Dave Portnoy GOES OFF On Bitcoin, AI, Socialism & Being Fired From Barstool

Summary

The Pomp Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Dave Portnoy GOES OFF On Bitcoin, AI, Socialism & Being Fired From Barstool
Host: Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano
Guest: Dave Portnoy, Founder of Barstool Sports
Release Date: June 30, 2026

---

Episode Overview

This episode features a candid and wide-ranging interview with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. Portnoy opens up about his tumultuous journey through the sale, loss, and reacquisition of his company, his headline-making controversies, evolving views on Bitcoin and AI, media hit jobs, and the unapologetically brash style that’s defined both his success and public persona. The discussion is as much about resilience and irreverence as it is about business, finance, and culture, with Portnoy offering unfiltered takes and behind-the-scenes stories from his 20+ years at the helm of Barstool.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Getting Fired from Barstool Sports

• The ESPN/Penn Deal Fallout ([00:56]–[10:09])
  • Portnoy recounts a shocking meeting where Penn’s CEO, Jay Snowden, informs him he must exit Barstool to finalize a $2B, ten-year sportsbook deal with ESPN.
  • ESPN’s condition was: “Dave Portnoy can absolutely not be part of Barstool Sports or this deal.” ([03:29])
  • Portnoy negotiates to buy Barstool back for $1, assuming full financial risk and agreeing to a non-compete/NDA.
  • After the ESPN/Penn deal collapses, Portnoy gets the green light to reveal the truth: “The very first thing I do... What do you think about me telling the truth about ESPN? And he gave me the green light.” ([09:01])

2. Barstool’s Business Model & Creator Development

• Talent Incubation ([25:34]–[26:45])
  • Barstool’s model has been to supercharge unknown creators, turning them into digital media stars (e.g., Big Cat, PFT, Call Her Daddy).
  • “I would put our roster of digital media, new age media stars up against any network really, if you include me.” – Dave Portnoy ([25:34])
  • Describes partnership strategy: “It’s very similar to an athlete in a way... you do two or three years, then depending how big they are, revenue share, renegotiations, etc.” ([26:02])

3. Dealing with Media Attacks and ‘Cancel Culture’

• Business Insider Hit Piece & Public Perception ([30:56]–[32:56])

  • Portnoy calls the Business Insider investigation “the lowest I’ve been” ([30:56]), describing it as a “hit piece” that will haunt his reputation despite being false.
  • “They got away with saying they didn’t accuse me of rape... but the headline’s rape. Like, they said it’s basically reads as rape. Totally made up to me.” ([31:07])
  • He details the trauma of calling his family in advance and his ongoing legal efforts: “There’s no amount of money I wouldn’t pay... because I know it was a hit piece.” ([31:44])

• Portnoy’s Strategy with Journalists ([32:56]–[34:30])

  • He insists on recording interviews with all reporters, having learned from highly edited and misleading segments in earlier years.
  • “Let’s just roll the cameras, no editing, and we’ll just see what happens. I’d never heard anyone say that to a reporter before.” – Joe Pompliano ([32:56])

4. On New York Politics and Socialism

• Possible Mayoral Run and Ideological Divide ([35:01]–[38:34])
  • Portnoy voices concern over the leftward shift in NYC politics: “They’ve let the fox into the hen house... openly saying they hate the country.” ([35:10])
  • Muses about running for mayor as an independent to oppose the current socialist wave: “He’s never gone up against someone who can be like, not so fast, you think you’re good at the Internet. I’m pretty good at the Internet myself.” ([36:37])
  • Admits he’s torn: “Some days I’m like, Dave, you have a great life... why do you want this?” ([37:43])

5. Portnoy’s Finances, Investments, and Bitcoin

• Wealth, Spending, and Philosophy ([38:34]–[39:51])

  • Owns five houses, doesn’t know his monthly spending, and considers real estate a better investment than partying.
  • “If the money is sitting in the stock market or sitting in real estate, to me, that’s...” ([39:38])

• Wild Ride in Bitcoin and Crypto ([45:07]–[48:17])

  • Describes buying $2M in Bitcoin at $11k, panic-selling after not understanding it, then watching it 6x: “I was not happy.” ([45:24])
  • Admits to FOMO trading, meme coin disasters (“SafeMoon”), and losing millions: “I’m always, always, always on the wrong side of bitcoin and crypto. Always.” ([47:10])
  • At one point, had $15M in Bitcoin, but “always in at the wrong time.” ([47:05])

6. AI and The Future of Content

• AI in Media & Content Creation ([40:22]–[42:38])
  • Portnoy shares that he paid $10k for an AI audiobook narration—nearly indistinguishable from his real voice—but publisher rejected it.
  • “I could replace 90% of my staff with AI... The AI was so good, it was scary.” ([40:43])
  • Jokes about AI being too smart for his staff: “We have had a couple employees try to use AI and it... makes them too intelligent... that’s not you because it’s too good.” ([41:36])
  • Worries aloud about the ultimate intelligence of AI: “There's been a lot of movies where the robots become too intelligent. Of course, turn around, kill the humans. That's going to happen with AI.” ([42:23])

---

Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Losing and Reclaiming Barstool

“The only caveat to this deal, which was a done deal, is ESPN said, Dave Portnoy can absolutely not be part of Barstool Sports or this deal. It was stunning.”
— Dave Portnoy ([03:29])

“Sell me back Barstool for a dollar. That's where that mythical dollar... that was my idea.”
— Dave Portnoy ([08:11])

“The very first thing I do... What do you think about me telling the truth about ESPN? And he gave me the green light.”
— Dave Portnoy ([09:01])

On Media Criticism & Cancel Culture

“The Business Insider stuff was the lowest I’ve been probably in the Barstool 20 something years... I knew there are lies and I knew what they were going to write.”
— Dave Portnoy ([31:05])

“Let’s just roll the cameras, no editing, and we’ll just see what happens. I’d never heard anyone say that to a reporter before. That was the funniest shit of all time.”
— Joe Pompliano ([32:56])

On Bitcoin and Investments

“I was not happy. And then I was like, I’ve got to get back in it. Everyone’s talking about this thing... I’m always in at the wrong time.”
— Dave Portnoy ([46:17])

"You know how to get 10 million is you start with 15."
— Joe Pompliano ([47:10])

On Barstool’s Talent & Legacy

“I would put our roster of digital media, new age media stars up against any network really, if you include me.”
— Dave Portnoy ([25:34])

---

Segment Timestamps

• [00:56] – First fired from Barstool by Penn/ESPN
• [08:11] – The $1 reacquisition deal
• [09:01] – The end of the ESPN/Penn deal and ability to tell the story
• [13:43] – Building Barstool and content creation during COVID
• [19:47] – Robinhood/GameStop, running Steve Cohen off Twitter
• [25:34] – Barstool’s business model for creators
• [30:56] – Business Insider hit piece and media trauma
• [35:10] – New York politics, considering a mayoral run
• [38:34] – Portnoy’s finance habits and investment style
• [40:22] – Thoughts on AI and job replacement
• [45:07] – Bitcoin, crypto trading stories
• [49:17] – Barstool classic moments: "Brady 6", "Howitzer Gate", "Teco Texas"
• [55:42] – Book promotion, charitable donations, Barstool Fund recap

---

Notable Closing

Book Promotion:

• Portnoy’s new book Cancel Me If You Can is out, with the first week’s profits going to Lifeline Animal Shelter ([56:29]).
• Portnoy reveals nerves about book sales: “If it’s not on the New York [Times] best sellers list, I... feel pressure with the book.” ([56:06])

---

Final Thoughts

This episode is a quintessential, unvarnished Dave Portnoy performance—by turns hilarious, sharp, defensive, and introspective. For business junkies, media observers, or anyone fascinated by modern digital brands, it’s a crash course on irreverence as a business model, Barstool’s tumultuous ride, the personal cost of notoriety, and the thin line between scandal and comeback.

Transcript

[Joe Pompliano]

This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block. Or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it, ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability various 18 +. When you need to build up your

[Dave Portnoy]

team to handle the growing chaos at

[Joe Pompliano]

work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

[Dave Portnoy]

It gives your job posts the boost

[Joe Pompliano]

it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit@ Indeed.com podcast. That's Indeed.com podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored jobs.

[Dave Portnoy]

I walked out of that meeting, called Renee, my ex. I go, I just got fired from Barstool. I couldn't believe it. And we're changing, it's changing from Barstool Sportsbook to ESPN bet. And they did this gigantic deal. I think it was 10 years, 2 billion is what this deal ended up being. And ESPN would market everything. I talked to Erica, I talked to Dan, and we all kind of regrouped. What do we want to do here?

[Joe Pompliano]

All right, guys, today we got a conversation with Dave Portnoy. He's founder of Barstool Sports and he wrote a great book, Cat cancel me if you can. It is absolutely hilarious. In this conversation, we talk about how he almost got fired from Barstool or he did get fired. We talk about his investments, how much money he's got, how much money he spends on a monthly basis, talk about AI, what stocks he likes, what stocks he doesn't like. Bitcoin. Is he a fan, is he not? How much does he hold? There's incredible amount of detail in here and he does it all in his own style. He just tells you the truth. It's pretty entertaining. Enjoy. Here's my conversation with Dave Portnoy. All right, Dave, you got a new book out. Everyone is worried about all these little anecdotes, but the craziest story to me is that Penn, the company that had bought Barstool, fired you from Barstool Sports. How's that happen?

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, so I thought that would be the number one story in the book. It hasn't been so far, but essentially what happened, And I tell this Story. We're in New York, and I had a great relationship with J. Snowden. Like, we were the CEO of Penn. Yep. CEO of Penn. Like, we. We were lockstep. I trusted him totally. He trusted me. We hadn't met in a bit. He's like, I'll be in New York City. Can. Can you meet me for lunch? Of course. Sure. And hand to God, walking into the restaurant is a little Italian place. No. Empty. I go, this looks like where somebody would get whacked, like in a mob movie. I literally said it to him. To him as we're walking. We sat in the back table in the corner, nobody around, and he starts telling me updates, like, updates on the business. He's like, we are doing a huge deal with espn, which was shocking to me, but great. I didn't know. In my head, I'm like, all right, so is ESPN going to promote Barstool Sportsbook? Are we? Like, what's going on?

[Joe Pompliano]

Because you guys were kind of competitive a little bit in terms of you had a sports book, and ESPN wanted to have a sports book, and now the company was going to essentially do a deal.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, ESPN was. It was basically a hired gun at that point. Like, they could advertise that they may have been advertising DraftKings, FanDuel, whoever. They didn't have a specific company that they're advertising with. We were branded. So when you think Fanduel DraftKings, we had Barstool Sportsbook along those. And we hadn't actually promoted the sportsbook in quite a while because we got this new technology overhaul. So we had waited. I think we skipped an entire football season of doing any promo. The thought being we, once the new technology launched, we would want to put all our marketing weight in and the market share would go up. So don't promote it till we're ready. Market share lower, we promote. Boom, we got the new technology we're promoting, goes up. So I thought that was gonna be what the meeting was about. And he says, we did this big deal with espn. I was, wow, that's crazy. And I asked him some questions. That's great. Is McAfee gonna promote it? Is Scott Van Pelt gonna promote it? He's like, yeah, they're all in. This should be big for us. Okay, great. And then he segued to the next point, which was like, the only caveat to this deal, which was a done deal, is ESPN said, dave Portnoy can absolutely not be part of Barcelona Sports or this deal. It was stunning. I mean, I was stunned. And he continued, I didn't get up. Be like, oh, my God, what are you talking about? I was taken aback, and it takes a lot for me to be taken aback, but I was stunned. And I just kind of sat there. I was processing it. And he continued, and he's like, all your stock options. And when we did the Penn deal, we didn't get paid out immediately. A lot of it was stock, a lot of it vested. All that was going to vest instantly.

[Joe Pompliano]

How much money was it?

[Dave Portnoy]

Tens of millions. It was tens of millions. So I think maybe close to 30 or 40 if I'm going off memory, would have. What I would have had to wait for. I get right away, and I'd be done with Barstow as a way out. And at that time, I certainly was getting a little tired of.

[Joe Pompliano]

How much money do you think you had made from the whole deal before this? A hundred?

[Dave Portnoy]

I think the whole deal I was making about 100, if I recall.

[Joe Pompliano]

So maybe you had made 60 or 70.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, exactly. So.

[Joe Pompliano]

So 30 or 40, though, is very material.

[Dave Portnoy]

Oh, super material. Super material. So he explained this all to me, and I'm listening. And he goes through the deal, and I'd be out of the contract. Everything's vested. And I just kind of listened to it. The deal was already done. So we leave the meeting. And I did say casual, what. What if I don't want to be done? Like, what? He's like, well, this is good. You get to go on your way.

[Joe Pompliano]

He knew.

[Dave Portnoy]

It wasn't like. It wasn't like, I'm so gung ho in the company right now. I walked out of that meeting, called Renee, my ex. I go, I just got fired from Barcelona. I couldn't believe it. He had set up meetings with Erica and Dan. Big cat after me. And same story. Here's what we're doing. And we're so. Everything's Erica's the CEO of Barstool. CEO of Barstool. Dan's our, like, number one guy. And we're changing. It's changing from Barstool Sportsbook to ESPN bet. And they did this gigantic deal. I think it was 10 years, 2 billion is what this deal ended up being. And ESPN would market everything. I talked to Erica, I talked to Dan, and we all kind of regrouped. And you're like, what do we want to do here? And they both were like, we do not want to become ESPN employees. We don't want to work with espn. They wouldn't become employees, but for lack of better words, they kind of would have also. I think we all realize, certainly I did. Most of Barstool would have been fired. Like, no use for them. Like, we have our. Our bullpen of idiots and people have been with us a long time. What are they going to do? They would have probably cut costs because they have this new media behemoth. So came around, talked about it, and it came to the conclusion we weren't going to go along with this. So I called Jay and I'm like, listen, I cannot let ESPN fire me from my own company of 20 years at this point. This isn't going to work. They had already gone down the path. The ESPN deal was pretty much inked with the understanding I want to be part of it. And I pitched him the concept to make this work for you guys to go into your new venture with ESPN and to have us be happy and no problems. Because if we were like, holy cow, we just got fired. This new ESPN deal with Penn is

[Joe Pompliano]

probably dead on arrival because you don't have at that time a legal right to block the deal or to block yourself getting fired.

[Dave Portnoy]

No, they don't.

[Joe Pompliano]

It's more of just like the power of Dave and Barstool. These people on the Internet pissed at us is going to be bad news for our company.

[Dave Portnoy]

Correct. If you're going to ESPN and creating ESPN bet with Penn and you have me in the street saying, hold on, ESPN just fired me from my own company of 20 years, you're gonna go bet with them now? I don't think that would have gone over that. Great.

[Joe Pompliano]

They don't wanna go to war with you.

[Dave Portnoy]

No. And I did have a great relationship with Jay. So I pitched the concept. Sell me back Barstool for a dollar. That's where that mythical dollar everyone's.

[Joe Pompliano]

That was your idea?

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, that was my idea.

[Joe Pompliano]

Where'd you get it from?

[Dave Portnoy]

While we couldn't do it for free because you have to do the transaction,

[Joe Pompliano]

you talked to, like, a lawyer?

[Dave Portnoy]

Well, yeah, we had. We had lawyers involved to do it, but they couldn't just give it to me. You have.

[Joe Pompliano]

I know, but, like, when you first were like, hey, I think I'm gonna pitch him on a dollar. Did the lawyers over there, like, that's a great idea, or they're like, there's no way they're gonna.

[Dave Portnoy]

There was no lawyers at that point. It was Jay and I talking, like, how do we make this work for everybody involved? So it was like, I'll inherit all of our expenses. And there were expenses and all the payroll and everything. I'll Take it over. You got to give me the company back for a buck. And I believe there was till after the super bowl somewhere about six to 12 months. We couldn't compete versus them. Then after that we could go get a contract. So that was the deal we struck and it was really depart good ways with us. Penn. Let them do the thing. I signed a 10 year NDA that said I could never discuss the details of this.

[Joe Pompliano]

That you got fired.

[Dave Portnoy]

That I got fired. That was espn because they didn't want the blowback. Even now, right? Saying ESPN tried to fire Dave. Like what the what? I can say anything.

[Joe Pompliano]

Why are you talking about it now?

[Dave Portnoy]

The beauty of this, I'm finishing my book and the pen. ESPN deal falls apart.

[Joe Pompliano]

It's a brand new book.

[Dave Portnoy]

Cancel me brand new book and I'm right in the last chapter. I didn't ought to finish it, to be honest. I knew it was the perfect ending. But it's like I can't tell it because they had it in. If I tell, if I bash espn, they can come after me for everything. So I knew I couldn't do it. Word comes out the ESPN pen deal is a total disaster. Like we weren't even promoting. We were getting better numbers than espn. So the deal falls apart. The very first thing I do. I didn't talk to Jay in forever. Hey, I just saw this deal fell apart. What do you think about me telling the truth about espn? And he gave me the green light. So that provided the perfect ending to this book.

[Joe Pompliano]

I mean, pretty good dude, if he lets you buy the comedy back for a dollar and he lets you tell a story.

[Dave Portnoy]

And I always got along with him, you know, And I asked him after it was all over, what. Because we always saw eye to eye. I'm like, and espn, I don't know what went on behind their doors. I don't know why they were so. I've always, I've clearly. Maybe not clearly, but I've had, you know, headbutts and disagreements with espn.

[Joe Pompliano]

But is it like, are they like a mortal enemy who deserves like a champagne bottle or is it more of just like it's healthy competition and all is fair and love and war.

[Dave Portnoy]

ESPN has been the best thing that's ever happened to the history of Barstool. They've given us two gifts beyond belief. So I don't look at them as that mortal enemy. They cancel Barstool vantalk and reunited Barstool and put our best talent back. Back together and kind of united. Then they handed me the company Back for a dollar. So I don't look at them like that. We have gone to war, I guess, or exchange words with certain employees of theirs, like Mina Kynes works there, who I absolutely despise and think she is one of the biggest frauds of all time. But why they single? Like, who knows if Barstool with ESPN could have been a successful venture. It was a interesting thing they did to put almost pen in that corner. Like, we'll do the deal, but Dave can't be part of it. It helped us greatly. I asked Jay, I'm like, what made you think you know me as good as anybody at this point? What made you think I would let ESPN fire me for my own company? And he, he, it was a fair answer. He's like, I just thought you were done. Like you had been doing content for so long. He was with me through a lot of the worst parts of basically my life in attacks and things. And he stood by me far more than a lot of other companies would have. So he. I got where he was coming from. Like, hey, let's try espn. Barstool is two steps forward, eight steps back. Because they get attacked by everybody in this legalized gambling world is very difficult. So I got all that. And he just was like, I thought you'd be happy to get the money, go buy your place in Nantucket and disappear.

[Joe Pompliano]

If I, the regulators liked you or

[Dave Portnoy]

no, hated hated you. A couple states you want to go to the Deep south in Louisiana, they may like me. Massachusetts, my home state, despised me. There was like a meeting. I used to watch it online. The Gambling Council. There's one particular lady who was so biased against us, another member actually had to literally stand up and be like, I need an objection to be filed that Barstool is being treated differently than all the other companies we've interviewed because they would go read old articles about me that aren't facts, but treat them as facts. So it was. I, I think I say it in the book. We had a very early discussion when Penn bought us. Do we name the gambling app Barstool Sportsbook or come up with a new name? And it was a discussion around table and. And I argued we keep it. I'm like, we have so much equity in the name. I think it's important. Hindsight probably would have been better off going a different name and pushing people to it because just people have so many opinions about us. And that's fine in my world now. I don't care like, you say whatever you want about me. And if I want to come back at you. I will. Can't do that when you're regulated by the government. Yeah. Like. And that was part of the deal I made with them when we did the deal. It's like, I won't attack government officials. I won't talk on politics as much as I can, because we have to deal with these people. And guess what? One state may be very red where you need a license. The next may be very blue. So you can't win unless you just keep your mouth shut.

[Joe Pompliano]

I think a lot of people are trying to figure out, how did you build this thing? Right. And so I can only talk from my personal experience interacting with you. The first time I think you and I ever met was during COVID You were doing unboxings, you're doing Davey Day Trader. You know, all this stuff.

[Dave Portnoy]

You used to cost me a lot of time getting ready to. You made me have to accept bitcoin

[Joe Pompliano]

for the barstool fund. No, no, before that. Before that, you just randomly DM'd me and said, I'll come on your podcast.

[Dave Portnoy]

Why?

[Joe Pompliano]

I would love to know. Because I didn't ask you to come.

[Dave Portnoy]

There had to be something that somebody

[Joe Pompliano]

tweeted at you, I think. But you. You said, yeah. So I was like, okay, fine. You know, you.

[Dave Portnoy]

You were.

[Joe Pompliano]

That was like your hall of Fame years, I think, of content creation was during COVID Yeah. So we do it. And then afterward, I. We. I think we both had fun.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yep.

[Joe Pompliano]

And then you were like, hey, let's try to figure something out. And so you, Erica, et cetera. We all started talking about stuff. And there's two defining moments that I remember. The first is I was sitting in the office with Erica, and we were talking, and you came in, you had about maybe twice as big of a iced coffee that you were drinking, and you were pacing back and forth, and we were talking about doing barstool, finance and partnership, all this stuff. Right. And one of the things that we kept talking about was, should we invent some kind of game or sport? And I remember we're talking about, like, should we do heads up trading all this stuff. You're just pacing back and forth, and all of a sudden you just start muttering, I don't know, to us or to yourself. They never saw me coming. They never saw me coming.

[Dave Portnoy]

What was I talking about?

[Joe Pompliano]

Wall Street. I look at you and I say, dave, three days ago, you were on tv. You had a cigar in your mouth saying, you're the king of Wall Street. And yesterday, you were pulling scrabble letters out of a bag saying, this is so easy. I'm better than Warren Buffett. And Erica and I both were like, this is electric content. Like, there's no way to beat this. And of course, Wall street doesn't know how to compete with. You know what I mean? Like. Like CNBC can't do this. None of this stuff. And so I don't think any of that was planned. Like, I think the Scrabble bag you probably just grabbed and was like, this will be funny. And then it turns into a thing. Is that, like, how most of the content got created?

[Dave Portnoy]

All of the content? I mean, there. There we. We. We do. We have a lot of people, a lot of talented people, myself included. You try different things, you see what resonates. But, yeah, like, DDTG was massive when it was going. And clearly that was never something I thought that was early days of COVID it was. We just did the deal with Penn. It's supposed to be sports gambling. We signed the deal. The ink's not even dry. One of the all time mostest barstool stories ever is we rang the bell on nasdaq. It was the worst day in the history of nasdaq. Like, we're pupping champagne and the entire board behind you is just bright red. Like, the country is ending, the world is ending. No one knows what's going. Like, clinking champagne bottles to celebrate the sale. But that was. That's how recent, like, the deal was signed. Covid, sports, go away. Good thing you got assigned, really. And I didn't know if they were going to business. Their stock went down to, like $3 or $2. And I wasn't that close with Jay yet. We just did the deal. So I didn't know what was going on, but I knew we were supposed to promote sports gambling. That's why they bought us gone. So it's like, all right, well, the stock market's still going. And I decided to do that a day we had Glenny Balls. Big, fat Glenny. And I'm like, first day, I'm like, glenny, give me a stock. It was around 11:45. He goes, People get hungry at lunch. Shake Shack. So I bought Shake Shack. And we just started watching the stock market, and people were riveted. And I was all through Covid.

[Joe Pompliano]

I mean, to be honest, people do eat lunch, so.

[Dave Portnoy]

They do eat lunch.

[Joe Pompliano]

It was a whole bunch.

[Dave Portnoy]

They do eat lunch. And I think he bought that stock around like, 30. And at one point, it was like triple. So I went live every Morning, the stock market opening bell, closing Bell for about 15, 20 minutes, putting millions, like into it, day trading it. And it took off. And Wall street, at first I think, hey, it's funny, this is cute. We're gonna have fun with them. And then I think they started not liking me as much and every. But I still like, think Wall street is just an insider's game and the biggest casino and the people try to like, you know, gatekeep it.

[Joe Pompliano]

Basically my take on it was they didn't like that you were saying the truth in such a, like crude, transparent way. Because you were like, stocks always go up.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yes, right.

[Joe Pompliano]

And they were like, oh, you're not supposed to say that, right? You're like, no, no. Literally, just look at the chart.

[Dave Portnoy]

Look at the history of the stock market.

[Joe Pompliano]

It just keeps going up. Like, you guys are not smart. It's just the stock market.

[Dave Portnoy]

They had never dealt with an Internet guy. So, you know, I'm saying I'm the new captain of the Internet and Warren Buffett's old. And like, would you Trust like an 80 year old guy to run any business? Why are you listening to him? And there was also one of those moments, those peak moments where I was like, I don't think airlines or cruises are going out of business. So Spirit Airline, which is now out of business, is like a was trading down to like six bucks. Like, I'm going all in on Spirit Airlines. Big whoop dee doo. We fly in this country. No less than 10 minutes later, Warren Buffett's like, I'm selling all my stock in the airlines. So I posed it, me versus Buffett. And Spirit Airlines actually ripped. It went from like 6 to 21 in that span. So I'm like, you follow this idiot now I'm putting on a show.

[Joe Pompliano]

But you were right, though.

[Dave Portnoy]

I mean, I was in that case, I was totally right. But I'm still, I'm talking in barstool language. Well, when you see Dave Portnoy says he's the new cap end of the stock market, Warren Buffett's old and washed up in the Wall Street Journal, it hits a little different. But that's what was happening. I was spoofed on Billions. They like, they had a guy sitting a desk whacking. So that was a whole new audience that that was introduced.

[Joe Pompliano]

But I think a lot of people also started to realize, like, you were essentially a mirror to what was really happening in the market. Like, there was tons of young people coming in all this stuff, right? So, like, in a weird way, maybe you were just like a older version of what was actually happening, but you were the one who was communicating it as directly as possible to the people on the Internet.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah. And GameStop thing happened, and I was dead smack in the middle of it because I'm day trading.

[Joe Pompliano]

And, like, didn't you bully Steve Cohen off the Internet?

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah. Steve Cohen deleted his.

[Joe Pompliano]

Tell that story because I know. I actually know the other side of that story.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah. So the GameStop thing happens, and I'm trying to ride it like everybody else. I was maybe a day or two late, but I'm like, oh, my God, the Wall street bets things going bananas. Roaring Kitty had posted a video about me, like, before this happened. He's like, people are making fun of Davey Day Trader. He's going to the moon. Like, before Roaring Kitty was Roaring Kitty. So I was in the middle of it, and then all of a sudden, you can't buy it. You can only sell it. And the thing craters. And I think I lost 70 grand on it. I'm like, what? What is going on? As was everybody else, mostly novices and a lot of people, actually, who didn't trade stocks, who had heard about it, friends who signed up for accounts and put money into this thing to be totally screwed. Like, totally screwed. Vlad 10 off he. His first interview was with me. I had on ddtg, and I'm grilling him. He's trying to be, like, hipster. He's wearing a Lakers hat. I didn't know half the stuff I was talking about because I wasn't overly fluent. And Steve Cohen, it went through. So that's the way I remember it is it appeared to me that that citadel, Steve Cohen, were trying to bail out all these. The hedge funds, the people who are shorting it. So I was hammering Steve Cohen, who doesn't have the best Wall street reputation. I'm like, did you guys do the inside trade? Are you getting the information from Robinhood? Are you involved in this?

[Joe Pompliano]

He had just, like, gotten on Twitter.

[Dave Portnoy]

He bought the Mets because he bought the Matt.

[Joe Pompliano]

So he got on it. So the side of the story I know is that he basically was like, I'm a talk to the fans. And when this is all going on, he has a bunch of people around him.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yep.

[Joe Pompliano]

Who are like, hey, let us help you. Let us review the tweets. You know, like, kind of doing the thing that you're there to, like, mitigate risk.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yep.

[Joe Pompliano]

Number one is don't let the billionaire tweet directly to the people. And supposedly he was like, nah, I Got it. And he just told everyone, like, leave it alone. And then he did not, I think, realize who he was engaging with.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, he came in, went quick. And who. I've Going back and forth. Like, I've never met him. I've heard stories like, he's somebody. If you want to put down a list of people you don't want to cross, he's generally high on that list. So I don't know if that has complicated things down the road. But, yeah, he deleted it quick. Like his social media.

[Joe Pompliano]

So he deleted the entire account?

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, gone.

[Joe Pompliano]

And what'd you do when that happened?

[Dave Portnoy]

I said, I ran him off. I ran him off Twitter. He's come back. But. And I still ask every once in a while. I mean, the movie Dumb Money, which was about that whole thing. I still don't know how, because we get threats, like takedown requests, all this. The movie Dumb Money used a clip of me in the movie without asking me, which I still don't know how. They had the clip of me talking to Vlad 10 off. Except instead of Vlad, they put in the actor who played. But I was still real, and it was still the real conversation. No one. No one told me. It's like, oh, I'm in the movie.

[Joe Pompliano]

Do you want a royalty check?

[Dave Portnoy]

No, my ego is fine with being in the movie. And maybe they knew that. Like, trust me, this guy's just gonna be happy as. But, yeah, so it was like every. Somehow a trait of mine and ability of mine is not on purpose. We're pretty good at ending up smack dab in the middle of big things. Like, how in the world was I in the middle of a GameStop controversy? But I was there, and I.

[Joe Pompliano]

But it's also on the Internet, and I think that there is something about, like, having your finger on the pulse of what's happening. And I think being able to communicate what you're thinking. One of your greatest skills is just like. You just say what you think.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, Right.

[Joe Pompliano]

And so you're like, hey, what are all these people over here doing? It's kind of like you're walking down the sidewalk, you see a big group gathering, and you're just nosy. Right?

[Dave Portnoy]

Exactly.

[Joe Pompliano]

What's this group?

[Dave Portnoy]

And for. For the. For the finance. They just had never. There hadn't been an innovation in how people talk about finance probably till Mad Money, like in Mad Money had been around forever. There weren't people making hype videos. Like, I was making Green dildo or whatever. The green. I had a green hammer. I mean, I was going after these, these like hedge the people on tv. I mean, I was crucifying them and they didn't know how to react. And by the way, if you react, you probably lost because I have a team of like ninjas making these hype videos for me. So it was, it was something. Yeah.

[Joe Pompliano]

I mean, it was pretty entertaining at minimum. Right? All right. So the second interaction or part of this interaction is we started talking about, hey, should we go do this? Whatever. And I never really thought that this was like a, a big deal or anything that was noteworthy, but I heard Big Cat on a podcast say that I was one of the only people to ever go through hey, should we do something together and walk away. And he was very shocked because the deal that you had offered at the time was let's do barstool finance and we'd be 50, 50 partners on it. And the part that I got hung up on was I was to take all of the assets and contribute them to it and you guys would bring the barstool machine in. The world I come out of is you got to buy it. Right? And so we just were like, hey look, we like each other. We think this could be pretty powerful, whatever. But I'm like, hey look, you guys gotta buy it. You guys are like, no, you just contribute it. And the reason why that was so interesting to me was I think I got an insight into how you guys worked with so many of these creators, right? Most of them aren't business oriented. They don't selling their Instagram account or whatever. It's like not a thing. But then you look at your track record and the ability to supercharge these people, whether it's the, you know, call her daddies or whatever. Like, I don't know if there's anybody who's got a bigger hits business than you guys have had over the last 15 years or so, taking people who nobody knows and making them huge stars. Right?

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, I've said that. I think I would put our roster of digital media, new age media stars up against any network really, if you include me. But me, Big Cat. Pft. And then you look. I mean, bussing with the boys, spitting Chiclets.

[Joe Pompliano]

Call her daddy.

[Dave Portnoy]

Call her daddy Jenna Marbles, even KFC

[Joe Pompliano]

on Instagram and stuff. Crushes one minute, you know, man, all that stuff.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, yeah, it, that is, that is the model what you just described. And that is how we do the model with a lot of the people. It's now, I don't know if we had like a term on Yours, like, the talent is generally, well, you do two or three years very similar to an athlete in a way.

[Joe Pompliano]

You basically sign them, and then there's some sort of, like, revenue share component to it, right?

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, it depends how big they are when they come into our world on what that is.

[Joe Pompliano]

Now you've started to eat into more. So now you guys, you know, you've gotten into alcohol, you do the events, you sign the big deal with Fox. Do you know, the Saturday football stuff. Like, it almost feels like you guys as a business have graduated. Are you still looking for some of, like, the undiscovered talent and that's still part of the model, or do you feel like you've reached a point now

[Dave Portnoy]

where we always are? It's. It's far more difficult to find that talent now because they don't need us as much. It really. You're evaluating two things. Hey, we can, as you said, supercharge your career. If you're talented, you can basically cut the line. You can grow really fast. But in this day and age of, you know, streaming and Twitch and Instagram and Snapchat and TikTok, you can build a pretty big brand without being attached to a network. It's a lot easier. So that's what people who try to hire have to weigh. We're always looking, but we're not going. Like, it's not the number one priority. If we find them, great, we will hire them, but we're not out there scouring.

[Joe Pompliano]

Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm a software guy, but every once in a while, I come across a piece of hardware that I just simply can't live without. And that's Plaud for me Now. Now, this whole thing is basically a hedge against me losing my memory, because when I have all these conversations, I talk to founders, investors, all kinds of people every single day. There's three things that I always want to take away from the conversation. What I learned, what are the next steps, Action items. And then what notes do I need to remember for some period in the future? You can even mark important moments during the discussion so that you can quickly reference them later. Whether it's a founder meeting, an investor call, a podcast interview, or maybe even just want to sit down and talk to your spouse, I could instantly go back and forth and find key insights and decisions, action items that I talked about in that conversation. Over time, every conversation all of a sudden becomes an asset instead of a forgotten moment. And in a world where information is abundant, the ability to retain and leverage knowledge is a very Real competitive advantage. That's why Plod Note Pro caught my attention recently. It's a credit card sized note taker, slim portable, perfectly integrated with my phone and the part that I love about it is that it automatically captures conversation, turns it into board ready summaries. You can have structured action items and it does. Flawless transcription is really magical and you should try it out. So go check them out. This hardware has completely changed my life and I think that you'll end up finding it very valuable. So if you want to use PLOD and get the same value out of it that I've gotten out of it, go check them out at Plaud AI slash Pompomp. You can go to Plaud AI pompomp and get 15% off if you use the code Pomp or just go click on the link in the description. So go to Plaud AI Pomp today. Today's episode is brought to you by Bitcoin Ira. Few weeks ago I said crypto is dead. I meant most of the coins. They ain't gonna make it. Most of what's left isn't coming back. What surprised me wasn't the public reaction. It was the DMs, emails, text messages, private conversation. A lot of people kept asking me the same thing, alright, well if crypto's dead, what do I actually do now? So my friends over at Bitcoin Ira and I, we put together a free guide that breaks down exactly how I'm thinking about crypto investing today, what I'm paying attention to and how I'm positioned for the long term. This guide is completely free. When you download it, you're going to get entered for a chance to win a one hour Q A with me. Plus up to $4,000 in rewards from Bitcoin IRA. So Bitcoin IRA, as a reminder, helps investors buy and hold crypto in Tax Advantage retirement accounts. It could potentially save you up to 37% in capital gains taxes and it's just going to take you a few minutes to open an account. Their IRA special will walk you through the entire process. But if you want to enter into a potential winning of a one hour Q&A with me, plus up to $4,000 in rewards from Bitcoin IRA. You're going to go to lp.bitcoin ira.com after crypto. So again go in the description, click on the link there. Download that free guide you're going to enter to win. You can learn more there. Go to lp.bitcoin ira.com after crypto. I think one of the aspects is like, you guys have always been edgy, right? And so you have this line in the book that's like, you don't cancel me, I cancel you. And you look at, you know, Penn Deal, right? You look at Steve Cohen. I mean, we just go through all these examples. There's some people who are really attracted to that and they want to come and work with you guys, et cetera. There's a lot of people who are just like, these guys are fucking crazy. I don't want to be associated with them. Whatever. The huge reason is because the media came after you. How bad was that? Like, I know that people look at you and they're like, oh. He punches back. And there's a lot of folks who I think are inspired by that or whatever. But, like, I've had people come after me. I've had, you know, death threats all. It's not fun. I can't imagine that you were in a good spot.

[Dave Portnoy]

The Business Insider stuff was the lowest. I've been probably in the barstool 20 something years.

[Joe Pompliano]

Like, you felt like you were under attack.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, and it's not only under attack. I knew there are lies and I knew what they were going to write. And, you know, the day before the article comes out, like, I call my parents and be like, just heads up. This is going to be written about me tomorrow, and everyone's going to be talking about it. That's a horrible thing to do. My girlfriend at the time, ex girlfriend, I hadn't met her parents yet. They're saying, really? I mean, if we're just being blunt, they got away with saying they didn't accuse me of rape. And in the article, it's like, there isn't, but the headline's rape. Like, they said, it's basically reads as rape. Totally made up to me. It was very depressing. It was very scary that that can be done on that level. And, you know, I fought that tooth and nail. I tried to sue. Didn't get anywhere with that. And even that will be misconstrued. Dave lost the lawsuit. It's like, no, I couldn't prove malice, like, because they didn't. They didn't say I was in jail when I wasn't. But if I could ever get, like, the emails on how this happened and where it came from, there's no amount of money I wouldn't pay for that because I know it was a hit piece and I don't know where it came from. So, yeah, that. That was a bad time. I don't Care about a lot of the other stuff. Like I, it's so.

[Joe Pompliano]

But that's the one that bothered.

[Dave Portnoy]

That's the one. And still, did you think about giving

[Joe Pompliano]

up at any point? Just being like, I'm just gonna go away?

[Dave Portnoy]

No, but I mean, I still live with it every day. Like, you know, we were just talking a little bit about politics before we started and people don't like me. Like, they'll quote that article like it's real and be like, oh, you're gonna listen to this guy and there's nothing I can ever do to change it. But that's, that'll be with me forever. On Totally False. And when I say false, I always make it clear. I'm not talking like, oh, there's 0.11 chance. There's zero. It's just a made up article. So that, that was low.

[Joe Pompliano]

I think you are the. I don't know if you call the Wall street communications strategy innovation. I know you call it that. I don't know if that's really innovation, but I do think the innovation was like, oh, you're a journalist. Well, why don't we just sit down, have a conversation and we'll just roll the cameras, no editing, and we'll just see what happens. I'd never heard anyone say that to a reporter before. That was the funniest shit of all time.

[Dave Portnoy]

And they won't do it, which is always my point. The business auditor and then the New York Times each spent a year plus in my life and didn't want to sit down with the subject they were interviewing. And by the way, they never talked to my ex wife, who I was married to for five years, dated for five. Never talked to Erica Nardini, never talked to any of our female employees. They were just calling every. People would send me audio recordings of the reporter and they were crazy. It's like they're so digging. So yes, I've always said even this book tour, people would come up and I'd be like, yeah, I'll do it, but I'm recording it. The Wall Street Journal literally came over and he said, I hadn't read your book. And I heard all your requests to do this interview and I was very confused why you were like, I have to record it. And then he's like, I read your book. I understand now why you want to record it. And I learned that early on. I learned that from Inside Edition and a clip that will still. This is when I was young, naive, dumb. I thought they were going to a fair interview it was a hit piece. And it was all, there's two hours chopped into 45 seconds of making me look like Hitler. And I, okay, I'm going to have to be a little more careful because I was naive at that point.

[Joe Pompliano]

Well, you come from the Internet. You come from newspapers, right. And then all of a sudden it's like, hey, these people have an agenda and they've got distribution in a game where you don't have a megaphone back, like, you can't reach the TV audience without going through.

[Dave Portnoy]

Correct. Right. And I grew up in a household like my dad, New York Times gospel, like CNN gospel. That's. That's the household I grew up in. And it's kind of what I just thought. I, like, I never, till I got into barstool, really thought about, oh, the Times is left, or the Washington Post is left. That never crossed my mind. Really. I didn't pay that much attention.

[Joe Pompliano]

You mentioned politics. You're all over the news right now because you said that you may run for mayor of New York City. Why not just run for president?

[Dave Portnoy]

I mean, it really. The. The New York City thing is because I'm specifically. It's not, I guess, only here, but I am overly disgusted with what is going on, with who's being elected from Mandami down to these primaries and the things they've said. They've let the fox into the hen house. And I am, as I'm sure you are, but I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a capitalist. I'm not saying this country's perfect, but I do love this country. And they're openly, like, saying they hate the country and they want over. I mean, it doesn't even sound real when you're like, well, she found a group that wanted to overthrow Western society and that she said, like, state the

[Joe Pompliano]

stated mission of the group.

[Dave Portnoy]

Correct. And it's like that we're electing her, like, and Mandami's got her hand in the air and they're doing a pub crawl. So that's. That's shocking to me. That's really. That's why I said New York City, because, you know, he. He is doing what he said he wanted to do before he got elected, which is get as many socialists elected and then basically seize the means of communication. And they truly seem like they don't like this country and they want a major change. So that's when, you know, I get asked, I go back and forth on it, like, could I win in New York? Probably not. A lot of people being like, you're

[Joe Pompliano]

going to win in New York because the demographics stronghold.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, Yeah. I think it'll be really hard and outsider, but who knows?

[Joe Pompliano]

Would you run as a Republican or an independent?

[Dave Portnoy]

Probably independent. But I'll tell you what I would do, which would be a little shift from Mandami. He's got these idiotic politicians who don't know what the Internet is, and he uses it like a weapon. He's never gone up against somebody who can be, like, not so fast, like, you think you're good at the Internet. I'm pretty good at the Internet myself, so it would be a very different type of opponent for him than what he's used to. It's almost like he's treating, like, how I was treating Wall Street. They don't know what to do when he's making these cutesy videos.

[Joe Pompliano]

Yeah, he's got kind of like a Mr. Rogers neighborhood vibe in the videos, by the way. He's an. He's excellent communicator. Doing it.

[Dave Portnoy]

Very good. He's very savvy, and he knows how to use the Internet and social media and appeal. These people and the people he's campaigning against have absolutely no answers and no idea how to combat that. I may not win, but you give me one person Internet stuff, I'll do some Internet stuff.

[Joe Pompliano]

I think that your meme warfare would be very good compared to, like, Mr. Rogers neighborhoods.

[Dave Portnoy]

Totally. And I'm sure I could raise an absolute war chest, because there's a lot of people who do not like this guy. So. Yeah, I mean, you asked in the beginning, off camera, like, is it real? It is real. Do I think it's going to happen? No, but there's a lot of times I feel like my dad on the other side, I can't get out of this space. Like, it's social media, it's the tv. And I really am like, what is going on in this country, specifically starting in New York, I feel like Mandami is the head of the snake. So that's why I said New York. And then other days, I'm like, dave, you have a great life. You're in Isle Morata half the year in the Keys and Nantucket, and you've made it. Why, like, why do you want this? I mean, I said that about Trump. Like, what made Trump want to be president? Seemed to have a pretty good life. And there's no dirtier game than politics, 100%.

[Joe Pompliano]

How many houses you have?

[Dave Portnoy]

Great question. I have five. Five houses. One's got mold in it, being fixed

[Joe Pompliano]

so it's pretty crazy to go from the newspapers to. You had to think for a second how many houses you have.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yes, yeah, yeah. Listen, Barstool has been that. That's what the book really did. It's like you look back and it's like, how did we do this? I don't even know. Could it ever be done again in the. Probably not the right time, right place. I never dreamed we'd become this successful. It's been a wild, wild ride.

[Joe Pompliano]

How much money do you think you spend in a month?

[Dave Portnoy]

I have no clue. I mean, I'm actually not an overly. I like horses. Yeah. And I bet on sports, but I'm not like, flashy or going out.

[Joe Pompliano]

So like, I. My take on you is like, you don't really party and do all like the crazy things where, like, most people blow a bunch of money. But, you know, horses and houses are expensive.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, yeah, those are. But the houses are an investment. So it's like if the house. Listen, I don't think you can go wrong where I'm getting the houses. And if the money is sitting in the stock market, we're sitting in real estate. To me, that that's.

[Joe Pompliano]

Did you buy any of the houses sight unseen or did you visit each one of them?

[Dave Portnoy]

I visited each one of them and I had the same feeling. So Nantucket's my favorite place in the world. Dream place. Going. Had the absolute, like, best feeling when I walked through the door. That was the same with my aisle. Morata house.

[Joe Pompliano]

You just knew.

[Dave Portnoy]

Just new. And then Saratoga. I bought a tear down and rebuilt it near the track. So those are the three that I'm really in. All right.

[Joe Pompliano]

In the content game, one of the things that I hear people talking about but I haven't really seen anyone do yet, is all this AI content. You worry about that at all with Marshall?

[Dave Portnoy]

In what sense?

[Joe Pompliano]

Like, if somebody shows up and is like, hey, we don't even need the talent anymore. Forget like I think you called it, you know, your. Your circus of idiots. And we can just like, remove all the cost of this. And we're just gonna use computers.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, well, that. Luckily for the morons who work for me, I. I wouldn't do that. But I could. I could replace 90% of my staff with AI. I did my audiobook and I couldn't read. Like, I can't read. I actually think I do have dyslexia a little bit. Like, I hated it. So I spent ten grand to have this very advanced AI Read it. You could not tell the Difference. I couldn't tell the difference. My parents couldn't tell the difference. They wouldn't let me do it. The book company's like, can't do it.

[Joe Pompliano]

So you had to read it.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, so I had to read it. But the AI was so good, it was scary. Like nobody would ever know it was me. It was picking up everything. So of course AI could replace these fools. I have. Although we have had a couple employees try to use AI and it almost makes them too intelligent, where we're like, that's not you because it's too good. So. But it is, it is a tool that if I wasn't working for us, like if we sold or I was out and it was ESPN and Pen, 100%, that would be a concern.

[Joe Pompliano]

Do you use any other AI tools, like on a day to day basis?

[Dave Portnoy]

None. I mean, well, I use like chat.

[Joe Pompliano]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got to get you on Sylvia. You. You seen that yet? No, we, we built this product. You go in and you attach all your accounts, like your financial accounts. You just talk to it about your finances. Oh, so if you were like, you know, hey, should I buy the horse or not?

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, it has all. I don't want to disparage one of your products since it's yours, but that sounds like one of those horror movies where the robot takes over your finances and you go and log in. I'm out of money.

[Joe Pompliano]

It can't. It can't touch the money. Can't touch the money.

[Dave Portnoy]

Money.

[Joe Pompliano]

Well, maybe it'd be too smart, right?

[Dave Portnoy]

Is like eventually it. Eventually one day there's a, like one of these. And there's been a lot of the movies where the robots become too intelligent. Like, of course, turn around, kill the humans. That's going to happen with AI and we're going to be like, we, who couldn't have seen this coming? I mean, it's becoming that smart.

[Joe Pompliano]

You.

[Dave Portnoy]

You worry about that like, no, like humanoids. But I mean, it's crazy how what it can do.

[Joe Pompliano]

Yeah. CFO Sylvia.com. you should check it out. Your ex wife, you said that she was the first person you called when they tried to fire you from Barstool. I also saw a clip that she still has access to your bank account.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, that's a Shan Sharp clip. It went like crazy viral.

[Joe Pompliano]

Okay, so explain what's going on there.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, so she's really one of my best friends still to this day. She was with me from day one. Literally in the book, it's like she would hand out newspapers day One. So we always had a great relationship with. We didn't separate because there was some scandal or anything else. We both it. We have love for each other, but maybe we weren't in love, if that makes any sense. But I've trust her implicitly. She's somebody who was there with me from day one. Like living every up, living every down. Hey, we got to go move in with your in laws. We have no money. We can't do this. We can't. Never complained, Always like very supportive, had my back. So to me she's part of the growth. And really we separated when the thing exploded. Trust her always. So it never really occurred. We didn't get divorced right off the bat. In fact, we still haven't. But the reason in the beginning was like, let's see what separation's like. And we stayed separated and the money was coming in. She can do whatever. I trust her. She could have always at any point still today be like, I'm taking all the money, I'm running. I just know she would never do it. It's trusting somebody as much as I trust my par. Really. We did try to get divorced. It got denied by Massachusetts.

[Joe Pompliano]

Why? So I didn't even know they could do that.

[Dave Portnoy]

Neither did I. It was news to me. We had an agreement set up.

[Joe Pompliano]

It's like a reverse arranged marriage.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, it's crazy. I didn't know they could do it. They said it was unequable. But she also was like, I think at the time I was buying the Nantucket house. It's like, well, if we just split everything, it's just going to sit there in the bank account anyways the same way. Except I don't have the collateral to get the Nantucket house. And she didn't want it. And we had a very good. It's like she gets. It was set up in a way exactly. Pretty much how we were living for the past five to six years, except to make it legal. And the judge was like, no. So it's very rare, I think, in life that you have somebody that you can trust like that which you've been through the ups and downs and everything. And she's one of them. And I'll always be there for her and I think she'll be there for me.

[Joe Pompliano]

Yeah. Makes sense. Bitcoin. You went from, I think, hating it to you again. You became the diamond hand.

[Dave Portnoy]

I hate it again. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what do you think? Why? It's like I'm always in at the wrong time. So when you.

[Joe Pompliano]

When you start Talking about it. I do get nervous.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah.

[Joe Pompliano]

As soon as I see you start to. I'm like, oh, shit.

[Dave Portnoy]

So I. Originally, the whole Winklevoss disaster was. It was 11,000. When the Winklevoss has explained to me what bitcoin was, it came to your house. And I remember, first time it was, we're both in the Hamptons there at the same. Same hotel, and they're like, we own, like, whatever the bitcoin. And we're six, two, and there's two of us. So we'll come explain it to you. And they said, elon Musk will go to outer space. He's going to mine gold from outer space and rain down plentiful. So these guys are crazy. So I had bought 2 million of it at 11,000. They walked out of the room, sold them. I don't. I do not understand any of what they're saying. It went to, like, 50,000 or 60,000 in fast order. Like, you can probably find the date of when they did that and see

[Joe Pompliano]

how quickly from, like, August or September of 2020 to, like, March of 2021. Six months.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yes. So. And that's when they were there. August. So it's like, all right, I. If you 6x2 million is 12 million. I was not happy. And then I was like, I got to get back in it. Everyone's talking about this thing I've been in out. I'm in right now probably at an average of like a hundred bucks, something like that. What do we have, 59. I don't know what the hell's going on with it. I really.

[Joe Pompliano]

Nobody knows?

[Dave Portnoy]

No. I mean, you got Sailor selling it, saying it's good that he's selling it. Who knows? Who knows? I'm not going to sell it. It may go zero. I may lose millions again.

[Joe Pompliano]

All right. But it's not like a material part of your net worth.

[Dave Portnoy]

It's enough that I'm like, I look at it every day. Will I be fine? Yeah. But I probably had, you know, 15 million in it at some point.

[Joe Pompliano]

$15 million of Bitcoin?

[Dave Portnoy]

Not anymore. I don't.

[Joe Pompliano]

No.

[Dave Portnoy]

No. But I probably did. Yeah. Yeah.

[Joe Pompliano]

You know. You know how to get 10 million is you start with 15.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, I. I mean, I'm always, always, always on the wrong side of bitcoin and crypto. Always.

[Joe Pompliano]

Well, there's other coins that you bought along the way, and I could see, like, the chance. Right, yeah. The chats would convince you.

[Dave Portnoy]

Well, I dabbled with meme coins, which was, honestly, maybe in the 20 years the craziest thing I was ever involved in.

[Joe Pompliano]

Like, we did the hat, like a college selection. And you picked one of the coins.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, that. That was Safe Moon.

[Joe Pompliano]

Safe Moon, Yeah.

[Dave Portnoy]

And then I got mentioned in a lawsuit. They're like, you are an insiders. Like, I literally picked out of a hat, said, I have no idea. It's probably a scam. And I lost all my money, so. But I had to hire a lawyer because there's all these influencers who I guess were given free Safe moon and didn't disclose and I got included in that. And it's like I got my. I got killed. I told people, but I had to pay a lawyer. And then they laid out and they dismissed me from the charge, but I still had to pay for it. Yeah. So I'm always, always, always on the wrong side of everything regarding that.

[Joe Pompliano]

How do you pick what stocks you buy now?

[Dave Portnoy]

I'm fairly safe right now. Like, I have a guy who helps me, like a broker, but it's fairly safe. There's nothing crazy in there.

[Joe Pompliano]

All right, I want to, I want to mention three moments in barstool history. You tell me what you remember from them. Brady 6 going to jail.

[Dave Portnoy]

Clearly that. That's the most.

[Joe Pompliano]

Did you think you were going to go to jail?

[Dave Portnoy]

No, no. They're very barstool. It's like I. We don't think too far in advance. I thought even when you change just

[Joe Pompliano]

for people who don't know, you change yourself to the NFL.

[Dave Portnoy]

So when Brady got the four game suspension from the NFL for Defali Cape, we're like, we got to do something. We're still in Boston. Drove to New York, put like 1, 2 eye black on Patriot gear. We went to NFL headquarters, demanded to speak to Roger Goodell. They said no. They actually first asked if we had an appointment and then they said no. We handcuffed ourselves to each other in the headquarters and did a sit in and got arrested.

[Joe Pompliano]

And.

[Dave Portnoy]

And the police were kind of. They knew who we were at that point a little bit. They're kind of joking. So I didn't think we were gonna get arrested. I was wrong. We spent a day in jail. It was horrible. So that. That's the memory.

[Joe Pompliano]

Did people in jail know who you were?

[Dave Portnoy]

No, no. Oh, the cops did the cops? No, no, thank God. Because they were trying to move us around. What do they call the tunnels? That's where we were. I mean, if you like commit murder, you go to the tunnels. Like it's where everybody goes who commits a crime in New York. City that night, and there can be some scary people there. The cops knew we were not a threat, and they were trying to move us around to keep us kind of separated from, like, hardened criminals. Yeah, that.

[Joe Pompliano]

You mean the guys in the Patriots gear?

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, right. Like the guys protesting brave. When the judge saw us the next day, and it would be like the case before us would be like, domestic abuse, something serious, or like a murder. And then we get up there and she's like, what'd you do? It's like we protest. Protested Tom Flick, Tom Brady. And she cracked a little smile. It's off our record, so. Yeah. All right.

[Joe Pompliano]

How it's. Her gate is probably one of the craziest ones.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah. It's funny because Will Compton, who worked for us, Boston, with the boys, big star.

[Joe Pompliano]

Is he a star?

[Dave Portnoy]

He's a star. He's. He's a star. And I like Will. He's one of the guys I wish we could have back. But he text.

[Joe Pompliano]

What's he called? Like, Seal Seal Team six or whatever. What does he do, dad? Team Six?

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, he does all sorts of stuff like that. But he texted me this morning. He didn't even know about Brady gate. That shows how long we've been doing. He worked for us. He had no idea what it was. Wow. That.

[Joe Pompliano]

I mean, he's viral. He brings you in the closet. You know, farts in the phone.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, yeah. No, he's.

[Joe Pompliano]

He is a big star.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah.

[Joe Pompliano]

Howitzer gate.

[Dave Portnoy]

That was. Was that our first really huge controversy? So that's back in the blogging days when I'm just cranking out 10 to 15 blogs a day every 45 minutes, looking for something that's interesting. It's also the height of the Patriots Colts rivalry, Specifically Brady versus Manning. Like, I hated Peyton Manning. I was so Team Patriots, whatever. At this point, every. The media is always Peyton Manning this, Peyton Manning that, Colts this, Colts that, Colts, 14, 0 to start a season. Patriots got no respect. But we whooped him every year one day. So. And I'm doing my scrolling across the Internet to talk about. Find things to talk about. And lo and behold, there's a picture of Gisele Brady's wife. Their little toddler on the beach. It's an infant toddler, well endowed, to say the least. It was, like, shocking. So I wrote a blog, check out the Howitzer on Brady's kid. And then the sentence below is, peyton Manning could never have a kid like this. That was it. It was like a shot at Peyton Manning moved on. Didn't think anything of it.

[Joe Pompliano]

Like, that was the whole blog.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah, that was it. It was like just Peyton Manning could never have a kid like this. Press, publish, move on. I don't know how long it was. A couple hours. All hell breaks loose. Dave's a pedophile. Dave's posting pictures of kids, dicks. A lot of people didn't know how the Internet worked. People were acting like I was in the bushes with a camera, a long range camera, taking the picture. The pictures all over the paparazzi pages, like, the same pages we went to get photographed. It was everywhere. And I thought I was making a very clear Peyton Manning joke. Well, I mean, people were calling for my head. The state police showed up at my house. I was on Howard Stern. Howard Stern trashed me. It was. It was nuts. And people still. In the book, I talk about it, people still bring up out of context tweets from that controversy as, like, trying to say, got them. Yeah. Like, there's a quote, the tweet I have that says, wah, wah.

[Joe Pompliano]

He's.

[Dave Portnoy]

He's two years old. It's child porn. I. This sounds horrible. Even saying. I'm mimicking people who are saying that because it's like, the kid's so young. If you sexualize the kid, you're screwed up. It's like the Gerber baby. But people have no idea what the quote came from or what it's in. So they're like, dave, it's crazy. So, yeah, that was a. That was a wild time.

[Joe Pompliano]

Wild. All right, last one is Teco, Texas.

[Dave Portnoy]

I didn't see that one. Tico, Texas.

[Joe Pompliano]

I mean, that's got it. That's like catch me outside before. Catch me outside.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah. Tico, Texas. Teco, Texas. How do we even start here? So. So Loud Sean is a rapper. Loud Sean.

[Joe Pompliano]

What a name.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah. No. Was it Loud? No. Little Sean, Big Sean. Big Sean. Loud Sean was a crazy employee. We had Big Sean rapper was dating Ariana Grande. They broke up. Kevin Clancy, who works for us, was like, what a what? A fumble by Big Sean. You're never going to get someone bigger than Ariana, better than Ariana Grande. You're lucky you had Ariana Grande. There is a rapper in Texas called Teco, Texas, who. I don't know how her Twitter feed found Kevin's tweet, but it did, and she did not like it. She was a big Big Sean fan. How dare you say that about Big Sean? You're an idiot. She was black. Kevin's white. She started calling him a baseball fan. That was her word for like white fans. And she's like, you're the worst. And turned into this battle. And Teco, Texas wrote a rap song about Kevin dissing him. Kevin wrote a rebuttal rap song about Chico, Texas. Also killed me in it because I was on Tico's side. I was like, go get Kevin. He's such a baseball fan. Whatever Tico did, I was like, tell me more, Tico. And I ended up then writing a rap song, getting in the rise page Use rise. I went to south by Southwest to visit Tico in one of the crazier three day trips I've ever had. She eventually was a full time employee, Teco, Texas. She just stopped showing up to work. But just.

[Joe Pompliano]

You had to fire her.

[Dave Portnoy]

Oh, yeah, yeah, Just another one.

[Joe Pompliano]

It is hard to get fired from barstool.

[Dave Portnoy]

Real hard. She just wasn't showing up. Her contract was probably up and we didn't renew. Just another one of those crazy shooting stars we've had in our universe.

[Joe Pompliano]

All right, you got this book that came out. Dave Portnoy. Cancel me if you can. I got to say, the best marketing I've seen for a book is you sitting next to the pool. Just open up to a random page, you just start reading and it's electric.

[Dave Portnoy]

Oh, yeah.

[Joe Pompliano]

I mean, that is like, there is no better. Like, let me show you.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah. I wish I could read the whole thing. That voice, the audiobook. You can't be like that because it's hard to read like that, an entire book. But yeah, that, that. I haven't felt pressured or market anything in a long time. I feel pressure with the book. Like, I don't know why. I do. Like, if it's not on the New York best bestsellers list, I, I.

[Joe Pompliano]

Do you think they would put you on if you had the numbers?

[Dave Portnoy]

So I didn't know that it was editorialized. Yeah, correct. Now, they did promote it as saying it would be one of the bigger books of the summer. So maybe. But yeah, I, I, I, I don't know why. I don't know why. Some things put pressure on me. I feel pressure for this to be successful.

[Joe Pompliano]

All right, well, we don't want you to feel pressure, so.

[Dave Portnoy]

I do, I feel pressure.

[Joe Pompliano]

No, I know, but like, if people go by the book, then the pressure should leave.

[Dave Portnoy]

Need to buy book, buy multiple. They're not that expensive. And for the first week. When's this dropping?

[Joe Pompliano]

Today.

[Dave Portnoy]

So I'm doing $10 because I didn't do this for money. And to be honest, I don't even understand how the book industry works. It seems like not the most lucrative thing of all time to spend your time on a book. No offense to. You know, our publishing is great, Gallery, but I don't get the finances. I didn't do it for the money, but. So $10 every book I'm giving to Lifeline Animal Shelter this week, which is basically probably all the profit, which is where I got Miss Miss Peaches and Beat the Beagle. Yeah.

[Joe Pompliano]

Barstool Fund. You did a great job there. Now you're more at the animals, right?

[Dave Portnoy]

Yep. Yep.

[Joe Pompliano]

How many businesses with the Barstool Fund?

[Dave Portnoy]

We're close to 450 raised. About 50 million.

[Joe Pompliano]

Yeah. That's great.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah. That's probably the proudest thing.

[Joe Pompliano]

Yeah. That I have, actually. That's another. I should have said another interaction with you, Erica, and Barstool was watching you guys try to figure out how to take crypto was quite hilarious. Yes.

[Dave Portnoy]

Yeah. And there were a lot of big mouths in crypto who got. Shut up real quick, though, because they're like, if you get it, we'll donate all this money. And that just never came. It's like, we spent all this. Where's our crypto?

[Joe Pompliano]

It's just never. I remember I introduced you guys to a company, like, I will help. And then they called me back and they were like, I don't know if anyone can help them.

[Dave Portnoy]

We had no idea how to do it. None. Zero. But all these people, like, take crypto. We'll do it. We'll do it. We did get it done, and it just never came. But, yeah, that was very proud of that. I mean, there's a lot of business still. If I see them, we saved a lot of business. A lot of great businesses. So I'm proud of that.

[Joe Pompliano]

Listen, I think that you probably get too much shit for the. For the bad stuff. You don't get enough credit for the good stuff. So I think you're doing a great job. Cancel me if you can. Everyone go pick it up.

[Dave Portnoy]

Appreciate it.