Content warning: This column mentions alcoholism and domestic violence.
This week's Long Shot column is about Isaiah Kacyvenski, a former NFL linebacker. Kacyvenski played the majority of his career in Seattle, where he captained the Seahawks for three seasons, including their 2006 run to the Super Bowl. Overall, he had a wildly successful NFL career, but the projections for his success weren’t always so first-rate.
Kacyvenskifaced huge adversity in his childhood. His father had alcoholism and exhibited abusive behavior toward his children. Kacyvenski's family struggled through many bouts of homelessness during the early portions of his childhood, and his parents divorced when Kacyvenski was only 9. A few years later, his mother left the family to work as a missionary, and Kacyvenski and his siblings returned to live with their father. Living in upstate New York, Kacyvenski became a star student and the captain of the football team. Right before one of his last games as a senior, his mother was fatally hit by a truck while crossing the street. Kacyvenski was devastated, but chose to play anyway. He has since said that he played one of the best games of his high school career that night.
After high school, Kacyvenski attended Harvard University, where he studied on the pre-med track. It wasn’t until he reached the NFL that he developed a true passion for investing and entrepreneurship, but he credits his academic experiences at Harvard with much of his business success nonetheless. He began investing in small startups with his own money during his NFL career and developed a passion for the process of entrepreneurship through these experiences.
He took the experience he gained from this to try to start a venture capital fund. He began raising funds in 2017 forWill Ventures, which invests in firms "at the intersection of sports and technology." He said in an early Feb. 1episode of "The Game Plan" podcast that the fundraising was one of the hardest things he’s had to do, which certainly says a lot for someone with his background. According to Kacyvenski, the name Will Ventures is an ode to the willpower that helped him overcome the difficulties of his upbringing. Currently, Will Ventures is a thriving venture capitalist fund investing in sports, health and wellness. The firm funds many companies that develop products to help athletes perform at the absolute top of their game. Kacyvenski especially values companies that extend these athletics-focused products to the general public. Because, as Kacyvenski put it in “The Game Plan” episode, “Everyone, not just pro athletes, has the desire to feel good.”
