NBA star with a net worth of over 100 million starts a business and starts a funeral business

There is a saying in the North American venture capital circle: "I don't know what the hottest trend is now, just look at the investment of NBA players."

Holding a lot of wealth, NBA players will always attract a group of financial experts to help them manage their business.

But as retired player Jeff Teague said in the podcast, whether these think tanks can make money is secondary. Their work goal is to find some investment projects that look very "fashionable" and make the stars willing to pay commissions - from the mobile Internet 10 years ago to the virtual currency trend 5 years ago, NBA players are present.

At present, the most fashionable investment direction is AI.

In the past year, AI has become a high-frequency word in the NBA investment landscape. Antetokounmpo joins hands with American women's football legend Alex Morgan to focus on AI sports content company Scoreplay; Durant and Ron Conway, a famous Silicon Valley angel investor, have invested in several AI companies at the same time; even the NBA league has cooperated with mobile AI development company NEXTeam by investing in the form of a stake, relying on its HomeCourt application to evaluate players' skill development through artificial intelligence technology.

While everyone was still revolving around "AI+Sports", an unexpected project appeared -

Recently, Nuggets player Russell Westbrook, who is still in the playoffs, suddenly announced that the social media had officially announced the establishment of an AI funeral service platform called "Eazewell". The partners include his teammate and close friend Donnell Beverly Jr. in high school, and former NBA player Kemba Walker.

According to the information disclosed by the platform, Eazewell's main business is to use artificial intelligence technology to help users simplify the funeral process and customize one-stop funeral services based on user budgets and preferences.

Yes, several basketball players started their own businesses and started their funerals. So, how did this demand come from society?

Under the cumbersome "bill" system in the United States, the cancellation process after the death of a relative is often a complex and trivial task. In addition to canceling bank and personal information accounts, it is usually necessary to manually cancel various services such as insurance, water, electricity, telephone, etc. Eazewell's original intention is to help families with such needs solve these problems with one click.

"When you just lost the important person in your life, you should not be tortured by such trivial matters." In the announcement, Westbrook said this.

It is reported that Eazewell currently has 11 employees and has been open to users for free after providing services to more than 1,000 families during the internal testing phase, without advertisements. At this stage, its main revenue model is to share revenue with cooperative service institutions, and is actively negotiating more cooperation possibilities with financial and life insurance companies.

However, after its official release, Eazewell did not win much applause - some investors believe that its business model is not mature enough and the industry ceiling is relatively low, so it is destined to be a niche experimental project.

So, why would a star with a net worth of nearly $1 billion want to invest in such a not-sexy industry?

In fact, Westbrook's idea of ​​Eazewell did not come from a certain trend or business report, but an emotion and experience hidden in his heart for many years.

NBA players are all "Jordan" in their own story, but in Westbrook's growth trajectory, the name "Jordan" is Khelcey Barrs III.

When just arrived in Lusinger High School, Westbrook, who was less than 175cm tall, was just a player at the end of the bench in the school team, and his good friend Bals was the team's first choice.

At that time, Balls was 201cm tall and had technical characteristics ahead of that era. He was as famous as Kevin Durant and Gerald Green. He was regarded as one of the most promising high school students in the United States. It’s just that God is jealous of talent. In May 2004, during an external exchange training, Balls fell on the court forever. The report given by the hospital said that the cause of death was congenital hypertrophy.

According to their mutual friend's recollection, before Balls' death, Westbrook was always the image of a small follower around him, but after the tragedy, he began to strictly demand himself with high standards that were different from ordinary people: he was the first to go to the arena and the last to leave every day, not only carried all his friends' unfinished basketball dreams on his shoulders, but also went to his friends' homes after school to chat with her grandmother to relieve boredom.

chose to join UCLA in college because it was his and Balls' shared dream.

After appearing on the NBA stage, Westbrook not only mentioned Balls's excellence and his personal important influence in public, but also wore a bracelet with the words "RIPKB3" written on it before walking on the arena every night.

As Westbrook's teammate in high school, Beverly Jr. naturally experienced the same pain as him. But what's more, a few years after Balls' death, Beverly's parents both passed away.

"These experiences have made me deeply understand the lack of funeral resources in society and the continuous harm it has brought to the relevant families. We want to change this," said Beverly Jr.

Westbrook's expression is more direct, "Compared to spending a lot of time and energy to deal with the procedures after losing a loved one, I hope to be able to accompany and comfort my family. Founding Eazewell is to make people no longer have to experience those pains."

Eazewell may not be the kind of project that has flooded the venture capital sector, nor can it achieve significant business success, but it carries a sincere emotion and a practical response to a social phenomenon.

And this response may really bring comfort to multiple families in the future.

"Life may be completely changed in a moment," Westbrook said when Balls' name was mentioned again at Eazewell's press conference. "You can't choose the moment when things happen, but you can choose how to respond to it."