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Michael Rubin
CEO & Founder, Fanatics

What Really Happens at Billionaires' Private Parties (Michael Rubin)

🎥 Apr 07, 2026 📺 The Burnouts ⏱ 30m 👁 2659 views
Michael Rubin breaks down the real engine behind his world: relationships. He shares the truth about the White Party and how Fanatics became a $40 billion company. 00:00 Relationships Are Everything 01:25 The Meek Mill Story That Changed His Life 05:19 Why He Started Reform Alliance 06:09 Running Philanthropy Like a Business 09:04 The Truth About the White Party 12:41 Sophia’s White Party Fall & Meeting Jay-Z 13:53 The Only 3 Events He Throws Each Year 15:19 How He Learns by Talking to People 17:16 Spotting Young Talent Before Everyone Else 17:54 Dyslexia, Learning Disabilities & Starting You...
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About Michael Rubin

Michael Rubin, CEO and founder of Fanatics, has been promoting the third annual Fanatics Fest, scheduled for July 16–19, 2026, at the Javits Center in New York City. In interviews, he described the event as a way to bring together fans, athletes, and celebrities, and noted that it will host the FIFA World Cup final press conference and a watch party. Rubin said the Knicks' 2026 NBA championship generated nearly $100 million in e-commerce sales for Fanatics, which he called the single biggest championship sales period in the company's history. He also discussed Fanatics' trading card business, stating that the company entered the market in January 2022 because he believed existing licensees were "complacent, fat and happy, not innovative, not marketing." Rubin participated in a panel at Fanatics Fest with artist George Condo, Tom Brady, and Karl-Anthony Towns, where he called Condo his "number one favorite artist" and discussed a collaboration in which Condo created 19 one-of-one hand-painted trading cards to be released in Topps products. In a separate interview, Rubin said he does not view his business relationships with Black artists and athletes as "black culture" but rather as "doing the right thing," and cited learning from figures such as Jay-Z and Travis Scott. He also addressed his approach to business, saying relationships are "so important" during tough times and that he gravitates toward what he is good at, noting he was a poor student and received a 780 combined SAT score.

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Michael Rubin's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (91 segments)
I
Interviewer0:00
People have called you the Great Gatsby of business. We've gotten a ton of comments on the white party. How did you decide to start doing that?
M
Michael Rubin0:07
Everyone who comes to that party knows they're going to meet people around them that are really good for them in business. You have the most important people in culture coming together and we've got multiple marriages.
I
Interviewer0:15
No way. Who?
M
Michael Rubin0:15
I'm trying to think what I can say and what I can't say. People think, 'Oh, it's Michael Rubin, Fanatics. He's built this company worth $40 billion. Like, oh, it's easy, man. We grind every day.' People said like, 'Michael, you have no chance.'
I
Interviewer0:24
If you lost everything today and you were rebuilding from scratch, what would you do first? Hi, I'm Michael Rubin and welcome to the Burnouts.
How important do you think relationships are in your business?
M
Michael Rubin0:34
Forget about my business. Relationships are everything in every business. Okay? And people who don't understand that are completely missing it. Let me tell you something. Relationships don't matter during good times. When they matter is during tough times, when you're getting punched in the face, when things aren't going the way you want them to go. So for me, like we all have strengths and weaknesses. One of my strengths is like I have pretty good relationships and I build these authentic relationships over a long period of time. So when guys like you call me and say, 'Hey, come on do my podcast.' Here I am. Might have taken us a year to get here, but we're still here. So I think relationships are undervalued by most people. I think people don't understand like again, if things are going great, you don't need a good relationship. But shit goes wrong all the time. Every day for us, shit goes wrong. Like people think, oh, you know, it's Michael Rubin's Fanatics. He's built this company worth, you know, 30 or 40 billion. He's got 13 billion in revenue, 22,000 employees. It's like, 'Oh, it's easy, man. We grind every day. We do this shit 18, 19, 20 hours a day.' I got 22,000 people that wake up saying, 'How do we relentlessly enhance the fan experience?' We go to bed thinking the same thing. Without the relationships of the biggest stars in the world, the sports properties, and most importantly, sports fans, we got nothing.
I
Interviewer1:39
And tell us about some of the obviously we have been witness to seeing the way that you work with like Meek Mill and some of these amazing people and especially the work that you've now done with Reform. Tell us a little bit more about that and how did those relationships start?
M
Michael Rubin1:50
You know, the most interesting thing, and you guys probably know the Meek story. Whenever someone would ask me to help with a charity before, I was the greatest person to ask because I would just want to give away money to have them not to like finish the conversation as quickly as possible. Someone said, 'Hey, Michael, I'm doing this thing. Can you come?' Let me just write you a check. No, I can't. No, you can't honor me. No, you can't do this. No, but I'm happy to write you a check. Okay? And I was always a pretty charitable person financially, but I never put my time into it. The thing with Meek that changed my life and changed his life was, as everyone knows, Meek got sent to prison for two to four years for popping a wheelie on a motorcycle for the most simple probation violation because she had a crazy judge who was power hungry who wanted to control him. And she sent him to prison for two to four years for literally getting a ticket for popping a wheelie on a motorcycle. What changed my life and what changed Meek's life is he said to me, call me on Friday. He's like, 'Yo, Rub, can you come to court with me on Monday?' I'm like, 'For what?' He's like, 'You remember I told you that probation hearing?' He's like, 'I really want you to see what happens when a black person goes to court.' I'm like, 'Do you really want me to come?' And like, he had always told me all these stories and like you hear them, but you don't fully appreciate it. To be honest, I think it's hard to believe because they seem so unbelievable. So, do you really want me to come? He was like, 'Yeah.' I'm like, 'No problem.' I live 20 minutes away. I think the court hearing was like at maybe 1:00. I get there and I watched this probation officer get up and said, 'You know, Robert Williams is a model probationer. He's done everything we've ever asked. We suggest no sentencing.' Sits down. The DA gets up and says, 'You know, we agree. We recommend no sentencing.' And the judge starts screaming at the DA and the probation officer in front of me saying, 'You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know the problem he is.' Screams at them. Then they asked me like impromptu, 'Can you get up and speak about your relationship with Meek?' Can I get up? I was really honest. I'm like, 'Look, you know, this is a guy. I've been around my kids, my mom. Like, you know, I love the guy. Is he perfect? Hell no. But I'm not perfect. Does he deserve to go to prison for popping a wheelie on a motorcycle? Nothing makes less sense. He's employing people. He's paying taxes.' And I was like giving this great impassioned speech and like, you know, when someone's paying attention when they're not. I looked at this woman and she didn't hear a word I was saying. She didn't care. She tuned me out. She sent him to jail for two to four years in front of me. That was the most powerless I ever felt in my life. I remember leaving there and I called the now governor of Pennsylvania. He was the attorney general there, Josh Shapiro. I said like, you know, how do we get him out of prison? And then I called the mayor and I called the then governor and like I didn't realize it's pretty hard to get someone out of prison, right? Like there's not just like some powerful person call says, 'Hey, can you get him out?' It doesn't work that way. So, that was a wakeup call for me. And I was so shaken that myself and Jay-Z's partner, Desiree Perez, who runs Roc Nation, the two of us kind of spent the next five and a half months working to get him out of prison. And it was like her mission and my mission. And we talked, you know, 10, 20 times a day. And by the way, there were times you just felt like giving up. You're like, 'Fuck that. I'm not giving up.' And he had a two to four year sentence and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ordered his release five and a half months later. It turned out that the original thing he was arrested for, which is why he was on probation, the cops had made up the story and lied and they all came forward and admitted it was like a scene out of Training Day of the movie. And so ultimately, he got out of prison five and a half months later, but the important thing was the now governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, said to me like, 'Michael, shit always happens for a reason. Like Meek is your special friend. You got to fix this for the everyday person.' And that's how we created the Reform Alliance. Myself, Jay-Z, Robert Kraft, Meek got together and started the Reform Alliance and we've done some pretty powerful work. We started in 2019, got more than a million people off of probation and parole who shouldn't have been on it. Mathematically proven that like a longer sentence actually hurts you, doesn't help you. And by the way, I'm like a really logical person. Like someone goes out and commits a bad crime, they should go to prison. But if someone like pops a wheelie on a motorcycle, they shouldn't get sent back to prison for two to four years. That doesn't make a lot of sense. So, yeah, my passion is business and that's what I love to do, but actually making a difference in this world is really freaking important.
I
Interviewer6:12
Before I met you, one thing I always admire about you is that you said you run your philanthropy like a business. What does that look like on the day-to-day level? Like what KPIs are you holding your team to?
M
Michael Rubin6:22
Yeah, look, I think a lot of charities operate like charities and I think, you know, a lot of governments operate like governments. I think if you want to run a nonprofit, I think you got to run it like a business. So, I think we try to be more effective. I think we try to count every penny. Like, you want to make sure, hey, just because we raised this money, like we went out and you guys have been to the two casino nights we've done and we raised I think like 22 and 24 million each of those two nights, which is incredible how giving people were, but we got to value that money. We got to treat it like it's the money you just raised for your startup. You got to make sure that you're not wasting that money. So, I think a lot of charities don't act that way. So, I think the proof is in the results. You know, we've spent less than 100 million in the seven years we've started this cumulatively and we've got, you know, more than a million people off of probation and parole that shouldn't have been. I'll tell you the best thing I can tell you about running this like a business without giving you the names of the people involved here. It's a great story. So, when we decided to start Reform, someone said, 'We need a goal of how many people we're going to get off of probation and parole.' So, I called somebody who was really smart and they said, 'Michael, you should go with 10,000.' I said, '10,000?' I said, 'There's four at this point there were 4.2 million people on probation and parole. Probably half should be on probation and parole. So, probably the pool's two million, two and a half million.' They said, 'What do you want to go with?' I said, 'A million.' They said, 'How you getting to a million?' I said, 'Half the people I think should get out.' They said, 'Well, what kind of analysis have you done?' And I said, I haven't made up the number. We're going to go for it. By the way, we got a million people out of the system in seven years that shouldn't have been in the system. So, like that's operating like a business. Come up with a bold goal. Go for it and don't take no for an answer. Okay. And so, that's how you operate. And that's how entrepreneurs operate. And again, so many things have gone wrong on that journey. But like we've got it right a lot more than we've got it wrong.
I
Interviewer8:13
You guys have deployed over 100 million. When you think about your legacy, like do you think you'll put billions of dollars into this and like a huge chunk of your net worth?
M
Michael Rubin8:21
I don't think this is one that needs billions of dollars, which is pretty cool. I think what we did here is we fixed the underlying laws. The problem with the laws is that they were so illogical. So, you could have one state like in California we were able to get the laws changed to where you couldn't be on probation for a felony more than two years, for a misdemeanor more than a year. That was logical. In Pennsylvania, Meek had a felony. He was on probation for between the sentence he served and the sentence he left, it was like 20 years. Okay. By the way, you put any of the three of us on probation for 20 years, one of us going to jail one night for sure. Like it's every people make mistakes. That's just life. By the way, you imagine, do you know it's a rule that you can't be around another felon? Okay. Well, guess what? You grew up in a tough neighborhood and a lot of people you grew up with have felonies. So, it's actually illegal just to live with somebody or walk outside the street with somebody. So, the system is made to it's just a broken system. So, we're fixing the underlying system. So, it doesn't need billions of dollars. What it needs is logic.
I
Interviewer9:16
And I want to shift gears a little bit and ask about what I know we've gotten a ton of comments on, which is the white party. How did you decide to start doing that? And why do you think it's become such a huge cultural phenomenon?
M
Michael Rubin9:29
You know, it was a much simpler decision than people would think. I bought a house in the Hamptons in 2020 and literally my buddy Will Mroser, I think you guys have met, is like we should do a fun party in the summertime. And like I had done the Super Bowl party which was like our Super Bowl party had become the most important party of Super Bowl weekend and it gets the athletes that are most important to us, the stars that are most important to us, the owners, the league executives, our business partners. So it brought up all the people that were most important to us. So, it was a really good way for us to bring people together that really benefited our ecosystem. So, when Will said that, I was like, 'Yeah, let's fucking do it.' And, you know, I think one of the things because relationships are so important to me, it was kind of funny because I remember the first year doing it. You're calling people and say, 'Hey, man, I'm doing this.' And we just I don't know how we've been named the White Party. I think we just like whatever. It's the summertime, so it's like you go white. And we just started calling people and say like, 'We're doing this party. We're going to keep it super tight.' And you know, I remember the first year like everyone showed up and for me the capability that I have that a lot of people don't have is that I'm very comfortable to really curate something really tightly and so that everyone knows when they walk into the party, everyone who comes to that party knows they're going to meet people around them that are really good for them in business. I think, you know, for us, the amount of great business things that have come out of that party, the amount of deals that have come out of the party, by the way, marriages and we've got multiple marriages in the party.
I
Interviewer10:53
No way. Who?
M
Michael Rubin10:54
Well, there's been multiple. I'm trying to think what I can say and what I can't say. Let me just tell you, people have met there. Megan Thee Stallion and Klay Thompson met there. Okay, they're not married, but they met there. Which I remember that night distinctly. We could say it, Coco and Don Mitchell met there. Yeah. Mo Bamba and his wife met there. So, like we...
I
Interviewer11:18
That's crazy. We at the same night or different ones?
M
Michael Rubin11:21
Well, there's been four parties. I think it's three strong relationships. By the way, this is just something to think about. So, we've created some great relationships, way more business opportunities than relationships. I'm much better creating the business opportunities than the relationships. But, it's been like look, I love bringing people together. It's a fun thing to do. Obviously, we're doing the big party for Reform that we do every other year. I decide to rotate them. I actually decided at the end of this year that Reform is such a great cause, but we've raised enough money for it now. We're just going to go back to the White Party every year because I actually like giving money. I don't like asking people to give money. So, we're just going to go back to the White Party every year starting this July. But it's a fun party to do. Why is it so look, you have the most important people in culture coming together. And so, I think that makes it super interesting. And I will say it's a little weird when you look outside your house and there's like hundreds of paparazzi, you know, with crazy cameras all outside. But it's like people love the party. It's so fun. It's, you know, it's one night to let loose here. I think people also feel safe there. Like I think the biggest stars in the world know they can come there and feel safe.
I
Interviewer12:19
And we met so many people at the White Party now that I think about it who are investors, advisers, and people were not just I mean it was a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun. But it definitely You're right.
What time did you make it till?
M
Michael Rubin12:30
Maybe like two or three. That's respectable. I think it was a festival.
I
Interviewer12:34
The story I like most about you that I saw actually online because I do I like social media in the morning and when I go to bed was the you falling down the stairs.
M
Michael Rubin12:41
Oh, that was so bad.
I
Interviewer12:43
Yeah, that was at Reform, right? You tripped over yourself.
M
Michael Rubin12:45
Yeah. Wait, so...
I
Interviewer12:46
Do we have any good footage of that?
M
Michael Rubin12:47
I took a video. Yeah, for I was going to say...
I
Interviewer12:51
I wish it was. Yeah. Okay, so basically...
That'll come out each birthday, right?
M
Michael Rubin12:54
For anyone who didn't see it, I was at Reform, which is you have a casino night party. So I was at the casino night party.
I
Interviewer13:01
Yeah, for the Reform charity.
M
Michael Rubin13:02
For the Reform charity. And so there's a gigantic spiral staircase and obviously I'm a little lit. So I'm walking down and I trip. I fall. I tumble down the stairs. So embarrassing. Literally my leg is bleeding. And so I'm dazed and I'm getting up and I think Phoebe is right in front of me. So I'm giving her my hand. And instead it's Jay-Z and he's like, 'Are you okay?' And I was like, 'Oh fuck.' Like this is so embarrassing. And I was like, 'Oh, I'm totally fine.' Right? Like my leg's literally bleeding. I'm very much in pain. But I'm like, 'No, no, no, sir. Don't worry. I'm so fine. Thank you.' And then he was like, 'You're a little embarrassed, aren't you? It's okay. Don't be.' And he was so nice. And I was like, 'That's really nice of you. Like, thank you.' Like, 'No, don't worry.' And then Phoebe's like in the corner horrified. To be fair, my hand was also extended. My hand was not taken, which was hurtful.
I
Interviewer13:46
Well, I was just like, 'I have a concussion.' I think as this is going on, how did you not at least get your camera out for the latter part of the like I understand you missed the fall, but you could have at least got like the highlights. You want us to post a photo of Sophia's like bloody knee like gushing out while talking busy winning blackjack against Tom Brady is what she was doing. What a night actually.
M
Michael Rubin14:06
It's a fun look we look I do three big events a year. I do the White Party which is you know kind of the most intimate, you know, bringing people that are so important to us in one way or different together. I do the Super Bowl festivities which is like look the NFL is our biggest business and you know we have the best party of the weekend there and we bring so many great people together. And then we do Fanatics Fest which is actually for the fans. We're going to have 200,000 fans at Javits. You guys came to that, right?
I
Interviewer14:29
Yeah. Yeah.
M
Michael Rubin14:30
Yeah. Which is And by the way, each like this year is going to be so crazy. Like each year we've done it now, this will be our third time. That's probably the most humbling thing to me is to see every big star coming out, you know, to support their fans, to support Fanatics, to do great things and kind of, you know, have the best relationship they can with the fans. It's so fun. So to me, those are the only three events we do. It's funny. People are like, 'Oh, Michael. Like, you throw so many parties.' I do three parties per year. I do Fanatics Fest for 200,000 fans. I do the White Party and I do Super Bowl and that's it. Those are my parties.
I
Interviewer15:02
You know who else we became friends with because of your parties is the Nater Sisters. And you were friends with them before they even had their...
M
Michael Rubin15:08
Shy crew. Yeah. Very, very introverted, you know, trying to come out of their shell. Just kidding.
I
Interviewer15:13
No. So shy. Well, it's funny because also something that I realized is I met a bunch of these people like years ago like through all these parties and everything and I feel like you have such an eye for up and coming talent. Like I feel like people don't realize the rooms are so curated like it's Kim Kardashians sure all these great people but there's also people who now have become like such rising stars.
M
Michael Rubin15:33
I think that's the way I learn. And so for me know like I still I really can barely read like people don't believe that. I was watching somebody a day or two ago who had a book. They had the Andrew Ross Sorkin's book 1929 that he just wrote and they're like, 'Hey,' I'm like, 'Oh, how's the book?' They're like telling me it was really good. They're like, 'Have you read it?' I'm like, 'I haven't read a book since 9th grade.' Literally, like the last book I read was the unauthorized story of Phil Knight in ninth grade. Okay, that said, I learned differently. I learned by talking to people, by bringing people around me that I can learn from, that I can help. And so, everyone's always like, 'Oh, Michael, you're so gracious. You know, you're trying to help me.' But if I sit with you guys, yeah, I'm going to try to help you in every way I can, but I'm also going to learn from you guys and the things that you're talking about. So that's my process. So for me, I think we are very thoughtful about making sure that everyone that we put into a room at the White Party or at our Super Bowl party is someone that is mutually beneficial for the people there. So when you come to the White Party, I think you could ask the biggest stars in the world or Reform when Jay helped you from your traumatic fall. You know, I think what people would say is they know whoever's there is someone they want to meet because they're a special person. And I do love identifying young talent. That's how I learn. And I can think back to so many people. You know, just give you an example of people who some people love and some people hate. But I remember meeting Jake Paul as a 15-year-old or a 16-year-old. I look at this guy. He was this YouTube star and now he's developing himself as a real boxer. And like I look at that and I look at what a great marketer he is. I look at his brother. I'm like, 'These guys are some of the best marketing celebrities that you think about.' But like we're all always learning from each other and that's you know the same thing with I think all of my relationships.
I
Interviewer17:10
Yeah. Because you've had Alex Earl there, Libby Dunn there. Like you always have had the up and coming people who were of the moment so early in your orbit that it's always been something I thought was really cool.
M
Michael Rubin17:20
And it generally starts very authentically like you know...
I
Interviewer17:23
The D'Amelios.
M
Michael Rubin17:24
Yeah. Yeah. Well, the D'Amelios came from Kylie because Kylie was like Kai K my daughter Kylie was like when she was say 12 or 13 and you know Charlie and Dixie were at the absolute top of the TikTok craziness. Kylie's like, 'Oh, I really like these guys. They're cool.' And their dad, believe it or not, worked for a company that I subsequently bought, Mitchell & Ness. Okay. And so, like, we just all got together and we were all excited to spend time. And but I do like learning from all types of people. And I can tell you often as you get bigger, you can get set in your ways. And what you can be really smart is who's the young disruptor? Who's the person who's going to take out the business model you created? So I love learning from people and I love giving to people and they can learn from me. So I do spend more time like I'm very conversational and it's the way I learn. I mean I was as bad as a student as you could possibly imagine. Definitely the opposite of the two of you. I was and I did have every learning disability. I mean I couldn't read. I did have dyslexia. I had a speech impediment. And I was just generally terrible in school and bored by it. And as much as I talk about how bad of a student I was, I was really that bad of an athlete. Like I just was always the guy get picked last on a team and like just wasn't, you know, didn't have good hand eye coordination. And for me, like I loved working from when I like as long as I can remember, I can remember loving working. So like when I was an eight-year-old, I had like five, you know, side hustles. I was, you know, selling snow shoveling, you know, driveway to driveway and going out hiring kids and paying them, you know, a buck an hour, whatever it was for, you know, 45 years ago and, you know, selling them for 20 bucks a driveway and, you know, I was selling vegetable seeds door to door and making stationery on the computer and like I just love to do that. So, for me, you know, I think you gravitate to what you're good at and that's something I was always good at and really always loved from as long as I can remember. And I've been in business non-stop since I've been, you know, legitimately 11 or 12 years old. So I'm now 53. I think I've been doing this for 41, 42 years as like my obsession.
I
Interviewer19:23
And would you say you're really good at making money?
M
Michael Rubin19:25
I don't like I don't think about it as making I think the way I think about it is I think I'm pretty good at figuring things out and then bringing people together to go after that opportunity. I'm very much like a what really drives me is winning in business. That's the way I compete. So, I think one of the great things about being a business person, one of the more difficult things about being one of the best athletes in the world, eventually when you're an athlete, you have to stop playing. Like, you know, eventually LeBron James will retire. Tom Brady eventually retired. You know, eventually Father Time gets you in sports. In business, you can do this for as long as you're alive. And I like that I can play at the highest level every single day. And for me, that completely drives me. So, yeah, of course. Do I think I'm, you know, pretty good at, you know, creating value? I do. But like what I love about it is, you know, coming up with big ideas, doing shit people tell me is impossible and kind of bringing people together. And like, you know, we were just talking about getting punched in the face. Like I get punched in the face all the time. I fucking love that. That's fun. That's sport.
I
Interviewer20:19
You mentioned your daughter. I'm curious how being a father has changed who you are as an entrepreneur.
M
Michael Rubin20:24
Humbling. I mean, all by all three of my It's funny. We have a deal we're in the middle of doing right now because my three-year-old told me that she, 'Daddy, why don't you have the trading cards for this?' I'm like, 'Fucking right. Why do we not do trading cards?' I call the person we're in the middle of doing the deal. It's going to be very big for. So, you have to learn from everyone around you. Imagine that I have a three-year-old that I'm taking input from into our business. I think you have to listen to consumers. And so, to me, you know, Kylie is obviously like at this point more like my friend than my daughter. She's 20 years old. She's, you know, it's funny at this point, Kylie, like she more hazes me on a daily basis. Dad, like, why are you a fucking Why are you going to bed so early? Why can't you drink as many shots as I can drink? It's more entertaining, but it shows I trained a tough one who likes to give it back to me. Now...
I
Interviewer21:10
What do you think is the biggest thing she's learned from you?
M
Michael Rubin21:12
Work ethic without any question. Yeah. And by the way, that's got good and bad parts, but I'd say what all of my kids know, but particularly Kylie, who you know, I raised, you know, a tremendous amount of her life, she was with me and just moving around with me, moving around, is work ethic. She saw me always grinding from when she woke up to she went in the bed. I'll tell you right now, when I'm in Philadelphia a few days a week, my two little ones who are now 5 and 3, as soon as they wake up, they know to where to go, which is my office. And I'm they get up, one gets up at like 6:00, the other gets up like 6:30, and they run in. And then they do projects, work in my office while I'm working, and they see me working. And so it's like I think I'm teaching them about work ethic as a three and five-year-old and about hustling as a three and five-year-old. And hopefully that translates.
I
Interviewer21:58
And what time do you wake up?
M
Michael Rubin21:59
Um, yesterday I just looked at this my Whoop. I slept four hours and 34 minutes. It was not a good night's sleep. I'm trying. The doctors have told me I'm killing myself that actually sleep is really important. I thought I honestly until a couple years ago thought like sleep was like you're a bitch if you need a lot of sleep. That was my mentality. Okay. And then I realized I'm actually the idiot and I'm stupid. And so the doctors basically said to me like, 'Michael, when you look at all your signs, like you're taking decades off your life.' And so I've now got my sleep up to six hours and three minutes average, which is the hardest thing I've had to ever do.
I
Interviewer22:27
What was it before that?
M
Michael Rubin22:29
Like four and a half. And I'm completely functional and I've slept 4 hours and 34 minutes yesterday. I put on my Whoop. I feel great.
I
Interviewer22:33
And you don't drink coffee.
M
Michael Rubin22:34
Never once in my life.
I
Interviewer22:35
Wow.
M
Michael Rubin22:36
Never once.
I
Interviewer22:37
Okay. So then they tell you that you're killing yourself. You get it up to 6.
M
Michael Rubin22:41
6:03. Killing it.
I
Interviewer22:42
6:03. You're killing it. How do you measure it?
M
Michael Rubin22:44
Whoop, baby. I'm addicted to this thing.
I
Interviewer22:46
Wow.
M
Michael Rubin22:46
I'm firmly addicted to this. It's like I compete with myself every day. And I'll tell you the most demoralizing thing because I love making fun of myself. When I first got the Whoop, I didn't realize they had a Whoop age. And when the Whoop age came out, it told me that I was 7.3 years older than my actual age. And then you can go unpack it and why it was sleep was the biggest thing was by far and away number one. And then my heart rate was too high because I'm like so hyperactive. I'm like, now I'm actually working on my breathing in the night when I go to bed and I'm actually sleeping more. So I'm now down to three years older than I was. By the end of this year, I'm going to be younger than my actual age. I'm going to beat the Whoop to death.
I
Interviewer23:27
Wait. And you were also so open about taking GLP-1s. You dressed up Wait, what did you dress up as for Halloween?
M
Michael Rubin23:32
Yeah. Will and I dressed up as giant shots of Mounjaro. We loved it. Like I don't people take themselves too seriously. Like it's kind of I was talking to somebody last night. They're like, 'Man, you I as a joke with these two idiots over here that allowed me to do it.' Two or three years ago. Yeah. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Two or three years ago, we were at Baseball All-Star and they gave me the pitch and I took some pitches and I was trying to throw as fast as I could and the pitches, most of them were terrible. But I said, 'Get the worst pitches and let's put them on social media.' Why? Because I want to show that you could take I could suck in school. I could suck in sports. Look what I could do in business. Okay. Now, of course, the internet wants to twist it around, but I don't care. I think it's funny. Every month that reel comes back out. How's this guy running one of the most important sports companies in the world if you can't throw a baseball pitch? I post the worst pitches purposely to make a point, but you also have to not take yourself seriously. So, I remember being on CNBC and Andrew Ross Sorkin's like, 'Man, you look great.' I'm like, 'Yeah, because I take Mounjaro. Like, how else you think I look that good?' He's like, 'Wait, you're admitting that?' I'm like, 'Do you think I was 30 pounds fat for my entire life and then suddenly I come in here and I'm 30 pounds lighter? What do you think it is?' And he's like, 'You're the first CEO to admit to being on Mounjaro.' I'm like everyone who was fat who got skinny took Mounjaro. Promise start with that. It's like 1% that actually did it the hard way. Mounjaro is like the greatest drug in the world. Like I used to be 206 pounds. Now I'm 165 pounds. I feel great. Like thank you Mounjaro.
I
Interviewer25:01
They should pay you. I mean this is...
M
Michael Rubin25:03
I'm going to tell you one thing. If someone came to me four years ago and said, 'Michael, give me half of everything you have to make you 165 pounds.' I was like, 'Please take it.'
I
Interviewer25:14
Okay. Mounjaro. It wasn't half. It was a pretty good transaction. How has it changed your life?
M
Michael Rubin25:19
Oh, you just feel better. I mean, listen, I'm working my I'm working 18 hours a day, every day of the week, seven days a week, most weeks of the year. Like, you need to feel good. I feel better. Yeah. I got two little kids, you know, they have no mercy on you. So it's like it just I feel so much better. I see so many people I am literally a pusher of Mounjaro. I've got hundreds of people on Mounjaro. You need to invest in them.
I
Interviewer25:47
The the Mounjaro thing was I called my family office when it came out. I'm like, 'Guys, there's two drugs, Ozempic and Mounjaro. We got to buy the companies.' They came back, they're like, 'Well, one's worth like 75 billion. One's worth it was Eli Lilly. Eli Lilly was one company and the Novo Nordisk was the other company.' We're like, they're like 150 billion, 75 billion. I'm like, 'Well, let's just buy the stocks.' They're like, 'Yeah, it's already priced in. The stocks are like quadruple and stocks have been amazing in the last couple years. They are both great drugs.'
Okay. Wow. I love it.
M
Michael Rubin26:20
Neither one of you guys need it. So, it's not relevant for the two of you. It was very relevant for me.
I
Interviewer26:24
And I'm curious also for you in terms of like if you lost everything today and you were rebuilding from scratch, like what do you think are the most important things you would do?
M
Michael Rubin26:32
So, let me first tell you that would be fun. Okay. And if you're a real entrepreneur, you know exactly what I'm saying. Okay. If you're in it for the action because you love to play the game every day, that would be fun. I say all the time, if what do you you said 20...
I
Interviewer26:47
24.
M
Michael Rubin26:48
I say this to people all the time. I have so many people give me the dumbest response. I ask people all the time to people who are really well off. If you could if you had to give up all of your money to be 10 years younger, would you do it? People like hell. Most people say to me, hell no. I would do that in one second. If you told me I could be 43 and take everything I have and I would love doing it again, it'd be fun.
I
Interviewer27:13
I had braces when I was 13. So...
M
Michael Rubin27:15
Oh, but you Yeah, you're too young to understand this. You're too young to understand this.
I
Interviewer27:19
I don't need to go back to the math team days. I don't know about that.
M
Michael Rubin27:22
But for me, like listen, you only have so many years. You don't think about this when you're 23 or 24. When you're 53, you're like, 'Okay, well, even with advanced medicine, can I live to 100? Can I live to 90? By the way, I want to live healthy.' So you're like, time is the most precious asset that we have. And so for me, the idea of doing it all over again, I like that. I'm turned on by that. That's fun for me. That's like why I play the game. So, think about how I reinvented Fanatics just in the last five years. I started the sports betting, iGaming business, started the collectibles business, created Fanatics Fest, now we're starting a Fanatics credit card. Like, to me if you're a good thinker and you're good at getting great people around you, you can do amazing things. And so, that doesn't scare me at all. It actually gets me excited.
I
Interviewer28:04
And what would you do first?
M
Michael Rubin28:06
I just get up and go grind. I figure the shit out.
I
Interviewer28:09
That ain't hard.
True. But I'm curious like for a business, what do you think are the most important decisions you need to make early on?
M
Michael Rubin28:16
Well, without question, it's getting the strategy right. Like so many people have bad strategies. Like if you're like, hey, I'm inventing this great product, but there's not a good business model. It could be a good product, but it's not a good business. You got to create a great product or great business that's also a good business model. Then you got to get the right people. So to me, it's really that simple. If I want to create a great business, I need to think about is this idea, can we make this better for who it impacts? Is this a good business? Is it good for everybody? How can I disrupt? And then how do I get the right people to do that? If you figure out the strategy and you marry with the right people, you got a good chance of killing it.
I
Interviewer28:48
And what do you think are the reasons why all these incredible top performers, I mean, I love Jessica Jackson and she is absolutely dedicated to perform. She lives and breathes it. How do you think you make these people so inspired to love working with you?
M
Michael Rubin29:02
Well, I think someone like Jessica is so inspired by the mission. I don't think it's me at all. You know, I think where I probably have more of an impact would be at Fanatics. I'd say I think what people see is we have a like we work. It's funny from the outside looking in, you know, there's a lot of admiration for what we've built, but then there's also the things that we all want to do better. I think from the inside looking out, you have so many people that are just like they truly believe in our brand purpose, which is how do we relentlessly enhance the fan experience and how do we wake up and go to bed incredibly passionate about that every day. I think communication is really important. You got to talk to people. You got to sell people on what you're doing. You got to keep people excited. We do I do a meeting with all of our employees every quarter. Okay? And I love doing that because you can get people, you know, super aware of everything that's going on, by the way. And we talk about our L's, our punches in the face, the shit that went wrong, how can we be better. We start by we do this great hype video every quarter, all the shit that went right. But during that meeting, we're always here's where we need to be better, here's what didn't go well. Like you got to just be it's like great communication as well.
I
Interviewer30:04
Michael, thank you so much for coming on the Burnouts today. We learned so much from you. We are so grateful to have you as an investor in FIA and we can't wait to see what you do next.
M
Michael Rubin30:12
Honored to be with you guys. Look forward to watching you guys kill it for many decades to come. Look forward to learning from you guys and always love having you guys.