welcome back hit hard by the pandemic
new york city's leisure and hospitality
small businesses just won the city by
the way
like restaurants and bars have seen an
80 percent drop in revenue over the last
year how does the city live on that
so tonight we're putting a face behind
the numbers around the country we're
hitting the streets of new york in this
case
we're one of the few people actually
doing something to help these small
business men and women
barstool founder and president dave
portnoy talking with me exclusively
about his fund that has nearly raised 30
million dollars to help american
businesses survive
watch
[Music]
dave portnoy barstool founder things are
banging in new york city as usual this
is where your
business is located and it's been a
phenomenal success story
but this isn't really about barstool is
it this is about the country
yeah this has nothing to do with
barstool the fun we're doing is just
trying to help small business in general
obviously um if you walk around new york
which we're doing you see that there's a
lot of businesses in trouble or
gone really you know march was kind of
the beginning of lockdown
and we fast forward all the way to end
of december
in in new york city they closed indoor
dining so they had opened it up a little
bit
and then right before the holidays they
said we're getting rid of it and i went
on a rant
because logically speaking if you walked
around the city
there was already tons of boards and
places out of business this felt like a
death blow we got your story we got your
video
everything you're going through with uh
primavera and we want to help
oh my god dude you're an angel
you can't even you don't even know i
don't even like sleep at night
i don't
it just helps out so much so i donated
500
000 of my own money to start this small
business fun bar stool fun
and then start challenging basically my
friends like a lot of them who have
become successful whatever
and fans of barcelona donate to small
business and if you're a small business
who needs help just to get through this
thing till the pandemic's gone
reach out we'll help as many as we can
you're the exact type businesses we're
looking to help like what 81 years in
the family i have no idea how much this
means to
the entire restaurant like not even just
my family but like all the employees
here too
look over here this is normally bustling
i mean this is a weekday
if you look over to the left things are
boarded up if they're not
fenced off they're shut down the only
thing that's really selling here is
plywood
yeah it's sad it is definitely sad to
walk through the city and see it
one of every four small businesses in
new york will shut down
or is shut down same thing in chicago 32
000 across the country and not just not
just restaurants
you got the beauty industry shutdown you
got the gym industry
basically shut down and i'm not really
sure why because in certain states
they're open yeah it's it's crazy when
you talk to them it's a lot of times
it's a flip of a coin you'll talk to
somebody it's like hey i can't operate
but i can go across the river i can go
you know 10 minutes away
and they're fully operational and you do
care and uh
you're taking action so you put five
hundred thousand unbelievable
but then people start joining small
donations big donations
tom brady jumps in elon musk josten
tell me some of the other big names that
have jumped in so aaron rodgers has been
great
he jumped in on solicity put in 500 000
of his own money
dana white ufc he put in 100 grand like
that
the crafts patriots owners both
unsolicited reaching up there's people
want to help i don't want to point out
the name of the restaurant
but this is on the outside of a
restaurant
with a top on it that looks like a
restaurant it's dressed like the indoors
it is indoors across the street's a
submarine
outside of a restaurant where there's
heat lamps
how is that not as the same as eating
indoors
there is zero logic to what is going on
somebody explain how if you just build
an indoor structure outside that is now
outside even though it's inside it makes
no sense
if these politicians were not getting
paid
until they opened up they'd open up but
these business owners don't get paid if
they don't open up and they're not
in control well that's why i'm so
passionate about it because
i mean barcelo's obviously grown but i
consider it a small business and
it's no overnight success it took me two
decades we've been doing two decades
10 years maybe before i turned to profit
if this thing hit
at year 10 you rip away basically
my entire adult life's work i have no
say
i have no fight the thing that a lot of
small business owners and why you go
into it
is you want to control your own destiny
i mean look at these structures
this costs money this costs everything
this didn't work
correct this structure was tried this
restaurant is closed
that doesn't work so it it and we're and
that's what they're saying it's like
you're asking us
i've had so many owners be like they had
us build these things do these things
i invested any money i have i went to my
life savings and then the rules changed
five minutes later
27 million donated already yep millions
given out
yup and you don't just say there's 500
hours what is your program
so what we do is we tell the small
business
send us a video send us your story and
tell us what you need tell we don't
we don't say hey you get this much tell
us how much money you need for this
month whether that's for payroll
taxes rent whatever explain it
essentially once you're in our program
you're in it until this pandemic's done
and we can go back to normal
in the beauty of what these
conversations the small business owners
99 of them they don't want the money
they are like
we are proud people we built a
successful business
we just need a gap we need a bridge to
when we can go back to doing what we're
doing
so people write they'll put a video
together and he looks at the video they
do the criteria and then they'll pop in
just facetime them and surprise him
right there
those videos have helped generate more
money and he keeps up with them for the
entire year so
they can stay in business it's
unbelievable you have to be part of it
you don't need to be tom brady and give
all that money
ten dollars work so to donate and for to
give some help
go to this go to barstoolfun.com
and be a part of the success story and
try to help
instead of just being on the sideline
it's unbelievable what he's doing
tomorrow you're going to see as he meets
one of the people that he saved
for the first time he only met him on
facetime he surprised them by meeting
them
in their store don't move this is uh
this is prime time
and we want you back decades of blood
swear
sweat and tears building they've done
whatever they've scratched and clawed
and now a few politicians in new york
city's like
ant you're done we're shut it down
no wind or that how do you expect these
people to survive what are people gonna
go
out to dinner now in ice cold
temperatures
well he took action and he's uh just as
outraged as you are
so for bar still sports founder and
president dave portney what started as a
rant that you just
heard about covet 19 restrictions in new
york city has turned into a full-blown
national movement to save small business
across this great country and help the
fastest growing fund you can imagine bar
stools fund
to help out small businesses i've never
seen anything like this it's now raised
nearly 30 million dollars just to help
small business owners
survive the pandemic since our first
piece aired on tuesday
more than 1.6 million dollars have
poured into the fund
here is part two to learn more about
what it's like
being dave portnoy
[Music]
dave you mentioned you got called out
you were complaining about what's
happened in the city the shutdown we
bent the curve we bent the curve
who called you out it was a guy marcus
lemonis
who i'd never heard of but he is he
camper's world he's like a billionaire
and he said do something he said if you
start a fund
uh put 500 grand of your own money into
it i'll match it is what he said
we want to help after this payroll i
don't have any more money
seriously you have no idea how much this
means to the entire restaurant
very excited to help oh my god you're
absolutely amazing
when you decide to take action you
started meeting these people and there
did they remind you a lot of yourself
though
grinders whatever it takes to be
successful get out of my way
i'm not looking for a pat on the back
just a chance yeah that's small business
owners an entrepreneur or small business
owner says i'd rather work a hundred
hours
and and no successes because of me as
opposed to somebody else
ironically because the pandemic that's
what got ripped away from people
we're about to come on one of the
business owners that was selected
to hit the criteria the barstool
criteria to be funded
yes johnny's luncheon at why he had a
moving story my name is uh john pallado
um we're gonna the middle of the
pandemic
as you can see there's no indoor dining
and he was struggling he took a picture
of the diner it was
empty he was going through personal
issues a little bit but the whole story
just kind of resonated and i do remember
the call he was super appreciative
you know we need the help right now
we're going to need help for uh
for rent nice to meet you i said i
haven't met you yet nice to meet you
god bless you man no i'm glad we could
help
what have you been going through been uh
struggling for uh
quite some time now since uh you know
they announced uh
everything back in march i closed for
five months
i uh basically thought uh that was it
the cold weather
settled in indoor dining closed and then
it just uh
just deepened the wounds so how did you
find out about barstool and what they're
doing
my dad passed away in uh in december
early december and uh yeah so that was
just like another punch in the face
there
and that really devastated me and uh
you know i'm looking through instagram
and on christmas eve
i'm at work and it was
it's just dead and i'm like you know
what i'm here
over 20 years uh i started it out
with my dad told me everything i know
and uh he just passed away
last week i took my phone out
you know i'd even see what i looked like
because i didn't know i was gonna be on
national tv
and i said dave you know this is it this
is the story there's nobody around
you know we need help you know i started
crying
you know my dad and everything and i
sent it out
so the next day was christmas day john
oh my god i said i got some good news
for you we saw the video
you're the exact type of guy we want to
help so we're going to be there for you
oh my god you just made my day man yeah
better christmas probably than most so
i'm happy
i'm glad we could do it i feel like i'm
dreaming right now man
you know i was three months behind on
rent and uh
when this all happened everything just
happened so fast this is who we're
trying to help it's like a small
business
he's been here forever what's your
message to the american people
to every small business out there uh
don't give up hope um
you know we're all suffering here we're
all together
and i'm fortunate enough to have bar
stool
come and take care of me and my business
and it's not only me you know my house
is tied into this too
i'm going to give it to you god bless
you man thank you so much
yeah we're really you know it you don't
even know it i appreciate it
hey vaccine's on the way and that means
your customers and businesses going to
be standing up soon
yes we hope i think we could take a seat
here when you see the reactions
of these business owners and you see the
stress just wash away and they break
down
that's you can't ignore that it doesn't
matter who you are
you see what they're going through the
struggle everything
um it's the other side it's pandemic and
it i think again that's why this
thing has gotten so big when we started
this fund i never dreamed it would in
three weeks be 27 million
and i'd be talking aaron rodgers on the
phone i talked to sylvester stallone kid
rock and aaron rodgers
and spent 15 minutes and they all called
me but has any of this changed
people just nicer to me online that's it
i'm not used to people
no i'm used to people coming at me and
the days of you being arrested at the
super bowl were they over
no no i'm the same guy uh you'll have to
ask roger goodell that
right if he would finally give in and
admit that you're right
well i offered roger i said if if he'll
donate 250 000 to this cause i'll match
it
uh crickets he hasn't answered that yet
and i know roger watches jane skinner
used to work here
i would not be surprised if he does that
what a great story but it's not just the
elon musk the sylvester stallone the
john tappers
it's the 25 dollars the 50 it's all
helping
and he doesn't just pay them once what
he does is get them on a monthly plan so
they got some
projections about what's going to take
to stay open so this is amazing fun
amazing program
he didn't hire one person to do it he
uses his same infrastructure at bar
stool to get it done
great day great cause and please if
you're saying to yourself
i'm worried about giving to a cause and
not going to the right place
don't worry about these guys it's going
to the right place and
special thanks to smithfield right there
in new york city they let us sit down
there
the bad news for dave his soccer was on
which is great for me
he doesn't like soccer he likes the
other football
meanwhile go to barstoolfun.com