MARK CUBAN GRINS. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world, ” he says. It’s mid-March and he’s on a stage in front of a thousand fans at SXSW with tech founder Falon Fatemi of the new audio-video entertainment platform Fireside talking about, well, just about everything: why everyone should get a crypto wallet, how the metaverse will change media, what TikTok means for pro sports. And, little surprise to anyone who’s watched him on Shark Tank or run into him on Twitter, Cuban has well-developed thoughts on each.
Ever since he sold his startup Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999 to became an instant billionaire, Cuban has followed his curiosity into a wild array of fields, from health care to fintech to media, consumer products, and, of course, sports. Where others might have settled into a comfy life as an NBA owner/playboy, he became a kind of super-entrepreneur, not only investing in a diversified portfolio of startups, but getting deeply involved in some as well, even co-founding a few.
Cuban describes his process as “ready, fire, aim.” He plays up the whole just-a-lucky-kid-from-Pittsburgh thing. But to anyone who works closely with Cuban, he’s more like a determined kid from Pittsburgh who still identifies with his blue-collar roots. Associates
