Mark Cuban Reveals Why He'd Consider Leaving 'Shark Tank'

Mark Cuban, the American businessman, film producer, TV personality and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, 65, is back to compete for investments in burgeoning businesses with his fellow sharks—Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John and Kevin O’Leary—when Season 15 of Shark Tank (Sept. 29 on ABC) premieres. More than 800 deals have been made on Shark Tank to date—from Scrub Daddy to Bombas—and this season promises to introduce more great inventions that just need an investor.

Parade sat down with Cuban to discuss the new season, the Mavs, and his worst Shark Tank investment.

Walter Scott: This is your 14th season. What keeps you coming back? 

Mark Cuban: What keeps me coming back is every time somebody comes up to me and says they’ve started a business because they’ve watched Shark Tank… It happens so often. You have no idea. We’ve been on so long, you get kids in their 20s and 30s saying, “Yeah, we watched you in high school and that’s what got me into business.” Or “I watched you when I was ten years old”—making us feel really old—“and that’s what really got me excited about business.” So, knowing that every show gets seen in so many classrooms, by so many families, that’s why I continue to do it.

When you invest, is it the product or the person that’s more important?

It really depends if either one of them is just overwhelmingly amazing. Sometimes there’s an entrepreneur that’s just so good that, okay, maybe I’m not as excited about the product or service, but I just really believe in the entrepreneur and think they can take it somewhere. And then sometimes, it’s just the product. I’m like, “This product is so good even if the entrepreneur sucks, I’ll be able to make it work.”

And, actually, there’s a couple of those this season coming up. There’s one where the entrepreneur’s just insane and then another one where the product is one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. So, it really depends. I just look for something that makes me say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” or “This is just so excellent that I’ve got to do it,” whether it’s the entrepreneur or the product.

Do you think you have an instinct that tells you whether somebody would be a good or bad entrepreneur? Or is there a question that you ask; something that gives you a clue? 

I really look to see how excited and connected they are to it. When they come on, obviously, they’re rehearsed, and they’ve got their spiel that they do to entertain. But you can typically tell if they honest-to-goodness love their product and have really dedicated themselves to it. Plus, we get to do due diligence after the fact, so we get to confirm it. Beyond that, there’s no one tell. I wish I had one. Because typically in venture capital you lose at least half the time, right? And we try to minimize that, but the reality is we’re not going to get them all right.

Related: Barbara Corcoran Breaks Down 'Quirks and Differences' With 'Shark Tank' Castmates

What’s the best and worst investment you’ve made from Shark Tank? 

I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus. I can’t do that. But the best, I’ve had some really good ones. I had one, BeatBox Beverage, that came on, I don’t even know how many years ago. It’s an alcoholic wine beverage and they came in and I bought a third of the company for $1 million. They just did a fundraising where they were valued at $200 million, which I was really happy about. Then, also, their sales have just been exploding, just going right through the roof. That’s why they’ve been able to raise money and who knows how big they’re going to be.

Another one that’s in that same category is Dude Wipes. They’re just crushing it. To their credit, they haven’t had to raise any more money at all. They’re well past the $50 million in sales and revenue levels. I’m just so proud of them. There’s been some really, really good ones that have been really exciting.

There was a CNN story that you might leave Shark Tank. What would be a reason for you to leave since it sounds like you’re enjoying it so much?

Really because my kids are teenagers. Up until my oldest went off to college this past summer, we always could work our schedules together. My two daughters went to the same school, my son went to a school that basically matched its schedule to my daughters’ school, so whenever we did something over the summer, I could just say we’re filming Shark Tank this part of June and once it’s over, we’ll all do something together. But now that my oldest has gone off to college, she likes her own schedule, doesn’t care about my Shark Tank schedule. My middle’s about to do the same thing in about a year. It comes down to just being able to get family time together over the summer. That’s super important to me and it just gets harder when your kids are going in their own direction.

Related: 'Shark Tank' Investor Kevin O’Leary Has a 'Wonderful' Net Worth

You made your money in tech, but these days you’re actually more famous for owning the Dallas Mavericks. Was that investment like a present to yourself? 

When we win, I enjoy it; when we lose, not so much. Owning a professional sports team is a unique investment. It’s not so much about the money, but you kind of represent the entire community, all of north Texas. If Apple or Nvidia or Google has the best quarter they’ve ever had, nobody throws a parade. If your local sports team wins a title, there’s a parade, everybody’s excited. Even people who typically aren’t sports fans are excited. And so, it’s just such a unique industry and it’s so much fun to be part of when things are going well.

You also tried to invest or acquire several baseball teams. Would you say those are the deals that got away from you? 

Yeah, and probably for the better. I’d probably be going nuts right now. I get so emotional about the Mavs, I can’t even imagine if I had another team. I’d probably be emotionally spent every minute of every day.

Talk about your decision to invest in something like Cost Plus Drugs that might make money but is also helping so many people by making their medications more affordable. 

I’ve been so blessed. My next dollar is not going to change my life. It’s not going to change my kids’ lives. But in starting a business like CostPlusDrugs.com with Dr. Alex Oshmyansky, we have a chance really to change people’s lives. It’s insane that here we are in 2023 and there’s still people that must choose between medication and rent and food and day care. That’s just not right. There are so many distortions in the way medications are priced that we felt by starting Cost Plus Drugs, we could change that. We’ve had that type of impact with so many people.

I’m used to people mentioning the Mavs and Shark Tank, I’m used to people coming up to me and saying hi or whatever because of those. Now, I’ve had people literally walk up and just hug me, people just walk up and cry because we’ve saved somebody or them and their family hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a month, and that’s just changed their lives. Or I get emails all the time where, “Hey, Mark, I didn’t think I’d be able to afford my medication,” or, “I couldn’t afford my medication, but you’ve changed that.”

Just to be able to do that, that’s something special. That, to me, other than my family and my kids, that’s something I want to be remembered for.

You’re also a proponent of reading. What are you reading now? 

I’m more of a tech guy, so I’m reading about AI and a book called Moneyland and just things that help me in business. To be candid, I haven’t read a fiction book in a while, but what I tell my kids is someone who doesn’t read lives one life and somebody who reads lives an unlimited number of lives. That’s not my quote, I don’t even know where it came from. [Note: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” ―George R.R. Martin]. But it’s so true because reading just opens you up to so many different worlds. That’s really what I want my kids to understand. Even though I don’t read a lot of fiction, even with nonfiction, just being introduced to new ideas and new concepts, that’s the stuff that gets me really excited.

Steve Jobs made the comment that, “Everything’s a remix.” I believe that; that most technologies are built on the technologies that came before them. Whether I’m reading a book or reading a magazine—yes, I still read magazines, I still subscribe to paper newspapers just because I want to support—when you get that one concept that gets you going, gets your juices flowing, that’s what allows me to start businesses and invest in businesses, because it really opens my eyes to what other people are doing and where there are new opportunities.

How do you keep your kids grounded and instill in them the drive that you had to succeed? 

Not necessarily to make a lot of money, but to succeed and be happy. My wife and I talk about it all the time; we don’t want them to be entitled jerks. They’re really good kids. But I don’t want them to try to emulate me or try to be like me. I want them to be themselves. I want them to have their own unique journey. I try to encourage them to always be learning. My oldest that’s in college, what you take from college is hopefully the thirst to learn, and you learn how to learn. Because if you like to learn and know how to learn, then as the world changes, you’re always going to be able to adapt, you’re always going to be able to find your way. I really don’t want them to be like me. Trust me, as teenagers they don’t want to be like me, either.

You recently played yourself on Billions…

Oh, no, that was acting.

…which you’ve done on numerous other shows. But when they ask you to do that, do you get approval on how you appear, so you don’t come off as a jerk? 

No, not at all. I just let it fly, and if I come off as a jerk that’s the way it goes because I like doing it and I appreciate that they let me do it. It’s not like I’m auditioning and it’s me versus Tom Cruise. I try to look at all those as unique opportunities that I enjoy doing. It’s completely different than business. It’s left brain instead of right brain. If they’re kind enough to let me try it, I’m happy no matter what happens.

Because at one point, you did try your hand at acting. 

Oh yeah, when I was young, young, young. You could tell it didn’t go very far.

Seriously, you’re not successful at everything? 

I’ve failed at many things. Many things.

You’ve said that you consider yourself lucky. How does that fit in with hard work, smarts, good intuition…all the other things that we think go into success? 

Luck impacts scale. Did I think I could be successful enough to support myself and live a life where I didn’t have to worry about every bill like I did when I was in my early 20s? Yeah, I did. Hard work and effort, all the things we’ve talked about, learning, selling, the character traits that I look for in Shark Tank entrepreneurs, I think I have those. It got me fairly far. But to have a “B” next to your name, that’s luck. Nobody, if they’re being honest, can say, “You know what? I’m going to work hard enough to be a billionaire.” No, to get that scale, to get to that level, it takes a lot of luck. Or maybe I shouldn’t say a lot. It takes at least one really fortunate lucky event to get to that level.

You said earlier that your next dollar is not going to change your life. So, what is it that you wish you had more of?

Time, time, time, time, time. It’s one thing we can’t get back, right? You get to a certain age, and we all start to realize that we’re mortal and we start to gauge our mortality. It’s scary. I don’t care who you are, it’s just scary. But that’s life, right? Father time is undefeated.

Next, You Have Yourself a Deal! All About 'Shark Tank' Season 15