"Mark Cuban: LIVE in Chicago"

"Mark Cuban: LIVE in Chicago"

August 10, 2023 1h 6m Episode 169
Mark Cuban sends us to business school, LIVE in Chicago. (Recorded on Feb 08, 2022)

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Okay, so we are a low audience. We're backstage.
we're supposed to be doing a cold open like the podcast right now. But we didn't prepare a cold open, we should have prepared.
Right, we don't have anything ready to say. So we're just doing mindless talking.
We should maybe say don't take flash photography or record the show. Introduce yourself, maybe do that.
Okay, my name is sean yeah my name is will and uh

my oh you hold for the applause yeah son of a do it so and i am jason yeah um and um and uh did

you say you were well but it was in the about my name's will so but you do need to wake up just a

little bit though right okay? Here we go.

Welcome to Smart Loss!

Go, run, run, run before the applause runs out.

Run! Run!

Before the applause runs out.

Run!

Hello, Chicago!

Oh, my God!

Woo!

Wow!

Oh, my gosh!

Take a seat!

Take a seat!

Take a seat!

Take a seat!

Sit, sit, sit.

Tracy from Wisconsin shirts.

Look at these guys.

Tracy from Wisconsin shirts. By the way, tell him.
Tracy's here upstairs. Tracy's here.
Is she going to come out and say hi? Where is she? Come out and say hi. Come on, just say hi, Tracy.
Come on. She's going to say hi.
Look at this. Look at these shirts.
These guys up front have Tracy from Wisconsin t-shirts. So you can't see them.
Wow. So thank you for being so foolish just to spend money to come see us.
Yes. We're going to try to make you not regret it.
Yes, I am. Not that you know or maybe you do know or care.
I'm from here. As Jason said, we're so glad you wanted to meet us.
And we wanted to meet you. And the tour was the only way we could do it.
So thank you. Thank you.
Ow. I just had to do it.
It was just yelling at me. He just said that before we came out.
Why are you hitting me? It's really fun. No, no, no.
Here we go. This is a dream come true for you, Sean, right? Yes, yes.
You said you left Chicago many moons ago to drive to Los Angeles. You said one day I'm going to come back here with my podcast.
That's right. That's right.
You made it. That's everybody's dream.
Right. But anyway, thank you for being here.
We're going to sit on the couch now. All right, let's do it.
Wait, I got to get my cards out. Guys, look at these smart, smartless mugs.
Yeah. You guys all bought a bunch, right? It's all going to charity.
Now, as you know, I'm from here. I went to Illinois State University.
What? The best school in the world. Um, I, I'll tell you a little story.
I don't know if I... Best school in the world is the, okay.
Yeah, best school in the world. And, um, I, uh, I'm going to tell you a little quick story about my experience there.
One time I was so wasted freshman year. By the way, Watterson Towers, you know Watterson Towers? Okay.
So Watterson Towers was great. It's the tallest dorm building in the country, which is true.
It is the tallest dorm building in the country. So if you went to a party like on the outskirts and you got just fucking wasted, all you had to do, like, I remember coming home from parties like this.
I was like, oh, my God, I don't know where I am. I am oh I just go there I would walk to the Watterson Towers because it was so easy but one time I think one of those nights I was intoxicated I went to a white hen which now remember white hen and I was so does it compare to Portillo's well white, white hen is 7-eleven, basically.

Okay, got it. Sorry.
Sorry.

He's from Canada.

So I went in there, and I was really drunk.

I was with my friend Randy, who you guys just met.

And I was so drunk, I had no money,

and I stole a turkey sandwich, right?

And so I went into the...

Whoa, whoa, you shoplifted?

I shoplifted a turkey sandwich,

because I was really hungry. Have you ever shoplifted? No.
I never have. Okay, so sorry.
All right, so I go in there, and I'm like, oh, this is, you know, I'll be cool, and I'll get to eat. So it was like, oh, and I put a turkey sandwich in my bag, and literally I go out and sit in front of the White Hen, and I'm just eating, and I'm throwing the tomatoes at cars because I don't like the tomatoes.
And all of a sudden, I'm eating, we're all laughing, and all of a sudden, I see this cop's feet right in front of me. And I look up, and I was like, oh my God.
And I got arrested. What? Yeah, I got arrested for stealing a turkey sandwich.
And in the back seat, I was such an asshole, I was in the back seat riding around, like so drunk. And he goes, I go, hey, isn't there somebody getting murdered somewhere? Like, why are you arresting a guy that got...
Run in your mouth. I saw a turkey run in my mouth.
Turkey sandwich, isn't there something more important? Anyway, so I go to the thing. It costs $100 to get bailed out.
I called one of my brothers. They weren't around.
And then this guy, Liam, who...

This is the longest story in the world.

Liam bailed me out.

He was in the theater department.

I didn't know him.

And then cut to, like, 15 years later,

he gave me 100 bucks, and I bailed...

This is Bateman-length awful.

Yeah, yeah.

So then 15 years later,

I'm at Swingers on Beverly,

which is a diner. Sure.
Yeah, and he's my waiter, the guy who bailed me out. What? Isn't that great? Good story, right? That's it? Yeah.
Yes. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Was that the only time you've ever been arrested? Yeah. Hang on.
No one has to think that long about whether... That pause usually means, should I say about the other three times I got arrested? No, no, I never got arrested.
But I do have a great masturbation story, too, if you want to hear that. Well, buckle up, everybody.
But hang on a second. Your neck's really red right here.
Are you okay? Just on this side. Yeah, because you fucking slapped me.
What happened? Sorry. No, it's not.
It's not. It's not.
So when I was a kid, my dad's mom, my grandma on that side, so it's already a good story. Jesus.
Aww. We're already off to a booming start.
So she used to crochet all these animals. They were really cute.
She would give them to us. They were pre-shaped animals.

There was a dinosaur and a duck and a mouse and a dog.

And they had the form, but you crocheted around them.

And so she gave us these things.

And I used to cut out the hole of the dinosaur's mouth.

And I used to fucking...

Wait.

You know, there's a few thousand people out here.

Wait. Okay, so wait.
So wait. Oh, good, there's more.
Wait, did it matter what kind of dinosaur? Like, would you not get turned on by a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but definitely a Brontosaurus? That was one dinosaur, and the mouth was stuck open like that, so I looked at it, I was like, I'll just cut a whole hand behind it. So then I do this, right?

And then I see other kids coming over to play with him.

I'm like, God, they're all playing with me.

And my dog was the only one that avoided that specific toy.

Wait a second, wait a second.

Just because we're back in your hometown,

you've got to tell the story of when... Oh, because everybody doesn't masturbate, Will.
Not into a dinosaur's mouth. Not into the mouth of a crochet dinosaur? What are you...
Like, I just learned... Do you have any other secrets you want to get off your chest while you're here? I mean...
Let me tell you, this is what happens when you prepare. What do you mean? This is what happens when you prepare.
I think of famous stories that my friends know from back home and then I share them with you and now you because you're my friend. Jason, have you been arrested? Oh, I know.
That's nice. So masturbation stories really bring people together.
It does make that story cuter. Jason, arrested.
Arrested. Development.
Great show. Oh, wait, wait.
Sean, favorite scene go um what was the name of his character joe i used to call it gob because i didn't know until like yesterday yeah i want to know i want to know worst arrested stories not the show arrested from the cops i did uh i spent one night in jail but in I think I may have even told this on the podcast Monaco yeah I'm so sad

right arrested from the cops? I did. I spent one night in jail, but in, I think I may have even told this on the podcast.
Monaco, yeah. I'm so sorry.
That's right. Yeah.
I had a, it was in, yeah, it was in Monte Carlo and I, they gave me a pashmina because I was cold. I mean, it's like real, real soft.
Oh, and I did, I have to spend three innings in Dodger jail because I got a little over served in about the sixth inning and I had to cool off upnings in Dodger jail. Because I got a little over-served in about the sixth inning.
And I had to cool off up in the Dodger jail on the upper deck. It's all painted Dodger blue.
It's fun. And you're not allowed to see the end of the game.
That's the punishment. And then they turn you loose.
Kind of seems like a reward. What about you, you little hellcat?

Did you ever spend?

Never arrested.

And I did, I shoplifted once.

I stole a bag of chips when they were like 25 cents

and I felt so bad.

The next day I went back into the convenience store.

I was about 11 and I put a quarter on the counter

and walked out.

True story.

True story.

Not as thrilling as mine, but that was.

Huh. Oh, sorry.
And then I fucked the bag of chips. Are we back on track? And then I saw the other kids eating it, and I was like, uh, hey, hey.
Hey, what? We're having fun. Well, you just can't eat one.
All right. So.
Wow. Well, okay.
So we're going to get to the guests. I'm super excited.
Sean, it's your guest. It's so exciting.
It's so exciting. We really don't know.
Just, again, we really don't know. People don't believe that you guys don't know.
We really don't know who it is. We truly don't know.
And this whole tour, we've done a really good job of sequestering the guests, so we have no idea who it is. So I wrote my thing like Jason does.
So this guy's amazing. One of his quotes is, I love this quote, it doesn't matter how many times you fail, you only have to be right once, and then everybody says you're an overnight success.
His dad used to say, which I love this quote, today is the youngest you'll ever be. Live like it.
How great is that? I love that. He went from banking to bartending to business software.
He's one of the pioneers of putting audio on the internet. He not only buys and sells companies, he's also immersed in the entertainment business as a co-owner of 2929 Entertainment.
He's not one of my favorite sharks. He is my favorite shark! It's Mark Cuban! What? Whoa! Whoa! What? Look at this guy! What? Whoa! Thanks for having me on, man.
Thank you so much. Hey! Hey, man! Thanks for having me on, man.
Hey! Sean, oh, yeah, absolutely. What do you want me? Right there? Oh, yes.
What? With the shoes. What? With the shoes.
Let's start with the shoes. Start with the shoes.
Start with the shoes. Look at the shoes.

Now, are you a sneakerhead?

I'm not.

I'm not really.

Are those significant, though?

Those are significant.

Tell us about them.

There's a guy who plays on our team named Luka Doncic.

Sure.

Yeah.

Sure.

And these are his shoes.

Oh, I got it.

Designed for him.

And so every now and then I pull them out.

Right.

Like you should. Like I should.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know, you got to make the big guy happy. And they're great.
And they match. Yeah.
They do. Look at you.
That's great. What a sharp suit.
Wow. And by the way, we were going to do, fly you out like real nice, you know, because you were so nice to come out.
He's like, I'll fly myself. Yeah.
No, not literally. Not literally.
It was pretty nice. That's good living.
You know, I'm obsessed with Shark Tank. You mean that show on Friday night on ABC? Yes.
Obsessed. I've seen almost every episode.
But I'm going to save that because I want to get the sports stuff out of the way and everybody knows why. So, so, do you buy a basketball team you write a big motherfucking check that's what you do but they're not just sitting around right i mean how long were you sort of clocking it and seeing there might be an opportunity and like how do you get a heads up on that so this was like 22 years ago 99 2000 season i was a season ticket holder and the mavs were awful yeah and i just made a lot of money yeah and so i go to the game and i'm like by the way that's good luck i know yeah but wait here's the thing it's like we're all taught to like not say things like that yeah because we're like you shouldn't like flaunt it but i love that you do you make it i am the luckiest motherfucker in the entire world.
I am trying to enjoy every minute. You have consistently been pretty straight up and honest.
You don't posture about it. You always say it as it is.
That is great. I love that, yeah.
No, keep going. Okay, so you got dirty, still filthy rich.
So you just happened to make a ton of money. Happened to make a ton of money.
You're at the game. And it's the start of the season.
And I'm there with my then-girlfriend, now-wife, and we're at the game. It's the first game of the season.
We're undefeated. And there's, like, no energy, no nothing in the arena.
I'm like, I can do a better job than this. And then it was like, well, shit, why don't I buy this thing, right? Right, right.
I mean, just like that? Just like that, and who do you call to find out if they're even for sale? The guy. I mean, you cold called the guy? The guy, no.
The owner was a guy named Ross Perot Jr. and didn't know or care anything about basketball.
Wait, Ross Perot Jr.? Yeah, that was my first vote at 18. Right? I voted for Ross Perot.
See? Really? I really did, yeah. I was so excited.
Oh, you're the one. I was a big, I was a huge Dana Carvey fan, so I was like, let's do it.
I have one Ross Perot story. I have one Ross Perot senior story.
So my very first company, after I got fired, I started this company, Microsolutions, and the big deal. Yeah, I want to talk about that, too.
Cool. And the big deal was, we had this big deal.
That's what we do with Seano. Cool.
Let me finish my story. Yeah.
Right? And so I got a chance to do business with him. So he was like the big thing in Dallas.
And I'm like 24 years old. And so I get to go into this office.
He's got the original Magna Carta there in his office. Are you kidding me? He's got the statue for Iwo Jima right there in his office.
This is Ross Perot Jr. or senior? Senior.
The scariest moment of my life literally was walking

down that hall hoping I did not destroy American history. Right.
Right. Because there he was.

Leave that to other people. Other people, right? So,

of course you tried to stop that too. You tried to help out with that too.
Yeah, it did go so well.

Thank you. So, of course, you tried to stop that, too.
You tried to help out with that, too. Yeah, it did go so well the first time.
But anyways, long story short, I get to him and I say, Hi, Mr. Cuban, I'm Ross Perot.
No. Really? Oh, no, and you gave away your position.
All your leverage was gone in that moment. Yeah, because a 24-year-old just started, It has a ton of leverage.
Yeah, so he laughed. Wait, you were 24? Wait, when you what? Oh, my God.
I'm almost 24 right now. No, no, no, no, no.
Oh, when you did that. No, no, no.
When you met with senior. Yeah, that's when I met with senior first time.
So when I bought the team, right? So I got to meet junior. And literally from start to finish was about three weeks.
Wow. Wow.
Yeah. So he was an eager seller.
He was an eager seller. And I, you know, he thought it was going to be a negotiation.
And so when I sold, this was right in the middle of the internet stock boom, right? So literally every day, the stock that I got from my company, from an old company called Yahoo, would go up $20. So it was like.
Wait, is Yahoo still around? Not really, no. Yeah.
So you sold it. Look, it's printed everywhere.
It's like $5.7 billion. That's what they gave you? Well, they gave it to us in stock, and I got a third of that.
Okay, can I... Oh, bummer.
Can I... We deal with that third shit all the time.
Really? Believe me. Oh, fuck.
We just did it with cake from Portillo's. We actually did.
I don't mean to embarrass you, but I'm sure this is probably all public. What did you pay for the team and what is it worth now? So I paid $285 million.
I love that you just say that. Okay, good.
Well, it's probably public. I could lie.
No, but it's unbelievable. But anyway, here's why, so you can go on.
By the way, we all did a ton of coke before we came out here. I know.
Can you tell? It's not obvious. Wait, so you paid how much? $285 million.
That's crazy. And now it's worth? I mean, I'm not...
$3 billion, $2.5 billion. Wow, isn't that amazing? But it's only worth that if you're going to sell it, right? I have no plans on selling it.
But all the teams have grown up exponentially.

So it's like any kind of commodity, any kind of thing.

It's like you invest in it like a house or whatever,

and it's always going to go up in value. No, it's more like a house like if you love your house, right?

You bought the house, and it's going up in value.

If you bought a house for $235 million.

But it goes up because people love that sport.

Yeah. So, you know, we've been fortunate.
Basketball has been very, very good to me. That's crazy.
So you were always into sports or specifically basketball? No, I've been, yeah, not very well, but I've been a basketball junkie since I've been five years old. Are you disciplined about not sort of stepping on the toes of the way in which the team is run or do they want that? I'd pay $285 million for that motherfucker.
I get to do what I want. So you're on the floor for a lot of games, if not all of them.
In the middle of the game, will you go over and say to the head coach, hey man, you got to sit that guy down or I want him in the game. No, that I won't do.
That's where I draw the line. Now, I might go to the referees and say, what the fuck was that? You are, like, famously, are you not the most fined? Yeah, by far.
By far. Yeah, it's not even close.
I love how proud you are of that. But why? Because you, what? Because they get it wrong all the time.
Who the fuck accepts that? So you get fined by the referees. No, no, they wish.
No, by the league, by the NBA. For talking to the referees during the game.
More for saying something publicly. After the game.
After the game. Have you ever said to a referee, look, I could have you killed? No.
Because that's what I would do. If I was in your position, I would just look at it.
I did go like this one time. I went like this one time to a reference.
I got fined for that. Oh, my God.
That's crazy. Good for you.
I can't believe you own a team. Okay.
So it's just like, oh, and I have a new pair of shoes, and I own this team. Okay.
But wait, talk about microsolutions, because what is it, and how did you start? Say what you were going to say before. No, I was going to say, Sean was talking about his microsolution earlier in the intro.
Yeah, but I invested a lot of... With a dinosaur.
I invested a lot of time in it and it grew and grew. So please.
So it was a grower, not a shower? That's exactly, no, no, it's a shower. So, no, micro-solutions, because...
So I got fired from a job, right? So I was working in a job selling software, and I had this deal. So step back.
At the time, when I moved to Dallas from Indiana University... Who's yours? Oh, right.
Yeah. So after I went from IU down to Dallas, the only place I could live, because I had no money.
And so I lived in a little shithole with five roommates. And literally, I didn't have a bathroom.
I didn't have a room. I just had not even a closet.
I just had a place that I just would sleep on, right? Like what year is this sort of? This is 1982. Okay.
Way back when, when I was six. Yeah.
Same. Yeah, yeah.
yeah and so um i got a job at night working as a bartender slash bar back and then during the day i got a job working at a software company so i'm starving right and um living in the shithole and i have a chance to close this big deal right and i'm gonna get a 1500 commission i get to move out of the shithole And so so I go to my boss, you know, normally I'm supposed to, um, wipe down the windows and, um, sweep the floor and open up the store. And I'm like, it's how Jason grew up.
Yeah. Really rough.
Really rough. Yeah.
Just fast food to fast food. Right.
And so, um, I'm like to my boss, a guy named Michael Hugh Mecky, um, in case you run into him. And so, um, I'm like, I need to go pick up this check.
And he goes, no, you have to open the store. And so I make the executive decision to go pick up the check.
Thinking if I hand him a $15,000 check, my $1,500 commission there, he'd be happy. Fires my ass.
Wow. Fires me on the spot.
And so now I'm left with nothing. And I figured, okay, I'm a lousy employee, so I'm going to go start this company.

I was in the PC business, so I called it Micro Solutions, and started with a first customer of $500,

grew that to 80 employees, 30-some million dollars in sales, and sold it to H&R Block.

And was this based on something that you studied?

Did you study computers or business or anything?

No, no.

I, like, cheated in my computer class in Indiana. Hoosiers, baby.
Wait a second. How old were you again? I was 24.
24. And how did you, like, what age? Was that when you were like, wait a minute, this is kind of cool.
I can buy and sell companies and all this? No, it was just like, I got fired and it was like, I had to do something. I realized I was a bad employee, but I, you know, in the nine months I was there, I learned a lot about software.
And not a lot of people knew much about software, so I was able to go company to company to company and just slowly but surely hired one person, then two persons, then 10, until we got up to about 80 people. And then it took seven years without a vacation, so it wasn't like overnight.
Sold it, bought a lifetime pass on American Airlines and partied like a rock star. Oh, my God.
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And now back to the show. Would you say that the thing that is more important to your success is your knowledge of the field or your ability to identify people that are good to work? In other words people skills or your knowledge of your profession i think it's that i really i'm a quick learner i'm a quick study right so when i go into new technologies i can pick stuff up really fast yeah and so i'm able to you say okay that's what's next right and so find an angle what's coming next how do you know that how like because to me it Like, you know, when I started Micro Solutions, instead of just buying one PC, I thought people are going to connect them together.
And most people are like, no, that's not till later. And then they connected them together.
That was my thing. And then wrote software for it.
Taught myself to write software and built it up. And then in the mid-90s, you know, a buddy of mine came to me and said, there's got to be a way we can listen to Indiana basketball over this new thing called the internet.
And I was like, okay, I'll figure it out. Yeah, and then you created audio on the internet.
Audio net. It was called Audio net.
It was the first streaming company on the internet. And why? Because I'm very young.
Is the, did the, so the internet didn't have audio at first and you kind of created that with this? No, people thought I was a moron. Yeah, there was like a player.
I remember there was like an audio player you could download, right? In order to listen, in order to stream back in the early days, right, you had to have a PC with a modem, download this thing called a TCP IP client, download a client software from your ISP, then download another real, an audio player, right? And then you had to go to a website and click on a file and that file would open up and then you hope it would play but then you're all set but

then you're all set right but we were the first to do it and so but like one of our business one

of the things that helped us the most like if you were anywhere outside the city of chicago

the only way to listen to the cubs games during the afternoon was on audio net right so we crushed

it because cubs fans all over the world would go there click on this thing and go through all the

I'm gonna be a fucking business titan I'm going to do this. Did you, did that, was that a possibility? No, no.
My, you know, like when doing micro solutions, I remember vividly finally getting a bed, laying there hung over going, oh my God, we've been in business three months. Oh my God, we've been in business four months.
Oh my God, we've been in business five months. Right.
Just being terrified that it wouldn't last. So it was just piece by piece, and it just sort of...
Just grind. You just grind, grind.
What did you hope you would become? What did you study in school? I took a business. Right.
So you just hoped to find a business. I knew I'd be an entrepreneur.
I knew I'd be an entrepreneur, right? Because I had started businesses my entire life, little things. But where did that come from? Like, as a kid, were your parents around it? No.
See, I think what's fascinating about you and people like you is, like, we're outside going, how did this guy do that? We're all like, is there steps I could take to maybe be like Mark Cuban? Like, where did I fucking go wrong? You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean... I could tell you.
I mean... Opening with a masturbation story.
I also want to know, what is that is that moment? Do you, you probably do, and tell us if you do, remember the moment that you were, you first realized, or the moment you were first a billionaire? Oh, fuck yeah, I remember. Yeah, so.
It's like having sex for the first time, right? Yeah, yeah. You remember every bit of it.
Yeah, right? Sean? Yes. Sean? Yes.
No, because Broadcast.com went public, and we had this big IPO, and the stock just kept on going up, and I knew exactly what the price had to be in order for me to become a billionaire. Right.
And so, you know, on the OPCs, you can hit F5 to refresh your Yahoo Finance. Now, F5, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Kind of like Sean in the story. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
And then, and it was like right when the market opened in Dallas at 8.30. And so I'm just sitting there basically mostly naked.
And I did my little... At home, right? By yourself.
By myself. Hitting that F5.
Yeah. But that's, you're just by yourself at home on your fucking home computer going, am I a billionaire? Yes, and then I did my little billionaire dance, right? It was just like, hey! What did you do? Did you buy something? Who'd you call first? No, what's that? Did you call him? No, because I knew, you know, it might only be a second, right? Right, right, right.
Just like Sean's story, you know? Oh, my God. Sean.
That's good. What do you guys do? This? Yeah, okay, great.
Well, I think everybody here has had the fantasy of like, what if I won the lottery, if I became a lottery? What's my fantasy big thing to buy? What was it? Basketball team. Yeah, there we go.
Was it really? Yeah. It wasn't like I dreamed about it.
But I mean, what was the first the first big check? You know, maybe like it was 20 grand or like 100 grand or something like that. Well, when I sold my first company, Micro Solutions, I literally, my buddies and I went out and just got shit-faced at an old-school Italian restaurant.
You know where they had the phones that they would bring to, you know? And so I was trashed. And they're like, what do you want? What do you want? I'm like, not into cars, not into, I have a house.
I want a lifetime pass on American Airlines so I can just go anywhere, anytime, anyhow. Really? And so I traveled enough that I remembered the number and I'd called them up and I'm like, do you guys sell lifetime passes? And they were like, yes, let me connect you to the AirPass department.
I'm like, get the fuck out of here, right? And I bought one and it ended up being $250,000 and I got to fly me and anybody else that I wanted anywhere American Airlines flies for the rest of my life. As often as you want it? As often as I want.
No way. Way.
And you still have that? I gave it to my dad who unfortunately passed away a few years ago and then I gave it to a friend who uses it. So it was a $250,000 flat fee, no more money ever for the rest of your life, and you can fly U plus one anywhere you want all the time you want until you die.
First class. Do they still have that? No way they still have that.
No, they got rid of them because there were a couple guys who would just... You could spend that in a year.
Yeah, because I also got my American Airlines miles, right? So there would be guys who just fly back and forth just to get their miles, and that was just like too but it was a lot of fun where did where did let's go to the olympics let's go to moscow let's go to vegas as long and then you got delays and you got peanuts and the thing and the oh great way to find the thing that's a bummer about it where did um where at what point did you um want to go into uh filmmaking television stuff and start your studio that was more because of my partner todd todd and i were partners for todd wagner and i were partners for um in broadcast.com and he wanted to do a lot of vertically integrated stuff and so after i sold broadcast we also started the first all high definition tv network hd net yeah and so and then we bought landmark theaters yeah so i started we started hdnet and we wanted to do day and date everything right and this is what is it day and date meaning we released a movie on hdnet and in theaters and landmark theaters and we released the dvd and we released it online at the same time right which like now is a big deal, that they're trying to do with HBO Max. And so we started doing that.
And probably 2003, we started doing little things. In 2003, I get an email from a guy named Alex Gibney.
And he's like, I've got this footage from this company called Enron. And I email him back.
Oh, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, do you own the exclusive rights to it? Yeah.
Can you put it in a movie, in your documentary you want to do? Yeah. What's the budget for this movie, Enron, that you want to do? And he goes, $770,000.
I'm like, okay, let's do it. 12 minutes, I greenlit this movie.
Yeah. So it turns out being Enron, the smartest guy's in the room, a documentary, right? Great documentary? It gets nominated for an Academy Award.
At the time, it was top 10 grossing documentary of all time. I'm thinking this movie shit is easy, right? Then...
Yeah, this isn't going to be a money pit at all. At all, right? Then my partner, Todd Wagner, brings to me a deal with George Clooney.
It's going to be a black and white movie about the 50s, about Roy Cohen and the McCarthy hearings, right? Good luck with that guy. Right? And it was going to be called Good Night and Good Luck.
Yeah, such a good movie. Great movie.
Such a good movie. It gets nominated for six Academy Awards.
My second movie, this shit is still easy, right? And even better yet, we yet, because we got nominated, we had a party at, oh, what's the place on Hollywood? Anyways, one of the old school Italian restaurants. Dantana's.
And I'm doing a body shot off of Cindy Crawford. And I'm there going, this movie shit's great.
This movie shit's great. You haven't heard of a movie we've done since right? I mean we've done little things and we have a company 2929 still does some stuff and we sold some of the other stuff and we sold landmark theaters and we still have Magnolia Pictures to distribute stuff tell me something that you thought for sure was going to succeed and you're like, oh God, that did not work at all.
Nothing. No.
No. No.
No. No, so many things.
Like what's the biggest mistake you made early on in your career that you would like, the biggest thing that you would give advice to somebody and be like, watch out for this. I know you're doing great here, but really watch out for this person or this thing or this idea.
Yeah, I think one of the, one of the lessons I learned is I would just hire fast, right? Because I'm a salesperson at heart. And I would just like, okay, I'm selling myself on hiring this person.
And I've learned you got to hire slow and fire fast. So I would make a lot of mistakes in hiring that cost me money.
Why? Because just you'd interview too many people who'd be like, really want to find out the right fit? Yeah, or I would not interview enough. Right.
Right? And so I would just be like, okay, come on, I'll make it work i would seem like a good person yeah yeah i would be so arrogant that i thought okay i can make this work no matter what right or like you know i'd be so arrogant about how much business i i know um like i look at a business and go okay you're gonna do this wrong this wrong this wrong and yeah i know uber is going to be good and i know you're gonna do really well with uber but you know you need to give me a better valuation and the guy's like no and so I missed out on Uber you know what do you really what do you think what would you think is your seems like you've really checked a lot of boxes and had a lot of success you're not an old guy like what are you thinking about would be a really significant challenge for you that actually scares you going forward well like right now we're taking on the pharmacy companies. Yes, I was going to ask you about this.
This is... Do you guys know...
Have you heard about what he's doing? I haven't. It's unbelievable.
It's amazing. So it's called Cost Plus Drugs.
And that's our time. Cost Plus Drugs.
Cost Plus Drugs.com. Right.
And so basically what we've done... the pharmacy industry is really distorted, right? They have these things called pharmacy benefit managers that are kind of like bouncers at clubs.
They want to get paid in order for the pharmaceutical companies to provide their drugs to insurance companies who then approve them for doctors. And so we said, we're going to create our own pharmacy benefit manager, but we're not going to make it convoluted.
We're not going to ask for rebates like all the other ones do. And because of that, we can sell direct to consumers at our cost plus 15%.
It's amazing. So give us an example of...
I can't even pronounce all these, but we'll take something... Insulin, yeah.
No, we don't have insulin yet. We're working on it.
Take that back. Yeah.
We're working on it. But if you go to costplusdrugs.com, you can see exactly what our costs are.
And so there's drugs that we'll sell for $6 that everybody else is selling for $400. That's amazing.
Yeah, it's crazy. And when do you think...
I just think that's incredible. Costplusdrugs.com.
Now, are you doing this... Now, is this a business for you? Is there a profit in here for you somewhere? So everything, we're transparent about everything.
So we're not trying to make as much money as possible. It's a public benefit corporation.
So it's different in what we're allowed to do too. But we reinvest.
So the cost, the markup of 15%, we reinvest so that we're building a manufacturing facility in Dallas so we can push down the price of drugs. So our goal, we're starting off with 100 drugs two weeks ago.
And our goal by the end of the year is to have 2,000 drugs. And our bigger goal is, you know, now we're so used to seeing prices of drugs go up, up, up, up, up, right? Every week or two, we want to be able to post a reduction in price of the drugs that we have, right? How are you able to access these drugs at a wholesale price, though? Because we go right to the manufacturers.
Wait, really quick, just ask again, because they didn't hear it. Oh, sorry.
How are you able to access these drugs at a wholesale price? We'll go to the manufacturers or we'll make them ourselves and the ones we go to the manufacturers they have to sell them basically you know just a little bit more than they sell to everybody else. Yeah.
But everybody else asks for rebates from them which in turn jacks up the price. We don't ask for any of those rebates.
We don't fuck around with the price. It is just cost plus 15 percent.
Three dollars fill fee $5 for shipping. Have you guys thought about making any of the fun drugs? Yeah.
I mean, you just have like a whole fun page, you know what I mean? Yeah, you just put in slash Molly. I'm not saying it, you know.
Will you get, my husband, Scotty, he's got diabetes since he's 17 years old. It's hilarious.
But whenever I introduce him, I go, this is my husband, Scotty. He's going to die from diabetes.
Now, will that be on that list, insulin? So to do insulin, it's this all-convoluted thing where you've got to create something called a biosimilar. So it's a mess.
It's hard. Yeah.
And so we're looking at it, but it takes close to four years. Yeah.
And so we're looking at starting that process. And what are some of the...
How do you determine what companies you want to invest in or where you want to put your money? You know, it really depends. Like on Shark Tank, Friday nights on ABC, 8 p.m.
Easter, 7 p.m. Central.
Yeah, I can't wait to get into it. That's the next thing.
We're avoiding Shark Tank. We're not getting into it.
You know, Shark Tank is part TV, right? So you're not making normal business decisions. But normally, it's like, is it differentiated? You know, is there a reason for me to buy it? Like when we started CostPlusDrugs.com, there's no marketing.
We're not spending any money on marketing or advertising because everybody wants cheaper prices for drugs. Yeah.
Right? And so it really depends on what the product is. And if it's differentiated, it's something people obviously need, and the person who creates it is smart, then I typically try to invest.
So you're talking to a dumbass, right, guys? Confirmed. Confirmed.
So somebody comes on Shark Tank. What they do is they pitch you an idea, and you decide whether that's a great idea, and if it's a better idea than the other two people that pitched, they get, what, funding for their idea? Yeah, basically, yeah.
Hey, Mark, just as an aside, I'm so sorry, man. Yeah.
You've never watched the show, has you? I watch the Dodgers, and that's it. That's okay.
Now, do you obviously own a piece of that company if it takes off? Well, if I invest in money, yes, I ask for a piece of the company. You own the whole thing? I never want to own the whole thing because you want the entrepreneur, the person who started it, to be successful and make money too.
What's the percentage that they get? Typically, they'll keep 80% of it and I'll just take it. How many people have watched Dark Tank? The rest of you can leave.
Yeah, it's... Sorry, I haven't missed an episode.
So wait, let's get right into it because I have 800 questions. Okay, wait a minute.
Just hang on a sec. Alright, so...
Wait, okay, so same question about your business. What is the criteria you look for on Shark Tank when somebody comes in and pitches something? Spikeball! What is it? Spikeball! Spikeball.
That's the one I fucked up on. Thank you very much.
What is it? What is it? Spikeball. No, Spikeball.
Spikeball. Have you ever seen kids on the beach playing? Yes, yes, right.
So they came on Shark Tank. They're like, Mark, we want you to be an investor.
They want me to be the commissioner of their Spikeball League. I'm like, I don't want to be commissioner of the spike ball league.
Yeah. You know, so I didn't do the deal.
Now, every beach, everywhere, you go, you know, down here on the beach, and that's all you see anywhere. What's spike ball? Is that like volleyball? Guys, I...
Don't fucking... They're fucking booing you, dude.

By the way, I don't know what it is either.

I'm very sheltered.

Spike ball is...

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They have like this little trampoline type thing.

JB, they have this little trampoline thing.

Oh, never mind.

And then you sit around, you stand around with some friends

and you hit this ball and you bounce it off the thing, right?

Oh, never mind.

And then you all bounce it off the thing.

And it's just very kind of easy. It's competitive and it's good exercise and little kids can play it.
That sounds fun, but I wouldn't hear that idea and go, that's a billion dollar idea. Well, I knew kids would like it, right? But sometimes you just want to just invest.
You don't want to be the commissioner. So that was a part of the deal.
That was part of the deal, yeah, and I don't want to do that part of it. Yeah, you're busy.
I'm busy. Yeah, but do you have a...
Like, any time you join a company or invest in a company off of Shark Tank, do you then accompany yourself, like, do people work in an office somewhere that handles that? We used to work in an office now, but yeah, I have people who help me. Yeah, and so...
Yeah, he's got a staff, Sean. I've got a staff, Sean.
You think he does it all himself? No, but... And I was going to make another joke for you first, but I'm not going to.
That's fine, that's fine, that's fine. Wait, so...
But when you... Has there ever been a time when the cameras are over and they walk out and they're like, oh my God, I made a deal with Mark Cuban and you're're done taping the show, and the deal falls through or something?

Oh, yeah, yeah, too often.

And why is that?

So sometimes they'll just lie their asses off, right?

Because they get nervous, right?

You mean it's fake?

They lie, right?

You know, I've got $1 million in sales,

and then you go, we get to do due diligence afterwards

because we know people might not quite tell the truth.

And then you go to look,

and they have 100,000 in sales or 20,000 in sales,

and they hope to have a million.

You know, or my widget cost $1 and it cost $10.

So yeah, there's times when it doesn't close.

Do you know what my widget cost a dollar and it cost ten dollars so yeah there's times when it doesn't close do you mind if i pitch you a product right now let's go okay wait i'm gonna do it wait do you get up there come on do will and i get a get a no no i'm gonna do it um'm going to bring out my husband, Scotty, so I do it in the truth fashion. Scotty's here.
Yeah. Stand up.
He's going to be dead soon. Come closer.
Don't get too attached to him. I know.
I'm going to die from diabetes. Oh, my God.

All right, so here we go.

Do you guys believe this Scotty's here?

Okay.

Okay, so this isn't the true style of Shark Tank.

Wait, I thought you were pitching to me. Get your ass over there.

I can't because then they'll see your ass.

Oh, okay.

Okay, so here we go. Wait, I thought you were pitching to me.
Get your ass over there. I can't because then they'll see your ass.
Oh, okay. Oh, man.

Okay, so here we go.

Okay, shh.

Shh, shh, shh.

Shut the fuck up.

We're pitching.

Okay, ready?

Hey, Sharks.

My name is Sean.

And I'm Scotty.

Yes, thank you.

And we're from Hollywood, California.

And we're looking for $2 million for 2% of our company, Doggy Defense.

When you're loading the dishwasher, does your dog come out and clean the plates before the dishwasher does?

Ours does, which gives us pause for concern. Oh, God.
Oh, boy.

Let me tell you a little tale.

We came up with a fence barrier that goes around your dishwasher door

that deters your dog from accessing the dishes.

And with that defense up, our dog is no longer

barking up the wrong tree.

So, sharks, don't leave your dishes in a rough state.

Who wants to be the first one to join our pack?

Yeah!

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Woo!

Okay. Sean.
Yeah. Now, for the uninitiated, was that similar to the way it goes down? Oh, yeah.
Yes. Yeah.
100%. Otherwise, that was really weird.
100% the way it goes. You got to watch the show.
The people that come on, God bless them. They're all lovely.
They're all trying hard. They're really awkward and weird, and they don't know how to, you know, they've obviously been coached and written, and it's very fun.
Yeah, they practice the ball. When is there, where's the swimming part? When do you get in the water? Right at the beginning, right? I want to hear what he thinks of the idea.
Yeah, what do you think of the idea? $2 million. I'm saying, you're right.

Was that U.S. dollars?

Hey, so when you pull the dishwasher down and you're doing it,

and the dog comes up.

No, I got it, Josh.

Yeah, we got it.

I got it.

Okay.

I'm out, but I think it's a perfect deal

for Mr. Wonderful.

Okay.

He'll ask for a royalty.

Yeah, royalty.

I love it.

I just wanted to hear you once say,

I'm out.

That's right.

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Now, what's to stop anybody watching the show when you guys don't take something for somebody to steal Sean and Scotty's idea? Yeah, it happens all the time. Yeah.
It really happens all the time. Like, if we don't make a deal, and sometimes even when we do, there'll be somebody, an investor out there watching the show.
And do it quicker. And we'll just get a hold of them and say, I'll offer you more money.
Oh, really? And I'm fine with that, right? It helps the entrepreneurs and it's great for them. But you're saying, does anybody see the idea on TV and then steal it and make it? And then steal it, yeah.
Oh, no, and then do the same thing themselves. Correct.
Oh, yeah, typically not because it's hard to do, right? Look, was there enough of a delay on airing the show that you guys can actually get your business done before? We can, yeah, we can. But it's hard to steal.
I mean, look, everybody's got good ideas, right? You get that feeling in your stomach and then you go to your friends,, is this a good idea? And then you look on Google, oh, nobody's done it. Nobody tells you that it's not there for a reason.
But, you know, but then the hard part is actually doing it, right? Most people just don't have, you know, the gumption to go out there and actually try it and do it. What's been the most successful product to come out of Shark Tank? So there was a thing called the Comfy that Barbara Corcoran did.
The Comfy, the Comfy, right? Oh, is that like that blanket that you wear? Yes. Oh, yeah.
Yes. People bought that? It was a knockoff another product.
It was a Snuggie. The Snuggie was like a better Snuggie, right? Wow.
How is it better than the Snuggie? I don't know. It was just more comfy.
More comfy, okay. And so the guy comes in, and it's kind of like falling apart a little bit, but they're comfortable and everything.
And Barbara offers them like $50,000 for 25% of the company. And no lie, she has made just herself $37 million in companies.
Oh, my God. They have sold like $400 million worth of comfies.
Wow. And I say the same thing to Barbara every time I see her.
Fuck you. Why did I do that deal, right? I mean, what...
Barbara's the best. Like, how many companies do you own or are invested in at any given time? You know, 200 to 250.
How do you keep track of them? I don't. I don't.
He's got people. If you want to know my companies, another pitch, markcubin.com, and you can see all of them.
Oh, really? That's how I remember my companies. I go to the website.
Do you want to buy a podcast for a billion dollars.

Think about it.

So, Will, I'm going to tell you this.

Think about it.

Sean wanted $2 million for 2%, right?

So that's a $100 million valuation.

Yes.

So when we get his $100 million valuation and sell that for a billion,

we'll use it to buy the podcast.

There you go.

Mark, when you open the paper in the morning, do you check the sports page first or the business to see the stocks? You don't watch Shark Tank, but you open a paper. I know.
By the way, you're getting a real good idea of what he's all about. Granddad here spends a lot of time in slippers.
No, but what's your favorite sports page? Because sometimes people follow, because sometimes people follow stocks like they follow teams. No, I do the both.
So I check all the sports on Bleacher Report, and then I check. There's this meme or random thing that I check, just general news, and then tech memes.
So I have my websites that I go through every morning. But sports first? Typically, yeah, because it takes two seconds just to check the scores.
Do you enjoy any other sports other than basketball? Yeah, I mean, I like all sports. I played rugby in college, so that literally is my second sport.
But I'm a fan of football and baseball and all that stuff. Would you ever want to buy a team in another sport? I looked at buying the Cubs.
I looked at buying the Pirates. They wouldn't let me buy the Cubs.
Why?

They wouldn't let me. Major League Baseball

didn't want me in. Why?

Yeah, they were afraid.

What makes you an unattractive

owner to Major League Baseball?

All that stuff about the referees we talked about.

They don't like that.

Too opinionated and it's too much of an old boys club?

Yeah, very much so. They literally told me

no chance.

So talk shit about them if there's no chance. Let's air it.
I mean... I mean, they have their own...
Baseball's got their own problems. I don't even need to talk shit about them.
Some things are so fucked up, it speaks for itself. What about soccer? Do you see...
Soccer is an incredible what I call football. I'm a big Premier League football guy.
Are you really? Yeah, I love it, love it, love it. I don't, yeah, right? Which team? Liverpool is my team.
There you go. Yeah, and all right, cool it.
And I love watching it, and it's growing, and it's getting even more popular in this country, and the U.S. looks like it's going to qualify probably for the World Cup, which is great.
Just below Canada. Whatever.
I don't make the scores up. And is that something that you could see that's going to grow in this country? Soccer's growing.
The biggest challenge is it's not a great TV sport. That's what I'm saying.
Right? Yeah'm saying right yeah see that's what i'm saying it's like it's like but i'll bet but i'll bet you could come up with a different way to to shoot that sport or come up with some sort of technology to make it more interesting no the good thing about soccer is when you go to a game it's amazing yeah yes right it's very much experiential kind of like hockey right going to a hockey game it's like they score a goal you could run to the store and come back and it's like oh yeah but there's more to it it's It's very much experiential, kind of like hockey, right? Going to a hockey game is fun. Yeah, but it's like they score a goal.
You could run to the store and come back, and it's like, oh. Yeah, but there's more to it.
It's the beautiful sport. But it's faster than baseball.
I mean, baseball. That's why baseball's got issues.
I heard one time that they looked at all the major sports, and they decided which ones were the best for watching on television, and they're on a scale. Football was the best for the amount of plays and then breaks.
there's only 15 minutes of football in a game right you can go take a shit you can get something to eat and then you come back and they've done 50 replays and they've done whatever and it goes all the way down and the far end is hockey my other passion and uh yeah and uh uh i know this is a big hockey town and i'm a big toronto maple leafs fan. How's that been working out? Well, you know, let's not get real, Mark.
So hockey's down there, and then soccer's down there as well. The problem is, you know, basketball's problem on TV is it's 48 minutes of basketball, right? But it's great for social media because there's so many highlights.
And so on TikTok, on Twitter, and, basketball is number one. Right.
And so now what's going to happen? Everybody, we all watch a lot of our content streaming, right? And how did that start now that you know? From you. So my question to you is this.
Now as more and more people are shedding their cable or shedding their satellite or whatever, how is that going to, what's... What's going to happen to live sports, do you think? It's going to change a lot.
It's going to change a lot. Jason, have you ever been on TikTok? No.
You don't know how to do... Renegade.
Renegade. Sean does enough TikTok for the whole house.
Yeah. I don't really.
But you're very popular on Tic Tac with your kids too, right? Yeah, my kids.

Yeah, I love doing this stuff.

I love that.

I love that so much.

Wait, go back to,

what were you just talking about?

So we're talking about

watching TV in the future, right?

Yeah, it's going to be

the future of live sports.

So for us,

well, for us,

it's going to be more like it has been.

I love watching football.

For us billionaires.

Right?

Yeah.

Wait, did we,

did this deal go through?

Did we just sell the podcast? Oh my God god we're stocking the doggy um dishwasher company um that's so interesting i watch football now i'm really interested i'm really into football sometimes i'll watch baseball but it's kind of like watching this old house it's just like you know i mean bob vila always shows up yeah i know well the new guy kevin kevin he's great but um but baseball basketball you know i went to a lakers game once and it's it's it's actually more thrilling to watch it live yeah right when you're there like i can't mean it smells like high school and it's really cool and it's like right and and i'm sitting there on the sidelines and i'm and with my friend my straight friend steve schenbaum who's so funny and he's he's Wait... Wait, do you say that about us, my straight friend Will and my straight...
Yeah, all the time. Do you really? Yeah, all the time.
So I'm sitting there at a Lakers game, and you know when they do that, they do it at a lot of stadiums, but they play that kiss me, da da da, that's like the kiss cam, right? And people are like, Will Smith and his wife are there, and like all these, and they catch him, and they put it on me and my straight friend Steve. I'm looking up and I'm like, oh my God, we're bigger than the whole fucking building.
And they're wanting us to Chris, and everybody's laughing, and he's panicking, and I'm panicking. So I just made out with my hand.
Oh boy. Oh no.
That's another dumb story. You were talking about your kids.
Tell us, what's family life like? Is it normal? Is it crazy? Do they want to do what you do? Yeah, and do you teach them about money, and did somebody teach you about money when you were a kid? No one taught me about money. I mean, because they didn't have much, right? You had to work and just do your thing.
But. But like with my kids, obviously, my kids are 12, Jake, 15, Alyssa, and 18, Alexis.
Yeah. And literally, Alyssa, my 15-year-old, and I watch Will and Grace like all the time.
That's what I do. Yeah.
That's cute. And Ozark with Alexis.
Jake, not so much. Yeah, that's okay.
I'm cool. But it's scary.

Check out Murderville.

You got to check out Murderville.

Murderville.

Murderville.

I just downloaded it.

I just downloaded it.

It's fun.

I'll go sit in the audience.

But now.

So they're not like young entrepreneurs already?

Oh, my son, Jake.

Yeah.

Definitely an entrepreneur. Really? Oh, my son, Jake.
Yeah. Definitely an entrepreneur.

Really?

Oh, my God.

I'm like, Jake, I was in his room two days ago.

Jake, what's that candy on his little baby refrigerator there?

And why do you have that candy there?

He goes, oh, I sold it to my friend at school,

and I'm going to make about $15.

Wow.

And I'm like, yeah, that's my guy.

Did you see any crocheted dinosaurs in there? Oh, my God. No, but no.
Okay, so here's what you need to worry. That's the age, you know.
What would you tell somebody who's starting out? I'm sorry? Nothing. I think I know that story.
No, I just learned about the whole sock thing About a year ago Okay I don't know what that is We're not going to go Never mind So it doesn't matter So what would you tell So somebody Like one of these Young people in the audience here They're young They've gotten out of college They got their first job They've got you know There's nobody here. Yeah, and...
Not true. Not true.

There's that guy right there.

Number one, he said.

Number one.

And he's got a paycheck.

He did a thing.

He's got $1,000.

What does he put his money into?

What does he do?

All right.

First, you want to learn a little bit about crypto if you have $1,000.

Okay.

So that's just for real.

But you don't want to speculate, right?

So I had this conversation last night with two of my Indiana friends, right? I don't understand using money to buy money. Yeah, do you have the real lowbrow knuckle-dragging explanation for crypto? Yeah, right.
Because I don't get it, and I'm not smart. So put aside the coin part of it, right?

It's just a different way to create applications. Just like the early days of the internet, it didn't seem to make sense, right? When Amazon first came out, everybody would say, well, don't give them your credit card.
You don't know what Amazon is going to do with your credit card, right? You can't trust that. And it was hard, and people didn't understand it.
Now, with crypto, there's a lot of noise, but there's different applications that you can download and buy these things called stable coins. And there's one in particular that I buy called USDC.
And the thing about it is you can earn more interest on that USDC stable coin, 4%, 5%, depending on where you're at, a little bit more. And it's relatively safe.
Yeah. Right? It's not as safe as being in the bank

because there's no FDIC insurance.

But, you know, I put money there

and I recommended to my friend,

you know, two of my friends here

that just made a little bit of money,

a couple thousand dollars,

that to take part of it

and go to an app, Voyager, Crypto.com,

whatever it may be,

and put it in there and earn your 4%.

But this is what I'm saying.

Why are you putting... I don't understand.
You're putting your own money to buy money so is it like investing in the stock market is that what it's not really it's more like um if you were going to do currency exchanges right because it's different types of currency but because they use them to trade they pay higher interest rates than they do in a bank because you're not not going to earn anything from your savings account, your checking account, or whatever, right? So, you know, and you might be... And you think this has life.
You think that... Yeah, 100%.
So you think one day... It's not going away.
One day we're not going to use... Because it is...
There's a lot of junk out there, right? Just like in the early days of the internet, right? There might have been 101 shitty companies to good companies. Yeah, right.
And because it's the early day still of crypto, it's going to take time for the nonsense,

the noise and the dirt to find its way out.

So you would recommend, what is it?

USDC.

USDC over like Bitcoin or something like that.

Yeah, Bitcoin.

I'm glad he repeated that.

I almost bought a bunch of USDA steaks.

Yeah, right?

Yeah.

Mark Cuban told me to buy this steak.

The steak, right?

I'm not earning shit. But Bitcoin's kind of like digital gold, right? Yeah.
So old people buy gold, and younger people are going to buy Bitcoin just because it makes more sense. You can't see it or touch or anything, but it would...
So when was the last time someone bought gold and they could touch it, right? Exactly, exactly. Because everything is...
It's digitized anyways. So few things are cash.
Yeah, yeah. And so Bitcoin is a store of value, and it's going to go up and down like you see it go up and down.
I like Ethereum a little bit more because it has more applications, utility. It's going to go up and down.
But it's not something that I'm telling people, look, just go all in. It's like the stock market.
Right. Just like take 10 bucks or 100 bucks.
Try it. Right.
That's why I like Dogecoin. Right.
Dogecoin is silly as hell. But, you know, this is how I introduced my son to crypto, right? This is back, we opened up a Robinhood account and I showed him he could buy Dogecoin back when it was like a penny, right? And so we spent $7 and now it's 15 cents.
And so you can buy some just to see what it's about and spend five bucks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then get to learn it. All right, so listen, before I let you go,

because I know you got to go,

you have a personality,

this huge personality,

which is so intoxicating,

and you seem like such a good guy.

It really is.

I'm so glad to meet you.

You seem just incredible.

Fascinating.

Thanks for having me on, guys.

This has been a blast.

No, man.

Before you go, I want to ask you,

you always seem to be,

by the way, back to Shark Tank for just two seconds.

You know what I love when you do?

You shut people down.

I love it.

When people are going on and you just raise your head,

just literally go,

thank you for coming.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all.

Thank you.

I try to be nice, give some advice, right?

Good luck.

That's what you say.

Good luck.

Which is so like, get out. Which is so, yeah, it's just another way of saying fuck you yeah i love it i didn't say that wielded no i know but um i love it so as someone who's who's in charge of a lot of things and a lot of businesses you you just seem to always be in control who's the one that controls you and brings you down to earth and is there somebody that can tell you you know mark shut the fuck up you need to get real oh yeah my wife and kids yeah but anybody beyond your family beyond my family the refs the refs like you said yeah i try to listen to every look you know i try to learn from everybody you know so i if if someone's got to tell me to like you know in my businesses, there's somebody that will tell me to shut the fuck up.

Right. I don't mind it at all.

So if I fuck up, tell me I fucked up.

I don't care. Right.
Because.

And you want to know.

Yeah. I want to know.
And I fuck up all the time.

We talked about that the other day.

We were talking about this idea.

It's like when you when you're doing that, especially amongst friends, you have to have that ability to go.

Please let me know because it's going to help me.

And my friends are like my high school friends.

I've been friends with since, you know, I'm six years old.

A couple of old buddies here.

Yeah. Well, yeah.

Thank you. ability to go please let me know because it's going to help me and my friends are like my high school friends i've been friends with since you know i'm six years old a couple of old buddies here yeah well yeah and so my college friends they'll all tell me to shut the fuck up right and you know they don't give them are they blown away the the guys that you grew up with you in high school and college or they're used to it by now because it's been a minute that you've been really successful but do you guys do you have those moments with each other where you go, can you believe this shit? All the time.
Good. Really? All the time.
That sounds great. And look, I mean, there's not a day.
Have you ever invested their money for them? No. Okay.
No, that's too much stress. Yeah, yeah.
But there's not a day that doesn't go by where I'm just like, how the fuck this happened to me? Good for you. We feel the same way.
Yeah, right? Yeah. I don't know.
Yeah. No, we really do.
We really do. Yeah, you got to.
You got to. We really, truly truly do.
We say to each other all the time. We did a show the other night.
We had our buddy Bradley Cooper was on our show in Brooklyn, and we were saying we knew each other way back in the day, and we were like, this is so crazy that we get to do what we're doing in this way. It's fucking bizarre.
It's insane. Yeah, we're so appreciative, and if it were not for you guys we would not be able to say that i mean it's unbelievable thank you mark thank you for coming i love you thank you for making us smarter i learned stuff i can't wait to watch more of shark tank i love you thank you for being here thank you everybody thank you sir thank you so much for having me thank you thanks pal thank you so much for doing Thank you.
Thank you. Jason, thank you so much.
Thank you, everybody. Thank you, sir.
Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.
Thanks, Val. Thank you so much for doing this.
Thank you, Val. Jason, thank you so much.
Thank you, bud. Thank you for doing this.
Thank you for doing this. Thank you, everybody.
Mark Cuban! What is... Why don't we...
What is... What is Scotty...
What does Scotty most commonly tell you to stop doing? I know. Well, we have a wonderful relationship.
It's all dark humor. I grew up with dark, dark humor, and that's what we do.
No, but what is the thing that he thinks you need to fix most? Worrying. Worrying.
Stop worrying. Yes.
So while also controlling, so Sean has been doing this thing the last week, and we notice every time we get in a a car Like to go to the airport or go to the venue or whatever We'll get in, professional driver Guy knows where he's going And Sean's got his phone up And the guy, and he's in the back seat And Sean goes, it's 11 minutes And I'm like, well, there's nothing we can do about it I know,. I just like alternative routes just in case.
Anyway, so, but here's the thing. Mark Cuban is so great.
I'm obsessed with Shark Tank. He was so nice to come out.
Should we pool our money a little bit? Maybe like do something? Yeah, we should, right? Yeah, why don't we all pool our money? Yeah. Should we do like a group thing? I want to.
Also, I like the idea of you and Scotty rehearsing your Shark Tank pitch. Yes, that's what I was doing in the other room the other night when you were guys, where are you guys going? I'm like, I'll be right back.
And you guys were rehearsing that. We rehearsed a little bit.
So is that, is that how the pitches go? They're campy and they're performative, right? Yes, yes. So, but is that a prerequisite of it? I mean, can't you just come out and say, here's my idea? No, no, because they're not actors.
They're not, like, performers. Yeah, but is that, but do you have to kind of, do they say, you gotta put a little spice into it? Yeah, they do, they choreograph- Oh, it's the show! Yeah.
Well, I will, I will, but I don't know it yet. No, that's okay.
I wanna see, where's Scotty? Can we just get Scotty out here for a second? Scotty, get back out here.

Still alive! Still alive.

So, wait. So, again, I just want to get back to, sorry not to get too into the nuts and bolts of it, but so when you guys were rehearsing your bit, was Sean, was Sean super bossy?

Yeah, yeah, a little bit. He was.
Yeah, a little bit. Not gonna lie.
Was he? Yeah, a little bit. Look, he's got his diabetes pod.
Yeah, my pod right there. Goodbye! Yeah.
Not dead yet. Not dead yet.
And how many times did he make you rehearse it? Probably five or six, yeah.

We still didn't get it. We still didn't nail it.

And you guys, so you guys have been married a number of years now.

Fifteen years, yeah.

Woo!

Did you...

Oh, yeah.

Fifteen years.

Oh, sorry, I didn't know you hadn't met.

No.

Did, Scotty, before you guys were married,

did you know about the dinosaur story?

Because I'm...

No.

No, but you knew it.

But I've heard about it since,

but not before we were married.

Yeah, huh.

Would that have affected your...

Decision.

No, this is a fair question.

No, no, of course. Scotty, how did you used to masturbate? A lot more carefully.
A lot more carefully. Not with wired figures.
And if somebody came in to catch you, would you say, like, don't go away? That's a bad one. Oh, my God.

He's trying to do a buy.

I'm trying to do a buy. He's trying to get a buy in.

Yeah.

I mean, did you ever worry when you were inside the dinosaur's mouth

that it might somehow bite you?

Bite!

Thank you, Chicago.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Chicago. Thank you.
Thank you.

Smart.

Thank you, guys.

Smart.

Smart.

Smart.

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