Mark Cuban

Background

Mark Cuban was born on July 31, 1958, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up in a Jewish working-class family and he started dabbling in business when he was 12 years old. He skipped his senior year in high school and attended the University of Pittsburgh but transferred to Indiana University after one year. Here, Cuban graduated with a Bachelor of Science in management in 1981. During his time in college, Cuban opened a largely successful bar.

After college, he moved to Dallas, Texas, where he created MicroSolutions, one of the first computer consulting services in the state. He later sold the company in 1990 and, in 1995, Cuban created an audio streaming service with a long-time friend. The streaming service was called Broadcast.com and it sought to provide a solution for not being able to listen to Hoosiers Basketball games in Texas. Four years later, the streaming service was sold to Yahoo for $5.6 billion, which has been referred to as one of the top 10 trades of all time. In 2000, Cuban bought a majority share in the N.B.A.’s Dallas Mavericks for $285 million and he has owned the team ever since. In 2011, Cuban appeared on the T.V. show “Shark Tank” as a shark and he became the first person ever to live-tweet a T.V. show. He has been involved in the show ever since. In the same year, Cuban wrote and published an e-book titled “How to Win at the Sport of Business.” In 2021, Cuban purchased the entire town of Mustang in Texas.

Cuban is a passionate businessman and strives to share the secrets of his success with future entrepreneurs.