Joe Montana Once Revealed Why He Didn’t Pursue Venture Capitalism While Living Near Silicon Valley During His Time With the 49ers

Joe Montana has become a successful venture capitalist in his post-playing career. He runs Liquid2 Ventures, a firm with a portfolio of approximately 34 companies valued at $1 billion or more. But you might be surprised to learn that Montana didn’t get into venture capitalism during his time with the 49ers, despite playing near Silicon Valley.

Montana opened up about why he didn’t dive into his now-successful career until after he was done playing during an appearance on the Athletes and Assets podcast earlier last year. The show, hosted by Noah Lack, features conversations with various businessmen and women who have found success post-playing careers.

During that candid discussion, Montana revealed that Bill Walsh’s playbook was so complex that he didn’t have any free time to do anything else. All he could do was study. He didn’t even get a day off during Thanksgiving, much to his future mother-in-law’s dismay, who, like most of us, believed that being an NFL player meant working only on Sundays.

“I had so much work throughout the week,” Montana explained. “You know, everybody thinks oh you go to practice and then you’re done. Well, no. I had hours of work after practice when I got home. It was so funny because my first few years I was with Jennifer, and her mom says, ‘Hey, can you guys come to Thanksgiving?’ and Jennifer goes, ‘No, mom. Joe’s gotta work.’ She goes, ‘I thought he only worked on Sundays?'”

The story got a hearty laugh out of Lack and Montana. An NFL player not only has to work on Sundays, but sometimes Mondays, Thursdays, and sometimes Saturdays too. It’s a lot to ask out of them. But they’re paid well to do it and get to do the thing that they love.

Montana then continued to explain why he couldn’t focus on venture capitalism until after his career, this time without jokes. He highlighted how players back then didn’t have the technology to rely on, only signals. As a result, studying the game plan after practice was a must.

“I really didn’t have time to focus on that because (49ers HC) Bill’s offense was complex. There was a lot to it, especially for a quarterback. Because we didn’t have the little earpieces that they have now, and so we got signaled a play. And every now and then, you had enough time to fit in the formation, but for the most part, you got a play,” Montana said.

“And there would be 125-130 passes in a gameplan. They all had two or three formations you had to memorize. You had to memorize what order he wanted them in. Then there were the runs. So, it took a lot of time off the field,” the former QB continued.

The four-time Super Bowl champion, however, had plenty of time to dive into the investment market after hanging up his cleats.

Montana’s Company

In 2015, Montana founded Liquid2 Ventures. It’s a pre-seed and seed investing firm that looks to help small companies become larger conglomerates. It has been a successful company that’s invested in over 800 different small companies. Their average portfolio value is now over $100 billion.

Some of Montana and Liquid2’s most successful investments include GitLab, which is an AI tool that helps with software innovation. There’s also Rippling, which has become a popular site for companies to use for payroll and other employee benefits. And there’s also Retool, a site that specializes in developing software. Montana helped all of these companies go from local utilities to nationwide stalwarts.

Sometimes you never know that you’re sitting right on your life’s treasure. Montana found himself just miles away from Silicon Valley during his playing career, but constantly wrapped himself up in Walsh’s playbook. It has worked out for him, though.

Now, he can say that he’s an NFL Hall of Fame quarterback and a successful venture capitalist. Plus, who knows if companies would’ve taken an interest in Liquid2 had he not been one of the most recognizable and successful quarterbacks in NFL history.