Jesse Itzler was broke, writing sports theme songs, when a manager offered him $10,000 for 10% of future earnings. Melissa Katz's father Lou, a major Yankees shareholder, asked if he could build it without the cash. Itzler said yes, Lou told him to turn down the money, and he did.
I was writing theme songs for sports teams. So a music manager said, "I'll give you 10 grand for 10%, but I wanna own 10% of anything you make." And I was like, "I'll take it." At the time, I was living on my friend Melissa Katz's couch. I met her actually at a bar and she had given me her number on a napkin and said, "If it's an emergency, you can come live with my roommate and I." And I told her about this opportunity and she said, "Well, why don't you go talk to my father before you give away 10% of your future earnings?" And as it turned out, her father was the second largest shareholder of the New York Yankees. I told him my dilemma. I'm gonna take 10 for 10% of my life. And he said to me, will you make this business work without the 10 grand? I said, Lou, I'm onto something. I know I can make it work. He took his notebook and he literally threw it on the ground. And he said, I didn't ask you can you, I said, will you? There's a big difference between can and will. I know you can start a podcast. I know you can be a millionaire. I know you can run a marathon. I said, will you, son? And I said, yeah, Lou, I will. He said, well, tell him to take the $10,000 and shove it up his ass. Go make it work.
