Full Interview - Mark Cuban - video Dailymotion

US Weekly

12/1/2023

Full Interview - Mark Cuban

Transcript

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.

Full Interview - Mark Cuban

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