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This feature is a part of our Most Influential People Behind The Scenes In Sports series. Mark Cuban lives a life most people envy. After selling his dot-com company in the late ’90s for $5.9 billion, Cuban has been able to live large. And live large, he has. One of his biggest purchases was a majority stake of the Dallas Mavericks, and ever since, he’s become a huge voice in the sports world. What does it feel like to be a billionaire? Cuban told James Altucher on a podcast: “The billion was, ‘I can’t f—ing believe it.’ Literally, I was sitting in front of a computer, naked, hitting the refresh because we were close — waiting until my net worth hit that billion when the stock price got to a certain point, and then I kinda screamed and jumped around and then got dressed.” Even in college, Cuban was a businessman. He and his friends had a bar called Motely’s Pub but it was shut down because they had a wet t-shirt contest with an underage girl in it. After graduating from Indiana University, he took a job as a bartender in Dallas. He also had a job as a salesperson at a PC retailer in Dallas, but he was fired in less than a year when instead of opening the store, he met with a client about new business. So this is when Cuban decided to take matters in his own hands. Cuban’s first business was called MicroSolutions. But a few years later, in 1990, Cuban sold this company to CompuServ for $6 million. Cuban cleared $2 million after taxes, and by the time he had sold the company, he had already saved up about $1 million. With $3 million in his bank account all Cuban wanted to do was “party like a rockstar.” Cuban told James Altucher that he bought a $125,000 “lifetime pass” on American Airlines, which got him and a guest a first class ticket whenever he wanted it and partied like crazy. Cuban would do things like fly to LA to take acting classes just so he could meet hot girls, or would just hop on a plane and go to Moscow, or Barcelona, or Puerto Vallarta. But it wasn’t all party, during this time he was also “killing it” trading stocks. He ended up working for a small hedge fund with a partner which they eventually sold. At that point, Cuban had turned his $3 million into $20 million. Then came Broadcast.com which was Cuban’s real moneymaker. Cuban started Audionet.com with his college friend, which eventually turned into Broadcast.com. The idea for Broadcast.com was to put live sporting events online for anyone to listen to. By 1999, Cuban grew the company to $13.5 million revenue in the second quarter during the dot-com boom. And then, Yahoo! picked it up for $5.9 BILLION in ’99 just before the dot com crash. So here’s what he did with all that money. In 2000, Cuban bought a majority stake, $285 million, in the Dallas Mavericks. According to Forbes, the Mavs are now the fifth-most valuable team in the NBA worth $685 million. In 2002, he married Tiffany Stewart. Now, they have three kids. In 2004, he hosted his own reality show called “The Benefactor,” kind of like Trump’s “The Apprentice,” but this winner got $1 million. He bought this $40 million private jet. He built this 24,000-square-foot mansion in Dallas. And he keeps the party going. He’s even in a rap video. After the Mavs won the 2011 NBA title, he celebrated in style … …with celebrities like Lil Wayne. He managed a $90,000 bar tab that night and then tipped an extra $20,000. Cuban also throws a huge party at the Super Bowl. In 2013, Justin Timberlake performed. And big stars and models like Kate Upton were in attendance. He’s also a host of ABC’s reality series “Shark Tank.” On the 2014 Forbes billionaire list, Cuban is No. 696 with a net worth of $2.6 billion. Now get to know some of the other influential people in sports. The 50 Most Influential People Behind The Scenes In Sports » Read more stories on Business Insider, Malaysian edition of the world’s fastest-growing business and technology news website.
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