Speaker 1: As it turned out, I had gone out night before
Speaker 1: with my buddies and I was just so hungover. So
Speaker 1: I just went for it and just decided I was
Speaker 1: going to be aggressive, and they invited me back for
Speaker 1: season three to be a full time sharkout.
Speaker 2: Welcome to episode five twenty two. We will talk to
Speaker 2: Mark Cuban, which is super cool. The guy is a
Speaker 2: multi billionaire and did not come from money at all.
Speaker 2: He's a self made billionaire. Parents didn't come from money.
Speaker 2: Big guy when it comes to sports like it, was
Speaker 2: the Mavericks owner for a long time. He just sold
Speaker 2: a majority stake. Still in some of it, but he
Speaker 2: just sold a majority steak. I was on Shark Tank,
Speaker 2: I say, was, I guess this episode is still going
Speaker 2: but he's off the show now, right?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it was on Shark Tank forever. I just
Speaker 2: assumed he was there from season one because I didn't
Speaker 2: start watching Shark Tank at season one, and I really
Speaker 2: only know it from Mark Cuban being on it. He
Speaker 2: wasn't always on it. I thought that was kind of weird.
Speaker 2: It'skind of got good though, when he was on. He's
Speaker 2: the most famous shark, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's the best one.
Speaker 2: He is the best. Yeah, uh so Mark Cuban. And
Speaker 2: then we will talk after Mark Cuban about the biggest
Speaker 2: wins in Shark Tank history, the products that came on
Speaker 2: and actually crust hundreds of million dollars. We've got a
Speaker 2: billion dollar product. We'll do that right after Mark Cuban.
Speaker 2: But thanks for being here for the Bobbycast. And here's
Speaker 2: my conversation with Mark Cuban. Hey, Mark, thanks for your time. Man,
Speaker 2: hope you having a good day. How's it going?
Speaker 1: Another day in paradise by guy. I'm just you know,
Speaker 1: getting up and rolling.
Speaker 2: I was talking to one of my guys here in
Speaker 2: the studio and I was like, I could probably do
Speaker 2: two hours with Mark Cuban, mostly because I'm very interested
Speaker 2: in different parts of your life. Massive sports fan. I
Speaker 2: think what you're doing with prescription medicine and and so
Speaker 2: there are all these areas Shark Tank. We're going to
Speaker 2: get to all of them. But if someone were just
Speaker 2: to come up to you today and be like, hey man,
Speaker 2: what do you want to talk about? Like what even
Speaker 2: do you want to talk about as a parton what's
Speaker 2: your favorite thing to talk about right now?
Speaker 1: Well? Right now, I mean considering how We got connected
Speaker 1: on this probably by guy Kevin Mack and the song
Speaker 1: we wrote together, which is what people have no clue about,
Speaker 1: and it came about via Shark Tank, which is the
Speaker 1: craziest part.
Speaker 2: So when you write the song, do you guys sit
Speaker 2: in a room and kind of hash it out? How'd
Speaker 2: the songwriting come together?
Speaker 1: He came up shark Tank with a company called Tickpit.
Speaker 1: We did a deal and I was in Nashville and
Speaker 1: we were just, you know, just talking and talking and
Speaker 1: talking about random stuff and I'm like, Okay, you're gonna
Speaker 1: laugh at this, but I got this idea for a
Speaker 1: country song that me and my friends have always talked about.
Speaker 1: And he's like, okay, hey, I'm always looking for ideas.
Speaker 1: Tell me. And so me and my buddy we'd go
Speaker 1: out to bars and when you know, when we were
Speaker 1: in our twenties and in early thirties, and it would
Speaker 1: be like someone would come up to us and be like,
Speaker 1: aren't you that one girl from that one night from
Speaker 1: that one bar? You know, just start All guys have
Speaker 1: these stupid things that they say. And he was like,
Speaker 1: that's a cool idea for the start around the song,
Speaker 1: and so we just started working from there and talking,
Speaker 1: and then we finished it up going back and forth
Speaker 1: via email believe it or not, and then we get
Speaker 1: on the phone and then we got together again for
Speaker 1: start Tank and finished it up.
Speaker 2: And how'd you feel about it the first time you
Speaker 2: heard it?
Speaker 1: I loved it because you know, we went back and
Speaker 1: forth a couple times for modifications, but it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, how guys get together and they're
Speaker 1: drinking and they're saying we should do this, and how
Speaker 1: cool would it be if we did that? And just
Speaker 1: to hear it all put together was amazing.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the guitar pick for a second, because
Speaker 2: it's a pretty brilliant idea. I play a little bit
Speaker 2: as in I do like comedy music. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I lose picks. Everybody loses picks all the time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's if you play guitar, it's like you need it.
Speaker 2: It's almost like a major league baseball team. You need
Speaker 2: to have a ton of baseballs to have Again, you
Speaker 2: need a ton of picks to have a show. So
Speaker 2: the idea he comes in just kind of give me
Speaker 2: the idea from the start.
Speaker 1: So it's a thing called Tickpit t I Kapik and
Speaker 1: It allows you to take your pick and just put
Speaker 1: it to the bass of the guitar, right, so you're playing,
Speaker 1: you're doing whatever, and you don't need to pick, and
Speaker 1: you just pop it on the bass of the guitar
Speaker 1: and it's dicks, you know, and it's there when you
Speaker 1: need it and if you accidentally drop when you have
Speaker 1: two three four lined up and you know, I'm a
Speaker 1: three three court guitar player. You know, C, D and
Speaker 1: D and that's it. And so you know, it was
Speaker 1: just like, you know, okay, this is fun. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just easy to grab and it's always right there,
Speaker 1: and they're not expensive and you don't lose them.
Speaker 2: You know what's interesting. It's one of those ideas where
Speaker 2: you're like, how did someone not already invent this? Right?
Speaker 2: And secondly, it reminds me of like a ball marker
Speaker 2: when you play golf, and now they have it. It
Speaker 2: magnetizes to like that thing you were on your hat.
Speaker 2: It's the same kind of feeling where it's like, how
Speaker 2: is this already not invented? But I think that's part
Speaker 2: of why it's so brilliant. Did you think the same
Speaker 2: thing when you heard the idea where you're like, how
Speaker 2: did this not already exist?
Speaker 1: Yeah, cause it's kind of like, you know, it's shark tech.
Speaker 1: When someone comes in and my first thought is why
Speaker 1: didn't I think of that? Then I know it's a
Speaker 1: good deal, right, And so I didn't expect this to
Speaker 1: be like one hundred million dollar business, but it just
Speaker 1: made perfect sense. And Kevin, who is just like a
Speaker 1: good guy. You know, you want to deal with an
Speaker 1: entrepreneur that's got a good heart, that cares about you know,
Speaker 1: people and customers. And then when you have a great
Speaker 1: product and you pull those pieces together, it was really
Speaker 1: easy to do the deal. And they've just been blown up,
Speaker 1: you know. They they're in guitar centers that we're doing
Speaker 1: deals with all these brands, I mean, and Kevin's a
Speaker 1: good sale grip man. He's out there hustling, you know,
Speaker 1: playner song. It's it's a lot of fun. This is
Speaker 1: one of those businesses where fun meets business and that's
Speaker 1: when the magic happened.
Speaker 2: And this is it for you on Shark Tank right
Speaker 2: final season that's airing now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and actually it just finished and so I'm done.
Speaker 1: They're actually shooting for season seventeen right now. It's kind
Speaker 1: of weird that I'm not there, but yeah, it was
Speaker 1: time to move on.
Speaker 2: Was it an emotional final not even on camera, but
Speaker 2: like when you leave the last time or was it
Speaker 2: like I'm just kind of ready to get out of here.
Speaker 1: No, it was emotional because, you know, shooting the show
Speaker 1: was fun and it's easy, and the deals are cool,
Speaker 1: and you know, I did the show because it sends
Speaker 1: the message to America, particularly in these times, that the
Speaker 1: American dream is still alive and well. But the relationships
Speaker 1: are really built with the crew, the staff, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody behind the scenes, the other Sharks. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: been doing this together for fifteen years. You know, you
Speaker 1: work with somebody for fifteen years, you're going to develop
Speaker 1: relationships and that was the hard part.
Speaker 2: You also sold a large stake of the MAVs, so
Speaker 2: it's like Mark Cuban is leaving this. But I feel
Speaker 2: like you've never been more present, at least like on
Speaker 2: all my feeds right Like, I'm seeing you more. But
Speaker 2: everyone's like he's doing less. So what are you doing less?
Speaker 2: Or have you just moved? And are you doing different places?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Different places, I'm doing you know less on some
Speaker 1: of the things I did for a long time, so
Speaker 1: I can go on and do more of the things
Speaker 1: that I think are going to be important. You know,
Speaker 1: for the longest time, it was just like, Okay, you
Speaker 1: know the MAVs, what a unique experience, what fun I'm
Speaker 1: about basketball junkie, you know, I love the game. I
Speaker 1: still play all those things. But it was twenty three
Speaker 1: years and then Shark Tank fifteen years, and it's like,
Speaker 1: is this what I wanted to do the rest of
Speaker 1: my life? And it's not that I didn't love either
Speaker 1: one of them, but my kids, you know, were fifteen, eighteen,
Speaker 1: and twenty one, and you know, you know, my middle
Speaker 1: daughters graduating from high school, my oldest daughter is getting
Speaker 1: ready to be a senior in college, my son is
Speaker 1: going to be a sophomore in high school, and you know,
Speaker 1: shooting Shark Tank and traveling with the Masks, I felt
Speaker 1: like I was missing things and I didn't want to
Speaker 1: miss anymore. And then, you know, we had also started
Speaker 1: costplus Drugs dot Com and that was having such a
Speaker 1: huge impact on people, you know, saving lives, saving people
Speaker 1: tons of money on their medications, and you know, it
Speaker 1: was just one of those things that I felt like
Speaker 1: if I was going to create a mission for myself
Speaker 1: right now? Was it going to be? Okay, what was
Speaker 1: I going to put first a great season on Shark Tank,
Speaker 1: winning another championship, or changing healthcare for the better? Because
Speaker 1: no one looks at healthcare in this country and says
Speaker 1: the economic side anyways is great? Right, Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just perfect in the United States, and you know,
Speaker 1: we've really had an impact, and I think I can
Speaker 1: have a whole lot more impact.
Speaker 2: Cost plus drugs is super interesting to me, and I've
Speaker 2: been following you in this journey. I grew up pretty
Speaker 2: much in poverty, and I talk about it people having
Speaker 2: to choose between medicine and food a lot of times
Speaker 2: because all the time, and you don't know about it
Speaker 2: because those people's stories. It's not like that's on the news.
Speaker 2: That's not a sensational headline that you hear, but it's
Speaker 2: happening all over America all the time. So when I
Speaker 2: heard what you guys' goal was, I started following because again,
Speaker 2: that was a big part of my life. We didn't
Speaker 2: even go to the doctor because we knew if you
Speaker 2: went to if you went to the doctor, that was
Speaker 2: going to cost money. So let's just not even find
Speaker 2: out if you're sick or not, because then we may
Speaker 2: not be able to eat or pay rent or whatever.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: So trust me, I know exactly feeling.
Speaker 2: So then, what's the genesis of cost plus drugs and
Speaker 2: when did it become a reality you could actually try
Speaker 2: something like this.
Speaker 1: So I got a cold email from a doctor alex
Speaker 1: Oshmayanski in twenty eighteen or nineteen, I forget exactly, and
Speaker 1: he wanted to do this thing called a compounding pharmacy
Speaker 1: for drugs that were in short supply. So, believe it
Speaker 1: or not, there are drugs like pediatric cancer drugs that
Speaker 1: are injectable in hospitals that go on short supply because
Speaker 1: the companies that manufacture them want them to be on
Speaker 1: short supply so they can manufacture more, I'm sorry, charge more.
Speaker 1: And so he emailed me telling me about this. I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: that's a good idea, but there's got to be more
Speaker 1: to this. And that was right when the farmer bro
Speaker 1: was going to jail after having jacked up the price
Speaker 1: of this drug, you know, like seventy five hundred percent,
Speaker 1: and I started asking him, I'm like, look, Alex, you
Speaker 1: know why is he able to get away with this,
Speaker 1: and it became very apparent, very quickly that the problem
Speaker 1: was there's no transparency. You know, you talk about not
Speaker 1: being able to afford medications and being afraid to go
Speaker 1: to the doctor, and a big part of that is
Speaker 1: because you have no idea what a medication costs. We've
Speaker 1: all seen it or experienced it or talked to people,
Speaker 1: you know that go to the pharmacy not knowing what
Speaker 1: it's going to cost them for, you know, for a
Speaker 1: medication that the doctor prescribed. And when when you think
Speaker 1: about it, when you go to the doctor and they
Speaker 1: say you need a med they don't say can you
Speaker 1: afford it? Here's the price? They say, what pharmacy do
Speaker 1: you use? Good luck? You know, And so I, you know,
Speaker 1: to me, it was like, okay, well if you don't
Speaker 1: know all this information, why why has nobody just been
Speaker 1: completely transparent on medication pricing? And he was like, I
Speaker 1: don't know. And so I said, well, let's do this.
Speaker 1: Let's you know, let's see if we can create a
Speaker 1: company that is absolutely transparent that people can trust and
Speaker 1: know if they can afford it and hopefully be more
Speaker 1: able to afford it. So when I got the u
Speaker 1: URL cosplus drugs dot Com and made the decision that
Speaker 1: when you go to costplus Drugs dot com, you put
Speaker 1: in the name of the medication. And now we're up
Speaker 1: to thousands of different skews that we carry, and if
Speaker 1: we carry it, we don't have all of them yet,
Speaker 1: we're working on it. But if we carry it, we
Speaker 1: show you what it cost us to buy. And so
Speaker 1: you know our exact costs for that medication. We mark
Speaker 1: it up fifteen percent. That's it, because you know why
Speaker 1: fifteen percent because I thought that would be fair. And
Speaker 1: then if it's mail order, it's five dollars for a
Speaker 1: pharmacist to review and five dollars for shipping and handling,
Speaker 1: and that's it. And so by doing it that way,
Speaker 1: we were able to cut the cost of medications for
Speaker 1: people like ninety eight percent, like the can. I can't
Speaker 1: even tell you how many times I've got emails or
Speaker 1: even people walking up to me on the street just
Speaker 1: hugging me. I was in Nashville actually to see Kevin
Speaker 1: and this woman walked up and just started crying and
Speaker 1: hugging me and told me the story about how her
Speaker 1: family was saving thousands of dollars per month using costplus
Speaker 1: Drugs dot Com and they, you know, not only were
Speaker 1: not rationing, they couldn't afford it to buy it at all.
Speaker 1: And now they could afford their medication. Or you know,
Speaker 1: I had one not long ago where somebody emailed me
Speaker 1: and said, look, I have cancer. It just is what
Speaker 1: it is. And I was getting ready to make the
Speaker 1: decision that I'm not going to buy any more medications
Speaker 1: because when I'm gone, it's going to be on our
Speaker 1: credit card and my wife is going to be obligated
Speaker 1: to pay that credit card bill. But we found out
Speaker 1: about costplus Drugs dot Com. Went to costplus Drugs dot
Speaker 1: Com and instead of it being nine hundred dollars a month,
Speaker 1: it was like forty three dollars a month. You saved
Speaker 1: our lives. I mean, when you hear that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: I mean, if that's not motivating and you know, worthy
Speaker 1: of attention, I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2: You talk about the doctor emailing you. And this is
Speaker 2: a story that I've been able to tell about you
Speaker 2: for a long time, and it's it's been over fifteen years.
Speaker 2: So you may not remember the story, cause I'm sure
Speaker 2: you've done this one hundred times or more, but I
Speaker 2: had a friend because we lived in Austin for a
Speaker 2: long time, like like twelve thirteen years, and she was
Speaker 2: like going to our first Maps game ever, and she
Speaker 2: just emailed your email address and you actually responded and
Speaker 2: met her out front with tickets of the arena. And
Speaker 2: she was like, Mark Cuban, the freaking owns met me
Speaker 2: and handed me tickets to the game with her and
Speaker 2: her dad. Like, I'm you do stuff like that a lot.
Speaker 2: I'm not making that up. You've done that before, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: for sure. I would tell people and they're like, there's
Speaker 2: no chance that Mark Cuban. I was like, guys, I
Speaker 2: swear to you he met her out front and handed
Speaker 2: her tickets. How do you know whose emails to read?
Speaker 2: How do you look at all the emails?
Speaker 1: You just get a sense of it, you know. I
Speaker 1: don't do a lot of phone calls. They don't do
Speaker 1: many meetings at all. I try to do everything via
Speaker 1: email because it gives me a tickler file, and it
Speaker 1: gives me a history, right, I can go back and
Speaker 1: search for things, and like, if you told me her
Speaker 1: email address, I could probably find that email. But having
Speaker 1: read so many of them, you kind of get a
Speaker 1: feel for what's real or not. And you know it's
Speaker 1: typically the longer the backstory, the less likely it is
Speaker 1: to be true or necessary. But when somebody is like
Speaker 1: shortened to the point, hey, you know we can't afford it.
Speaker 1: My mom and my dad, it's been their dream to
Speaker 1: go to a MAVs game. You know, if you ask
Speaker 1: me for a Lakers game, I'm probably not going to
Speaker 1: respond if you say, we'll take any game at all.
Speaker 1: We just want to go and experience it together. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be your guy, you know, and I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: you those tickets, and you're gonna come to a Math game.
Speaker 1: We're all gonna have fun.
Speaker 4: Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor,
Speaker 4: and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 2: What was life like for you at like eight years old?
Speaker 2: Like I'm just trying to picture the young version of
Speaker 2: you and how you this presentation what we see now? Like,
Speaker 2: how did that get formed?
Speaker 1: You know? I grew in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My dad did
Speaker 1: a pollstery on cars. My mom did odd jobs at
Speaker 1: two younger brothers. Nothing. You know, we weren't poor, but
Speaker 1: we weren't rich, that's for certain. And I was always
Speaker 1: my parents were always like, if you want something, you
Speaker 1: got to earn it. My dad was one, you know, typical,
Speaker 1: you know, blue collar worker, up at six to work
Speaker 1: at seven, home at five, on the easy chair by six,
Speaker 1: watch you whatsever on television, you know, asleep by nine,
Speaker 1: and you know, we just had a normal family. But
Speaker 1: they were always like, you know, if you want better,
Speaker 1: you've got to earn it. And so from it as
Speaker 1: long as I can remember, like I was taking baseball
Speaker 1: cards and going to the park in the neighborhood and
Speaker 1: reselling those baseball cards to make money to buy more
Speaker 1: baseball cards, or like one time I wanted to get
Speaker 1: a new pair of basketball shoes. And my dad was
Speaker 1: playing poker with his buddies at the house and I
Speaker 1: came in and you know, to grab a donut or whatever,
Speaker 1: and they were drinking playing poker, and I'm like, Dad,
Speaker 1: you know, I want a new pair of basketball shoes.
Speaker 1: And he looks at me. He goes, you see those
Speaker 1: shoes in your feet, they look like they work. When
Speaker 1: you have a job, you can buy whatever you want.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Dad, I'm twelve years old. How am I
Speaker 1: going to get a job. And one of his buddies
Speaker 1: piped up. You know, I got these trash bags boxes,
Speaker 1: the trash bags that you can sell the neighborhood. I'm like, Dad,
Speaker 1: can't I He's like sure, and so literally, you know,
Speaker 1: I was well at the time, I was going door
Speaker 1: to door probably the world's first and only garbage bag route.
Speaker 1: But I'd be like, you know, going to my neighbors,
Speaker 1: going Hi, my name is Mark, I'm your neighbor. Do
Speaker 1: you use garbage bags? And you know, once I learned
Speaker 1: I could sell and I became confident at it, then
Speaker 1: that that kind of just set the tone for me
Speaker 1: to be an entrepreneur, because you know, that's the foundation
Speaker 1: of being out front, you know, with your own show, right,
Speaker 1: if you're not selling, you're not on air for a
Speaker 1: whole for all that long. And so it was the
Speaker 1: same with me. I learned how to sell. You know,
Speaker 1: that gave me confidence to start my own companies. And
Speaker 1: from then on I was a lousy employee, but I
Speaker 1: always knew I was going to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: How did it end up in tech for you?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 2: Because broadcast dot Com and the legendary story of you
Speaker 2: selling that, how did that end up with you pursuing
Speaker 2: a career in tech or just creating something.
Speaker 1: So I moved to Dallas. I went to Indiana, had
Speaker 1: a couple of random jobs. I moved to Dallas, and
Speaker 1: I got a job at night working as a bartender
Speaker 1: slash bar back, and then you know, I was searching
Speaker 1: for a regular job. I was living six guys in
Speaker 1: the three bedroom apartment in a place in Dallas called
Speaker 1: the Village, which is the world's largest apartment complex, and
Speaker 1: so I had five roommates. Worked at night. But I wanted,
Speaker 1: you know, a career. And I was twenty four and
Speaker 1: got a job working for this company called Your Business Software.
Speaker 1: And they're like, what do you know about computers? I'm like,
Speaker 1: not much, but you know, I'm a learner and I'll
Speaker 1: read the manuals and I'll prove to you and if not,
Speaker 1: you fire me. And so they gave me a shot.
Speaker 1: I was doing really well until about nine months later
Speaker 1: when I got fired because I wanted to pick up
Speaker 1: a check that was going to give me a fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred dollars commission so I could move out of the
Speaker 1: hell hole that I lived in with five roommates. Called
Speaker 1: my boss and said, look, I want to go pick
Speaker 1: up this check. He's like, no, you're supposed to sweep
Speaker 1: the floor, wipe down the windows, and open up the
Speaker 1: store that I worked at, the sole software. So I
Speaker 1: made the executive decision. And this guy named Michael Hugh Mecky,
Speaker 1: who was my boss when I came back with the check,
Speaker 1: because I made the decision. If I showed up with
Speaker 1: a fifteen k check fifteen hundred it was for me,
Speaker 1: then you know he would be thrilled fired me on
Speaker 1: the spot. And so you know that was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm allows the employee, but you know I'm good at tech.
Speaker 1: And I started this company called micro Solutions, and I
Speaker 1: had no money. I found one of my prospects. I
Speaker 1: went to them, a company called Architectural Lighting, and I said, look,
Speaker 1: I'm broke, but if you advanced me the five hundred
Speaker 1: dollars for the software that you need it cost me
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars, I'll make it work no
Speaker 1: matter what. And that was the start of my tech
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial journey where that company, micro Solutions, I went seven
Speaker 1: years without a vacation. But by the time I took
Speaker 1: that vacation, we had, you know, eighty employees thirty some
Speaker 1: million in sales, and I ended up selling it to
Speaker 1: H and R Block and then from there I was retired.
Speaker 1: I bought a lifetime pass on American Airlines. Party like
Speaker 1: our rockstar just went all over the world. But I
Speaker 1: would get together with one of my buddies from Indiana,
Speaker 1: Todd Wagner, And this is when the Internet was just
Speaker 1: starting to happen in the mid nineties, and it was like, look, Mark,
Speaker 1: you're you're the tech geek.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: You know, my company, micro Solutions did networking and systems integration,
Speaker 1: and I learned to write software and all this other stuff.
Speaker 1: But he's like, you can figure out how we can
Speaker 1: listen to Indiana University basketball in Dallas, can't you? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can try. So we started this company
Speaker 1: called audio Neet, which turned into broadcast dot Com in
Speaker 1: ninety five, and it was the very first streaming company.
Speaker 1: It was crazy because, you know, it seems to make
Speaker 1: so much sense now, but it was so complicated back then,
Speaker 1: and we were able to make it work. And we
Speaker 1: were everything that YouTube was, Pandora, Spotify, you name it.
Speaker 1: You know, we podcasts, you know, we had we had
Speaker 1: you know, the Dan and Scott Show, which is probably
Speaker 1: the world's first podcast in ninety five. It was just
Speaker 1: all this stuff, and then we sold it to Yahoo
Speaker 1: for you know, well, first we went public in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety eight and it was the largest IPO in the
Speaker 1: history of the stock market at the time. And then
Speaker 1: we sold it to Yahoo in two thousand and for
Speaker 1: five point seven billion in stock.
Speaker 2: So have four final questions for you, and I want
Speaker 2: to follow up on that. One is that when you
Speaker 2: sell that company, did you already have in your mind
Speaker 2: that you wanted to buy a sports franchise. Was it
Speaker 2: specifically the Mavericks, were you building closer to that, or
Speaker 2: was it now that I have a whole bunch of money,
Speaker 2: I'm going to buy that team.
Speaker 1: That was the second. Right, So I'm at the game
Speaker 1: the start of the ninety nine two thousand season with
Speaker 1: my girlfriend who's now my wife, and I'm looking around.
Speaker 1: It's the first game, right, We're undefeated, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: there should be energy in the building and there was none,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I can do a better job than this,
Speaker 1: And so I talked to my sales rep who put
Speaker 1: me in charge and connection connected me with Ross Pro Junior,
Speaker 1: the owner at the time, and within four weeks we
Speaker 1: had a deal and it was just like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: I mean, it had never crossed my mind. It wasn't
Speaker 1: a dream, it wasn't a goal. But I was such
Speaker 1: a basketball junkie. I had season tickets for you know,
Speaker 1: seven years at that point to a team that stopped,
Speaker 1: you know, and I was just like, Wow, what a
Speaker 1: great opportunity. And you know, the rest is history. That
Speaker 1: was January of two thousand and I bought it and
Speaker 1: I was a majority owner until December of twenty three.
Speaker 2: I very much associate you and Shark Tank to me.
Speaker 2: I feel like you're what brought me to Shark Tank
Speaker 2: to watch all of the the you know when they
Speaker 2: show the ten episodes in a row, like I'm in
Speaker 2: for like four of them over on like random CNBC
Speaker 2: or where they're like it's one of the only binge
Speaker 2: worthy shows that I'll just sit and watch. When they
Speaker 2: approached you with the idea, what was the approach? How
Speaker 2: did that conversation start?
Speaker 1: It was just like, hey, come on audition for the show,
Speaker 1: and literally they had me auditioned. I haven't said this
Speaker 1: a lot, but like they called me up like last
Speaker 1: minute like when you're going to be in La. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm in La, now, can you come in tomorrow morning
Speaker 1: and do this audition for Shark Tank. And they had
Speaker 1: already sent me DVD, so you know, i'd watch some
Speaker 1: of the show and i'd seen it when it aired
Speaker 1: some too, and I'm like, Okay, I can come in
Speaker 1: in the morning. But as it turned out, I had
Speaker 1: gone out the night before with my buddies and I
Speaker 1: was just so hungover. But I had to audition and
Speaker 1: they were just pepper me with questions and scenarios and
Speaker 1: you know generic, you know, scenarios that might come up
Speaker 1: with entrepreneurs. And I just cranked right through it. And
Speaker 1: the next thing you know, I was a guest Shark.
Speaker 1: So this is the second season of Shark Tank. Jeff
Speaker 1: Foxworthy was on for three episodes as a guest, and
Speaker 1: then I was on for three episodes as a guest.
Speaker 1: And the show on ABC was like one time it
Speaker 1: would be on a Tuesday night, the next time it'd
Speaker 1: be on this Sunday night replacing Desperate Housewives, and they
Speaker 1: had a night off and I'm like, this show is
Speaker 1: not going to last, so just go on there. It's
Speaker 1: a Network show, there's going to be a lot of
Speaker 1: people watching. Should just have fun, and so I just
Speaker 1: went for it and just decided I was going to
Speaker 1: be aggressive in and have fun, and boom, it just
Speaker 1: started taking off and they invited me back for season
Speaker 1: three to be a full time shark.
Speaker 2: What's crazy is revisionous history. In my mind is that
Speaker 2: you invented and created that show because you were the
Speaker 2: most popular in your face was who I identified with
Speaker 2: on that show. It's crazy that you weren't even on
Speaker 2: season one.
Speaker 1: No, not at all, right, And you know on CNBC
Speaker 1: when they show all the replays, like whenever they show
Speaker 1: something from season one, people are like, wait, what how
Speaker 1: come you're not on there? I'm like, I wasn't on
Speaker 1: season one, and I was only on you know, three
Speaker 1: episodes of season two. But you know I didn't miss
Speaker 1: until just now they're filming right now for season seventeen.
Speaker 1: I'd never missed an episode.
Speaker 2: Final two questions in your house? What did you what's
Speaker 2: your favorite like personal picture? Like what's on the picture?
Speaker 1: My family pictures? Right, there's there's probably there's one. I
Speaker 1: played in the celebrity Baseball game and I hit a
Speaker 1: double for to drive in the winning runs and then
Speaker 1: you know, I came off the field and my son,
Speaker 1: who was probably he's fifteen now, so he's probably eight
Speaker 1: years old. Man came running out me, jumped into my
Speaker 1: arms and there's a picture of him in my arms,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, just coming out to celebrate with me,
Speaker 1: and that that definitely is my all time favorite.
Speaker 2: And my final question is with the song, which we
Speaker 2: played a little bit of it before you came on.
Speaker 1: Oh cool.
Speaker 2: And secondly with the pick. You know a lot of
Speaker 2: guys will transition into country music. Is this what we
Speaker 2: have your new career, Mark Cuban? You know, yeah, It's.
Speaker 1: Funny because when we did a little bit for Shark
Speaker 1: Tank where we played the song, I wasn't going to sing.
Speaker 1: I was just going to sit there and bob my head.
Speaker 1: But I've kept on playing the song to see if
Speaker 1: I can get in tune. So I actually sang on
Speaker 1: it as well, so, you know, as Kevin and I
Speaker 1: can get this one to work. One girl won that
Speaker 1: one bar, you know whatever, I'm I'm ready for number
Speaker 1: two because it was it was it was something completely
Speaker 1: different than anything I've ever done. You know, I'm so
Speaker 1: used to the right brain, business business, business, business that
Speaker 1: this is just completely different. And so I'm game. If
Speaker 1: Kevin don't have me wants to do more, I'm down
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 2: But you have rhythm. Didn't you teach dance lessons back
Speaker 2: in college? Oh yeah, that was the move. That was
Speaker 2: the move.
Speaker 1: Hey, let me just tell you. Back then in Indiana,
Speaker 1: I got fay twenty five dollars an hour to teach
Speaker 1: gross sorority girls how to dance and it was the
Speaker 1: best job ever. I put everything to take that job.
Speaker 2: Uh, Mark, we really appreciate it. The pick, it's an
Speaker 2: excellent idea, I mean, Kevin Mack, I don't know why
Speaker 2: everybody didn't already have it. And that's it's a great invention.
Speaker 2: I mean it's I can't believe that pick wasn't already invented.
Speaker 2: So good luck, open makes tons of money. Take pic
Speaker 2: is the name of it. The final season a Shark
Speaker 2: Tank and cost plus Drugs, which I think is changing
Speaker 2: hopefully will change the world in a really really positive way. Mark,
Speaker 2: thank you for your time and we really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the interview. This is fun by that I
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. Thanks for having me back on again.
Speaker 2: All right, Mark, good to see you, Buddy.
Speaker 1: You too, Baddy. To take care.
Speaker 5: The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the
Speaker 5: Bobby Cast.
Speaker 2: So I just talked to Mark Cuban billionaire, Mavericks owner
Speaker 2: Shark Tank star guy probably owns more hoodies and suits.
Speaker 2: But I want to do a segment that goes hand
Speaker 2: in hand with that conversation. So today we're going to
Speaker 2: dive into the biggest success stories from Shark Tank, which
Speaker 2: I have to admit, I don't think I've ever watched
Speaker 2: Shark Tank when it was being shown in the evening
Speaker 2: on network television, which I think was ABC. But I've
Speaker 2: watched it a ton when it was like binge, when
Speaker 2: it's on like CNBC or whatever weird channel it is
Speaker 2: when you're flips the channels. So I've probably seen a
Speaker 2: hundred episodes, but I'd always watch them like four or
Speaker 2: five at a time, much like those prison shows. So
Speaker 2: I'd be in, but then i'd be out for a
Speaker 2: long time. And so some of these I actually remember,
Speaker 2: and some of them I don't. I had to look up.
Speaker 2: But I want to talk about some of the pitches
Speaker 2: that worked, some of them that made real money, some
Speaker 2: of them that made a ton of money. Some of
Speaker 2: them I didn't even know where from Shark Tank, Like
Speaker 2: they became so big. I don't even think about them
Speaker 2: being from that show anymore. I don't even compare to
Speaker 2: like Carrie Underwood on American Idol, Like she got so big,
Speaker 2: you don't think about her being from Idol. You just
Speaker 2: think about her being Carrie Underwood and you're like, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: and she was from American Idol. So this is not
Speaker 2: like a boring business lesson. These are Shark Tank All Stars.
Speaker 2: The idea is that made the sharks richer and made
Speaker 2: some of them regret not jumping in. And I'll start
Speaker 2: with the number one. It was scrub Daddy. This is
Speaker 2: the goat of Shark Tank. Scrub Daddy was the smiling
Speaker 2: sponge that became a three hundred million dollar empire. It
Speaker 2: changes texture in hot or cold water, which is cool,
Speaker 2: but I think the real when I started looking into
Speaker 2: this because I don't have this, it's just a sponge
Speaker 2: with a face, and I think people just like to
Speaker 2: buy it. Laurie backed it and now it's one of
Speaker 2: the selling cleaning products in America. I don't have one
Speaker 2: of these. I knew what this was, but I only
Speaker 2: knew it because of the face on it. I didn't
Speaker 2: know it because of the reason, which was it changes
Speaker 2: textures when it gets wet or hot or cold. Do
Speaker 2: you do you have a scrun? Scrub Daddy, Mike, scrub.
Speaker 3: Daddy is the only scrub that I buy.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: They even make it like character ones, like they have
Speaker 3: leeluan and stitch ones.
Speaker 2: See, that's what I only know it from is the faces. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but they do position it as it does different things.
Speaker 3: They got scrub Mommy, they got the old family.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that one made a ton of money. Number two.
Speaker 2: I have Bomba socks and they're awesome. Bombas are the
Speaker 2: you buy one, they donate one sock, and you know
Speaker 2: you've made it when your socks have mission statements. And
Speaker 2: that was the whole point, like they're like, hey, a
Speaker 2: lot of people have socks, but we have a mission
Speaker 2: statement with ours, and so Damna John invested. They've sold
Speaker 2: over five hundred million dollars and socks, T shirts and underwear,
Speaker 2: even more than the scrub Daddy. But I think they
Speaker 2: haven't made as much because they donate a whole bunch
Speaker 2: as well. But that's number two on the list. Number
Speaker 2: three is the the Comfy. It's a blanket and a hoodie.
Speaker 2: Remember the what was one called we used to wear
Speaker 2: the snuggie? Yeah, yeah, this was the Comfy. These guys
Speaker 2: walked into Shark Tank looking like they've been asleep for
Speaker 2: three days, and Barbara was like, I'm in It's a
Speaker 2: four hundred million dollar company. And every time it gets
Speaker 2: called out or like when winter hits, I do see
Speaker 2: it sometimes trending on TikTok people wearing the comfy. It's
Speaker 2: very very close to the snuggie though, can we.
Speaker 3: Agree on that. Yeah, it's like a big oversized hoodie.
Speaker 2: Yes. At number four, Tipsy Elves ugly Christmas sweaters million
Speaker 2: dollar business. Tipsy Elves leaned into that, and Robert invested.
Speaker 2: They're doing one hundred and twenty five million bucks in sales,
Speaker 2: so they're probably not doing as much even while being
Speaker 2: super successful because they are so holiday driven, like pretty
Speaker 2: much only gonna buy ugly sweaters what from late October
Speaker 2: to the twenty third twentieth probably yeah, yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 2: they have been I'm wildly successful. The squatty Potty is
Speaker 2: from Shark Tank, and so the squatty Potty is a
Speaker 2: stool that you sit on the toilet and you put
Speaker 2: your feet on. That's really it. It just lifts your feet up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it makes it when it feels weird, I don't
Speaker 3: like it.
Speaker 2: I don't like using the same one that other people
Speaker 2: have used, Like, I feel like I need my own
Speaker 2: dedicated squatty potty if I'm gonna have one. We had
Speaker 2: one for a bit, but I felt weird letting everybody
Speaker 2: use my squatty potty. LORI backed it. They did two
Speaker 2: hundred million bucks in sales. I mean, it's just a
Speaker 2: but every invention is that it's just and everybody goes.
Speaker 2: I can't believe it wasn't dentetic, I know, but yeah,
Speaker 2: it helps you use the bathroom. There is the simply
Speaker 2: fit board at number six. It's a plastic balance board.
Speaker 2: Have you seen this at all? Because I didn't know it,
Speaker 2: had to look it up. Yeah, it's one hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty million dollars in sales. It's like a twisty disc
Speaker 2: and again it looks like something that like your aunt
Speaker 2: uses on Facebook.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just like piece of plastic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really it. And she squeares by it until
Speaker 2: she moves on to something else, But yeah, that's that
Speaker 2: was that. That was the simply fit board. The sleep
Speaker 2: Styler comes in at number seven. Big in the beauty world.
Speaker 2: These are soft rollers that curl your hair while you sleep.
Speaker 2: They sold one hundred million in a year, which proves
Speaker 2: that people just want to put in less effort and
Speaker 2: you just want it to happen while you're sleeping. But yeah,
Speaker 2: they made a hundred million bucks. They just look like
Speaker 2: big old rollers. This number eight, I do see here
Speaker 2: Cousins main Lobster. I see the trucks here, seeing that
Speaker 2: two cousins, one truck. Lobster rolls for the people Barbara invested.
Speaker 2: Now they have food trucks and restaurants nationwide. There's one
Speaker 2: even near my house that I see all the time.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that's from Shark Tank until I did
Speaker 2: this research. Eighty million dollars in counting. I don't know
Speaker 2: if it's any good do you vegan here?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Good point. And I don't think I'm gonna stop at
Speaker 2: a truck to get seafood. But if they prioritize getting
Speaker 2: it there quick, I shouldn't judge the truck. There's a
Speaker 2: place near my house called Maize and they were a
Speaker 2: food truck before they turned into a restaurant. It's awesome.
Speaker 3: Food trucks are great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I haven't spent enough time with them to trust
Speaker 2: them fully. Like food trucks, I feel like, if I'm
Speaker 2: gonna get something quick, I'm gonna jump in a food
Speaker 2: truck grab something. But this Maze place was so successful
Speaker 2: as a food truck that it's now a restaurant. I
Speaker 2: don't even know what part of town it is. That's
Speaker 2: on Eighth Street here. They have a whole wall of corn.
Speaker 2: It's just all corn kernels. Dude, It's so good. And
Speaker 2: that's all because of their food truck and how successful
Speaker 2: it got. But yeah, that is from Shark Tank. That
Speaker 2: cousin's main lobster. Kodak cakes, Kodiac Cakes. This one wasn't
Speaker 2: picked up by anybody, but it became massive, the Kodiac cakes.
Speaker 2: They were pitched to the Sharks. Everybody passed. It's a
Speaker 2: high protein pancake mix. They now do over five hundred
Speaker 2: million dollars in sales. They got picked up in every
Speaker 2: grocery store in America.
Speaker 3: That's where I know Brom from the grocery store. I
Speaker 3: seen them on the shelf.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't. I don't know. I thought they were
Speaker 2: called Kodak cakes, but no, so you do no cody
Speaker 2: eac cakes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think.
Speaker 6: I say in my target all the time, can you
Speaker 6: eat those? They might have dairy in it, probably eggs.
Speaker 2: You know now that I am allergic to dairy, I
Speaker 2: have to look for the V on stuff all the time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, welcome to the vegan world.
Speaker 2: Yeah it sucks. Yeah. I will go to a place
Speaker 2: if I'm on Uber eats and I just type in
Speaker 2: v and see what pops up. Do you do that?
Speaker 6: Yeah, because it's stuff you don't think about, like eggs
Speaker 6: and milk. It's like, oh, it's in everything.
Speaker 2: Proteins, Yeah, protein, way, protein is milk. I had no
Speaker 2: idea it is dairy. Bubba Cue's Boneless Ribs NFL player
Speaker 2: turned barbecue boss Damna John backdam It's boneless ribs, pre
Speaker 2: cooked made for the microwave. They licensed it to Carls
Speaker 2: Junior and Hardy's. Oh that's where the money is right there.
Speaker 2: Now they're making over fifty million dollars. Man, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: So the ribs are all the way done, you just
Speaker 2: got to heat them up.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: When you get the Carls Junior, the Hardy's the big
Speaker 2: chains to license it. The door Bought is at number
Speaker 2: eleven and door bot turned into Ring. Yeah, this is
Speaker 2: a big miss in Shark Tank. So Jamie Simonov pitched
Speaker 2: door Bought the smart doorbell camera. It got rejected on
Speaker 2: Shark Tank. It was later renamed to Ring. They sold
Speaker 2: that to Amazon for one point two billion dollars eide
Speaker 2: with a bat billion every shark passed. And I think
Speaker 2: Ring is the Kleenex is the Coke of products, meaning
Speaker 2: they have such dominance that their product is named for
Speaker 2: that whole area. Like any sort of camera that's on
Speaker 2: a doorbell, most people prefer to them as a ring
Speaker 2: doorbell camera. It's a ring, a bottle breacher. It's a
Speaker 2: bullet shaped bottle opener made by veterans. It's made over
Speaker 2: a twenty five million bucks in sales. Perfect gift for
Speaker 2: that uncle who talked about Ammo with Thanksgiving. That's kind
Speaker 2: of funny.
Speaker 3: This looks like, well not to take in your luggage
Speaker 3: to the airport.
Speaker 2: Does it look like a bullet hort? Just like a
Speaker 2: bullet Allumio. It's a lamp that folds like a book.
Speaker 2: Robert invested a blue up in design circles. It's one
Speaker 2: of the rare ones that are both functionable and also
Speaker 2: look cool on Instagram. These are cool. Have you seen it?
Speaker 3: It looks cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I didn't know it until I started searching the
Speaker 2: biggest wins in Shark Tank allomio. Yeah, check that out.
Speaker 2: There's something called The Book's Company, but books is in
Speaker 2: like bouquets. It's an online flower delivery, very transparent pricing,
Speaker 2: sustainable farms. It was originally rejected, but Cuban did a
Speaker 2: deal after the show. Today it's doing one hundred million
Speaker 2: dollars in revenue and pretty much the flowers now live
Speaker 2: longer because you know the farm it's coming from. They're
Speaker 2: very transparent about when they're picked where. If you buy flowers,
Speaker 2: you really don't know that. I just got a couple
Speaker 2: more here. Thirty one Productions and Mark Cuban invested in
Speaker 2: this one. He invested in a live haunted hay ride company.
Speaker 2: That sounds kind of cool. Huh.
Speaker 3: I think I saw it. Yeah, I did see this episode. Yeah.
Speaker 2: They sold the company for millions, and so Mark Cuban
Speaker 2: made a bunch of money. I don't know. There's a
Speaker 2: massive success story yet because I think they sold to
Speaker 2: someone who's trying to build it out now. But that's
Speaker 2: what it is. It's a live, haunted hayride company. So
Speaker 2: there you go. And most of them are just so simple.
Speaker 2: Most of them are. It's like when someone writes a song.
Speaker 2: We do a lot of songwriters here, you're like, man,
Speaker 2: why did I think of that? Or that song? Seems
Speaker 2: so easy to write? But simplicity always is the key here.
Speaker 2: The one that I know the most is probably Ring,
Speaker 2: which didn't sell the scrub Daddy, which I knew, but
Speaker 2: Bombas is probably for me, the one that I know
Speaker 2: the most because I have a bunch of Bombas socks.
Speaker 2: They really are great socks, and yours scrub Daddy probably
Speaker 2: ye sure, yeah. Well, thanks to Mark Cuban for coming on.
Speaker 2: Thank you guys for being here. Next week or next
Speaker 2: episode we have Dolly parton another episode we're gonna do,
Speaker 2: we'll talk about celebrities that are being kicked out of
Speaker 2: places or blackballed from certain events, because I feel like
Speaker 2: that's happening to me. So that'll be up on a Bobbycast.
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Speaker 2: And sometimes we just pick people and like reach out
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Speaker 2: So thank you and we will see you guys next
Speaker 2: week on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 4: Bye everybody, thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production