Brand Velocity Group, the private equity firm where Eli Manning is a partner, acquired RCX Sports from Raine Partners. The deal is the first investment of BVG Sports, the firm's new specialty sports vertical.

RCX is the licensing and operating partner for the official youth programs of all six major North American leagues: NFL Flag Jr., NBA Jr., WNBA, MLS Go, NHL Street, and MLB Pitch Hit & Run. The company started in 2019 as Reigning Champs Experiences with just NFL FLAG, founded by former NFL safety Izell Reese.

One month before this deal, Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill to ban some PE firms from youth sports, a response to soaring costs in the travel and club tier. Manning said BVG’s interest in RCX is to bring more scale to their programs and increase inclusivity, he said, “It’s very much more access, keeping the prices low, and just growing this.” (CNBC)

BVG already owns equipment maker SCORE Sports, and they’ve now added league operations and elite athlete investors in Manning, Emmitt Smith, Larry Fitzgerald, and Jameis Winston.

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

Welcome back to Investing Terms I Wish I Knew When I First Started Investing in Startups: And How to Relate Them to Athletes. This week, we are talking stats. Stats seem simple enough, right? They provide a direct view into someone's performance. If one scores a lot of points, has double-digit sacks, or bats a high average, it feels sensible to correlate that with the success of that player. At the end of the day, stats provide some clarity in the opaque world of sports. Even with the highest definition screen, it can be hard to evaluate performance.

Startups feel similar. Often you don't have perfect information before you invest. So what do you look for? Here comes the payoff. Stats! It's the same! Obviously you aren't looking at the sack totals of a B2B SaaS company, but is ARR truly that different? Stats are more often referred to as traction, but like stats, traction can give a small glimpse into how a company is doing.

So what stats should you look for in a startup? Just like sports, some may matter more than others. Sacks usually matter more than tackles, and home runs matter more than base hits. In startups, revenue is king to many investors. How well a company makes money is in a similar vein to how good an athlete is at their primary job.

Here's where it gets more interesting. I have observed that some coaches, GMs, and fans have their own favorite stats. Some may even be more niche. In most sports, the rise of advanced analytics offers fans a chance to dive into efficiency or even situation-specific stats. You may observe the discourse on Reddit or Instagram: two fans arguing over niche stats to prove why a certain player is amazing or stinks. People can choose what to dig into to assess performance.

I find venture investors not too dissimilar. Some care most about growth rate, while others hang their hat on retention. People can choose what to obsess over.

Here's the kicker, though. Can stats give a false sense of confidence? You can watch every snap and still misunderstand a player if a player is producing well.

Stats matter, but they don't always offer the full picture. If you register 10 sacks but go unblocked on 8 of them, are you truly an elite pass rusher? If you grow like crazy but drop customers left and right, are you building a sustainable business?

Here's my advice. Always dig into the stats and begin to learn what performance means to you. Just don't fall head over heels for one piece of information. Most athletes know that it would be unwise to judge someone's whole game by only one or two stats.

We’ve finally got the whole team here in NYC! Stay tuned for more content coming through our Instagram and LinkedIn.

Ripi is a Frozen Stuffed Pasta brand offering four variations with sustainably sourced igredients.

Deron Rippey Jr., the five-star Duke commit and No. 1 ranked point guard in the 2026 class, signed a five-figure cash payment and a sub-1% equity stake that vests over multiple years based on his continued involvement with the business, also able to extend beyond his Duke career.

Ripi is projecting a jump from $350K in revenue in 2025 to $6.5M in 2026, driven by a nationwide Whole Foods rollout that started in January. Rippey is the first athlete the company has ever signed.

This brand story is one example of numerous naturally occurring partnerships with athletes that can offer elite exposure to brands, which can offer equity to athletes with the goal of compounding it throughout the relationship.