Full Interview - Mark Cuban
Full Interview - Mark Cuban
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00:00 Dancing with the Stars was the hardest thing
00:01 and the scariest thing I've ever done,
00:03 and it's not even close.
00:05 Shark Tank, celebrating 15 seasons, 15 years.
00:08 I mean, did you ever think when you joined the show, season
00:11 two, that it would be going on for this long?
00:13 No, honestly, I thought, OK, this is a business show.
00:15 It's bouncing around from night to night.
00:18 This will be the last season.
00:19 And here we are 14 years later.
00:21 When you got the call to be on the show,
00:23 was there ever any hesitation?
00:24 No, no, because I'd seen the show.
00:26 I'm like, they suck.
00:27 I can come on and do a much better job.
00:29 And so when they had me come on first as a guest shark--
00:31 so it was Jeff Foxworthy, who came on for three episodes
00:34 of myself as well.
00:35 I got there, and I'm like, OK, I'm just going to tear him up.
00:37 I'm just going to raise hell.
00:38 And then I've been there ever since.
00:39 Barbara described everybody as a dysfunctional family.
00:42 Exactly right.
00:43 Is that exactly right?
00:44 Yeah, because I hate them all.
00:45 No, it's like, there's Kevin, who's in his own little world,
00:48 but we all get along great.
00:49 You all get along.
00:50 Do you spend a lot of time together off camera?
00:52 We'll go out to dinner and hang out some.
00:54 And Damon and I will hang out all the time when he's in
00:57 Dallas or I'm in New York.
00:59 But yeah, it's not like we avoid each other.
01:02 I mean, we actually like spending time together.
01:04 That's a good thing.
01:04 Yeah.
01:05 When you're walking around the streets of New York or anywhere,
01:08 do people come up and pitch you all the time?
01:09 Oh, yeah, all the time.
01:10 People will chase me down.
01:12 I mean, I've been in the urinal.
01:13 You name it.
01:14 I mean, it's a good problem to have,
01:16 but I get pitched everywhere.
01:18 Any time it's ever worked out?
01:20 Actually, just off the street, no.
01:23 But I've gotten cold emails that have turned
01:25 into really big businesses.
01:26 Really?
01:26 Yeah.
01:27 That's amazing.
01:28 Yeah, so like costplusdrugs.com, that was a cold email.
01:31 Relativity Space, it just did a round at $4 billion.
01:35 I still haven't met those guys.
01:36 I was their first investor.
01:38 They pitched me online.
01:38 I'm like, this is great.
01:39 They're from Dallas.
01:40 Let me get in.
01:41 And it's just boomed.
01:44 So you never know.
01:45 You just never know.
01:46 You never know.
01:47 Yep.
01:47 So that means you're always scrolling through your emails.
01:50 Always looking.
01:51 Yeah, like 1,000 a day.
01:52 And I like to do most of my stuff via email.
01:54 But again, that's the power of the show.
01:57 What is that advice that you always
01:59 give people when they are getting
02:00 ready to come onto Shark Tank?
02:02 You know, be prepared.
02:03 Because this is your baby, your business.
02:05 You should know it better than anybody in the world.
02:08 And when you have one person grill you,
02:10 maybe we'll miss something.
02:12 But when there's five sharks, and they're really smart,
02:15 and they're asking questions, we're
02:17 not going to miss anything.
02:18 No, you don't miss anything.
02:19 Out of all-- I mean, you've invested in so many companies
02:22 over the years.
02:23 Which one has surprised you the most?
02:25 Beatbox Beverages.
02:26 OK.
02:26 So Beatbox Beverages is kind of a wine cooler,
02:30 and now a spritzer as well.
02:32 And they came on just a bunch of partying guys, and one girl,
02:37 out of Austin.
02:38 And I'm like, OK, it'll be fun.
02:40 But I thought, OK, it has a chance to be big.
02:42 And I gave them a million dollars
02:43 for a third of the company.
02:44 And now they're worth over $200 million.
02:47 They'll do, hopefully, $100 million in sales this year.
02:50 And they're just killing it.
02:51 They're taking over the spritzer category.
02:54 I mean, college kids everywhere just
02:56 live on Beatbox Beverages.
02:57 So it's been amazing.
02:57 I love that.
02:58 What's the one that got away that still maybe keeps you up
03:01 at night?
03:02 It doesn't keep me up at night, but Spikeball.
03:04 Yeah?
03:05 Yeah, because you live by a beach, right?
03:06 So you see Spikeball there all the time.
03:09 And I see my kids play it.
03:10 We have it in the garage.
03:11 And every time I see it in the garage, it's like, oh,
03:14 my goodness.
03:15 Because they wanted me to be the chairman--
03:17 no, the commissioner of a Spikeball league.
03:21 And I'm like, I own an NBA team.
03:22 Sure, yeah.
03:23 The last thing I want to do is be
03:24 commissioner of a Spikeball league.
03:25 But they were right.
03:26 I was wrong.
03:27 Yeah.
03:27 What's one of the products that you use on the daily?
03:32 Well, there's one that's coming on this season that
03:35 is kind of a healthy sweets.
03:37 And that's my go-to sweet tooth, right?
03:40 I've got a sweet tooth, right?
03:41 And so I eat these things called Alyssa's Healthy Cookies
03:44 in the morning because they're healthy and they taste great.
03:46 And then to get my sweet tooth, like during the day
03:48 or after I work out, there's a bar that comes on the show,
03:51 season 15.
03:53 And actually, it's in the premiere episode.
03:55 And it is just amazing, amazing, amazing.
03:59 And so when I tasted it, it was just like, OK.
04:02 So that's become part of my daily routine.
04:04 Yeah, definitely.
04:05 Your kids always like, bring this home for us.
04:07 Yes, I mean, yeah.
04:07 They're like, we want more.
04:08 We want more.
04:09 We want more.
04:10 I invested in a company called Youthphoria, which is makeup.
04:14 You don't think I would do-- but I have two--
04:16 well, now one daughter's 20 and the other's 17.
04:19 Prime customers, and they're like, bring more, bring more,
04:21 bring more.
04:22 Where's the Youthphoria?
04:23 What's the one piece of financial advice
04:25 that you hope that your kids listen to?
04:27 Oh, any of it.
04:28 Any of it?
04:28 [LAUGHTER]
04:30 I'm trying to get them to understand how to do budgets
04:33 and to understand the concept of credit.
04:35 When I was growing up, just not getting my credit cards ripped
04:38 up was a step in the right direction.
04:41 But for my kids, they just think the money comes out
04:44 of thin air to pay those credit cards.
04:46 And so trying to get them to understand a budget
04:48 and that you have to have the money to pay off
04:51 all these things, that's been a challenge.
04:53 But they're smart kids.
04:54 They're figuring it out.
04:55 Yeah, what do you think of those business owners or people that
04:58 are coming onto the show that maybe don't want the investment
05:01 but just want the--
05:02 The commercial?
05:03 Yes.
05:03 I hate it.
05:04 Yeah.
05:04 Because 15 years in, they've watched all the episodes.
05:08 And they've seen what's happened.
05:09 And they follow up with other companies
05:11 that have been on the show.
05:13 And so they definitely try to game the system.
05:15 And it's really annoying.
05:18 And we yell at the producers.
05:19 Why can't you tell?
05:20 Why can't you tell?
05:22 And they're trying to find that balance between good TV
05:25 and good opportunities.
05:26 But it's OK.
05:28 Of all the problems you're going to have,
05:29 somebody coming on Shark Tank that's a good company,
05:32 just for a commercial, OK, we can live with that.
05:34 Yeah, can you sniff that out right away, though?
05:35 Yeah.
05:36 But you know what?
05:36 Here's the other thing, though.
05:38 Sometimes they don't err.
05:39 So the process is they come in.
05:41 We know nothing about them.
05:42 We hear the pitch.
05:43 The pitch can go 15 minutes on television,
05:46 but 45 to 90 minutes in real life, in real time.
05:50 And then if we make a deal, we get to do due diligence.
05:53 And there's a period between when
05:55 they pitch us versus when the show starts and premieres.
05:59 And so we have that due diligence period.
06:02 And if we realize that they have no interest in closing,
06:05 there's a really good chance they won't close--
06:07 won't err, rather.
06:08 So any of you watching now, you won't
06:11 err if you try to take advantage of the system.
06:13 Yes.
06:13 Are you more selective now that you've been
06:15 doing this for so many years?
06:16 Yeah.
06:17 Because you've learned over the hundreds of deals
06:21 that I've done, it's a normal distribution where 25%--
06:25 I'm like, what was I thinking?
06:27 And then 25% are, oh my goodness,
06:29 this company's turned out either OK or really good.
06:32 And then 50%, they're normal companies,
06:34 just chugging along, making a little bit of money.
06:37 And so you get a little bit smarter.
06:39 And at the beginning, I did more deals
06:41 just because it was good TV.
06:43 Then I realized how much babysitting was involved
06:45 and how much harder that made life.
06:47 It was more work for me.
06:47 Yeah, it was a lot more work for me,
06:48 so I do a few less of those.
06:49 Yeah.
06:50 Any big regrets looking back?
06:52 No, not really.
06:53 I mean, there's always deals that might have--
06:58 woulda, coulda, shouldas.
06:59 But it's just-- when you're helping so many entrepreneurs
07:04 and you're helping people build their lives
07:06 and helping them grow their businesses, that's rewarding.
07:09 I've seen people go from broke to living
07:12 a really, really nice life.
07:14 And having established not just for themselves
07:17 and not just build a business, but for their families
07:20 and their kids and their relatives,
07:22 and just being able to do that, that's enough.
07:25 Yeah.
07:25 You know, things can sometimes get tense between the sharks
07:28 on set.
07:29 Do you guys stop that when the cameras stop?
07:31 Or is there--
07:32 No.
07:32 No?
07:33 Because if it's a really, really competitive deal,
07:36 it'll be-- it'll definitely carry over.
07:38 But by the end of the day--
07:39 maybe by the next day.
07:40 By the next day?
07:41 Or at least the next week.
07:42 Yeah.
07:42 Or at least then it's past it.
07:43 What's your favorite behind-the-scenes moment
07:45 that we probably haven't seen?
07:47 When they play Rapper's Delight.
07:49 So a pitch will come in, and then there's
07:51 a little bit of time to set up for the next pitch.
07:54 They come in and do last looks, hair, makeup, all that stuff.
07:56 And then sometimes the setup can take a while.
07:59 And so they're playing music the whole time.
08:02 But whenever Rapper's Delight comes on, for 15, 14 years now,
08:05 it's been like--
08:06 particularly if Damon's there, then we're saying, hip,
08:08 hop, hippy to the hippy.
08:09 You know, we're all doing the same thing.
08:11 And then there's-- like, when Damon's on, he's got--
08:14 he always has a theme song when he walks in.
08:16 I love that.
08:17 Oh, no, we don't.
08:18 So it went from-- he's Chocolate Thunder.
08:21 So literally, he produced music that they play on set,
08:25 where he walks onto the set for a deal, and he'll go,
08:28 chocolate thunder.
08:30 And it went from Chocolate Thunder to chocolate thunder,
08:33 extra crispy.
08:35 And it's just, like, so annoying, but it's fun.
08:37 What is more difficult, "Shark Tank"
08:39 or "Dancing With The Stars"?
08:40 "Dancing With The Stars."
08:41 It's not even close.
08:42 Oh, my god.
08:43 "Dancing With The Stars" was the hardest thing
08:45 and the scariest thing I've ever done.
08:47 And it's not even close.
08:48 It's not even close.
08:49 No, I was on the episode when Marie Osmond fainted--
08:52 season five, so going way back, right?
08:54 And there were 22 million people that were watching live.
08:57 We were on Monday and Tuesday, back to back, live episodes.
09:01 You know, there's 27 million people.
09:02 And I'm out there doing whatever.
09:06 And it was-- oh, I used to practice, like,
09:09 seven, eight hours a day so I wouldn't embarrass myself.
09:12 It was a blast, but it was scary.
09:14 And then, crazy, Kim Johnson was my partner and Mary Robert.
09:18 Right, and I'm sure, obviously, you all are still very close.
09:21 Oh, yeah, of course.
09:21 I love that so much.
09:22 The twins and everything.
09:22 That is so great.
09:23 It's really cool.
09:24 Well, I am so excited for this upcoming season.
09:26 I know, season 15.
09:27 "Shark Tank" is going to be so good.
09:29 It really is.
09:29 Thank you for stopping by and taking the time.
09:30 Thanks for having me, Christine.
09:31 This was great.