Michael Rubin on company strategy
From Fanatics Fest 2025: Celebs, $1M Cash Bag + DJ Khaled vs Eli Manning & Tom Brady! · · HOT 97
“I think the way Fanatics is growing, we have a chance to be a big company or a beloved company. Big companies suck. Beloved companies are exciting. I want to be beloved and we have to do a lot of work to be beloved. And so something like Fanatics Fest is a real give back to fans.”
On , Michael Rubin, CEO & Founder at Fanatics, spoke about company strategy during Fanatics Fest 2025: Celebs, $1M Cash Bag + DJ Khaled vs Eli Manning & Tom Brady! on HOT 97.
About Michael Rubin
Michael Rubin appeared on multiple podcasts in recent months, discussing his business philosophy, his White Party, and criminal justice reform. On the "Burnouts" podcast in early April, he described relationships as "everything in every business" and said he throws only three events per year: Fanatics Fest, the White Party, and a Super Bowl party. He recounted that rapper Meek Mill was sentenced to two to four years for "popping a wheelie on a motorcycle" as a probation violation, which Rubin attributed to a "crazy judge." He noted that Reform Alliance, which he co-founded in 2019, has helped get "more than a million people off probation who shouldn't have been on it." In a separate podcast about scaling a company, Rubin said he "failed up" by selling his earlier company to eBay for $2.4 billion, as he believed it could have been worth "$100 billion." He also described a "$1.5 to $2 billion gamble" on sports betting as his "biggest gamble ever." In the July 2024 episode of "Game Episode," Rubin shared an anecdote about being embarrassed by a New York Post photo that he said made him look like "a fat Shia LaBeouf," and he reposted the image himself. He also discussed his minimal sensitivity to embarrassment, saying he finds it "funny." During a segment on fashion pricing, he estimated the retail value of his own clothing and acknowledged that he "like[s] to waste money."