Ruari Bell: Building the UK's first athlete led VC firm with The Players Fund

“There’s a competitive drive and edge that you see in sport that is really important in business. And Teamwork. Dealing with individuals, knowing what helps make an individual tick is really important.” 

For the final episode in this season of our VC feature, we’re joined by Ruari Bell, Founding Partner at The Players Fund, the UK’s first athlete-led firm, founded to empower the athlete community as investors. 

The Players Fund brings together a collective of renowned athlete investors, including Ben Stokes, former 40 Minute Mentor guest Jessica Ennis-Hill, Jos Butler, Allyson Felix, Serge Gnabry and many more top athletes. 

Ruari has had a fantastic career in entrepreneurship and investing and we’ll dig into every part of it and his journey with The Players Fund in detail, in today’s episode. 

In these 40 minutes, you’ll hear about...

Episode chapters: 

➡️ Increasing diversity and inclusion in VC [03:00] 

➡️ Growing up in the Northeast of England [03:50] 

➡️ A love for sport [05:45] 

➡️ Transitioning out of professional sport [07:55] 

➡️ An entrepreneurial journey [10:50] 

➡️ Transferable skills from sport to business [17:40] 

➡️ The origin story of The Players Fund [20:15] 

➡️ What makes Founders stand out to him [28:00] 

➡️ Openness to feedback [29:30] 

➡️ Vision for the future [35:15] 

➡️ Building a business with family [38:00] 

⛳ Helpful links:

➡️ Follow Ruari on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruaribell/ 

➡️ Find out more about The Players fund: https://www.playersfund.vc/ 

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