TC50 interview with Mark Cuban(techcrunch.com)
techcrunch.com
TC50 interview with Mark Cuban
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/09/mark-cuban-when-i-die-i-want-to-come-back-as-me/
33 comments
My favorite Cuban quote: "I can't tell you how many girlfriends I’ve had that said: 'me or the business', and I said 'what's your name?'"
I actually emailed him my freshman year of college asking him about happiness and what he's going to do now that he has all the money anyone could ever want. He told me (and I'm paraphrasing) that he's just as happy now as he was living in a dumpy apartment living off of happy hour bar food.
I'll never forget it. God I wish I still had my .edu email :(.
I actually emailed him my freshman year of college asking him about happiness and what he's going to do now that he has all the money anyone could ever want. He told me (and I'm paraphrasing) that he's just as happy now as he was living in a dumpy apartment living off of happy hour bar food.
I'll never forget it. God I wish I still had my .edu email :(.
gotta do it while I still have a university email!
Today seeing Mark Cuban speak completely changed my opinion of him. I also assumed wrongly he'd be an ass, but damnit he's now my hero. Really insightful and hysterical funny. His advice was spot on and I loved the honesty.
Highlight from today's tc50 "Maybe I’m missing something, but that just sounded like the biggest bunch of bullshit I’ve ever heard in my life." Reference below to Imindi.
(http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/09/imindi-wants-to-get-ins...)
Highlight from today's tc50 "Maybe I’m missing something, but that just sounded like the biggest bunch of bullshit I’ve ever heard in my life." Reference below to Imindi.
(http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/09/imindi-wants-to-get-ins...)
That particular comment made me walk away thinking he was rather jerkish. I didn't know who he was at the time of tuning in live, but there's about 10 different ways to say that without making the poor startup guy feel like a humiliated loser. He has a dream-- maybe Mark will bring him back down to reality, but I personally think the same sort of response could have been said about Wikipedia, Knol, About.com, Mahalo, etc.
Just because Mark and Kevin Rose didn't quite follow the long-term vision, it doesn't mean it can't catch on or grow. Hopefully the imindi guys will figure out a better way to present/grow their technology such that people won't have that kind of reaction, but that kind of comment didn't give me any new respect for Mr. Cuban. (I did enjoy the transcript of his one-on-one interview, though.)
I guess I have a lot of dreams like the imindi guys and can empathize with them. I also think there's a lot of long-term value in gathering cross-related/semantic data.
Just because Mark and Kevin Rose didn't quite follow the long-term vision, it doesn't mean it can't catch on or grow. Hopefully the imindi guys will figure out a better way to present/grow their technology such that people won't have that kind of reaction, but that kind of comment didn't give me any new respect for Mr. Cuban. (I did enjoy the transcript of his one-on-one interview, though.)
I guess I have a lot of dreams like the imindi guys and can empathize with them. I also think there's a lot of long-term value in gathering cross-related/semantic data.
How did Kevin Rose get into the conversation? No exit yet, lots of hype so far, and screwing me was a big part of it :-(, whatever "it" is. But it does reinforce the point - a lot of it is luck. Cuban wants to come back as himself? I bet the odds are 1000-1 he wouldn't have the same success. And he'd probably admit that.
Had Mark Cuban been a quite guy everyone would have called him a genius. He has been right several times and has created or made investements in winning companies that were ahead of their time ( Live Broadcast on net several years ago, HD several years ago,a better distribution model for small movies a few years ago and you can bet there is a need for this one, Redswoosh, selling a hedge fund 3 years in). I mean seriously, most VCs cannot tell you they have had this much success. Most VCs are not billionaire. Frankly if you started with zero dollars and made a Billionaire out of yourself, you are one smart guy.
Survivorship Bias.
Maybe not the same success, but certainly a lot of it. Selling garbage bags, teaching disco, Microsolutions, Broadcast.com, selling a Hedgefund, angel investments, Mavs, etc. He's been hustling since he was a kid. Sure a lot of his wealth is due to timing and luck but it certainly wasn't on accident.
You're right, though I'm sure the story has grown in the telling. The point is that there's lots of other people who do that and aren't billionaires. Its necessary but not sufficient. However I should have been better in giving him respect because he'd probably agree with me about luck.
I just react badly to anything that includes "Kevin Rose" in the same class with a billionaire.
I just react badly to anything that includes "Kevin Rose" in the same class with a billionaire.
I've known the story for 6 years; it hasn't changed at all. Cuban is much better known in the sports scene than in the tech scene.
When do you get to tell us what Rose did or am I just ignorant?
When do you get to tell us what Rose did or am I just ignorant?
I tend to be cagey about it, because a. I still own some stock, b. I'm still subject to a legal agreement and c. I'm too busy to actually figure out in detail how b affects what I can and can't say.
Hopefully they get bought soon so you can write your tell all book. :p
..kidding...about the later - not the former.
..kidding...about the later - not the former.
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Kevin Rose was on the panel with Mark Cuban when he said that in response to imindi.
All I'm going to say is, if you can't handle the truth, you're in the wrong business. Now,they'll probably go back having gotten an honest response and make it better.
Go read his blog, you'll love him. http://www.blogmaverick.com/
He has a great post up on how the inside of wall street works. And he is qualified to speak - he is on the inside.
He has a great post up on how the inside of wall street works. And he is qualified to speak - he is on the inside.
thanks for the tip, I'm just about to start investing in the market and I'm glad I read this first.
Don't, unless you have insider information (not in the illegal sense). If you have money laying around outside of general savings start a Roth IRA. Fidelity and Vanguard are both excellent and very low cost.
I second that, Roth RIA is really good place to start.
Here is the video:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/700958
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/700958
Nowitsky? Nicks? I know this isn't ESPN, but come on!
Seriously. I know it's stupid for this to bother me, but it did.
Its also "Broadcast" not "Broadband" right? Broadcast.com.
The transcript seems riddled with typos, though I didn't watch the video to know if they are actually what was said.
"There was a different crede"?
"There was a different crede"?
The transcript was typed from them talking, not from watching the recording. They wanted it live as quick as possible and damn the editors!
Except its 2 days later and still lots of typos. Though they seemed to have gone through and changed JS (which is what they had for Jason Calacanis's initials) to JC. Probably because he whined.
This interview was inspiring and really cool. My favorite quote:
"When I die, I want to come back as me." --Mark Cuban
"When I die, I want to come back as me." --Mark Cuban
another one that really strikes me:
Ill tell you what I learned from Bobby Knight: everybody’s got the will to win but when it comes time to doing something, it’s always about someone else. Not many people have the will to prepare. You got to be willing to know your product and environment better than anybody. No matter what you do there is someone out there trying to kick your ass. You got to be the smartest guy in the room about your product.
Ill tell you what I learned from Bobby Knight: everybody’s got the will to win but when it comes time to doing something, it’s always about someone else. Not many people have the will to prepare. You got to be willing to know your product and environment better than anybody. No matter what you do there is someone out there trying to kick your ass. You got to be the smartest guy in the room about your product.
I wouldn't presume to be as talented, and I wouldn't bother him with my startup ideas, but I have a lot of respect for him.
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By far my favorite topic and he only slightly touched it, and not from the perspective of a founder. He's lucky (I think) that he can just drop money on something exciting and check in to see how it grows.
The growing part is so damn hard. It seems like it boils down to two options:
Do something that:
A) Is profitable but definitely not something you'd do for free.
B) Is something you'd do for free but much less likely to be profitable.
I always struggle with something PG said[1]: "where there's muck, there's brass."
I wonder if PG was wrong or not. It definitely seems like Viaweb was done purely for the money and that the experience was so excruciating that it almost scarred him. He talks about doing another startup like someone who doesn't want to do another tour in a war zone. Yet he seems to have found something (YCombinator) that may turn out to be more profitable than Viaweb and certainly seems much less painful. Mark Cuban doesn't seem to have found his businesses nearly as painful -- yet they don't seem so much more exciting than online stores.
Maybe you only get to do the fun+profitable stuff once you've made it? Or is it just as easy to find something you're deep down passionate about that's also just as likely to be profitable as anything else you can think of?
Most of what I think are my best ideas come from needs I see. I need to solve a problem, so I look around to see if I can pay someone who already solved it. On occasion I find that no one seems to have created a product to solve the problem. A lot of the time it's something I could create myself in weeks or months, which isn't very painful because as soon as my need is met my job is done. The painful part comes when I try to turn that solution into a business. Now I'm spending years solving a problem that was barely interesting for weeks.
Filling needs you see is probably the most commonly recommended way to start a business. But, is it really the best way considering that you have to expect to spend years in the trenches with it?
1. http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html