I met Manny Pacquiao at a basketball game. Nothing was signed that night, and nothing needed to be. We reconnected around his return fight, and that is when I offered him a partnership.
Today Manny is Chairman of MannyPay Global Inc., where I am CEO. In December 2025 I was named CEO of Manny Pacquiao Promotions. Two separate companies, and both trace back to a conversation at a basketball game.
I have built a lot of businesses. The ones I am proudest of tend to have a person at the center of them, someone I knew before there was anything to sign. That is not an accident.
The Relationship Comes Before the Deal
When you meet someone with no agenda on the table, you get to see who they are. You learn how they treat people who cannot do anything for them, how they talk about their own work and whether they mean what they say. Those are the things a contract cannot tell you.
With Manny, the partnership was my offer, and I made it after I already knew him. That changed the conversation. We were not two strangers testing each other. We were two people who had already decided we liked dealing with each other, working out what to build.
What we built has been real work. Limitless Entertainment Group and Manny Pacquiao Promotions staged our first event together at Pechanga Resort Casino, with the professional debut of Jimuel Pacquiao. In 2026 we announced Pacquiao Prime Boxing, a training facility on North Highland Avenue in Hollywood. You can see more of that side of my work on the Sports & Boxing page.
Invest in Someone’s Work First
I met Arthur Sarkissian, the producer of Rush Hour, by investing in his documentary about President Donald Trump, The Man You Don’t Know. I was an executive producer, and the film was released in 2024.
That is a different way to start a relationship. I put money and trust behind something he cared about and let the work speak. When I formed Limitless Films that same year, Arthur joined the Limitless X board.
I think about that order a lot. When you back someone’s work first, you learn how they finish things. You see how they handle a deadline, a budget and a problem nobody planned for. By the time you are deciding whether to go further together, you are deciding on evidence. My film work is collected on the Film & Entertainment page.
Friends of Friends Are Already Vetted
Amanda Saccomanno and I met through mutual friends. In 2020 we co-founded Amarose, a skin care brand, and we each own half of it.
An introduction through people you trust is worth more than most people realize. Someone has already watched both of you and decided you would get along. That is not a guarantee, but it is a head start.
Owning the company equally matters too. With a 50/50 split, neither of us is working for the other. We both carry the outcome. That keeps the conversations honest, because there is nobody to hide behind when a decision is hard.
How I Try to Protect a Relationship
I have learned that a relationship is an asset in the plain sense of the word. It took time and effort to build, it produces value, and it can lose that value if you neglect it. These are the habits I try to keep:
- I make the offer myself. If I want to work with someone, I tell them directly, as I did with Manny.
- I put something in before I ask for something back. With Arthur, it was an investment in his film.
- I respect the people who introduced us. With Amanda, mutual friends made the connection, and that carries a responsibility to both of them.
- I keep ownership clear. Equal partners should know they are equal, in writing.
None of this is complicated. The hard part is doing it consistently, especially when a deal is moving fast and the easy move is to skip a step.
What to Look For Before You Partner With Someone
If you are about to go into business with someone, look at how the relationship started. Was there a stretch of time when you knew each other with nothing at stake? Have you seen their work finished, not just pitched? Did someone you trust put you together?
Every company I run is a collection of relationships with a business wrapped around them. Products change, markets change and plans change. The people you chose to build with are what is still there after all of that, so choose them with the same care you give to anything else you own.
