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“He Was Concerned”: 31YO CEO, Who Is Set To Save 65 Million People, Made A Nervous Pitch To Win Over Charles Barkley

Published 12/29/2023, 12:54 PM EST

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Charles Barkley is a cautious man. Having had his money stolen once by his agent, the Philadelphia 76ers legend always took a lot of time before deciding who to give his money to. So when the then-27-year-old Ashlyn Sanders pitched a one-of-a-kind idea to Barkley, he took a few months before deciding to become an angel investor in NeuroVice.

Ashlyn Sanders initially noticed Charles Barkley’s interest in investing after seeing him on an episode of Shark Tank. While the big man is not always known for his business endeavors, Sanders decided to take a risk and wrote to Barkley, as she needed an investor for her medtech startup.

According to the News Observer, Sanders sent a letter to TNT for Barkley, and surprisingly, Barkley received it and wrote back, saying that he would love to hear the pitch. She then went to Atlanta, as that’s where we find Barkley most of the time.

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I was very nervous when I pitched… It was very formal, lots of questions. Obviously, as an investor, he was concerned about bottom line,” said Ashlyn Sanders. A few months later, Barkley revealed that he would invest in her business. It has been four years since then. NeuroVice recently earned FDA approval to be used on patients ages 12 and above.

She developed a device that can be used by seizure patients to protect themselves from injuring their tongues. Sanders graduated from Duke University. But one of the main reasons behind her creation was her diagnosis of Chiari malformation in 2014. Having had brain surgery after that, Sanders suffers from seizures herself from time to time. So thus, she made PATI (protector against tongue injury).

There are almost 65 million patients around the world suffering from seizures every year. This product is sure to help a lot of them. Although Barkley once lost money after trusting others, it all ended well for the Suns legend. His investment in NeuroVuce is now going to gain the attention of many companies.

Charles Barkley once lost all his money

When Barkley just made it to the NBA, his agent was the one who handled all his money. While Barkley received a monthly allowance to spend, he was told that the rest was being invested for him to have a secure future.

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But little did he know how his agent would mess up. His agent missed out on tax payments and made a lot of terrible investment decisions. This made Barkley go broke after 4 years of being in the NBA.

Having had this experience in his life, Barkley now takes extra care before deciding who he is working with and where he is investing his money.

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What do you think of Charles Barkley investing in NeuroVice? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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Written by:

Rijin Varghese

687Articles

One take at a time

I did not follow the traditional route to become a journalist, but my love for basketball and writing has brought me here. Seeing LeBron James? Cleveland Cavaliers make the iconic comeback from a 1-3 deficit in 2016 changed everything for a young engineering aspirant within me. Rather than simply looking at the game, I love to analyze how each player contributes to a team using BPM (Box Plus Minus) and other advanced metrics.
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Edited by:

Debmallya Chakraborty