Dave Portnoy, Pandemic Hero?
By: Brett Pucino
Tags: Covid Response, Fundraising, Small Business, Barstool Sports, Crowdfunding

Dave Portnoy, Pandemic Hero?

Total money raised as of 6:57 PM EST 12/22/20

And the influencer of the Pandemic award goes to…Dave Portnoy, Founder of Barstool Sports?

You might have laughed. If you did, you’re probably in the group of people who hate Barstool. Unfortunately for Barstool haters, Portnoy just launched the Barstool Fund — a relief fund for small businesses impacted by the pandemic, which is probably more than your favorite publication or content creator is doing.

Portnoy and his Barstool brand are polarizing, to say the least. He’s morphed into somewhat of a darling amongst the right over the last few years. Tucker Carlson has had him as a guest a few times, including recently to discuss the Barstool Fund for helping small businesses impacted by Covid-19.

Most of the positive news coverage for this endeavor has been from “conservative” outlets like Fox News and The Blaze. If you read the comments and responses on Barstool social media posts, their core audience leans right, so it makes sense.

I do not lean right. I do love Barstool and I’ve been a fan since they were a tiny “alternative” sports blog back in my college days. Politics aside, this is an amazing endeavor from team Barstool.

How the Barstool Fund Works

Portnoy launched the fund in this Instagram post on 12/17.

It has two phases.

Phase one is a $500,000 pool to be dished out to small businesses chosen by Barstool (presumably Dave himself). Small businesses need to have their full payroll active in order to qualify for the fund.

Some people might think that excludes the businesses who need the relief the most since those owners couldn’t afford to keep paying employees without revenue coming in. I understand the argument. I don’t agree with it,though.

I like what Portnoy is doing because he is rewarding business owners who have sacrificed their personal wealth to share with their labor force.

The most intriguing aspect of phase one is Portnoy promises to keep the payments going until Covid restrictions are lifted. With $500,000, you could give 16 businesses $5,000 a month for 6 months. That’s pretty significant.

Phase two will be using a white-label fundraising platform that will feature selected businesses until the specific amount they say they need is met.

I think it will be really interesting to see how much money they raise in phase two. Stoolies have a reputation amongst their haters of being misogynistic and not exactly “woke” when it comes to social issues. Even their strongest haters would have to give stoolies respect if they raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Personally, I think they are going to raise way more money than people think. Why? Because a small business in need of help is something every single person, no matter your political affiliation, can relate to on a personal level. Unfortunately, every single one of us knows what local small businesses closing for good looks like up close..

This initiative covers both their core audience and all of the subgroups within their overall audience.

Another factor will be the spite effect. I think people will be motivated, at least in part, to donate as a way to shove their good deed in the faces of people who hate Barstool.

The First Recipient Will Be A Restaurant Owned by a Barstool Employee’s Father

If you watch Portnoy’s Instagram post, you’ll hear him tell the story of Borrelli’s, a restaurant on Long Island owned by the father of Barstool employee Frankie Borelli.

Borrelli’s father has kept paying his employees through the entire pandemic. It is his actions that inspired the qualification for being accepted into phase one of the Barstool Fund.

I love that Portnoy is rewarding this behavior. But I really love that he is helping the family of his employee. That’s great leadership. Here is a video of Mr. Borrelli’s reaction.

Final Thoughts on the Barstool Fund

I am definitely rooting for Barstool here. I hope they raise a ton of money in phase two. I also hope this then inspires Portnoy to maybe put another $500,000 into phase one.

I would love for him to raise money through the Barstool sportsbook. Maybe he could have a percentage of each bet for a given period of time or on select games go to replenishing the fund. Or he could also run a promotion that gives people who donate to phase 2 of the fund a site credit.

One of the things that compelled me to write this article is I’ve been thinking about influencers a lot lately for some other articles I’m writing. When I saw this video, it occurred to me that Barstool Sports is probably one of the most influential, if not the most influential, media company amongst millennials that fall in the 18 to 35 demo.

Portnoy went on the Tucker Carlson show the other day to talk about the fund, and he revealed that they have already seen a million dollars in sales from the merch they launched as a part of this endeavor. This really speaks to the amount of influence Portnoy has.

One thing I liked about the Tucker Carlson interview is how Tucker wonders why the uber rich billionaires like Jeff Bezos aren’t doing something to directly help small businesses. If these large conglomerates really care about small businesses like they sometimes say they do, now is the time to put their money where their mouth is.

Personally, I would like to see Huffington Post and Buzzfeed do something like this. Huffington Post was founded in 2005 by Arianna Huffington, Johan Peretti, and John Seward Johnson III. Peretti and Johnson went on to found Buzzfeed in 2006.

Huffington Post and Buzzfeed have both penetrated a larger segment of millennials than Barstool. They also both build their multi-million dollar media companies off of the backs of free millennial labor.

Their scam to get out of paying writers was so brilliant that they actually managed to convince those doing the uncompensated labor that it was a privilege to be able to share content through their platforms. Huffington, Peretti, and Johnson destroyed what was once a thriving market for freelance content writers.

Then, once they made millions, they started to pay staff writers. This only happened so they could say “but we pay writers now” whenever they are criticized for their original business model.

To be fair, Huffington is no longer involved with the Huffington Post, but she has a really strong personal brand, so she could do something like this out of her own money.

While their content is geared to a core audience of 18–25, those in the 26 to 35 range typically were barstool fans when they were in the 18–25 demo and have stuck around. I’m 30 and I would consider myself a fairly loyal fan. The Short Porch is my go-to podcast for Yankees baseball talk. I have bought merch from them and have gone to a Barstool at the Ballpark event at Yankees stadium.

I’m not a rabid fan, though. I understand why some people don’t like Barstool or Portnoy. I don’t always agree with some of the things he says or believes on the political correctness front.

But at the end of the day, things like the Barstool Fund prove why Portnoy is one of the most powerful influencers within the millennial demographic. He recognizes the influence he yields and he’s not afraid to wield it.

P.S: Here’s what the numbers are at now since I took that last screenshot -

Numbers as of 7:13 PM EST on 12/22/20

It took me 16 minutes to upload this draft into Medium. In that span, 225 people donated a total of $5,520.

Numbers update #1:

Numbers as of 7:30 AM EST on 12/23/20

Over the last 12 hours, there were 2,219 new donors who donated a combined total of $239,846.

Numbers update #2

Numbers as of 8:30 AM EST on 12/24/20

Numbers update #3: