, and collect a salary. Unrivaled just proved there's another way.

The News:

Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 women's basketball league co-founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, closed an oversubscribed Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners at a $340 million valuation.

Investors include Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry, Coco Gauff, Billie Jean King, Michael Phelps, Gary Vaynerchuk, Serena Ventures, and Warner Bros. Discovery.

The players who competed in the inaugural season share a 15% equity pool in the league. Average salary: $220,000. Paige Bueckers signed a three-year deal that pays more in year one than her entire WNBA rookie contract.

And Flau'jae Johnson, still at LSU, still in college, received an equity stake. One of the first NCAA athletes to own a piece of a professional league before going pro.

90% of players re-signed for 2026. That's not loyalty. That's compounding.

The Operator Take:

Stewart and Collier didn't negotiate a better deal within the existing system. They built a new system and put the players on the cap table from day one.

The 15% equity pool means every player on the court has a financial reason to grow the league, recruit the next class, and make the product better. Not because a contract says so. Because their equity says so.

Flau'jae Johnson is the detail founders should circle. A college athlete with equity in a professional league before she's drafted. That's not an NIL deal. That's a cap table position taken at the earliest possible valuation.

The founders doing this with creators right now, giving equity when the audience is 50K not 5M, are building the same kind of early-stage alignment.

Don't wait until the valuation makes it expensive. Move now.

Everyone wants to compare Harper Beckham to Kylie Jenner. That comparison misses the point entirely.

The News:

Harper Beckham, 14, is launching HIKU by Harper, a K-beauty inspired lifestyle brand targeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha this summer.

The brand is registered under H7B Limited, with Victoria Beckham listed as director. Trademark applications filed in October 2025 span cosmetics, jewelry, bags, and clothing.

The detail that matters: Victoria first registered Harper's name for branded products, makeup, toys, clothing, when Harper was five years old. Nine years of IP protection before a single product ships.

The Operator Take:

Kylie launched Lip Kits at 18 and built a billion-dollar brand on the back of her existing audience. Fast, explosive, audience-dependent.

Harper's play is different. Trademarks at five. Company registration before launch. Multi-category IP protection across beauty, fashion, and lifestyle. Then launch into a structure that's already built to scale.

Victoria didn't hand Harper a lipstick line. She built her a company before the first customer ever heard the name HIKU.

If you're a founder thinking about creator partnerships, the question isn't just "who has the audience?" It's who already has the infrastructure to compound.

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