Dave Portnoy tours empty NYC storefronts as Barstool Fund receipts top $27M for small businesses
Barstool Sports founder, CEO started fund with $500,000 last month
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Dave Portnoy knows what it's like to be a small businessman, which is why he started the "Barstool Fund" to help small business affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
"That's why I'm so passionate about it," the Barstool Sports founder and CEO told "Fox News Primetime" host Brian Kilmeade Tuesday. "I mean, Barstool's obviously grown, but I consider it a small business and it's no overnight success.
"It took me two decades," he added. "We've been doing it two decades, [and it took 10 years maybe before I turned a profit. If this thing [the pandemic] hit at year 10, you rip away basically my entire adult life's work."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Portnoy launched the Barstool Fund last month with $500,000 of his own money. As of Tuesday night, a total of 193,731 donors had contributed more than $27.6 million.
"It's about trying to help small business in general," Portnoy told Kilmeade, gesturing toward several eerily empty Midtown eateries. "Obviously, if you walk around New York, which we are doing, you see there's a lot of businesses in trouble or gone. We fast-forward all the way to the end of December, and they closed indoor dining. They had opened it up a little bit and right before the holidays they said they were getting rid of it.
"I donated $500,000 of my own money to start the small business fund and then started challenging basically my friends, a lot of them who have become successful or whatever, and fans of Barstool to donate to the small businesses."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Some famous names who have contributed to the fund include Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
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More than 150 small businesses across America have received support from the fund, and videos of Portnoy informing proprieters that help is on the way has become a staple of his Twitter account.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"When you see the reactions of these business owners, and you see the stress just wash away and they break down, you can't ignore that," he said. "It doesn't matter who you are, you see what they're going through, the struggle, everything. It's the other side of this pandemic."