Love him or hate him, Dave Portnoy’s Barstool Fund is something special.
In height of the Corona Virus pandemic, small businesses are struggling to keep their doors open. The little to no funding they are receiving from the towns or cities they are located in are greatly affecting businesses. New York, California, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, and South Carolina’s bars and restaurants are all under some form of curfews. Founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy, has taken matters into his own hands and some would argue has done more for small businesses than any other person with power. “The Barstool Fund” has raised over $34 Million dollars and pledged one-year commitments to financial support with rent or tax payments as long as they continue to pay their employees. Along with the American public, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Guy Fieri and Kid Rock are among those who have contributed to the fund.
How did Dave start?
After Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York made the decision to close indoor dining on December 11th of last year. Portnoy gave his reaction in the most Portnoy way possible, through a rant on Twitter. In a video with the caption “Politicians are Stealing the Basic Right to Earn a Living” Portnoy, looking a bit frazzled and quick with his words states
“What do they think is going to happen? They’re done. The bar and restaurant industry have squeezed and squeezed and squeezed… And now a few politicians in New York are like ‘eh, you’re done, we’re shutting it down.”
How do you expect these people to survive ?”. He continues to move forward with blaming politicians for “taking the right away to earn a living”. Meaning, with politicians, in this case Governor Cuomo, taking away indoor dining and setting up curfews, they are simply cutting a businesses income by more than 50%.
Put your money where your mouth is.
In response to Dave’s Twitter rant, Marcus Lemonis, from “The Profit” on CBNC tweeted “Hey @stoolpresidente Put your money where your mouth is… I’ll put up 500k if you match it to create a relief fund for NYC area restaurants.”
What did Dave do?
He clapped back… and he clapped back in a big way.
Portnoy made another Twitter video stating he took Lemonis’s challenge and they have come up with a plan. Not the best plan he said, “the best plan is getting the government off their asses and issuing relief, billions of dollars, to these small business owners who are losing their livelihoods.” From there, he announced “The Barstool Fund”, there are no requirements Portnoy said. If you need help, Barstool can help you, “… we will pay for whatever you need to get through this thing and give you a fair chance to run your business.”
Now
Since the launch of the fun, Portnoy has been posting facetime calls with the owners of the restaurants telling them they are receiving funding from Barstool. Portnoy has not yet announced when the fund will end.
