Entrepreneur pitched Shopify stores to athletes with reported $1M in losses

A 24-year-old Philadelphia entrepreneur offered former professional athletes ownership stakes in Shopify stores that appeared to generate sales, according to contracts reviewed by Barron's. The stores were marketed with a guarantee that investors would receive their principal back after six months plus 80 percent of any profits.

Three former NFL players told Barron's they collectively lost more than $1 million through separate investments. One investor said the group remains uncertain about recovering funds.

Reported store activity Barron's examined one site, Dailyprodtrend, which recorded more than 360 orders between March 2025 and February 2026 while receiving only 90 visitors. The outlet found that each transaction was manually entered and marked paid minutes later.

Emails sent to listed customers bounced back as undeliverable, and one person identified as a buyer in Luxembourg told Barron's he had not made the purchase. The entrepreneur told The Post that clients received access to Shopify dashboards while payment processing and fulfillment occurred on separate platforms.

Pitch materials and disputed deal Pitch materials listed Philadelphia Eagles players Nakobe Dean and Jalen Carter, U.S. men's soccer defender Mark McKenzie, rapper YG, and former NFL safety Terrell Edmunds as clients. An agent for Dean declined to comment; representatives for the others did not respond.

The entrepreneur later showed one investor a contract for a purported $215 million sale of Motion Ventures to a Dubai-based firm, naming a JPMorgan Chase wealth adviser as escrow agent. Chase told Barron's the agreement did not originate from the bank and the signature did not match.