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Masters of Scale · April 28, 2026 · 00:28:34

Maria Sharapova's centre court tricks for the boardroom

Maria Sharapova
Show Notes

Maria Sharapova, five-time Grand Slam champion and former world's highest-paid female athlete, discusses her second act as an investor, entrepreneur, and podcaster. She shares lessons from competitive tennis applied to business negotiations, reveals deals she's walked away from, discusses her candy brand venture and eventual shutdown, and recounts negotiations with major corporations like Nike.

This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.

Curious

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Sports Psychology Transfers to Deal-Making
Sharapova applies mental skills from elite tennis — focus under pressure, reading opponents, managing emotions — to business negotiations and investment decisions.
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Highlights

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Walking Away as Negotiating Power
Sharapova discusses deals she's walked away from and how the willingness to reject bad terms gave her leverage in negotiations.
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Asymmetric Leverage: Individual vs. Institution
Sharapova negotiated with Nike as an individual with personal brand power, rather than as a representative of a large organization.
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Editorial

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Court Competition vs. Boardroom Competition
Sharapova frames business negotiation and entrepreneurship as a different kind of competition than tennis — one the court never fully prepared her for.
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Business Failure as Learning (Sugarpova Shutdown)
Sharapova built Sugarpova, a candy brand, and eventually shuttered it — and she's candid about the experience rather than avoiding it.
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Misc

✧Sharapova built and later shuttered a candy brand — a rare candid discussion of a business that didn't work out
✧She negotiated directly with Nike, a Fortune 500 company, from a position of individual leverage rather than institutional backing
✧Her second act spans three distinct domains: investing, building companies, and content creation via podcasting
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