The three-time Super Bowl champ discusses progressing as an entrepreneur, balancing family life, investing in women’s sports, advice from Travis Kelce, and more with Boardroom.
Patrick Mahomes is the best player in America’s most popular sport. You don’t become that while settling for anything less than excellence in anything you do.
That’s why on a late mid-May afternoon following voluntary team workouts, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback is on a Zoom call touting his latest entrepreneurial pursuit. The 28-year-old winner of three Super Bowl MVPs and two NFL MVPs unveiled his latest venture last week as lead investor in Throne Sport Coffee, taking a hands-on role in testing the four iced coffee flavors and attending key meetings for months last season. Along with former BodyArmor executive Michael Fedele, Mahomes believes Throne’s mix of electrolytes and vitamins will set it apart in a crowded, hyper-competitive industry.
Mahomes has come a long way from earlier in his career when he famously slathered ketchup, his beloved condiment, on steak in a Hunt’s commercial. Since then, he’s progressed to purchasing equity stakes in the Kansas City Royals, Kansas City Current, and Sporting Kansas City alongside his wife Brittany to investments in the Alpine Formula 1 team, Whoop, Whataburger, Hyperice, Miami Pickleball Club, and many others. Mahomes’ long list of endorsements includes Adidas, BOSS, Coors Light, Head & Shoulders, Oakley, Prime Hydration, State Farm, Subway, and T-Mobile.
Over the last few years alone, Mahomes has set himself up to be a major power player in sports and business long after his on-field career is over.
“I think it all comes with education,” Mahomes told Boardroom, describing his entrepreneurial progression. “I’ve learned from things I’ve done in the past, finding the positives and negatives and learning from people that I have around me, and then trying to be better in the next investment or product I endorse.”
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The son of former MLB pitcher Pat Mahomes, Patrick credits his godfather, LaTroy Hawkins — Pat’s former Minnesota Twins teammate who played 21 MLB seasons and now works in the Twins’ front office— with mentoring and educating him on how to be a professional and how to handle his finances to ensure long-term success.
Mahomes said he grew up in the locker room, experiencing firsthand how important saving money would be throughout his career. He didn’t even buy a car until his second contract, taking a local marketing deal that came with a free vehicle not long after he was selected 10th overall in the 2017 Draft out of Texas Tech.
That contract, a record-breaking 10-year, $450 million deal signed in 2020 that included nearly $142 million in guarantees, finally gave him enough financial security to purchase a ride of his own. However, due to privacy concerns as Kansas City’s most popular resident, Mahomes didn’t want to disclose what car he bought.
“It was an expensive one,” he said. “I know that.”
Mahomes now surrounds himself with a trusted team led by 1Up Sports Marketing and Equity Sports who continue feeding him knowledge on a daily basis to maintain and grow his portfolio. He also said Fedele is generous in giving him advice on how to continue investing throughout his career.
In going into business with Mahomes, Fedele immediately noticed his genuine passion for coffee and that he educated himself through numerous product iterations.
“He gets involved with brands that he genuinely believes in and that’s incredibly important,” Fedele told Boardroom. “Beyond that, he’s a great collaborator and a great person. You should see some of the back-and-forth text exchanges, jokes, videos, and photos. We feed off each other’s energy. He’s an amazing leader. Obviously, what he’s been able to do on the field is unprecedented, but he brings that same energy to everything we do when we’re talking about Throne Sport Coffee. That’s his winner’s mentality.”
That winner’s mentality includes restructuring his contract back in March, the second of his career, freeing up more than $20 million in salary cap space to help the Chiefs pursue their third straight Super Bowl. Do all these investments and endorsements he’s accrued and developed over the years make it an easier decision for Mahomes to restructure?
“One hundred percent,” he said. “Being able to be in those meetings and negotiations helps me have an understanding for the business side of things.”
That understanding, knowledge, and education have even come from his teammate and close friend Travis Kelce, a co-investor in Alpine and co-star in State Farm commercials. Mahomes said Kelce is “someone who’s expanded his role from off the football field to the status that he has now, including investments.”
The best piece of business advice Kelce‘s given Mahomes is to always be open-minded.
“He does a great job of listening to every opportunity and then making the right decisions for himself,” Mahomes said. “I always joke around that he puts on this persona that he’s this guy that just likes to party, go out, and have fun. But when he comes down to it, man, he’s a very smart dude that has done a lot of great things with his career on and off the field. That’s why he’s in the place that he’s at now.”
Mahomes was lucky to have his dad around even during his playing days, a luxury many children of athletes don’t have. It’s something he carries over to his playing career with his two kids, relying on Brittany to be the head of the household, which in turn allows Mahomes to perform his best on the field.
But Brittany also plays an active role in Mahomes’ equity stakes in sports, most notably NWSL‘s Current. Speaking at the Time 100 gala earlier this month, celebrating the year’s most influential global figures, Mahomes toasted a new era in sports in which women’s sports were finally getting the attention they deserve.
In March, the Current opened CPKC Stadium, an 11,500-seat venue that’s the first built specifically for women’s soccer. Mahomes seemed proud of helping provide one of the best soccer facilities out there for any team, men or women, helping provide the Current with the resources they need to succeed.
“What you’ve seen all across women’s sports now is the more you invest in women, the more that they give back and come out with this great product every single day, selling out stadiums,” Mahomes said. “You’re seeing that now in the WNBA and women’s college basketball. So it’s just about more investment and continuing to shine a light on the great things they do every single day. And one of these days maybe we can get a WNBA team in Kansas City and continue to grow this city with women’s sports.”
And for the record, if a WNBA team were ever to come to Kansas City, Mahomes said he’d definitely want to be at the front of the line among potential owners.
At 28 years old in the modern NFL, Mahomes can play quarterback at an elite level seemingly for as long as he wants, making an absurd amount of money in the process. It seems like a foolish question to ask whether he thinks about what his post-career life will look like, but Mahomes said you have to think about life after football, in a sense.
Partnering with people like Fedele throughout your career will help you when you’re done playing. Investing in companies Mahomes believes in that are substantial and sustainable over time, like Throne Sport Coffee, will set him up for success later in life.
For players who want to set themselves up for a lucrative life after their careers are over, Mahomes suggests surrounding yourself with the right people, doing whatever you can to invest in people and products that you believe in, and saving your money. Even with the $450 million contract, the investments, and endorsements, Mahomes said he still tries to save money like he did at the beginning of his career.
“I’m trying to provide for not only myself now but my kids and then their families as well,” he said. “So, you’ve got to save your money and invest in good people like Michael and Throne Sport Coffee, and hopefully, that money can multiply.”
As he looks to become the best NFL player to ever live, Mahomes is deadset on being a tycoon off the field as well. Not even 30 years old, Mahomes has set himself up to be in prime position to be an elite businessman long after his playing career is complete.
Even though he’s accomplished so much at such a young age, in many ways, it seems like Patrick Mahomes is just getting started.
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