TBPN Live - Jake Paul Thinks We'll Live Forever

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

This is our full conversation with Jake Paul.We discuss Anti Fund's new $100M+ fund, why they're doubling down on AI, defense, robotics, and frontier technology, how Jake Paul built a media empire from Vine to boxing, the future of Most Valuable Promotions and women's boxing, what separates great founders from great celebrities, and why they're betting that the next wave of value creation will come from AI, hardware, energy, and the physical world.TBPN is made possible by:Ramp - https://ramp.comPublic - https://public.comCisco - https://www.cisco.comConsole - https://www.console.comCrowdStrike - https://www.crowdstrike.comFigma - https://www.figma.comMongoDB - https://www.mongodb.comNYSE - https://www.nyse.comRailway - https://railway.comShopify - https://www.shopify.com/Codex - http://openAI.com/codexSign up for TBPN’s daily newsletter at TBPN.comFollow TBPN:https://TBPN.comhttps://x.com/tbpnhttps://open.spotify.com/show/2L6WMqY3GUPCGBD0dX6p00?si=674252d53acf4231https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/technology-brothers/id1772360235https://www.youtube.com/@TBPNLive

We got Jake Paul. He's here. Come sit down. Jeff Wu too. How are you doing? Let's run it. What's up? What's up? What's up? Good to see it. What's up, bro. How are you? Good to meet you. Go. Tell us the news. You raised a bunch of money. Bro, we can smack that gong. 100 million over subscribe. Woo!

There we go. You can do it. Come on. Great to see you. Great to see you. Tell us about the fun. Who do you raise money from? Are you talking to endowments now? Are these your friends? Is it all your money? What's going on there? Are you good?

Yeah, a lot of our own money. We have a 10% maybe even more. It's like 10, 12, 13, 14% GP commit. Cool. Yeah, our lead investors is Aquarian Holdings. So shout out to Rudy and Eric. They've believed in us for a long time. They doubled down into our growth fund.

And it's been a great relationship with them. And then, yeah, just like other people that we know in our network. Yeah. Highlights from the fund so far. Sorry, I was going to say, like, I think going from more just investing our own money, I think we are going more institutional, right? So Aquarian, they manage 27 billion plus as an insurance holding company. So I think we're just proving our sophistication as fiduciaries as investors to be like, hey, endowments, institutions.

We can compound money faster and better than other VCs can for you. How is the strategy changing with the new fund? Is it changing? like number of checks, check size, ownership, all that good stuff. Yes, time has gone on. I think the barbell approach for us has been very successful. I think going big with bigger checks into growth stages in companies that we believe in with the best founders. You know, you don't bet against Palmer, Lucky, Elon, Sam, the big names like that.

And getting to fast DPI, you know, going into Zincar. SpaceX and XAI, working with Jared Burtchall to get into some of those rounds, and then, you know, your liquid very quickly. And so I think that's very attractive and putting bigger checks into companies like that. And then on Venture 1, early stage, you know, and getting in, betting on founders from day one sometimes, and yet taking that more venture approach on that side of things, we've deployed our full venture one. This is our growth one, going into venture two now, raising for that, and then pretty much fully deployed on growth one.

We've been working on it for the past, you know, eight months, getting into a lot of these big companies and actually going into growth two already. And so we've just had tons of great access, and I think that's obviously the key, and just we're hustling and in all the right rooms providing marketing support consultants. and support on that side of things, which a lot of these companies need. That's what we've realized in every room that we go into, whether it's, I mean, I won't say names, but pretty much everyone needs users.

Sure. And so, distribution. You'd be surprised at the level of marketing knowledge that these companies have. It's like day one, very basic. These are the most technical companies in the world, right? But they're not the best at breaking through to grow their users. And so we've just been able to really help on that side of things. And the most basic 30-minute call about marketing is extremely helpful for these companies.

Take us through it. Like, what are you actually talking to a tech company that might have their pitch dialed for investors or engineers? Or even customers once they get them on a call? Customers, but like it's just that whatever story they're telling, it's not resonating with just the normal person. And I feel like you've gone so big with everything that you've done that you've touched every part of America, the world globally. And you can probably offer more feedback and advice on just like how to tell a story as a company that resonates outside of this tiny little, you know, enclave in San Francisco. Yeah, no, correct. I mean, I went from Vine to then it was YouTube, then Facebook popped off, then Snapchat was the thing. thing. Me and my brother were the first people making Snapchat stories, like a full content.

Evan Spiegel invites us out, asking us like how we like the app. What could we change in Venice? And then it went, you know, to all these different platforms, TikTok, real. So it's been however many years, like 14, 15 years of knowing exactly how to talk to the audience and be relatable and grow brands and my own brands from Better W. Anti-Fund, MVP, becoming the biggest boxing company in the last four years. And so I could do it from a personal side, but I also understand it from a corporate side. And I think a lot of the times, you know, these companies raise all this money. They have a big balance sheet. They're printing cash. And they get really corporate with their messaging. And they want to create like a one, two, three.

$4 million commercial. And I think oftentimes that doesn't reach the audience. And so it's actually just a lot of times telling them to be more relatable and to scale down and to tell their story in an easier to understand way. And obviously I'm summarizing and it depends on like what the company is. Right. We've helped companies market, you know, towards engineers because that, you know, there may just an engineering product and so it's like how do we appeal to that side of

things so each cases is different but yeah it's just second nature and I think been pretty helpful I remember the first piece of content you ever created I was born on camera so my and I didn't know that until like two years ago my mom's like look at this footage of you being born I was like oh great you've never shown me this like what do we do mom like you didn't this is a great part of the story the whole influencer era you know yeah about the first time with the first platform that you were on or the first series or the first uh like the first content where you're like okay this is I'm taking this seriously yeah I would

say it was vine so I downloaded vine the first day it came out uh it was promoted through through twitter I was like oh this is super interesting and I just started making videos in like my cafeteria and school and just doing random stuff. I was like the class clown. I loved making videos. Me and my brother had been on YouTube before that, just messing around, cooking up edits with our video camera and posting it on YouTube. So we were naturally kind of like good at making the content.

And when Vine came out, I thought it was super cool. I got to like 40 followers. Everyone in the high school was like, this is hilarious. Your videos are funny. And then me and my brother, got into an argument about like how to film a video and I was like bro I have more followers than

you like shut up 40 sit there and I had like 40 followers and he had like 20 and I mocked him so hard that that's what that's actually what changed everything because the next day he started like putting a ton of effort into his vine videos and I was watching him I was like oh that was really good oh oh he's really doing this and then he got to like 80 followers I was at like 80. And then we just kept on putting more effort. And like two weeks later, one of the videos that we made went viral. And once we tasted that success, we both gained like 5,000 followers.

We were like, oh my gosh, we're famous. Like, this is it. We're the coolest people ever. And once we figured out that recipe of like the level it took to make a viral video, we just kept on cranking that level out. and it just one thing led to another. And once we realized we could make money from it, I got paid like $200 for my first brand deal.

And I was landscaping, I had my own landscaping company, and I was making $10 an hour, and I was like $200 for a six-second video. And I don't have to be in the hot sun. Exactly. And that was the motivation to just take it even more serious. Has the nature of the competition between you and your brother changed? Yeah, I think when we were,

younger it was like very intense and still there and we were just like young and it was actually good because there was no one else to compete with we were the two biggest vloggers in the world and so it was inspiration and competition at the same time and then as we've gotten older we're just like collaborative now and we're on the same team obviously he's a general partner in antifund and we work together on a lot of things. And everything that he does benefits me and vice versa. And so it's like building out a, we're the testosterone Kardashians essentially. It's just like any given day of the week, you got to see one of our faces somewhere.

The Kardashians of testosterone. How do you think about capacity? You've got a great partner and Jeff with Antifun, but, you know, multiple. businesses, it feels like there's always some ceiling. Maybe you haven't found it yet, but yeah, where, what's the limit? Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, every year I've just continued to compound since I was 16 years old. And I think it's just a testament to scale, team, having great partners on all different sides of the business and the best in class. From Gus, the best videographer in the world to Laura and all these people around are just

top notch. And I think that's been a massive part of it. And then just continuing to, you know, see ahead and know where the ball is going. I think that's one of my best attributes is, is being a visionary and being able to pivot, move, change, adapt, and continue to grow my career that way, but again, I think it just goes back to team and I'm inspired by people like Elon, where it's like, how do you have, you know, four, five, six of the biggest, some of the biggest companies in the world. And obviously he's a machine and I don't stop. I work all the time around the clock and it's like even if I'm doing something fun, I'm filming it to be posted as content. So like it's just non-stop grind for the past, you know, 14 years and I just love hard

work. What's the future of boxing in America? Yeah, that's an interesting category because it's not you're going up against, you know, the biggest, the biggest names, the biggest balance sheets in the world competing over a market that historically hasn't been a monopoly, but maybe is, you know, there are some efforts to try to create a monopoly in that space. Yeah, it's not going to work. You know, I think so many people have tried to take over the sport of boxing, and it's just too diversified, too many sanctioning bodies with the belts, too many fighters and promoters and managers involved.

And it's a sport that is always going to be, you know, scattered across the board. And I think our strategy on that was, was essentially we're the WMBA of boxing because we've cornered a market in women's boxing and believed in Amanda Serrano since day one. And that was really the test case to say, okay, we can make a woman a massive star and take her from making $500 a fight

to $5 million a fight. And no one is pushing women's boxing. They deserve to be pushed. Their fights are arguably more entertaining, especially than Floyd Mayweather for sure. without a doubt. And we saw that and we were like, all right, let's go after women's boxing because it's untapped. And now we have, you know, seven out of the 10 pound for pound best women fighters and 40 overall, some of the best up-and-coming talent. And that's where we found a little

bit of a niche, as well as being the leaders of working with Netflix. I think pay-per-view, there's so much piracy and so many issues with that. And so I was the first one to be like, all right, there was the TV era of boxing, then there was the pay-per-view era, and then I was like, now we're in the streaming era. And so realizing that we had to pivot the business model to be accessible where it's like if you have Netflix or one of these subscriptions you're not going to want you don't care you're gonna you're gonna pay the seven dollars a month or ten dollars a month or whatever it is now and getting distribution that way obviously I'll probably still do pay-per-view fights here and there but we're

definitely moving into the the streaming era of boxing how do you take the Tyson fight broke Netflix right so yeah did right that literally broke the platform for such a the storied engineering team over there for decades. How do you, how have you approached negotiating with, you know, platforms like a Netflix? Like, what does your team look like for that? Yeah, so my business partner and most valuable promotions, Nicky Sivadarian is one of the best negotiators in the world. But he was the CFO at UFC when they sold to Endeavor.

And he helped lead the sale. and was a partner part of their organization for many years. So do you think Dana took that personally? Oh, yeah, that's a whole big part of the beef. It's not just me, it's the fact that, yeah, Nikisa and I have teamed up together. So, yeah, definitely a sore subject for Dana. And, yeah, I think it's just having the relationships and making the right fights at the right moments. And we've also, you know, put on amazing events and have

great relationships with so many fighters. And so we're able to pool together the Ronda Rousees, the Francis Ngannos, the Nate Diaz is, the Mike Perry's, because we've always been fighter first. So people love working with us. We came into the world that was, I say it was like taxi and we're Uber in the fight world. The way we're, we run things like a startup professional treating fighters right we're on time we're pay you know instantly all all these little details production fighter kits helping them instant communication social media tips the list goes on these things are all like super basic to to me and the kesa but in the fighting world it's like fighters will fight and then like not get paid for like a year

and the just like there's so many issues in the sport. So just by running it like a proper SF startup, we've, amongst many other things, but that's why we've been able to become the number one promoter in the sport in four years when a lot of these other people have been doing it for 30, 40, 50 years. I mean, Bob Aram, I don't even know, that guy's like 100 years old. He probably was alive when the T-Rexes were running around. So it's like just these small little changes. or why we've risen to the top. How do you think the results of America 250 are going to impact the UFC?

On one hand, the Gaichi story of coming back from this really brutal knockout a couple years ago to then getting the belt is amazing, but at the same time in the process he took out, a rising global superstar. And so I can make an argument that it's good or bad for the UFC, but I'm wondering how you processed it. Yeah, look, I think the event overall was great and great for fight sports in general. And it was such an entertaining show.

So I think overall, for all of MMA, it's a net positive. And I think it just depends how Aaliyah comes back, right? I mean, I think Connor McGregor has lost so many times, but his brand has, you know, stayed up there because he just keeps on fighting. He keeps on coming back. He keeps on trying. And so I think it's up to Ilya on that one.

But yeah, Justin Gaichi is like overnight superstar legend. And we'll see, you know, how far he can go from here at his older age. But overall. Yeah, what's the mindset of a fighter that's rising, you know, through the ranks? When you have a fight like Ilya just had, you're taking damage that's going to probably stay with you in some capacity forever. Are fighters like pretty acutely aware that at any point you could take a beating that like you makes it a lot harder to come back from?

I'm sure you've gone through. Yeah, look, I think they're definitely aware of it. I think the thing is is that they're just addicted to the sport. and it's really all they know. And they're willing to sacrifice for that thrill and for that entertainment for the love of the game. So I don't think they necessarily care. And you know that going into the sport,

that it's brutal and tough and rough on the body, and it's going to affect your health potentially in the long run. I think people deal with the effects of injuries differently. But to each their own. and I think a lot of fighters know what they're signing up for how did you process the enhanced games I always thought it was dumb yeah brutal day one and why it sounds like a good idea you take something olympics is entertaining you add steroids fuel to the fire like this is joyous it's the best people in the world like you could take something but the best people in the world are the ones who are the most dedicated to it

for 20 years straight. So there's no replicating that 20-year dedication just because... Yeah, you take somebody that's like fifth best in the world, which seems not that far away from number one, and you give them all the PEDs, but the gap between five and gold is actually so big that you can give them, again, give them a horse worth of testosterone, and it's not going to make up the difference.

Yeah, no, and again, I believe that's... what happened. I didn't watch it. I saw some clipouts, but I heard the production was bad and that no one beat any records. And I think there was some, but there was some like people who weren't on PEDs that beat the runners. I don't know. But my fiance is Olympic gold medalist and she was like, if anyone, she just won in Milan and she was like if anyone

tried to like do the enhanced games to beat her like she was like no one's beating me still well what about more broadly health maxing looks maxing peptides do you have a take on the current trend yeah look I think it's amazing right like you see today you know they just launched the new imaging yeah mid journey it's like the The world we're living in is so exciting. And I've told my friends, you know, we were in SF with the Merge Labs guys. And Alex Blania was like, yeah, we're all going to live forever. Like, we're just going to, like, transfer our mind into some robotic body.

And so I think this whole, like, health wave. Do you believe it? Yeah, 1,000%. Yeah, 100%. Do you think that'll be good for the fight game? Because I feel like there's a lot of insane athletes out there that would. be incredible fighters, but they're just not willing to take that level, to make the sacrifice, to take that level of damage. And if we can solve, you know, CTE and, you know, some of these

other things, it could actually make the most violent sports. I don't think so. I think if someone's, like, afraid of getting hit in the first place, they're not going to be a good fighter when, like, even if they transfer into a robotic body. But also, I don't think it'd be entertaining. I think, like, I'm very, you know, long on traditional human sports in terms of a business model because the story is what matters and everyone's on the same playing field. So when you put in like robots and all these perks and extra things and blah, blah, blah, I don't think people will enjoy it as much. What's your timeline to a humanoid being able to beat you in boxing? I'm sure very soon. I mean, bro, if I'm going up against a metal robot, I'd probably lose.

I know, but speed, speed matters. The will, the human spirit. The human spirit. You're longed to overcome. Yeah, I think a computer spirit. Being able to do something on, you know. There's no spirit. They just don't even feel the pain.

It's just like straight up robot. Yeah. It's like I robot in real life. Yeah. It's happening right now. What about on the investing side? How much of your current thinking is like software, only singularity invest in the token path versus stuff like bio health defense tech

hardware robotics all the next gen stuff that's maybe not product market fit not billion dollar ARRs yet but interesting yeah I think it's really both right so we're pretty AI maxis here sure we're in open AI and then going down that stack right so you go down the inference providers like the models and you go to semiconductors were an etched which is an inference basic we just did Helion which is so yeah fusion company so I think in some sense I think that software game is gonna be won by an open AI and tropic SpaceX Google maybe about cognition and some of these like yeah like second power law is being realized yeah because I think there's just so

much capital for just all the compute sure all the models are getting bigger and bigger. So I think, I mean, partly we're here to just visit All Segundo as well right after the show. So I think it is like defense tech, robotics, manufacturing. Energy. I think getting to atoms is more and more important. Yeah, going forward. And then secondly, I think bio-cross AI is also very, very new.

I think we're just texting with Sam Altman. He's like, yeah, we're like, it's still really early. Like, he wasn't like, hey, there's like obvious, like, winners there yet. So I think in terms of finding that next wave, I think that will be robotics, hardware, bio. What about celebrity brands? What's your framework for a successful celebrity brand? Yeah, I mean, I think we're not as excited around those often. I think it has to be like, leave it to me, buddy.

Yeah, exactly. No, seriously. And yeah, I think unless it's like the Kardashians or someone at that level, then it's, you know, very difficult. So we've been way more selective. And then, you know, there's just way more upside on the tech and software side of things versus like CPG. And that's where we're spending our time, right? We're fiduciaries. So at the end of the day, and for our own money.

So at the end of the day, it's like where is time best spent? And that's really how we think about it. I think to me, like, SLEB is just like a solve for distribution. But I think... But it's not a full solve. Because distribution is a flywheel. It's a half-solver distribution, yes. Distribution is not convert a million people over to this one time.

Yes. It's how are you going to continue to grow? And hence, like, I think product is actually most important. I think choosing the right market and the right product is everything. Distribution is just gasoline on that fire. And then I think second, I think Jake is actually very special as a celebrity. Right. Like his story of just like, you know, being a landscape.

right like I think a lot of celebrity folks that we've crossed paths with right they were really good at singing or dancing or playing a ball sport yeah since they're like 13 yeah so they never actually had a like actually like hustle their first brand deal actually think about business tell a story or or they or they or they're well known but they don't have an an owned audience right correct like it's very different like somebody that's posted every single day for you know 15 years to I think that's why like NFL players are very hard to cross over because like one their face is not even recognizable because they're in helmets all the time and then two the NFL owns their distribution right like NFL is their distribution channel they don't have an audience that they're used to speaking towards on a daily basis

so I think the internet generation folks are interesting because they own that distribution and I think I'm lucky to work with Jake because I think Jake has the hybrid of both right like he's mainstreamed on the Netflix platforms as a professional athlete and has a respect of actually being good at a craft and an arts and a sport. Plus he comes with like a, what, like 200 million followers across different channels. So I think that's where it's like, like an experiment for us, where it's like, okay, we have a touch into mainstream, a touch into internet, and I think there's also just like a hardcore capitalism, like heart that we're like, hey, how do we monetize the opportunity set? Are haters a source of strength? We were talking to Alex Carp about this. He says, all the AI leaders have only haters, no fans. And he was saying, I at least have fans. I have a lot of haters, and I have fans. Are haters a source of strength? In the fullness of time, are you glad you

have both fans and haters? Yeah, 100%. You know, I don't think anyone who does good things in this world or big things in this world doesn't have haters. I mean, it's the day one story. And I, I honestly, Honestly, you know, since day one, when I first went viral, the video I was talking about, like, I instantly, yeah, instantly people in my school started hating. So like, I don't even, I don't even remember life without haters. Yeah, your mom, you know, took that video when you were born. I'm sure some of the nurses were like, yeah, this kid. They're like, oh, fuck this guy. Yeah, yeah.

No, you have to have it. And, you know, good news travels fast, bad news travels fast. and the haters actually will talk about you more and say bad things. But at the end of the day, people don't really remember what was said. They just remember your name and your face. And so you could do with that what you want. And, you know, it's really, they're adding to the algorithm at the end of the day. So it's really just math.

And if you just have fans that are saying things, you know, let's say that's 10,000 people, but add 10,000 haters in there and now 20,000 people are at 20,000. talking about you and it just adds to clicks, views, talk, trending. So that's the way I've always looked at it. And yeah, the biggest and best people in the world all are also the most hated. Ferrari Luce has a lot of haters. Will you be getting one? Say it again? The Ferrari Luce. Oh, you electric vehicle from Ferrari? Are you in the market? You got to be careful because if you want any of those Halo cars, you know, this is going to be permanent. I know you might want to F-80 at some point.

I just want you to be really careful. You're right. This is a political answer. No comment. Okay. That shit's ass. No comment. No comment.

Oh, well. That's a lot of fun. Well, thank you so much. What you're coming on, Dan. Yeah, congrats on the new fun. Have fun down in El Cigando. Hopefully give our best to everyone. It's pretty great.

The South Bay, I'm sure you guys are going to be spending a lot of time there post- SpaceX IPO. It's just going to be. more and more action. Let me close out by telling everyone about the New York Stock Exchange. Want to change the world? Raise capital of the New York Stock Exchange. We were off for a couple days.

We'll see you back at 11-A-N-Aid. Next week. Is an IPO like on the... What can happen? We got some ideas of things. We're cooking, dog. We're cooking. Flashbang out.

Leave us five stars on Apple Podcast. Spotify, sign up for a newsletter at TBPN.com. And thank you for tuning in today. Goodbye. Nice.