Earlier than you knew him as an investor on Shark Tank, the proprietor of the NBA Dallas Mavericks, or simply one of many richest folks on this planet, Mark Cuban was hustling in humble—and typically sketchy—methods.
To pay his method via junior 12 months of faculty at Indiana College within the early Eighties, Cuban arrange a “chain letter” in his dorm, he instructed the San Francisco Commonplace’s Life in Seven Songs podcast. He began by approaching one individual and requested them to offer him $100, beginning the Ponzi scheme or “rip-off” as he known as it.
Cuban instructed that individual “I’m going to take $50 of that. And right here’s an inventory of 10 names. We’re going to ship 50 bucks to no matter dorm room that this individual on the high of the record is. Then we’re going to take their title off the record and put your title on the backside. So we’ll make it a $50 chain letter. And as everyone else does that, your title strikes up the record till you’re on the high. And as we develop the chain letter, hopefully you’ll get extra money than you set out.”
Sounds type of like social capital, proper?
“No, no. It was mainly a rip-off,” Cuban, 67, mentioned as he chuckled. “I made certain my buddies all obtained their a refund. And so I obtained as much as the highest of the record. And it was wonderful, as a result of I’d go to [my mailbox] and there’d be envelopes with 50 bucks from right here, 50 bucks from there, and that’s how I paid for my junior 12 months of faculty.”
That kind of money meant loads on the time for Cuban, who got here from humble beginnings, rising up in a working-class household in a suburb of Pittsburgh. He mentioned his dad, who labored in automotive upholstery, would often throw him a $20 invoice, however he was all the time trying to find methods to generate income. That began throughout childhood when he requested his dad for a brand new pair of basketball footwear: His dad mentioned when he had a job, he may purchase no matter he needed.
That occasion launched Cuban into a protracted profession of entrepreneurship, beginning with promoting—of all issues—trash luggage. His father’s good friend had tons of containers of trash luggage to unload, and instructed Cuban he may promote them. With that, Cuban went door-to-door round his neighborhood promoting the house important.
“I might go door-to-door to be like, ‘Hello, my title is Mark. Do you utilize trash luggage?” Cuban mirrored. “I killed it.”
Cuban’s journey to billionaire standing
After school, Cuban made his transfer to Dallas—not understanding at some point he’d be the face of the town’s NBA staff. There, he labored as a software program salesman and lived in what he known as a “s–thole” with 5 different guys.
“It was nasty as might be,” Cuban mentioned. “I slept on the ground, and if anyone was out of city, I obtained a mattress. I didn’t have my very own closet, didn’t have my very own drawers. Nothing.”
Throughout his time there, Cuban discovered every thing he may about computer systems and software program—even when that meant sitting down and studying manuals. Whereas working as a salesman, he had the chance to make a $1,500 fee, which might have helped him transfer out of the “hell resort,” as he and his 5 roommates fondly known as their condominium. However when he went to choose up the test, his boss fired him proper on the spot. That second impressed Cuban to start out his first firm known as MicroSolutions writing software program for PCs. He bought that firm for $6 million in 1990.
For some time after that, Cuban purchased a “lifetime cross on American Airways, partied like a rock star, and simply traveled,” he mentioned.
“I used to be younger, single and loopy, and there have been no limits,” Cuban mentioned. “I simply needed to have a beer with as many individuals as I presumably may, expertise as many issues as I presumably may.”
Cuban’s entrepreneurial profession soared. Within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, Cuban and two of his buddies, Cameron Christopher Jaeb and Todd Wagner, based web radio firm Audionet.com, which was later renamed to Broadcast.com. They bought that firm to Yahoo in 1999 for $5.7 billion, throughout the top of the dotcom bubble, cementing Cuban’s standing as a billionaire.
Within the following a long time, Cuban targeted closely on enterprise investments, starring on Shark Tank for startup corporations, and finally bought a majority stake within the Dallas Mavericks in 2000. Cuban parted methods with Shark Tank this 12 months—and in late 2023, he bought his majority stake within the Mavericks for $3.5 billion. Cuban is presently price an estimated $9.1 billion, in line with Bloomberg.
The first motive Cuban determined to step away from the Mavericks? To guard his three children.
“Operating an expert sports activities staff is all the time good once you’re successful. It’s nice,” Cuban mentioned. “However once you’re having a foul season, and [my] children are on social media, I simply didn’t need them to place up with every thing.”
Now, Cuban is on to new—and really completely different—ventures. He launched Mark Cuban Price Plus Medication in 2022 with a mission to get rid of the intermediary within the pharmaceutical business. Cuban analysis this as being the main perpetrator behind excessive drug costs.
“Disrupting an business that everyone hates, that’s enjoyable,” Cuban instructed Wired.
A model of this story appeared on Fortune.com on October 10, 2024.
