Coached by Campbell Series: Michael Quarshie

In this series, we take a look at the stories of Bill Campbell’s transformative influence. We’ll hear from Columbia entrepreneurs, athletes, and scholars. Here we have quotes and stories from Michael Quarshie, Columbia football, Oakland Raider,  NFF National Scholar Finalist, co-founder of Metabite.

Michael Quarshie played football for Columbia and met Bill on the gridiron. 

“He was the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Columbia, but he was very present and he would stop by at practices and he was obviously at a lot of games,” said Michael.

Years later, Bill would come on as an investor to a company Michael built with several teammates, and stood out for setting the tone for frank conversations. 

“Some investors want to hear things are going according to plan and love positive updates.. He said, ‘I don’t care about that. Just give me a call when you have a problem. That’s the best way I can be helpful.’ His way of aggressively tackling problems was a really powerful lesson in how to operate not just as an entrepreneur, but as a person.  .”   

As anyone who knew Bill would suspect, advice during these candid conversations was often delivered with Bill’s typical fire and choice language.

“I remember being on our first call with him and one of his questions was, ‘Okay, how much money do we have?’ And I remember I hesitated for a second because we were running low on cash,” said Michael. “He started cursing at me: “I’m not the f— enemy.  Tell me how much f—- money we have.” 

Michael said this led to him recalibrating on how to look at his relationship with this investor, and eventually look for the same type of relationship with all investors moving forward. 

“Now, every investor I meet, I tried to envision whether I could have a Bill Campbell-type of conversation with them? Would I feel that we’re  on the same side?”

Another lesson learned from Bill was to never lose sight of the big picture of the work being done. 

“It was really eye opening to see how Bill was thinking about the bigger picture and how he wanted to focus on what was important,” said Michael. “This idea of, of being impactful and trying to be a positive influence in your community, 

that’s something that Bill embodied. The way he would have people get together, whether it was in Palo Alto or at Old Town [Bar and Restaurant] in New York, he just had this really welcoming atmosphere that he created. The idea of how you foster a community…that’s something that you could just see him implement on a daily basis.”

Michael Quarshie played football for Columbia while a student and was a NFF National Scholar Finalist. A former NFL player with the Oakland Raiders, Michael is the co-founder of Metabite, a digital health company that delivers scalable, evidence-based nutrition counseling to healthcare organizations, insurance providers, and professional sports teams.