9 ms·

I know it's trendy to hate on billionaires, and by no means do I think this step makes Mark Cuban the new "Mother Teresa" or anything. But I have to say, by and

I know it's trendy to hate on billionaires, and by no means do I think this step makes Mark Cuban the new "Mother Teresa" or anything. But I have to say, by and large, I feel like Cuban is legitimately a "good guy" as billionaires go. Yes he's rich, and he's unabashed about it, but he seems like a normal and reasonable human being nonetheless.

breck 6y ago
Ever since he joined Shark Tank that show has become one of the best things to happen to our economy in the 2000's. He's exposing millions of Americans to the long term benefits of a value creation, non-linear thinking, honesty is the best policy, builder/craftmanship mindset. When I was a kid growing up far away from Silicon Valley we had "The Apprentice" to learn from. Shark Tank (especially Cuban, but really the whole cast), is orders of magnitude better.
- skizm 6y ago
  I believe there was a point when Shark Tank would take some amount of equity from every business that came on the show regardless of if one of the sharks invested or not. Cuban called BS and said he wouldn't be on the show if that was the case. The policy was removed as a result. Smart move too, since you will probably get better companies on the show without that sort of policy.
  - breck 6y ago
    Yes. I can confirm this is exactly what happened (roommate almost went on the show, pre-Cuban. though I'm sure theres a lot more to the story that insiders would know).
  - valarauko 6y ago
    Curious: does the show take equity IF the sharks invest? I haven't really seen the show beyond a few episodes.
    - Judgmentality 6y ago
      No. The negotiations are real, and while there is a follow-up due diligence to close (or not) the deal, that is it. Note that anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 of deals fall through in the due diligence phase, depending on the shark. The first season, before they brought on Marc Cuban, the show took a percentage just for appearing on the show (so even if you didn't get a deal, you still gave up equity). The second season, Marc Cuban came on and insisted they remove that rule. https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilycanal/2016/10/21/about-72-of-deals-that-happen-on-shark-tank-dont-turn-out-as-seen-on-tv/?sh=2f57272e4ed1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilycanal/2016/10/21/about-72-... https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/do-the-deals-on-shark-tank-actually-close-later-kevin-oleary-answers.html/ https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/do-the-deals-on-sha...
      - mcculley 6y ago
        I have attended a few presentations where Phil Dumas, founder of UniKey, described his experience winning an investment on Shark Tank. He explained that there were many unattractive terms in the agreement he received after the recording that made him ultimately decline the investment. My takeaway was that it doesn't matter what happens on the show, the real offer is more complicated. (I have never seen the show, so I don't know how the offers are described. As an investor, I cannot imagine any offer that can be made verbally in the timespan of a television episode being meaningful.)
        dylan604 6y ago
        It's meaningful in getting future guests/contestants to be willing to appear on the show. If all of the sharks only ever said no, nobody would want to go on the show. They have to at least make the audience think deals are happening to keep an audience. After that, if the deal actually completes or not are not relavent to the producers of the show. They just need to line up the next round of chum to bring out in front of the sharks.
        alistairSH 6y ago
        I have never seen the show, so I don't know how the offers are described. Usually it's just one of the sharks offering something like "I'll pump in $500k for a 20% stake." (numbers made up) No details beyond that.
  - Zolt 6y ago
    I too had a lot of respect for Cuban regarding this. Article from Inc: Mark Cuban Made Shark Tank Change Its Contracts After threatening not to return until an equity clause was removed from contestants' contracts, Mark Cuban finally got his way. Just for appearing on the show, owners agree to give up 5% of their company or 2% of future royalties. ... Cuban said the clause was removed retroactively, meaning every contestant who's appeared on the show since Season One will be relieved of the commitment. However, how that will work out logistically remains unclear. https://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/mark-cuban-forces-shark-tank-to-remove-equity-clause.html https://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/mark-cuban-forces-shark-ta...
  - mmcconnell1618 6y ago
    I love when "medical" products with incredible claims show upon Shark Tank because Cuban usually shreds the owner's claims in about 2 seconds. He doesn't seem to tolerate grifters very well. This venture seems like a shot across the bow of anyone trying to squeeze an unfair percentage on top of generic drugs. Kudos to Cuban for launching this but it is something the US government should have been doing decades ago through drug price negotiation for medicare.
- mattdeboard 6y ago
  You grew up watching The Apprentice? wow, wild. it started airing in 2004
  - donkeyd 6y ago
    So.. Someone who was 12 back then is now 29. Doesn't seem that wild to me.
    - mattdeboard 6y ago
      ...Great, thanks for checking in.
  - breck 6y ago
    Yup, my mom and I watched it together for years. At least it was worth it for that QT (now somtimes we still watch Shark Tank together). This is back when I was still a script kiddy and lemonade stand entrepreneur. I also read "Art of the Deal" or whatever that crap was called. Sometime I can tell you the story of how I sued a Fortune 50 company after a minor disagreement because I thought that's how business was done. I can only laugh about all that now, and shout "thank you" to Cuban that we have at least one highly entertaining business show that also teaches mathematically correct ways of thinking about business.
- pradn 6y ago
  You have a rather charitable interpretation of the show. I saw 4 powerful combative "investors" holding ordinary folks in their fists, playing with their lives, and sometimes even verbally abusing them. The show offers a lottery ticket on top of the lottery ticket out of day-to-day work that is creating a new business. What invention the participants bring is commodified a second time, a double grotesquerie. I absolutely can't stand it, and the show, in teaching viewers to hold unsuccessful contestants in contempt, also promotes a sort of circus-like misanthropy.
  - chordalkeyboard 6y ago
    Thanks for this counterpoint.
m8s 6y ago
I think at certain levels of wealth, being "normal" is simply impossible. But there are people who use their fortunes for altruistic causes and that should be celebrated. Unfortunately, most of these cases simply highlight fundamental issues in other areas of our society.
Eric_WVGG 6y ago
This is awesome. I’ve been daydreaming for years that Bezos would launch some kind of “CostCo, but drugs” operation, as I figured he had the infrastructure… but this will do just fine. He should get insulin and epipen factories running ASAP, those are very high profile scams in the US right now. Looks like they could use some web dev help…
- maxerickson 6y ago
  Costco sells a bunch of generics. Their Allegra is super cheap compared to everyone (or was the last I checked).
  - perrylaj 6y ago
    Most in my state (CA) also have fully functional pharmacies, and the prescription drug prices are much cheaper much of the time. I shopped around when I went through a period of poor insurance (years ago) and my monthly medication costs were $25 at Costco, and the nearest competitor I could find was just over $100 when paying cash. Also, I believe that California, you do not need a Costco membership to purchase from the Costco pharmacy.
    - triceratops 6y ago
      You also don't need a Costco membership to purchase alcohol. And a lot of Kirkland liquor is the absolute bomb.
      - Larrikin 6y ago
        What is good besides the vodka being a near identical done of Grey Goose? I feel like I got kind of burned with their tequila, which was extremely mediocre.
        triceratops 6y ago
        The gin is pretty good value. I agree about the tequila.
stretchcat 6y ago
The real Mother Teresa was no 'Mother Teresa.'
- StavrosK 6y ago
  What, you aren't a fan of needless suffering?
  - joachimma 6y ago
    To be fair, when it was her time, neither was Mother Teresa.
    - StavrosK 6y ago
      For thee, but not for me.
- reducesuffering 6y ago
  Any good resource to learn about her issues?
citizenkeen 6y ago
I think a lot of that comes down to his background. Mark Cuban is from a very blue collar background. Compare that to Bezos/Musk/Gates/Zuckerberg, all of whom were from money.
- lawwantsin17 6y ago
  If by "very blue collar" you mean his father OWNED a car upholstery shop. Funny how owners still get to be called working class like that. Wonder how much that fake news costs?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
duxup 6y ago
How do you feel you know this? I don't know the man either way, and you may be spot on, but outside folks whose work is largely charitable and etc, how does anyone feel they know these things?
- mindcrime 6y ago
  How do you feel you know this? My impression of Mark Cuban has been built up over the years from a variety of sources, ranging from a brief in-person encounter[1] with him, to reading his book, his blog posts, etc., to seeing him on TV in various forms, interviews he's done, etc. There isn't exactly one specific thing that stands out by itself. All of that said, it's a very subjective thing, and for all I know Mark works very hard to cultivate that specific image for his own ends. I have no problem saying that my impression could be wrong. But based on the limited evidence I have available, that's where I'm at with it at the moment. [1]: I don't typically hang out with billionaires or anything. The only reason I've met Cuban is because he was once a keynote speaker at an event I attended. After his speech he hung out with the hoi polloi and mingled and interacted with people. I spent maybe 3 minutes chatting with him personally about my business, and maybe another 10-15 minutes listening to him talk to a small crowd that gathered around him. To be fair, that encounter probably went as far in shaping my impression of him as anything. I think the single biggest thing was that he displayed no condescension or smug superiority or anything towards people who weren't on his financial level. He was respectful, attentive, and reasonable even when talking with some rando like me.
  - duxup 6y ago
    Thank you. I prevaricate your response.
  - brandall10 6y ago
    When I found out the a-hole on Silicon Valley was partially based on him, I had to do a little research Couldn't find one negative experience. There are several threads on Quora for instance detailing how he treats everyone with respect and is a genuinely good dude.
andrewon 6y ago
not sure if the world can count on his moral value, but more competition is always good. If the narrative of generic drug pricing fixing is true, it would be a wonderful business opportunity as well.
tw04 6y ago
There are two options when you're rich like Cuban is (clearly there's more but to dumb it down). You can acknowledge that while it took hard work, and luck to get where you are, you likely would not have done it if you hadn't been born into a society that fosters the ability to move up the social ranks. If Mark Cuban were born in Libya there's almost no chance he becomes a billionaire for instance. Or you can pretend like the reason you're rich is solely of your own doing, and that the world owes you something. Cuban seems to be the former, and while he's not going to volunteer to just give all his money away, he is trying to help society collectively improve. It's a stark contrast between his approach and say, the Koch brothers. I guess the best way I'd put it is Cuban is a capitalist who believes in the social contract.
- frongpik 6y ago
  Off topic. What do you mean by "if he was born to Libya"? Does it imply prior existence? The official theory is that we are created during those 9 months, assembled like cars, and if so, he couldn't be born to libya because the body assembled in libya would be completely different. In the unofficial theory, e.g. buddhism, prior existence is a thing, but even then Mark couldn't be born to Libya: there were only few choices for him matching his prior achievements and every path would lead to a billionaire status.
zarkov99 6y ago
By and large this country is very lucky with the billionaires it continues to produce: Bezos, Cuba, Buffet, Gates, Paul Allen, Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Musk, etc, all seem to be incredible people who are committed to do good. I think it has something to do with the fact that these people are self-made and for the most part made their billions without having to sell their souls to the devil.
- chipgap98 6y ago
  I think out of the group you named at least Zuckerberg and Bezos have sold their souls to the devil
  - lostapathy 6y ago
    And in the 90's, many were convinced Gates was the devil.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - sky_rw 6y ago
      Many of us still are
  - zarkov99 6y ago
    I am conflicted about Zuckerberg, I think I understand where you are coming from, but Zuckerberg contributes heavily to charity and perhaps might not have realized the monster he was creating in Facebook. Similarly Dorsey. I do not get the Bezos hate.
    - meowface 6y ago
      One of the big issues with Zuckerberg's optics are the circumstances around Facebook's creation. An app to rate people's attractiveness, laughing in chat logs that people would trust him with their personal information, etc. Combined with the externalities and immense power they now have, it's not a great look. However, I agree that he's probably a better person than most give him credit for, and I think he's really stuck between a rock and a hard place on a lot of these issues. Especially things relating to politics, mis/disinformation, and free speech. I consider the proliferation of non-paid online services (who therefore can only survive by making money in other ways) the true bane of humanity; not any particular executive. (That said, I'm also not going to let anyone off the hook once they deliberately choose to create such a service.) I had a high opinion of Bezos until the disclosure of Amazon's poor working conditions. His making the minimum wage for workers $15/hour is a good step, but I think they're going to need to do a lot more before that reputation changes. Other than that, I admire him. Dorsey seems to be the least hated of the bunch, and I like him, personally. He seems like he still has a kind of hacker mindset, and I believe he genuinely wants to make Twitter a force for good in the world. I'm not sure if he'll be able to accomplish it, though.
tomelders 6y ago
Imagine you and I share an apartment and we split the rent between us. It's not a great apartment. There's mould in the bathroom caused by a lack of ventilation. The carpet is a mess. The power keeps cutting out if we plug too many things in. Now imagine I tell the landlord I'm going to move out unless he fixes these issues and he then offers me a 50% discount on the rent. Now imagine he recoups that discount by putting your rent up by the same amount. And now imagine that I use those savings to buy a nice big TV for the two of us. The bathroom is still covered in mould. The carpet is still a mess. The power still cuts out all the time. And you pay more rent than me. But I bought an awesome TV for us. So I'm the good guy right?
- dylan604 6y ago
  What an unrealistic comparison. No landlord would ever do that, nor would the roommate agree to the changes that the landlord would attempt to make even if that is something the landlord would do.
  - ficklepickle 6y ago
    Aren't you in Vancouver? I've had landlords here that would absolutely do something like that. Many slumlords would do anything they think they can get away with.
    - dylan604 6y ago
      Nope. I've never been to Canuckistan. If you're saying this is typical behaviour of landlords in Canadia, then it makes me have second thoughts if universal health care is worth it.
- kortilla 6y ago
  This analogy would work if you were already paying 10000x more than the roommate in the first place. Remember, all of the talk of billionaires “paying less in taxes than their assistants” is not based on raw collected amounts, it’s based on percentages. A billionaire with an effective federal tax rate of 15% on 50 million income is paying 7.5 million in taxes, which is more than all of the federal tax collected from the bottom 10% of income combined.
hoopleheaded 6y ago
The recent events where he helped Delonte West make for a pretty uplifting story that helps me believe Cuban is a decent and empathetic human being.
phkahler 6y ago
Isnt he the one who returned a bunch of Covid stimulus money after being called out on not needing it? Perhaps an oversite in his business empire, or perhaps damage control?
wpdev_63 6y ago
Make no mistake Mark Cuban is a snake if you ever lookup his past business dealings. He made his money by basically pushing out fellow founders at paypal.
- jermaustin1 6y ago
  > He made his money by basically pushing out fellow founders at paypal. I wasn't aware he was a founder at PayPal. I didn't even know he had worked for them.
  - marton78 6y ago
    He wasn't and he didn't.
- arrosenberg 6y ago
  Mark Cuban made his money selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo.
- devrand 6y ago
  I looked up his business dealings: he never had anything to do with PayPal, much less being a founder.
mtgx 6y ago
As a society we should have better policies than depending on the 1 in 100 good-heart billionaires, don't you think?
brundolf 6y ago
Broken clock, etc. (the "broken clock" being the obscenely wealthy as a class, not necessarily Cuban himself)
nceqs3 6y ago
I like Mark as well but he has had is bad moments. Hanging out with Tai Lopez and making vids with him??! Come on.
kirillzubovsky 6y ago
From what I understand generic drugs are currently often made overseas, and then sold back to American market. Although he may not be a bad guy, he simply knows how to make money, and there are many billions left for the taking in this market. Definite not Mother Theresa, but better done locally, at the least.
technotony 6y ago
He's a major investor in my company, and can 100% attest that's true. What's most astonishing about him is how responsive he is even two years after making that investment. He must have so many companies and he's still always showing up and encouraging and providing value. He's pretty direct when he thinks we are doing the wrong things, but that's always appreciated. His super power is handling all that over email (mostly).
- adventured 6y ago
  I second that sentiment. I was in business with Cuban for many years, he always responded quickly and could always be reached via email / messaging in a matter of minutes in most cases if something came up. An almost ideal investor for an entrepreneur and his terms are very unusual in the industry, he often takes common shares with no strings, he's on the same playing field as the founders.
monadic3 6y ago
Who cares? Honestly I can't find an interpretation of this that is materially meaningful. Unless he's prepared to start a company that loses value he's not going to go very far as a philanthropist.

breck 6y ago

Ever since he joined Shark Tank that show has become one of the best things to happen to our economy in the 2000's. He's exposing millions of Americans to the long term benefits of a value creation, non-linear thinking, honesty is the best policy, builder/craftmanship mindset. When I was a kid growing up far away from Silicon Valley we had "The Apprentice" to learn from. Shark Tank (especially Cuban, but really the whole cast), is orders of magnitude better.

skizm 6y ago
I believe there was a point when Shark Tank would take some amount of equity from every business that came on the show regardless of if one of the sharks invested or not. Cuban called BS and said he wouldn't be on the show if that was the case. The policy was removed as a result. Smart move too, since you will probably get better companies on the show without that sort of policy.
- breck 6y ago
  Yes. I can confirm this is exactly what happened (roommate almost went on the show, pre-Cuban. though I'm sure theres a lot more to the story that insiders would know).
- valarauko 6y ago
  Curious: does the show take equity IF the sharks invest? I haven't really seen the show beyond a few episodes.
  - Judgmentality 6y ago
    No. The negotiations are real, and while there is a follow-up due diligence to close (or not) the deal, that is it. Note that anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 of deals fall through in the due diligence phase, depending on the shark. The first season, before they brought on Marc Cuban, the show took a percentage just for appearing on the show (so even if you didn't get a deal, you still gave up equity). The second season, Marc Cuban came on and insisted they remove that rule. https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilycanal/2016/10/21/about-72-of-deals-that-happen-on-shark-tank-dont-turn-out-as-seen-on-tv/?sh=2f57272e4ed1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilycanal/2016/10/21/about-72-... https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/do-the-deals-on-shark-tank-actually-close-later-kevin-oleary-answers.html/ https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/do-the-deals-on-sha...
    - mcculley 6y ago
      I have attended a few presentations where Phil Dumas, founder of UniKey, described his experience winning an investment on Shark Tank. He explained that there were many unattractive terms in the agreement he received after the recording that made him ultimately decline the investment. My takeaway was that it doesn't matter what happens on the show, the real offer is more complicated. (I have never seen the show, so I don't know how the offers are described. As an investor, I cannot imagine any offer that can be made verbally in the timespan of a television episode being meaningful.)
      - dylan604 6y ago
        It's meaningful in getting future guests/contestants to be willing to appear on the show. If all of the sharks only ever said no, nobody would want to go on the show. They have to at least make the audience think deals are happening to keep an audience. After that, if the deal actually completes or not are not relavent to the producers of the show. They just need to line up the next round of chum to bring out in front of the sharks.
      - alistairSH 6y ago
        I have never seen the show, so I don't know how the offers are described. Usually it's just one of the sharks offering something like "I'll pump in $500k for a 20% stake." (numbers made up) No details beyond that.
- Zolt 6y ago
  I too had a lot of respect for Cuban regarding this. Article from Inc: Mark Cuban Made Shark Tank Change Its Contracts After threatening not to return until an equity clause was removed from contestants' contracts, Mark Cuban finally got his way. Just for appearing on the show, owners agree to give up 5% of their company or 2% of future royalties. ... Cuban said the clause was removed retroactively, meaning every contestant who's appeared on the show since Season One will be relieved of the commitment. However, how that will work out logistically remains unclear. https://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/mark-cuban-forces-shark-tank-to-remove-equity-clause.html https://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/mark-cuban-forces-shark-ta...
- mmcconnell1618 6y ago
  I love when "medical" products with incredible claims show upon Shark Tank because Cuban usually shreds the owner's claims in about 2 seconds. He doesn't seem to tolerate grifters very well. This venture seems like a shot across the bow of anyone trying to squeeze an unfair percentage on top of generic drugs. Kudos to Cuban for launching this but it is something the US government should have been doing decades ago through drug price negotiation for medicare.
mattdeboard 6y ago
You grew up watching The Apprentice? wow, wild. it started airing in 2004
- donkeyd 6y ago
  So.. Someone who was 12 back then is now 29. Doesn't seem that wild to me.
  - mattdeboard 6y ago
    ...Great, thanks for checking in.
- breck 6y ago
  Yup, my mom and I watched it together for years. At least it was worth it for that QT (now somtimes we still watch Shark Tank together). This is back when I was still a script kiddy and lemonade stand entrepreneur. I also read "Art of the Deal" or whatever that crap was called. Sometime I can tell you the story of how I sued a Fortune 50 company after a minor disagreement because I thought that's how business was done. I can only laugh about all that now, and shout "thank you" to Cuban that we have at least one highly entertaining business show that also teaches mathematically correct ways of thinking about business.
pradn 6y ago
You have a rather charitable interpretation of the show. I saw 4 powerful combative "investors" holding ordinary folks in their fists, playing with their lives, and sometimes even verbally abusing them. The show offers a lottery ticket on top of the lottery ticket out of day-to-day work that is creating a new business. What invention the participants bring is commodified a second time, a double grotesquerie. I absolutely can't stand it, and the show, in teaching viewers to hold unsuccessful contestants in contempt, also promotes a sort of circus-like misanthropy.
- chordalkeyboard 6y ago
  Thanks for this counterpoint.

m8s 6y ago

I think at certain levels of wealth, being "normal" is simply impossible. But there are people who use their fortunes for altruistic causes and that should be celebrated. Unfortunately, most of these cases simply highlight fundamental issues in other areas of our society.

Eric_WVGG 6y ago

This is awesome. I’ve been daydreaming for years that Bezos would launch some kind of “CostCo, but drugs” operation, as I figured he had the infrastructure… but this will do just fine. He should get insulin and epipen factories running ASAP, those are very high profile scams in the US right now. Looks like they could use some web dev help…

maxerickson 6y ago
Costco sells a bunch of generics. Their Allegra is super cheap compared to everyone (or was the last I checked).
- perrylaj 6y ago
  Most in my state (CA) also have fully functional pharmacies, and the prescription drug prices are much cheaper much of the time. I shopped around when I went through a period of poor insurance (years ago) and my monthly medication costs were $25 at Costco, and the nearest competitor I could find was just over $100 when paying cash. Also, I believe that California, you do not need a Costco membership to purchase from the Costco pharmacy.
  - triceratops 6y ago
    You also don't need a Costco membership to purchase alcohol. And a lot of Kirkland liquor is the absolute bomb.
    - Larrikin 6y ago
      What is good besides the vodka being a near identical done of Grey Goose? I feel like I got kind of burned with their tequila, which was extremely mediocre.
      - triceratops 6y ago
        The gin is pretty good value. I agree about the tequila.

stretchcat 6y ago

The real Mother Teresa was no 'Mother Teresa.'

StavrosK 6y ago
What, you aren't a fan of needless suffering?
- joachimma 6y ago
  To be fair, when it was her time, neither was Mother Teresa.
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    For thee, but not for me.
reducesuffering 6y ago
Any good resource to learn about her issues?

citizenkeen 6y ago

I think a lot of that comes down to his background. Mark Cuban is from a very blue collar background. Compare that to Bezos/Musk/Gates/Zuckerberg, all of whom were from money.

lawwantsin17 6y ago
If by "very blue collar" you mean his father OWNED a car upholstery shop. Funny how owners still get to be called working class like that. Wonder how much that fake news costs?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

duxup 6y ago

How do you feel you know this? I don't know the man either way, and you may be spot on, but outside folks whose work is largely charitable and etc, how does anyone feel they know these things?

mindcrime 6y ago
How do you feel you know this? My impression of Mark Cuban has been built up over the years from a variety of sources, ranging from a brief in-person encounter[1] with him, to reading his book, his blog posts, etc., to seeing him on TV in various forms, interviews he's done, etc. There isn't exactly one specific thing that stands out by itself. All of that said, it's a very subjective thing, and for all I know Mark works very hard to cultivate that specific image for his own ends. I have no problem saying that my impression could be wrong. But based on the limited evidence I have available, that's where I'm at with it at the moment. [1]: I don't typically hang out with billionaires or anything. The only reason I've met Cuban is because he was once a keynote speaker at an event I attended. After his speech he hung out with the hoi polloi and mingled and interacted with people. I spent maybe 3 minutes chatting with him personally about my business, and maybe another 10-15 minutes listening to him talk to a small crowd that gathered around him. To be fair, that encounter probably went as far in shaping my impression of him as anything. I think the single biggest thing was that he displayed no condescension or smug superiority or anything towards people who weren't on his financial level. He was respectful, attentive, and reasonable even when talking with some rando like me.
- duxup 6y ago
  Thank you. I prevaricate your response.
- brandall10 6y ago
  When I found out the a-hole on Silicon Valley was partially based on him, I had to do a little research Couldn't find one negative experience. There are several threads on Quora for instance detailing how he treats everyone with respect and is a genuinely good dude.

andrewon 6y ago

not sure if the world can count on his moral value, but more competition is always good. If the narrative of generic drug pricing fixing is true, it would be a wonderful business opportunity as well.

tw04 6y ago

There are two options when you're rich like Cuban is (clearly there's more but to dumb it down). You can acknowledge that while it took hard work, and luck to get where you are, you likely would not have done it if you hadn't been born into a society that fosters the ability to move up the social ranks. If Mark Cuban were born in Libya there's almost no chance he becomes a billionaire for instance. Or you can pretend like the reason you're rich is solely of your own doing, and that the world owes you something. Cuban seems to be the former, and while he's not going to volunteer to just give all his money away, he is trying to help society collectively improve. It's a stark contrast between his approach and say, the Koch brothers. I guess the best way I'd put it is Cuban is a capitalist who believes in the social contract.

frongpik 6y ago
Off topic. What do you mean by "if he was born to Libya"? Does it imply prior existence? The official theory is that we are created during those 9 months, assembled like cars, and if so, he couldn't be born to libya because the body assembled in libya would be completely different. In the unofficial theory, e.g. buddhism, prior existence is a thing, but even then Mark couldn't be born to Libya: there were only few choices for him matching his prior achievements and every path would lead to a billionaire status.

zarkov99 6y ago

By and large this country is very lucky with the billionaires it continues to produce: Bezos, Cuba, Buffet, Gates, Paul Allen, Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Musk, etc, all seem to be incredible people who are committed to do good. I think it has something to do with the fact that these people are self-made and for the most part made their billions without having to sell their souls to the devil.

chipgap98 6y ago
I think out of the group you named at least Zuckerberg and Bezos have sold their souls to the devil
- lostapathy 6y ago
  And in the 90's, many were convinced Gates was the devil.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - sky_rw 6y ago
    Many of us still are
- zarkov99 6y ago
  I am conflicted about Zuckerberg, I think I understand where you are coming from, but Zuckerberg contributes heavily to charity and perhaps might not have realized the monster he was creating in Facebook. Similarly Dorsey. I do not get the Bezos hate.
  - meowface 6y ago
    One of the big issues with Zuckerberg's optics are the circumstances around Facebook's creation. An app to rate people's attractiveness, laughing in chat logs that people would trust him with their personal information, etc. Combined with the externalities and immense power they now have, it's not a great look. However, I agree that he's probably a better person than most give him credit for, and I think he's really stuck between a rock and a hard place on a lot of these issues. Especially things relating to politics, mis/disinformation, and free speech. I consider the proliferation of non-paid online services (who therefore can only survive by making money in other ways) the true bane of humanity; not any particular executive. (That said, I'm also not going to let anyone off the hook once they deliberately choose to create such a service.) I had a high opinion of Bezos until the disclosure of Amazon's poor working conditions. His making the minimum wage for workers $15/hour is a good step, but I think they're going to need to do a lot more before that reputation changes. Other than that, I admire him. Dorsey seems to be the least hated of the bunch, and I like him, personally. He seems like he still has a kind of hacker mindset, and I believe he genuinely wants to make Twitter a force for good in the world. I'm not sure if he'll be able to accomplish it, though.

tomelders 6y ago

Imagine you and I share an apartment and we split the rent between us. It's not a great apartment. There's mould in the bathroom caused by a lack of ventilation. The carpet is a mess. The power keeps cutting out if we plug too many things in. Now imagine I tell the landlord I'm going to move out unless he fixes these issues and he then offers me a 50% discount on the rent. Now imagine he recoups that discount by putting your rent up by the same amount. And now imagine that I use those savings to buy a nice big TV for the two of us. The bathroom is still covered in mould. The carpet is still a mess. The power still cuts out all the time. And you pay more rent than me. But I bought an awesome TV for us. So I'm the good guy right?

dylan604 6y ago
What an unrealistic comparison. No landlord would ever do that, nor would the roommate agree to the changes that the landlord would attempt to make even if that is something the landlord would do.
- ficklepickle 6y ago
  Aren't you in Vancouver? I've had landlords here that would absolutely do something like that. Many slumlords would do anything they think they can get away with.
  - dylan604 6y ago
    Nope. I've never been to Canuckistan. If you're saying this is typical behaviour of landlords in Canadia, then it makes me have second thoughts if universal health care is worth it.
kortilla 6y ago
This analogy would work if you were already paying 10000x more than the roommate in the first place. Remember, all of the talk of billionaires “paying less in taxes than their assistants” is not based on raw collected amounts, it’s based on percentages. A billionaire with an effective federal tax rate of 15% on 50 million income is paying 7.5 million in taxes, which is more than all of the federal tax collected from the bottom 10% of income combined.

hoopleheaded 6y ago

The recent events where he helped Delonte West make for a pretty uplifting story that helps me believe Cuban is a decent and empathetic human being.

phkahler 6y ago

Isnt he the one who returned a bunch of Covid stimulus money after being called out on not needing it? Perhaps an oversite in his business empire, or perhaps damage control?

wpdev_63 6y ago

Make no mistake Mark Cuban is a snake if you ever lookup his past business dealings. He made his money by basically pushing out fellow founders at paypal.

jermaustin1 6y ago
> He made his money by basically pushing out fellow founders at paypal. I wasn't aware he was a founder at PayPal. I didn't even know he had worked for them.
- marton78 6y ago
  He wasn't and he didn't.
arrosenberg 6y ago
Mark Cuban made his money selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo.
devrand 6y ago
I looked up his business dealings: he never had anything to do with PayPal, much less being a founder.

mtgx 6y ago

As a society we should have better policies than depending on the 1 in 100 good-heart billionaires, don't you think?

brundolf 6y ago

Broken clock, etc. (the "broken clock" being the obscenely wealthy as a class, not necessarily Cuban himself)

nceqs3 6y ago

I like Mark as well but he has had is bad moments. Hanging out with Tai Lopez and making vids with him??! Come on.

kirillzubovsky 6y ago

From what I understand generic drugs are currently often made overseas, and then sold back to American market. Although he may not be a bad guy, he simply knows how to make money, and there are many billions left for the taking in this market. Definite not Mother Theresa, but better done locally, at the least.

technotony 6y ago

He's a major investor in my company, and can 100% attest that's true. What's most astonishing about him is how responsive he is even two years after making that investment. He must have so many companies and he's still always showing up and encouraging and providing value. He's pretty direct when he thinks we are doing the wrong things, but that's always appreciated. His super power is handling all that over email (mostly).

adventured 6y ago
I second that sentiment. I was in business with Cuban for many years, he always responded quickly and could always be reached via email / messaging in a matter of minutes in most cases if something came up. An almost ideal investor for an entrepreneur and his terms are very unusual in the industry, he often takes common shares with no strings, he's on the same playing field as the founders.

monadic3 6y ago

Who cares? Honestly I can't find an interpretation of this that is materially meaningful. Unless he's prepared to start a company that loses value he's not going to go very far as a philanthropist.