Cristiano Ronaldo has taken a significant stake in LiveModeTV, the Portuguese arm of Brazilian streaming company LiveMode, which owns CazéTV. The platform will stream 34 matches from the 2026 World Cup for free on YouTube, including every Portugal game, going up directly against Sport TV, which holds the pay-TV rights to all 104 matches.

LiveMode's model is built around offering premium content at no cost on YouTube, generating revenue through advertising and sponsorships rather than subscriptions. In Brazil, that model has already proven itself as CazéTV reached 3.7 billion unique views on YouTube in 2025 alone.

This is also personal timing for Ronaldo. He has confirmed that the 2026 World Cup will be his last tournament for Portugal. His final chapter on the pitch is also the launch moment for his biggest media bet yet.

Ronaldo launched his YouTube channel, UR Cristiano, in 2024, which has since grown to 78.8 million subscribers. LiveModeTV works as a natural extension of that, moving from content creator to live rights holder. The long-term vision goes further than one tournament, with the goal of expanding access for audiences across Latin America and Europe to watch major leagues for free via YouTube.

The 2026 World Cup is the platform's debut moment globally. With Ronaldo's name on the investor list, LiveModeTV guarantee their brand will not go unnoticed.

The GM

Welcome back to Investing Terms I Wish I Knew When I First Started Investing in Startups: And How to Relate Them to Athletes.

Still need a better title huh?

For those of you that didn't read last week, I covered the importance of the Vet mentality in founders.

This week I wanted to continue along the theme of team, specifically roster construction.

One strategy in professional sports is to get all the best people in one place and let them cook. This is pretty easy to see in USA basketball in the Olympics, the Dodgers in MLB, or the Rams during the "F them picks" era.

This can work and the logic seems strong, but it often blows up spectacularly as well. Think of the Mets and the Nets over the last 5 years.

Teams that remain good for years care about how the pieces fit. GMs can't pay everyone. They have to draft, use free agency, and trade. The best GMs see the end result of the puzzle before they have all the pieces. They have a critical understanding of their roster needs and an overall vision. They are still builders. The roster is their business.

Whether they like it or not, founders occupy the GM role. They are responsible for their own roster construction. They must find, assess and recruit talent. They need a critical understanding of what they are missing and how each hire moves them closer to the vision.

A founder may be the star player, but that usually isn't enough. Investors care about who else is on the "field". A study by Stanford GSB professor Ilya Strebulaev, surveying 900 VCs across 650 firms, found the most important factor in investment decisions wasn't the product or the market but the quality of the team.

Let's take a look at a sample framework with some questions for reflection.

Prior exits or early startup success. Have they built or been part of building something before?

Complementary skills. Not everyone needs to score thirty, but they need to own their role. What skills does the founder lack? How do they make up for it?

That secret sauce. What makes this team the absolute best? Every team has to believe they can win a championship. Why is this team the one to solve this?

Asking these questions or having the best team is not the end all be all. How many times have we heard, "The best team didn't win today." Startups fail often, but you give yourself a fighting chance with a thoughtfully constructed roster.

I completely understand Giannis Antetokounmpo's perspective. But I'm conflicted because we work with the "inner circle" around athletes who provide immense value.

Giannis was recently interviewed about wealth protection and mentions the lawyer, financial advisor, and agent of an athlete should not know each other for business and security reasons.

Just like with anything else, it takes one bad apple out of the group for the group to get placed an unfair reputation.

I'd love to hear my network's thoughts about the "trifecta" relationship.

What is not debatable is this generation of athletes have trust issues. And man, I get it.

We're always happy to be a sounding board for athletes, entrepreneurs, and their inner circle. We don't need anything in return, just one conversation at a time to instill trust that people in this industry are in it for the right reasons.

- Noah

Tirios is a real estate investment platform for individuals buying and selling shares of single-family rental homes. The platform sources, acquires, leases, and manages the properties, using AI tools to help identify and underwrite assets at scale.

Founder Sachin Latawa also serves as Principal and CEO of the brand; if you’d like to connect, feel free to reach out.

Why should athletes care?

For athletes, real estate has always been one of the clearest paths to building wealth beyond a playing career. Tirios lowers the barrier to entry by giving athletes a way to invest in real estate without needing to buy, operate, or manage full properties themselves. It also fits a broader shift toward athletes looking for long-term, income-producing assets instead of one-time endorsement checks.