Entrepreneur Mark Cuban discusses business, hit show

The Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and Marshall School of Business hosted American businessman, investor and NBA team owner Mark Cuban at Bovard Auditorium on Wednesday night. Cuban shared his approach to business, investing and how to live a compelling life to the capacity crowd of USC students, alumni and faculty.

Mark Cuban, an active investor in tech and media ventures, has an extensive entrepreneurial career as founder of broadcast.com and owner of Landmark Theatres, Magnolia Pictures and the Dallas Mavericks. Cuban is also one of the “sharks” on ABC’s hit show, Shark Tank, which features a panel of investors who evaluate offers for investing in the products or businesses of aspiring entrepreneurs.

In the event, which was helped put together by title sponsor Blackstone LaunchPad at USC, Cuban addressed the stereotype that often comes with being in sales, such as the entrepreneurs pitching products on Shark Tank.

“When people say, you know, ‘Oh, how do you do sales?’ I ask, ‘Are you into helping your customers? Are you into telling people why your product would service some good?’ Because if you can’t do that, you’re in the wrong spot,” Cuban said. “If you don’t believe you can sell your product [and] if you don’t believe it’s a great product, then it’s time to close the doors. There has never been a company that has survived without selling.”

Cuban, a native to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said that he’s been a hard worker since he was a child. He recounted how he began his entrepreneurial career at 16 years old when he bought a stamp at a stamp fair for 50 cents ,and later found someone who told him that stamp was actually worth $50.

After developing an interest in business, he went to Indiana University because it was the cheapest out of the top 10 undergraduate business schools in the United States. At IU, Cuban was able to finish a year and a half of his MBA before beginning his junior year because of the lack of restrictions on class registration. He attended the university for four semesters before the dean of the business school realized he was an undergraduate student taking graduate-level courses.

Cuban used this example to stress the importance of challenging yourself.

“No one has really ever changed the world or changed an industry by just doing what everybody else was doing,” Cuban said.

He said that the biggest lie entrepreneurs tell themselves is they are superior over certain situations.

Cuban said that the real successes usually come out of the development of products or services that are completely different and turn the industry upside down.

Cuban also offered advice regarding the importance of customer service.

“There’s never been a business that could survive without customers,” he said. “That’s just the way business works, and I have a saying that you have to re-earn your customer’s business every single day. And I try to, no matter what the business or what position I’m in. If your customers leave, what do you have left?”

He went on to talk about his experience with broadcast.com and how after the biggest IPO jump in the history of the stock market, he eventually sold the website to Yahoo for $5.7 billion.

Not long after, Cuban attended a Dallas Mavericks game on opening day and was disappointed that the game was not a sell-out. With his newly acquired wealth, he decided to buy the Dallas Mavericks and change the attitude and the culture of the franchise. As a result of some changes made by Cuban, the Mavericks went from a record of 21-32 to 49-57.

At the end of the discussion, Mark Burnett, a British television producer and the chief executive officer of United Artists Media Group, joined Cuban to talk about his show Shark Tank. Burnett and Cuban, both described the show as a sort of “new age lemonade stand.”

Siqi Wu, a senior majoring in business administration said that he enjoyed hearing advice from an entrepreneur with a lot of experience.

“The parts [when] he talked about Shark Tank and his interactions with USC entrepreneur teams made me think a lot because that is the reality that we are confronting every day,” Wu said. “It’s probably something I will experience in the future, whether I just have an interview where I have to sell myself or I am starting my own business.”

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to note that Blackstone LaunchPad at USC were a title sponsor and organizer of the Mark Cuban event.