In Her Words: De Anna Guerreiro, Sports Entrepreneur & Innovator, Sets New Path Following Old Footsteps
Legacy wealth building and financial literacy advocate combines private equity investing acumen and entrepreneurial vision with passion for helping athletes.
Here are two things I’ve learned. First, there's stuff in your DNA you can't run from. It will find you and the opportunity will make its way for you. Second, God has a sense of humor. He basically said to me, “There's a need and an empty seat. I'm throwing you in there, and I'm going to give you the tools to do what you need to do. Get busy.”
It’s In My DNA
My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Tjerck Claessen DeWitt, was a member of one of the Dutch families that came to North America in the 1600s and helped establish Albany, New York. Politics had been the family business for many years when my great-grandfather, (my grandmother’s dad) who was one of seven brothers, told his father that he didn’t think being a politician was very noble and he didn’t want to be in that business. His dad said, “Well, son, if you don't, you're out of the family. You can turn over your property.” When my great-grandfather was about to die, he shared a little bit of that story with my grandma. Otherwise, nobody ever talked about it. That part of our history was lost to us until one of the daughters of one of the last of the seven brothers reached out to my grandmother and said, “Hey, I want to give you our family history.” Now I have that original package that was sent to my grandmother by her cousin.
After I learned about our family history I said to my father, “Do you realize, that I've literally had my hands in just about every business that's been in our family bloodline since the De Witts?” They were traders. I've been in trade. They had fleets of ships. I've been in shipping. They were farmers. My grandfather had a gold mine in Colorado. I was involved raising capital for a shell mine that opened a new path for investing in mining, oil and gas, agriculture, energy, and technology. The original De Witts were settlers and now I’m involved in a new entrepreneurial venture that is also about community development.
A Need
About four years ago, a Chicago Bulls player reached out to me and asked me to mentor him. He had just retired and was working for a private equity firm in Chicago. Athletes get hired at these firms even though they don't understand finance. Through this relationship I realized there's a real gap in financial literacy among professional athletes, and that’s how Athlon Family Office got started. I wanted to teach athletes about three pillars to investing: 1) save for the rainy day. Wealth management provides investment products that protect your money; 2) get on a budget so you don’t go broke and understand how you can use the money; and 3) make direct investments. Investing in companies creates wealth that provides revenue streams for 3 to 10 years in some cases.
At about the same time that I founded Athlon, I was introduced to Milan Mandarić. He used to own Sheffield Wednesday, and he had another soccer club over in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Milan told me he thought I should buy the club in Slovenia. I told him I didn’t know anything about running a soccer club, but he went on to explain how he thought owning a club could be a great platform for the mentoring I do with athletes. He said, “If you did this, it would really launch some things for you, and it would really cause the athletes to pay attention.” I started thinking, “He's right. This could be amazing.” We started going down that path, but we didn't buy Milan’s club. Then we started working on a couple of teams in the UK. We ended up walking away from all those deals because there were a lot of issues to overcome and frankly, for a first deal, you don't want to start out of the gate with big problems. You want to be able to get something that you can manage and grow, and then you can go to the bigger things.
An Empty Seat
Last October, I got a call from Glenn Gronkowski who said, “De Anna, we were just playing pickleball with this guy in Texas who has a soccer team, and he wants us to invest in them.” Glenn and his family are Athlon partners and investors and have done other deals with me, so he asked me to have a look. After an initial call that was supposed to go for an hour but lasted for three, I got back to Glenn and said “We're going to do this Texoma FC deal. What they're trying to build in Texoma is exactly what I want to build with a team.” Plus, one of the partners had been a pro soccer player in the UK and totally understands the culture of soccer, which is really important for American teams.
We spent months doing due diligence and putting things together. There was a developer that we wanted to acquire some land from, so we met with him during the week of Christmas. After sitting there listening to his family story I said, “I don't know why we're buying this land. It seems like this land has been in your family and you've gone to great lengths to keep it. I don't think that we should buy the land. I feel like I'm robbing you of inheritance.” I said, “What you're trying to build is exactly what we want to build. Why don't we just partner up, and I'll bring in the investor and we’ll do the whole project?” So that’s what we’re doing.
We're building a 7,000 seat stadium with an entertainment district. There'll be a parking garage. There's going to be a sports facility. The sports facility is going to support the local junior high and high schools, as well as our soccer team and our training facility. It’s going to be dual use. We will also have single-family and multi-family living and a hotel. There's also a hospital there. It’s 450 acres of development.
I think about the power of athlete voices in a collective. There's safety in numbers, but there's also power in numbers. If you have 200 athletes that are investing in a company, you're pooling all that capital, and you now have a very powerful voice, a very powerful machine. Not to mention, we get our own franchise. Building this kind of athlete investment community is my passion.
When we were working on Ljubljana (soccer team in Slovenia), I was getting on the phone with professional athletes. I remember saying to one of the pros, “You never know. We could end up owning our own football team.” I said it, and I meant it, but I didn't think it was for right now. I thought it was more in the future, many years down the road, because I was thinking how long it would take me to get 200 athletes to invest. But it actually began to take shape very quickly, and I was not expecting that. Sometimes you prophesy your own future.
If you were to go back in time and give some advice to your 25 year old self, what would you tell her?
I would tell my younger self, “Don't get married too early. Just wait and enjoy being single and just build your business.” I mean, our eldest son got married to his college sweetheart and they are perfect for each other. She’s my daughter and I love her. The reason why I would say wait to my younger self is that I made bad choices. I had a lot of insecurity at that age and I had someone I was dating tell me I wasn’t marriage material. I mean I was wild and fun, but he didn’t understand me. I actually am marriage material. I'm very loyal, and I'm a good wife and a good mom. He misjudged me but that comment really jaded me. So at 24, I married the first guy that came along and wanted to marry me.
I would tell my younger self, “Don't be insecure.” Be confident about who you are. Learn who you are so you can learn to be who you need to be in a marriage. If you have insecurities, you're going to make a whole lot of stupid decisions. They're going to cause you a lot of pain and a lot of heartache, and that’s not good for anyone. Know who you are so you can marry the right person. Insecurities can cause you to marry the wrong person. Just ask anyone who's been divorced. They'll tell you that same thing.
Belle Curve Stories is about women navigating life with grit, grace, and growth. What do those three words mean to you?
Being a “Grit Girl” is saying I am courageous, passionate, immoveable, or steadfast. I tell it to you straight (no BS). I’m strong and fearless. As a child I was bullied, which teaches you a lot about standing up for yourself and not being afraid of the bullies. You either ignore their attacks and laugh at them or you back them into a corner by confronting them. Grit doesn’t give someone the right to be overbearing or controlling. It’s toughness with compassion.
Grace knows when it must be kind, compassionate, understanding, full of love and passion towards others. Grace allows humility to take the lead in the conversation, to listen and learn, to deal with conflicts without bias. Grace allows for mistakes and forgives quickly without judgement. Grace persuades, encourages, and influences people around you to rise above their circumstances. It brings peace into storms and speaks to move mountains. Grace and humility are my superpowers, personally.
Grit and grace is a powerful combo for women to create success. With those come growth and expansion in your business, bringing in quality people to help labor in the vision of your company, and personal growth as a human. Growth is equal to prosperity; as your soul prospers so shall you prosper in all you do.
It hasn’t been easy in this business. There were a lot of times I would hang up the phone and I would tell my husband, “They think I'm just a dumb female. They’re saying ‘What does she know?’” If you're going to be in this industry, you have to build relationships. As a female, you already have an uphill battle. It will take you 10 times as long to get there on your own as a female. There’s a trust factor. I love men, and I love working with men. All my mentors have been men.
I always learn from making mistakes — my own and others’ mistakes. I try to bring in people who are smarter than I am who are going to be part of the team that's going to bring amazing credibility and amazing value.
As told to and edited by Teresa Bellock and Sandra Ditore.
De Anna Guerreiro, 56, founder of Athlon Family Office LLC, recognized a need among professional athletes for trusted wealth advice and financial education. Athlon focuses on direct investments, family legacy, athlete financial literacy and mentoring. De Anna has partnered with athletes to develop a powerful sports brand that is “for athletes, by athletes.” Texoma FC is her newest venture.
I loved this story. Thanks for sharing the experience and all of the good advice. I am so impressed by the creative and flexible approach you use to reach your goals and your positive can do attitude. Your take on grit and grace was right on!