David Daneshgar Used Poker Winnings to Launch a Multimillion-Dollar Start-Up

Life Outside Poker is a podcast for PokerNews hosted by Connor Richards that seeks to pull back the curtain on poker players and allow viewers and listeners to get to know them on a personal level.

In the 27th episode, Connor talks with World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner and venture capitalist David Daneshgar, who used poker winnings to launch a successful start-up that raised tens of millions. The Californian with $2.5 million in Hendon Mob earnings talks about his companies BloomNation and Whippy AI, teaching a college poker class, quitting his finance job to play poker, and getting Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss to write his letter of recommendation to business school.

Daneshgar also spoke about getting cheated in private LA games, AI in poker, and why entrepreneurs should play in poker games.

This interview was filmed in March in the new Venetian Poker Studio at Venetian Las Vegas.

The Life Outside Poker podcast is available on major streaming platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud and iHeartRadio. You can also watch the interview with David Daneshgar by heading to the PokerNews YouTube channel.

Be sure to follow David Daneshgar and Connor Richards on X.

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Timestamps

Time	Topic
0:00	Intro
1:15	Memories at the Venetian
1:50	Growing up in LA
5:30	Teaching a poker class at UC Berkeley
10:38	Quitting finance job to play poker
14:34	2008 WSOP bracelet win
17:44	Jerry Buss letter of recommendation
22:29	Starting BloomNation w/ poker winnings
26:37	Whippy AI
30:09	AI and poker
33:04	Private LA games
33:47	Getting cheating in home game
34:49	Business and poker
37:21	Return to poker
38:36	Book recommendation
39:54	Advice for younger self
41:01	Favorite life lesson from poker