Before the NBA season, Golden State Warriors assistant general manager Kirk Lacob was named vice president of GSW Sports Ventures and placed in charge of ventures that include continued efforts to develop partnerships for basketball operations and leading investments in sports-related areas.
Lacob, the son of the Warriors’ venture capitalist owner, explained Tuesday how GSW Sports Ventures would capitalize on the team’s Silicon Valley proximity and possibly get into investing in technologies.
“Being in Silicon Valley, we have a lot of advantages over other sports teams or companies, and GSW Sports Ventures is something new, and we’re still kind of figuring out exactly what it’s going to be in the end,” Lacob said in a webinar in partnership with Zoom Video Communications.
“But the idea is that we have an advantage in the Bay Area, and we should take advantage of that. We have companies coming to us all the time, and they want to be associated with our brand or they want us try something out — a new product, new technology they’re developing. And this is our chance to really dig in deep, potentially get some skin in the game on some of these things and be a part of moving this world forward, which I think is really exciting. I think it’s really cool how much people care about basketball, how much they care about the Warriors, and that sort of interest drives us to be able to do some really cool things.
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“I think in the short term, we’re really focused on technologies that can help us on the court, but we’re certainly going to continue to branch out and look at other things that impact the fan experience and kind of everything around the new arena coming up.”
The Warriors have been among the most tech-savvy teams in all of sports and have been saying they are more than just a basketball team. They have implemented technologies for coaches, fans and players alike. In October, they became the first sports team to receive the ENCORE Award from the Stanford Graduate School of Business Alumni Association that recognizes the entrepreneurial spirit of the companies springing up in the Silicon Valley. Previous winners include Google, Apple and Amazon.
“But can we impact the world as much as they can?” Lacob said of the previous winners. “Hopefully. That’s our goal.
“Can we touch more lives than just the Bay Area? Can we have a bigger economic impact?”