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Michael Rubin

Founder & CEO, Fanatics · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveinvestor@michaelrubin ↗LinkedIn ↗fanaticsinc.com/michael-rubin ↗Wikipedia ↗Instagram ↗

Rubin founded e-commerce company GSI Commerce, which he sold to eBay for $2.4 billion in 2011, before building Fanatics into a sports merchandise, collectibles, and betting platform. He also co-founded the criminal justice reform nonprofit REFORM Alliance and formerly held minority stakes in the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils.

16statements → 10claims → 3claims resolved → 0%fully supported → 3.75/5average certainty → 1.62/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 2said about them ↓

0 supported 1 partly supported 2 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 6 not checkable as stated how the 10 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

10 assertions · 1 opinion · 5 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 10 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 6 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Michael argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Rubin: At age 21, his business did $120M with $50M debt
“By the time I was... 21. I bet you I owed the bank fifty million dollars. Because I had a business that was doing one hundred twenty million bucks, buying and selling clothes. I always had to finance the inventory and finance the accounts receivable.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 25:03 Fanatics: Michael Rubin

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
0% certainty 3
50% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Michael Rubin on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Michael Rubin said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rubin: Masayoshi Son said GSI Commerce was not losing enough money in 2000
“I remember having the founder of SoftBank, Masayoshi's son, tell me in 2000 that we weren't losing enough money.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 34:55 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Disclosure
Rubin plans to remain CEO of Fanatics until he dies
“Till I die.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 48:53 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Opinion
Rubin: Anyone who denies luck's necessity in business is 'full of shit'
“Well, anyone who says that you don't need luck to be successful in business is full of shit or doesn't understand. You definitely need some luck to go with it. You need luck and timing are a very important ingredient.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 54:31 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Disclosure
Rubin: Has not read a complete book since ninth grade
“The last book that I read was the book called The Swoosh, The Unauthorized Story of Nike. I read it I think when I was in Eighth or ninth grade”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 4:50 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Disclosure
Rubin: 99% chance he ignores three-to-four paragraph emails
“If someone sends me an email that's, you know, three or four paragraphs, I'm 99% not reading it.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 5:22 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Disclosure
Rubin: Willing to work with adversaries but never forgets grudges
“If it's in the greater interest of the greater good, I'll a hundred percent work with them, but I got a long memory for people who've done me wrong, and that, that, I think that makes me smarter, that makes me better, that makes sure I don't, you know, get scr…”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 18:59 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Assertion Contradicted
Rubin: At age 21, his business did $120M with $50M debt
“By the time I was... 21. I bet you I owed the bank fifty million dollars. Because I had a business that was doing one hundred twenty million bucks, buying and selling clothes. I always had to finance the inventory and finance the accounts receivable.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 25:03 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Assertion Contradicted
Rubin: Believes he was youngest public company CEO in the 1990s
“I think I was the youngest person to ever run a public company at that point, I think, in the world.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 27:47 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Assertion Partly supported
Rubin: Fanatics Commerce division grew from $250M to $6.7B in revenue
“The business has grown from two hundred fifty million dollars when I bought it back from eBay, to this year that division is like a 6.7 billion dollar business, ok?”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 42:44 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rubin: Averaged 4.5 hours of sleep a night over 20 years
“My sleep, if you look, if you average the last 20 years, it's probably four and a half hours a night.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 53:02 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Disclosure
Rubin: Does not know the alphabet and gets stuck around M-N-P
“I don't know the alphabet. I get stuck. Around MNP, and I've never, and I've kind of decided that I'm not gonna relearn it, because I kind of like that I could not be able to do the alphabet legitimately.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 53:57 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rubin: His ski shop hit $500k revenue and $100k profit at 15
“Second year, very good. I think we got up to About 500,000 dollars in business and maybe made a hundred grand. You know, again, I'm 15 years old.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 13:18 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rubin: Sued roughly 100 times at age 16 over unpaid ski bills
“I'd say the spring of the year that I was 16, I probably got sued a hundred times.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 14:27 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Rubin: Bought back Fanatics and GSI's licensed business for $330M
“We bought back Fanatics, including the licensed business that GSI had for three hundred thirty million bucks.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 38:03 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rubin: Major sports leagues now drive one-third of sales direct-to-consumer
“When we started, it might have been one or two percent of business would go through the NFL or Major League Baseball or NBA's direct-to-consumer business. Today, it's about a third would go through their own direct-to-consumer business.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 40:36 Fanatics: Michael Rubin
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rubin: At age 13, generated $25k selling consigned ski equipment
“And that year, at 13 years old, I did 25,000 dollars in revenue.”
Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 9:00 Fanatics: Michael Rubin

The other half of the tape: Michael Rubin's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode on How I Built This. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Guy Raz 1

Statements about Michael Rubin, by other people (1)

Assertion Supported
Raz: MLB announced return to previous uniforms following sheer jersey backlash
“Back in September, Major League Baseball announced that it was getting rid of those embarrassing see-through uniforms and returning to the old ones.”
Guy Raz Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 55:18 Fanatics: Michael Rubin

Every mention by year

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0112025episodes it came up in
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2025 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Fanatics: Michael Rubin Jan 27, 2025 32m
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