Richard Blankenship’s successful entrepreneurial career has been defined by this statement. The Cofounder and Chief Revenue Officer of Prizeout, a New York-based fin-tech company which raised 4.5 million in series A round this summer, has landed himself this prestigious partnership through his unwavering faith in his fellow network of friends, turned entrepreneurs. Blankenship began his career investing in real estate and working in sales for a large poker media company, Poker Central. Poker Central owns rights to the world’s most prestigious poker event, the World Series of Poker. Prizeout was first discussed at a friendly dinner with David Metz, who was CEO of Fleetwit, a trivia app. Meanwhile, Blankenship was working as the Chief Revenue Officer of Poker Central. Metz and Blankenship had a rigorous three months of negotiating advertising and sponsorship deals between Fleetwit and Poker Central. That night at dinner, Metz told Blankenship about an idea he had for a fin-tech startup, and via a dinner between friends, Prizeout was born.
Blankenship pounced on this opportunity as he had constant dialogue with gaming executives who were looking for better payment solutions. He instantly knew that Prizeout would be that solution. His friendship and trust in Metz led him to wire him seed capital for Prizeout the next week, the deal was done on a handshake as the two had complete faith in each other. Blankenship has an extensive portfolio of successful ventures, and one of them was created in a similar way to Prizeout. When Blankenship was involved in a fraternity in his college days at San Diego State University, he had a friend who shared his enthusiasm for entrepreneurship. His name was Steve Borelli, and the two remained in close contact after graduation. Borelli created a menswear company called CUTS clothing, and once their order volume had increased substantially, Borelli needed funding in order to cover inventory, and Blankenship was the first one he called. Blankenship had faith in Borelli and CUTS clothing, so he immediately made an agreement and wired funds for inventory, this is how Blankenship became the first and only partner for CUTS clothing. After he funded CUTS, the company achieved record sales as it took advantage of the large market for direct to consumer men’s fashion products.
Prizeout paralleled the success Blankenship achieved through believing in his friends. After providing seed capital for Prizeout, Blankenship joined the company in a full time capacity and signed some of the largest gaming companies as partners for his new endeavor. Blankenship believes in his network of his friends, he believes in their ideas as entrepreneurs, and a large part of his success can be attributed to his fellow entrepreneur friends, turned partners.
“When they are ready to take that next step and turn their ideas into businesses, I’m grateful to be their first phone call.”
To learn more about Richard Blankenship, you can visit his LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardblankenship/ oor his instagram @richpblank