Shaq refused to pay $80,000 for security and made a surprising choice. He invested in a company that Bezos later bought for $1 billion

Shaquille O’Neal is known for his dominance on the basketball court, but his business off the court is just as impressive. One of the most surprising Shaq stories isn’t about a slam dunk or a championship win — it’s about how he turned a simple home security problem into a multi-million dollar investment.

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Shaq has three homes in Atlanta where he has lived for years and needed a new security system for one of them. When he contacted a security company, they quoted him $80,000. Even though he’s worth millions, Shaq knew the price was way too high. So, he did what many of us would do and looked for a cheaper solution. While shopping at Best Buy, he saw a few Ring cameras and decided to buy one.

“The crazy thing is, I wired it myself,” Shaq said, clearly proud of his DIY skills. He installed the camera and then, while traveling in China, realized how powerful the system was. He could see and talk to someone at his front door from halfway around the world. That’s when it clicked for Shaq—this wasn’t just a good product, it was a game changer.

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Excited by what he had discovered, Shaq decided to take things a step further. He found the company’s booth at a technology conference and made a bold offer to the CEO. “I said, ‘Hey, my name is Shaquille O’Neal.’ I want to invest in your company, and you’re going to pay me to advertise, and then whatever happens,” Shaq recounted. The CEO agreed, and Shaq became an early investor in Ring.

A few years later, Jeff Bezos bought Ring for $1 billion. Shaq’s decision to invest in this still relatively unknown company saved him money on his home security and made him a lot of money in return. How exactly? He never disclosed.

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But this wasn’t Shaq’s first smart investment. In 1999, while still at the top of the NBA, Shaq’s agent introduced him to Ron Conway, a leading capitalist. During a lunch at the Four Seasons, Conway proposed investing in a little-known company called Google. Shaq invested $250,000, which grew significantly as Google became a tech giant.

The story continues

He said: “I had a meeting with them and it looked good and I put some money in and forgot about it.”

Shaq’s portfolio doesn’t stop there. It has also invested in companies such as Lyft, Apple and Vitaminwater. With Lyft, it jumped just a year after it was founded, and when the company went public in 2019, it was valued at $22 billion.

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This article Shaq refused to pay $80,000 for security and made a surprising choice. He invested in a company that Bezos later bought for $1 billion. It originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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