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Tag: Mark Cuban

  • Mark Cuban says he doesn’t do calls and prefers email because ‘if we do it by phone, I’m going to forget half the stuff that we talked about’ | Fortune

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    “No, I don’t do calls,” said the former Shark Tank star and Dallas Mavericks owner in a TikTok video posted by Masterclass. “You know, I’ll engage with you via email, and trust me, I do this all the time. I’m really good at it.”

    But Cuban’s logic for his proclivity toward email over the phone is very different from younger generations. He said conversing over email gives him more time to craft a thoughtful response. 

    “I’ll give you more comprehensive responses than if it was via phone,” said Cuban, who’s worth an estimated $6 billion. “And if we do it by phone, I’m going to forget half the stuff that we talked about because I’ve got so much going on.” 

    While Cuban is no longer starring on Shark Tank and sold off his majority stake in the Mavericks, he’s still plenty occupied running Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs Company and serving as an investor and advisor to the dozens of companies he invested in during his time on the show.

    Meanwhile, Gen Zers prefer email or text because they are anxious about talking on the phone. A 2024 study shows nearly a quarter of the generation is so hesitant about talking on the phone that they never answer calls. A college in the U.K. last year even launched a class aimed at helping Gen Z overcome its fear.

    While it’s always easy to poke fun at younger generations for their professional-life quirks, the hesitancy for some is actually a deeply rooted fear called “telephobia.” This form of phone anxiety can lead to increased heart rate, nausea, shaking, and trouble concentrating, according to Verywell Mind. 

    “It speaks to a broader fatigue with immediacy and urgency, where people have grown tired of the hassle culture and obsession with efficiency,”  Zoia Tarasova, an anthropologist with consumer insight agency Canvas8, previously told Fortune. “People are quietly rebelling against this immediacy by taking their time to respond to those calls.” 

    Other business leaders even told Fortune that this telephobia trend has hurt their bottom line. Casey Halloran, CEO and cofounder of online travel agency Namu Travel, said in the 25 years he’s been in business, management has “never seen anything quite like the generational divide” between older and younger travel agents in how they make phone calls. He also said combating telephobia has been a “frequent, uncomfortable topic” at his company, as management has recognized that his younger travel agents register fewer than 50% of the calls compared to older employees.

    “As to solutions, we have been doing extensive training, incentives, call observing with our veteran reps, and even hired a business psychologist,” Halloran previously told Fortune. “After more than two years of this struggle, we’re nearly to the point of throwing up hands and embracing SMS and WebChat versus continuing to fight an uphill battle.”

    Still, for his own business purposes, Cuban says he prefers emails over phone calls because he can go back and reference what he’s said. 

    “If we do it via email, I can search for it, always,” he added. 

    What research tells us about communication styles at work

    Just like most business approaches, emailing instead of talking on the phone has its pros and cons. 

    Research by recruiting firm Robert Walters shows more than half of younger-generation professionals find instant messaging or email, instead of calls or meetings, is the best way to “get things done,” showing how they believe talking over the phone can be inefficient. That’s the “it could have been an email” mentality.

    “Younger generations are less inclined to spend hours in a restaurant or cafe when they can have a quick discussion online,” Emilie Vignon, associate director of Robert Walters California, wrote in the 2024 study. To be sure, Vignon also said there are also “downsides” to only conversing via email or text.

    “Face-to-face interactions allow for meaningful connections and provide an opportunity for non-verbal communication cues, building trust and rapport with clients and colleagues,” Vignon added. “The subtleties of body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice contribute to a deeper understanding and connection that often cannot be fully conveyed through text or even video chats.”

    To be sure, other research from the University of Texas at Austin (UT) and the University of Chicago, as well as studies by McKinsey & Co., show calls can help resolve issues more quickly than an email, especially as workers spend nearly one-third of their time on email. A 2022 study from DePaul University researcher David J. Bouvier also shows that email enables easy information sharing and can reduce stress.

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  • Mavericks fire GM Nico Harrison 9 months after widely panned Luka Doncic trade

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    DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Mavericks fired general manager Nico Harrison on Tuesday, an admission nine months later that the widely criticized trade of Luka Doncic backfired on the franchise.

    The move came a day after Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont attended a 116-114 loss to the Bucks in which fans again chanted “fire Nico,” a familiar refrain since the blockbuster deal in February that brought Anthony Davis from the Los Angeles Lakers and angered the Dallas fan base.

    The Mavericks appointed Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi as co-interim general managers to oversee basketball operations.

    Dumont’s hope for goodwill with the fans never came even after Dallas landed No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg with just a 1.8% chance to win the draft lottery.

    There have been plenty of empty seats in the upper deck of American Airlines Center this season, something not seen consistently since 2018, when the Mavericks traded up to get Doncic with the third overall pick.

    Doncic was a 25-year-old generational point guard in his prime when Harrison unloaded him for the oft-injured Davis, who has missed 30 of 44 regular-season games since his arrival in February.

    Harrison was in his fourth season and had engineered three trades that helped the Mavs go on a run to the Western Conference finals in 2022 and the NBA Finals two years later.

    The Doncic trade and a slow start to the first full season without the young superstar led to a stunning downfall for Harrison, who declined to comment to The Associated Press. Dallas is 3-8, and Davis has missed six of the 11 games with a calf injury.

    “No one associated with the Mavericks organization is happy with the start of what we all believed would be a promising season,” Dumont wrote in a letter to fans. “You have high expectations for the Mavericks, and I share them with you. When the results don’t meet expectations, it’s my responsibility to act.”

    While Dumont didn’t directly mention the Doncic trade in the letter, he acknowledged the vitriolic reaction of fans, who protested after the shocking deal. The Las Vegas-based Dumont and Adelson families, who bought the Mavericks from Mark Cuban in late 2023, were targets of the criticism as well.

    “I understand the profound impact these difficult last several months have had,” Dumont wrote. “Please know that I’m fully committed to the success of the Mavericks.”

    Dumont approved Harrison’s decision to trade Doncic, which kept the Mavericks from having to commit to a $346 million, five-year supermax extension for the Slovenian star.

    Harrison tried to defend the deal by repeating a “defense wins championships” line. But with Davis sidelined by a calf injury and star guard Kyrie Irving still out after tearing the ACL in his left knee last March, defense hasn’t mattered much because Dallas has one of the worst offenses in the NBA.

    With Davis and Irving playing together for just part of one game last season, the Mavericks missed the playoffs a year after Doncic led them to the NBA Finals.

    The slow, injury-plagued start to this season for the Mavericks coincided with Doncic joining Wilt Chamberlain as the only NBA players to open a season with three consecutive games of at least 40 points.

    Doncic’s historic run was interrupted by a three-game injury absence, but the Lakers won twice without him and are 8-3.

    Harrison had spent 20 years with Nike and had close relationships with several NBA stars, including the late Kobe Bryant, when Cuban hired him in 2021.

    The hiring of Harrison was the first step in trying to restore stability after former general manager Donnie Nelson was fired, then Rick Carlisle resigned as coach a day later. Nelson and Carlisle had been together for 13 years.

    Harrison hired Jason Kidd as coach, and the Mavericks reached the Western Conference finals their first season together after Harrison’s first blockbuster trade.

    He broke up the European pairing of Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis and got Spencer Dinwiddie, who played a key supporting role with Doncic as the Mavericks stunned Phoenix with a Game 7 blowout in the second round before losing to Golden State in five games.

    A year later, Dinwiddie was part of the next blockbuster trade, which brought Irving from Brooklyn. The Mavericks faltered the rest of that season largely because of injuries, but they reached their first NBA Finals in 13 years in 2023-24, led by the pair of star guards. Dallas lost to Boston in five games.

    That deep playoff run came in the first six months after Cuban sold the team. He said then that he would maintain control of basketball operations, but that didn’t happen.

    Dumont quickly put full control of the basketball side in the hands of Harrison, who saw Davis as a championship-caliber player in the mold of Bryant. Davis won a title with LeBron James and the Lakers in 2020.

    Cuban criticized the trade of Doncic, saying he never would have approved it and adding that he didn’t think Dallas got enough in return. Months later, though, Cuban credited Harrison for his salary cap management.

    Finley, who was Harrison’s top assistant and has been in the Dallas front office for a decade, was a two-time All-Star for the Mavericks in the early 2000s when Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki was coming of age.

    Finley had moved on to San Antonio when Nowitzki led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals in 2006. Dallas lost to Miami that year but beat the Heat five years later for the franchise’s only championship.

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    AP NBA: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NBA

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  • Mark Cuban Shares the Smartest Places for AI-Skilled Workers to Find Jobs

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    Serial entrepreneur, business visionary, and — not coincidentally — billionaire Mark Cuban has repeatedly urged both young and older people to develop artificial intelligence (AI) skills, and use those to tap into the enormous career-building potential these tools offer. More recently, Cuban expanded on his advice by counseling job seekers to market their AI experience to small businesses, not the big corporations now spending billions adopting the tech.

    Cuban is clearly convinced AI is set to transform business in ever bigger ways than his Cost Plus Drug company revolutionized pharmaceutical markets. To get in on that change, Cuban has been encouraging people — including his own children — to spend all their free time to “learn all you can about AI,” and exploit the “unique opportunity” it offers employees and companies. Of late, the 67-year-old entrepreneur has honed that message even more by telling current and future job seekers to forget trying to use those AI skills to secure work with leading corporations, and instead focus on the far more numerous opportunities at small businesses.

    “They have to compete differently, and they don’t have the resources to just, you know, have a huge IT department,” Cuban told CivicScience CEO John Dick on his “Dumbest Guy in the Room” podcast recently. “So, they’re going to go to kids just like we saw with the early days of the internet. You hired young kids who were more comfortable with it, who learned it already and could come in and implement new things.”

    In making that point, Cuban didn’t ignore the fact that big companies are spending billions of dollars both developing and adopting AI tools to automate countless workplace tasks previously performed by humans. But as part of that, he said those corporations are also investing considerable amounts of money to hire top tech workers, not recruiting at lower levels that would be open to most job seekers.

    “The large companies are trying to use AI to cut back and they have the resources to understand how to implement it, apply it to processes,” Cuban said. “They have great AI people.”

    He further detailed that thought recently in comments to CNBC.

    “Small- to medium-size companies don’t have that depth,” Cuban told the business channel. “They are typically entrepreneurially driven and don’t have the flexibility to have people research things. Bringing a new graduate on to work on agentic AI projects is inexpensive for them and can get them immediate results.”

    Moreover, small businesses are not only more numerous than corporations, but will use AI — and the new recruits helping them adopt it — differently. He cited his own Cost Plus Drugs company as an example of how that works.

    “Small- to medium-size businesses like our size companies, we need people that understand AI and agentics, (and) can go and look at our processes and automate them using AI,” Cuban told the podcast. “And as we grow it, you know, (recruits) help us become more productive, competitive, and profitable using AI. And so I think redirecting kids as they graduate from college in particular to small -to medium-sized businesses as opposed to trying to work for a big company (is wise).”

    Cuban admitted not all his three college-age children are fans of AI, with one daughter particularly soured on it due to its enormous energy consumption.

    But he said he continues urging all his kids — and other future and current employees — to embrace the tech, and use it to take their careers to new, higher places over time. The alternative, he warns them, is that people and businesses who snub the quickly developing and spreading AI tools risk finding themselves on the outside looking in.

    “I tell them, like I tell every young kid, there’s going to be two types of companies in this in this country,” Cuban said. “There’s going to be those who are great at AI and those who used to be in business. There’s no in between.”

    The early-rate deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, November 14, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Bruce Crumley

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  • Mark Cuban Ran a Ponzi Scheme to Fund His Junior Year of College

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    Mark Cuban shared that he ran a Ponzi scheme in the 1980s to pay for his junior year of college. He operated a chain letter system, asking fellow students for money in exchange for more down the line. 

    “There’d be envelopes with $50 from here, $50 from there. It was amazing,” Cuban said of his dorm mailbox in an episode of the “Life in Seven Songs” podcast last year. While he says he saw to it that his friends made back their money, he acknowledged that, “it was basically a scam.” 

    At that time Cuban was years away from becoming the billionaire, former Mavericks owner, and TV personality he is known for today. He came from a working class family, his dad occasionally handing him a $20 bill, he said. His hustle is what got him through the year at Indiana University. 

    After college, Cuban moved to Dallas and slept on the floor of his friend’s apartment.

    “If somebody was out of town, I got a bed,” he says. 

    He worked at a PC software store, but his stint was cut short when his urge for business got the best of him. Rather than clocking in for work one morning, he skipped his shift to close a deal with a customer. The move got him fired, but it served as motivation to start his own business, computer consulting company MicroSolutions. 

    He sold the company for millions, and then co-founded streaming platform AudioNet, later called Broadcast.com. Yahoo bought it in 1999 for $5.7 billion. 

    “That gave me confidence,” Cuban said, adding that the sale made him “excited about business.” 

    Now he’s running Cost Plus Drugs, his startup that works to sell prescription medications at lower prices.

    “We get letters and emails weekly, if not more often, saying, ‘You saved my life,’” Cuban says.

    Cuban isn’t in a position where he has to hustle like he once did, and yet he does. He says people ask him why he’s still doing business now that he has money. His answer? He enjoys it.

    “I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I love doing this stuff,” he says. “You know, why slow down? This is fun.”

    The early-rate deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, November 14, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Ava Levinson

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  • What Is Liquid Net Worth and How Do You Calculate It?

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    While it’s certainly important for business owners to know their net worth, it could be even more critical for them to know their liquid net worth, as entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban noted recently. While the two are closely related, it’s the liquid net worth number that will be relevant if a situation arises where you need to pay for or buy something.

    A high liquid net worth gives you a greater degree of freedom, since your assets are within your reach, instead of being tied up in your business, home or some other investment vehicle. And if that liquid net worth becomes high enough, the real reward, says Cuban, isn’t the size of your bank account, but rather the satisfaction you get from helping others with it.

    “The value of those dollars become much greater, to you and so many others, when you use your business, or other expertise to help others,” he wrote on social media. “Whatever got you to that level of liquidity most likely gives you a unique expertise. That can be put to work to help people who really need it now, or will need it in the future. And you might even make money from it. That’s ok. Compassion and capitalism, not greed, are what can make this country far greater.”

    Here’s what you need to know about liquid net worth.

    What’s the difference between net worth and liquid net worth?

    Your net worth is the total value of all of your assets. Cash, possessions, your business (or your ownership share of your business)—all of it. Particularly for business owners, it can be complicated to calculate, since the value of so many of those assets is not always immediately determinable—and it’s easy to over- or under-estimate the actual number.

    Liquid net worth focuses solely on assets you can access quickly. “Liquid net worth represents the sum total of all assets that can be turned into cash within a few days less all liabilities and debts you owe to other people or companies,” says Kirsten Travers-UyHam, an associate professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.

    What should I look at when calculating liquid net worth?

    Look at anything that’s held in cash or something you can convert to cash almost immediately. That includes any money in checking, savings, or money market accounts, certificates of deposit (though you’ll face an interest penalty for early withdrawal), and any cash you might have stored around the house for emergencies. Treasury bills should be included in the calculations, as can mutual funds as well as stocks or bonds that can be sold quickly.

    Can I include my house in my liquid net worth calculations?

    Generally, no. Unless you’re about to close on an active sale, real estate holdings or stakes in real estate investment trusts are considered illiquid.

    Should I include items like fine art or my Rolex in my net worth calculation?

    Again, no. Any sort of alternative investment, whether that’s art, luxury items, or NFTs, generally can’t be included in any calculation of liquid net worth, as you’re often unable to quickly convert those to cash. (Yes, technically, a pawn shop can be used to make some of those items liquid, but you’d be dramatically undervaluing the asset.)

    How can founders improve their liquid net worth?

    Because you never know when you’ll face a financial emergency, it’s important to have sufficient liquid assets to cover the costs when one arises. That can be a painful move for entrepreneurs who want to reinvest all of their sales into the business to help it grow, but financial experts say it’s the right one.

    “Too many founders keep most of their net worth in their business which is not liquid,” says Carolyn McClanahan, of Jacksonville, Fla-based Life Planning Partners. “I encourage business owners to save money and invest in other assets other than their business. For example, they should max out their retirement plans, health savings accounts, and also in a taxable brokerage account. This will provide emergency funds and more financial flexibility through the years.”

    Is there any way to include my business in my liquid net worth calculation?

    If you’re, say, a sole proprietor, you control both the liquid assets (the money in the company’s bank accounts) as well as the illiquid ones, which can range from equipment to the company’s client list. You can take an owner’s draw from the company (although there may be risks to drawing out too much, as well as tax implications). If you’re taxed as an S-corp or C-corp, this isn’t an option for you.

    Alternatively, you can secure a loan, using non-liquid business assets as collateral. This isn’t much different than the pawn shop method of liquidating alternative investments, though—and the danger of undervaluing is much the same. “That comes at a cost,” says McClanahan. “Interest rates to borrow against non-liquid assets are usually not cheap and are usually variable, meaning borrowing costs will go up as interest rates go up.”

    Do founders overestimate their liquid net worth?

    Just as founders tend to overestimate their overall net worth, they’re sometimes guilty of overestimating their liquid net worth. It’s called the “Endowment Effect,” a cognitive bias where people overvalue an item simply because they own it. And some founders might include assets that aren’t actually liquid in the calculations.

    Generally, though, calculating liquid net worth is an easier thing to do than figuring out your overall net worth. “It is easy to see how much your cash and liquid investments are worth on a portfolio statement or bank website,” says Travers-UyHam. 

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    Chris Morris

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  • Las Vegas Sands Continues Pouring Money Into Texas Politics

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    Posted on: October 14, 2025, 10:21h. 

    Last updated on: October 14, 2025, 10:32h.

    • Las Vegas Sands remains invested in Texas politics
    • Sands wants to build a casino resort in Dallas
    • Sands is heavily backing Texas Senate candidate John Huffman

    Las Vegas Sands has contributed millions of dollars to political races in Texas over the past few years. Despite little return on the many campaign contributions, the world’s largest casino operator by market capitalization is showing no signs of folding.

    Las Vegas Sands Texas politics John Huffman
    Texas Senate candidate John Huffman posted a photograph of his family looking over the Bellagio Fountains on X. Huffman is being heavily supported by the casino lobby and Las Vegas Sands, though he wrote in July that Las Vegas is not his “style.” (Image: X)

    According to campaign finance records disclosed by the Texas Ethics Commission, Texas Sands PAC last month gave state Senate District 9 Republican candidate John Huffman $500K. Huffman, a former city councilor and mayor of Southlake in the Dallas/Fort Worth suburbs, is a self-described “true fiscal conservative” who seeks to cut taxes and reduce regulation.

    Sands sees Huffman as a possible state lawmaker who might get on board with the idea of casino gambling as an economic stimulator that could lessen the tax burden on Texans, and keep the many millions of gaming dollars from flowing annually to Oklahoma tribal casinos and commercial casinos in Lake Charles, La. Huffman’s chief opponent for the November 9 special election — Republican Leigh Wambsganss — is on record saying she doesn’t believe gambling is good for society.

    The research is conclusive — gambling has a negative impact on families and has a detrimental effect on the community as a whole,” Wambsganss told the Texas Scorecard. “I do not think expanded gambling is right for Texas.”

    Huffman says voters — not state lawmakers — should decide whether casinos are right for Texas.

    If voters choose expansion, it should be limited, well-regulated, and focused on a small number of high-end destination resorts that create jobs and attract tourism,” Huffman said.

    Sands’ largest shareholder is billionaire Dr. Miriam Adelson, who, along with her son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, controls the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. In late 2023, the Adelsons bought a 69% position in the Mavs from Mark Cuban for about $3.8 billion. 

    Casino Lobby

    Adelson’s late husband, Sheldon Adelson, the founder and longtime chair and CEO of Sands, had sought entry into Texas for many years. Adelson is carrying on her husband’s ambitions.

    Adelson’s purchase of the Mavs is thought to give the businesswoman and philanthropist an upper hand in Austin in convincing lawmakers to consider gaming. Her crusade is supported by Cuban, who believes Texas needs to diversify its leisure travel attractions. Adelson and Cuban have suggested building a new NBA arena accompanied by an integrated resort casino.

    Adelson and Sands are the lone financiers of Texas Sands PAC. In August, she gave $9.1 million to the political action committee. Sands gave $4,500.

    Adelson is also a major backer of the Texas Defense PAC. That committee gave Huffman almost $600K. The Adelson-based committees collectively account for about 94% of Huffman’s total campaign war chest.

    Political Irony

    Huffman believes it’s quite ironic that Wambsganss opposes casinos in Texas, considering her family made money off gaming. Those claims stem from her husband previously being an investor in a skill gaming manufacturing company that primarily operated in Virginia, the state in which Wambsganss was born before moving to Texas as a child with her military parents.

    Skill games in Virginia have been illegal since July 2021, though legal challenges continue. Skill games are slot-like machines that require players to identify winning paylines.

    Huffman’s support of casinos is also a bit ironic. Last summer, he posted his family’s favorite cities across the US after being “blessed to travel to all 50 states.” His review for Las Vegas wasn’t exactly an endorsement.

    We didn’t gamble — obviously — but we walked the Strip, marveled at the Bellagio Fountains, and soaked in the sensory overload. Glad the kids saw it, but no one was in a hurry to return. Just not our style,” Huffman summarized.

    The Texas politician ranked Las Vegas No. 16 among 21 major cities they visited.

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    Devin O’Connor

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  • Mark Cuban Says You Should Ignore Economic Indicators. Here’s Why

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    It has been more than two weeks since there have been any official economic indicators. The ongoing government shutdown has paused virtually all reports from agencies like the Labor Department and Commerce Department. (There are reports that the Consumer Price Index will be released on Oct. 15.) When the numbers are normally released, though, they’re scoured by analysts, investors and business owners for hints about the business world. But for founders and entrepreneurs, says Mark Cuban, they’re basically useless.

    While data like jobless claims and retail sales give a good macro look at the economy, he argues, they don’t define what’s going to happen to individual businesses. And planning your company’s strategy around them could send you down the wrong path.

    “When you hear about inflation from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that has nothing to do with you,” Cuban recently told Inc. editor in chief Mike Hofman at the Clover X Shark Tank Summit in Las Vegas. “We live in a bifurcated world [and] country right now.”

    Macro retail sales might be showing gains, for instance, he said, but business owners who see their customers struggling might wonder how that can be. Cuban blames the widening gap between economic classes, saying “it’s because rich s**t to rich people keeps on going up.”

    The Indicators That Matter

    To get a real sense of the economy as it relates to your business, he says, the secret is to increase communications with your customers. Learn their circumstances and see where they’re struggling and where they’re thriving. That will help you decide the best way to steer your company.

    Talking with customers sounds easy, but Mark Cuban says it’s often not. To learn the truth about where they stand, you have to be willing to honestly discuss where you and your business are as well. And that vulnerability can be intimidating for both parties.

    “No one wants to put themselves in that position, but you have to talk to them and be brutally honest,” said Cuban. “During COVID, when everything was falling apart for everybody, rich or poor, it was a little bit easier to talk to people because we were all struggling. But now, it’s hard to know who’s struggling [and] who’s not. It’s all the more reason, as a founder, you have to communicate more. … if you don’t know what’s in the heart, mind, soul, budget and bank account of your customers, how are you going to know how to price your services, your goods? How are you going to know how they’re going to respond?”

    That communication can take lots of forms. You can reach out via email or talk when the customer comes into your business or when you go to them. Foregoing that communication, though, can breed uncertainty, Cuban said. And that costs small businesses not only more cash than it costs big businesses, but more important cash, since it’s a bigger part of a startup’s total capital cash availability.

    The Importance of Cash

    Broad sector-wide sales numbers don’t impact your business. Your company’s cash flow is much more important, he said.

    As an example, Mark Cuban cited his own Cost Plus Drugs, which, like so many businesses, went on a buying spree, pre-ordering products after the Trump Administration announced its tariff plans. Many companies borrowed money or used all of their available cash to do the same. “So now we have all this inventory, and that’s all your cash,” he said. And that makes sales even more critical than usual—no matter what the broader economic indicators might be saying.

    “It’s not so much what everybody else thinks,” he said. “It’s how are you going to, you know, monetize what you have? And it goes back to the same old thing: Sales cures all. When we have uncertain times from an economic perspective, you have to get out there and hustle more. You have to find ways to move that inventory.”

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    Chris Morris

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  • Mark Cuban Just Invited Everyone to Deepfake Him on Sora and It’s Really Quite Brilliant

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    Yesterday, Mark Cuban told his followers on Threads, “For those of you on Sora, my Cameos are open. Have at it.” At first, it sounded like a joke. Why would Cuban want people making weird videos of him saying all sorts of crazy things? Or, worse, why would he want to be dropped into potentially political or otherwise controversial videos?

    But if you stop and think about it, what Cuban just did was actually quite brilliant. He wasn’t just giving people permission to make AI videos of him—he was making a statement about what it means to live in a world where artificial intelligence is no longer an experiment. Cuban seems to believe AI may be the single most essential tool moving forward, and we should all spend as much time as possible learning how to use it well.

    The deepfake invitation

    As I’m sure you know, OpenAI’s Sora is having a viral moment. According to the company, it reached a million downloads in just five days, more quickly than even ChatGPT back in 2022. It’s still the number one app in the iOS App Store.

    At the same time, the app’s rise has reignited long-running debates about copyright and the ethics of generative media. Artists and filmmakers have accused OpenAI of training Sora on copyrighted video without permission. Some studios have even suggested the tool amounts to digital theft—using the creative work of others to produce content that could compete with it. OpenAI, for its part, seems to have been caught off guard by how controversial it has become.

    That’s the context for Cuban’s invitation. While a lot of celebrities and IP owners have hired lawyers to protect their likenesses from AI manipulation, Cuban leaned into it. “My Cameos are open,” he said, framing his digital image as a kind of public sandbox. In other words: go ahead and try it.

    AI as the most important skill

    It’s a bold move, but it fits with Cuban’s long-held philosophy about technology. He’s said on a number of occasions that the biggest mistake you can make right now—whether you’re a student, a business owner, or a creator—is sitting on the sidelines.

    “If I was 16, 18, 20, 21 starting today,” he said earlier this year, “I would spend every waking minute learning about AI. Even if I am sleeping, I am listening to podcasts talking about AI.”

    That’s not hyperbole. It’s an intentional strategy, and it gets to why Cuban’s invitation is so smart. If you want to get people to spend all their time with something, you have to make it worth it. Or, at a minimum, you have to make it fun.

    It’s sort of like a calculated dare. By telling people to “have at it,” he’s acknowledging that there are real risks, but he’s also forcing people to ask the question: “What’s the responsible way to explore this new creative power?”

    Ignoring it won’t make it safer. On the other hand, engaging with it with some measure of humor might.

    Experimentation is the point

    Cuban has argued for years that AI isn’t just another wave of technology. It’s the wave—the one that will separate people who thrive in the next decade from those who don’t. “There are two types of companies in the world,” he says. “Those that are great at AI, and everybody else.”

    The same could be said for people. He isn’t telling everyone to become AI researchers or build the next ChatGPT. He’s telling them to experiment—to play with the tools, learn their limits, and figure out how to make them useful.

    AI, he likes to remind people, “is never the answer—it’s the tool.” What matters is how creatively you use it.

    So when he invites the internet to “deepfake” him on Sora, he’s modeling exactly that mindset. He’s saying: don’t be afraid of it. Don’t moralize about it before you understand it. Try it out. Break things. See what happens.

    The risk in the lesson

    There’s an obvious risk here. An app that makes it this easy to make deepfakes is controversial for good reason. It blurs the line between entertainment and deception, and they do it based on what others created. Public figures have every reason to protect their image, particularly as AI-generated media becomes harder to distinguish from reality.

    Cuban’s move flips that fear on its head. By giving permission, he removes the taboo. If people are going to make deepfakes anyway—and they are—then he might as well be the one to turn it into a teachable moment.

    That’s what makes it brilliant. It’s not about Cuban himself; it’s about how everyone else responds. The more people experiment, the faster we’ll uncover the limits and possibilities of AI video tools like Sora. That’s why Cuban’s invitation matters. It’s a message to the next generation: don’t just watch what AI can do. Do something with it.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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    Jason Aten

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  • Why Mark Cuban Says You Shouldn’t Take Money from a Shark Like Him

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    Over the course of 15 seasons, the Sharks on ABC’s Shark Tank have invested more than $200 million in the companies that have pitched them. But Mark Cuban, who sat on that investor panel almost every season before leaving the show earlier this year, says the smartest founders focus on sweat equity, rather than hunting for investors.

    Speaking at the Clover x Shark Tank Summit in Las Vegas Monday, Cuban listed the strengths of starting a business without any sort of external capital.

    “The only reason I’m a billionaire is because I started off bootstrapping,” he told Inc.’s editor-in-chief Mike Hofman. “So many people get caught up [thinking] ‘I have to raise money.’ No, you have to get customers. And if you’re able to get customers, you’re able to grow your business. And if you’re able to grow your business, even if it’s slower, then you’re able to own your business.”

    Few people can truly say they own their own business, Mark Cuban said. There’s a romanticism that goes with attracting outside investors—but that’s not always the best direction for the company.

    “I think we have the Silicon Valley ethos too much,” he said. “We’re got to raise money first.” A smarter move, he says, is to build the business first.

    By focusing on that, you avoid putting yourself in the position of having to decide between the lesser of several potentially bad funding offers that might require you to give up a significant ownership stake. The more you’re able to build the company organically, the better your position will be when the time to raise money finally arrives.

    “If you come on Shark Tank and you have $100,000 in sales, Kevin’s going to make you an offer that says, ‘I want 75 percent of the company and a 97 percent royalty.’ And Lori’s going to jump in and say, ‘Oh, that’s crazy, I’ll take 60 percent of your company, but only a 2 percent royalty.’ You don’t want to be in that position … The longer you can hold out before you raise money, the richer you are going to be,” said Cuban.

    When the time does come to raise money, he said, there’s nothing wrong with avoiding venture capital or even Shark Tank Sharks if you can get it in other ways, whether that’s crowdfunding, grants, or some other nontraditional means.

    Any chance you have to get nondilutive funding is one you should take, he said. However, as you accept that money, think about how you’re going to pay those people back.

    “Whatever source of funding you get—investors, equity, crowdfunding, whatever—remember, it is an obligation,” said Cuban. “Raising money is not an accomplishment, it’s an obligation.”

    That’s a lesson Mark Cuban learned personally right before the turn of the century.

    He and his partner Todd Wagner started a company called Broadcast.com, which he says was the first streaming company. It IPO’d in 1998 and immediately set a record for first-day growth.

    The stock opened at $18 per share and spiked within seconds to $72. It closed on that first day at $63.75.

    “I was freaked out in two ways,” he said. “One: Shoot, I’m rich! Two: Somebody paid $72 for our stock and now it’s $63. We need to get to work and make sure she makes money.”

    The way to do that, he says, is to focus not on sales, but cashflow. The topline is the least important number. Focus on things like margins and keeping costs low.

    “The #1 trap that startup entrepreneurs fall into: They’ve just got to get to $1 million in sales,” he said. “That’s the stupidest number in the history of stupid numbers. Tell me you want to get to $1 million in cash and you started with a lot less, and I’m like you’re my kind of entrepreneur.”

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    Chris Morris

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  • Mark Cuban’s Job Searching Advice for College-Aged Workers | Entrepreneur

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    College students today have “more resources available to you in your phone than anybody in the history of everything,” said Mark Cuban earlier this week at the All-In Summit. And that’s exactly the advice he tells his college-aged kids.

    Cuban told the audience that he is advising his three kids (two are in college) to shy away from looking for a job at a big company. In the joint interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, Cuban said getting a job at a large corporation now is tougher than ever — especially as these companies integrate AI into everyday workflows.

    “I got two kids in college, and what I tell them is if you were looking for a job at a big company, you’re not going to get it,” said Cuban, whose net worth is reportedly around $6 billion.

    Related: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says Older Workers Need to Embrace AI — or Face Losing Their Jobs

    Instead, he told them to look for a smaller-to-medium-sized company that could benefit from hiring Gen Z employees who are AI-native.

    “The small to medium-sized companies need all the help they can get from AI natives,” Cuban explained. “Because walking in and understanding AI and being able to implement [it] for that company is a huge step forward [for] them. That’s one way we will adjust.”

    Cuban could be on to something. Despite many executives and even the “Godfather of AI” predicting mass unemployment due to artificial intelligence implementation, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seems equally excited about what this all means for current students and recent graduates.

    Related: Here’s What ‘Terrifies’ OpenAI’s CEO About Financial Institutions Today: ‘This Is a Huge Deal’

    Altman told the “Huge Conversations” podcast in August that if he were 22 years old and just finishing college, he would “feel like the luckiest kid in all of history” because of the new opportunities, from starting new companies to writing code, that AI can provide.

    “You have access to these tools that can let you do what used to take teams of hundreds,” Altman said.

    College students today have “more resources available to you in your phone than anybody in the history of everything,” said Mark Cuban earlier this week at the All-In Summit. And that’s exactly the advice he tells his college-aged kids.

    Cuban told the audience that he is advising his three kids (two are in college) to shy away from looking for a job at a big company. In the joint interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, Cuban said getting a job at a large corporation now is tougher than ever — especially as these companies integrate AI into everyday workflows.

    “I got two kids in college, and what I tell them is if you were looking for a job at a big company, you’re not going to get it,” said Cuban, whose net worth is reportedly around $6 billion.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

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    Erin Davis

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  • Warren Buffett, Now 95, Still Eats Like a 6-Year-Old

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    Warren Buffett pictured at Dairy Queen, one of his favorite restaurants, in September 2010. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

    Warren Buffett turns 95 years old today (Aug. 30). The billionaire investor’s diet, however, has never quite grown up. His devotion for Coca-Cola is well known, as is his fondness for ice cream, candy and hamburgers. Buffett has never tried to hide it. “I found everything I like to eat by the time I was six,” he told CNBC in a 2023 interview. “I mean, why should I fool around with all these other foods?”

    The Berkshire Hathaway chairman has built one of the world’s largest fortunes. But when it comes to food, he keeps it simple. While other billionaires might celebrate a milestone birthday with a lavish meal, Buffett is more likely to be found at McDonald’s or a local Omaha steakhouse.

    Here’s a look at some of the Oracle of Omaha’s favorite orders:

    Gorat’s Steak House

    Neon sign reading 'Gorats' placed outside restaurantNeon sign reading 'Gorats' placed outside restaurant
    Gorat’s is known as Warren Buffett’s favorite steakhouse. Photo by Mark Miller/The Washington Post via Getty Images

    Buffett is such a loyal customer of Gorat’s Steak House in Omaha, Neb. that the restaurant has become a tourist attraction. Each May, during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting, Buffett fans flood Gorat’s, generating as much as one to two months of sales in just a few days.

    The menu ranges from $12 onion rings to a $99 lobster dinner. But most visitors stick to Buffett’s go-to: a rare T-bone steak with a double side of hash browns, a cherry Coke and, occasionally, a root beer float.

    Smith & Wollensky

    People wait for the street to open back up near Smith & Wollensky People wait for the street to open back up near Smith & Wollensky
    Smith & Wollensky hosted Buffet’s annual “Power Lunch” between 2000 and 2022. AFP via Getty Images

    Steak, hash browns and a cherry Coke is also Buffett’s standard order at Smith & Wollenksy, the New York steakhouse that hosted his annual “Power Lunch” auctions between 2000 and 2022. Proceeds benefited the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco nonprofit. While winners paid just over $25,000 in the early years, bids regularly topped $1 million after 2008. The final lunch set a record at $19 million.

    Some of those meals fell on Buffett’s birthday. In 2018, the restaurant marked his 88th with a Coca-Cola-themed cake. A year earlier, Smith & Wollensky had baked a dessert decorated with some of his favorite treats.

    Piccolo Pete’s

    Not every charity lunch took place at Smith & Wollensky. When guests wanted a quieter setting, Buffett often chose Omaha’s Piccolo Pete’s, an Italian steakhouse that closed in 2016. His go-to meals there were veal with lemon, chicken parmesan or, of course, steak.

    It was at Piccolo Pete’s where hedge fund manager Ted Weschler dined with Buffett in 2010 and 2011 after bidding $5.2 million across two auctions. The lunches ultimately led to Weschler joining Berkshire Hathaway as an investment manager.

    McDonald’s

    Most mornings, Buffett swings by a McDonald’s drive-through on his way to work. His order rotates among three choices: two sausage patties for $2.61; a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit for $2.95; or a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit for $3.17. (Prices were as of 2017.)

    In the 2017 documentary Becoming Warren Buffett, he revealed that his wife, Astrid Menks, places exact change in his car cup holder for whichever option he chooses. Buffett said he splurges based on the stock market’s mood: “When I’m not feeling quite so prosperous,” he explained, he opts for the cheapest $2.61 meal.

    Dairy Queen

    Warren Buffett and Bill Gates flip over their Dairy Queen Blizzard treats.Warren Buffett and Bill Gates flip over their Dairy Queen Blizzard treats.
    Warren Buffett (L) and Bill Gates (R) flip over their Dairy Queen Blizzard treats at the opening of a new branch in Beijing, China on Sept. 30, 2010. AFP via Getty Images

    Buffett also has a special connection to Dairy Queen. Berkshire Hathaway acquired the chain in 1998 for $585 million, and Buffett has been a loyal customer ever since. He often visits Omaha locations with his great-grandchildren and typically orders vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate syrup and malted milk powder.

    His loyalty has even led to unusual moments. In 2014, he tried to order Dairy Queen ice cream at The Four Seasons before settling for chocolate chip cookies.

    Buffett has also introduced fellow billionaires to the chain. In 2019, he worked a shift there with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. And in 2020, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban shared a photo of the two dining together at Dairy Queen—Buffett with a chicken sandwich, Cuban with a Blizzard.

    Warren Buffett, Now 95, Still Eats Like a 6-Year-Old

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  • Bob Woodward Tell-all: Trump & Putin still in contact, Dems Panic as Harris Media Blitz FLOPS

    Bob Woodward Tell-all: Trump & Putin still in contact, Dems Panic as Harris Media Blitz FLOPS

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    Bob Woodward Tell-all: Trump & Putin still in contact, Dems Panic as Harris Media Blitz FLOPS

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  • Mark Cuban warns Elon Musk: Trump’s ‘loyalty is only to himself’

    Mark Cuban warns Elon Musk: Trump’s ‘loyalty is only to himself’

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    Mark Cuban and Elon Musk.

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    Billionaire investor Mark Cuban cautioned Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Sunday against forming an alliance with former President Donald Trump, because, he said, the Republican presidential nominee may not ultimately repay his political debts.

    “Elon, there will come a time when you need something from Donald Trump,” Cuban wrote in an X post to his fellow billionaire. “You will think you will have earned the right to ask and receive. You have been a loyal, faithful soldier for him.”

    “At the point you need him the most,” Cuban continued. “You will find out what so many before you have learned, his loyalty is only to himself.

    Cuban’s message came in response to an earlier X post from Musk in which the SpaceX CEO amplified a variety of conspiracy theories about Democrats encouraging immigration into battleground states as “a surefire way to win every election.”

    “If Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election,” Musk wrote.

    Musk’s endorsement of Trump is a stark reversal from 2022 when he would openly sling insults at the former president on social media.

    Cuban’s warning to Musk, one billionaire to another, hinted at the implicit bid for governmental favor that wealthy political supporters make when they hitch their wagon to a presidential candidate.

    The two billionaires are on opposing sides of the presidential race this election cycle. But both business leaders have their eyes on some level of regulatory control.

    Trump, Cuban believes, might not follow through on that exchange for Musk.

    Cuban has become an outspoken surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris and her economic agenda. In recent weeks, he has regularly championed Harris as “better for business,” even amid some skepticism about her plan to raise corporate tax rates.

    As Cuban ramps up his public support, he is also keeping tabs on a potential new job opportunity at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    “I told her team, put my name in for the SEC, it needs to change,” Cuban said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” earlier this month.

    Meanwhile, Musk is chasing a new job of his own. Musk has repeatedly floated the creation of a so-called government efficiency commission to crack down on federal spending if Trump wins a second term in the White House. And he has raised his hand to helm such an agency.

    Earlier this month, Trump endorsed the government efficiency commission idea and suggested Musk could be a “good one” to lead it.

    But the Republican nominee hedged that Musk, a busy CEO of multiple companies, might not have the time for the job, but that he could “consult.”

    Read more CNBC politics coverage

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  • Proposals to tax unrealized capital gains would ‘kill the stock market,’ billionaire investor Mark Cuban says

    Proposals to tax unrealized capital gains would ‘kill the stock market,’ billionaire investor Mark Cuban says

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    BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/Getty Images

    • Mark Cuban said that taxing unrealized capital gains would “kill the stock market.”

    • President Joe Biden proposed taxing unrealized gains for people worth over $100 million.

    • Kamala Harris is unlikely to endorse Biden’s plan, Cuban said.

    Any proposal to tax unrealized capital gains would “kill the stock market,” the billionaire investor Mark Cuban said in a CNBC interview on Thursday.

    As part of his wide-ranging tax proposals, President Joe Biden has suggested taxing unrealized capital gains for people with a net worth of more than $100 million.

    While Vice President Kamala Harris has not endorsed or dismissed Biden’s proposal on unrealized capital gains, Cuban said, it’s dead on arrival.

    “If you tax unrealized gains, you’re going to kill the stock market, and it’s going to be the ultimate employment plan for private equity because companies are not going to go public because you can get whipsawed,” Cuban said.

    Cuban’s “whipsaw” comment alluded to the main question investors have surrounding proposed taxes on unrealized capital gains: What happens if those unrealized capital gains eventually turn into unrealized capital losses in a volatile stock market?

    But according to Cuban, who said he’d been talking with the Harris campaign often in recent weeks, Harris is highly unlikely to endorse such a plan.

    “They realize that’s the issue,” he said, adding of Harris: “Even though she is not directly conflicting the Biden tax plan, to her, her value proposition is we need to tax everybody fairly, starting from the Biden plan as a starting point. But that’s not necessarily her ending point.”

    Harris has already rejected some aspects of Biden’s tax proposals, offering her own vision of what she would propose as president.

    While Biden proposed to move the long-term capital-gains tax rate to 39.6% for households with taxable income of more than $1 million, Harris says that’s too high and has proposed raising it to 28% instead.

    “The point I’m really trying to convey is: She’s open-minded. She’s not an ideologue. She wants to do what’s best for business,” Cuban said.

    Cuban defended the Democratic presidential nominee despite criticism that Harris has yet to unveil a slew of detailed economic-policy proposals with the November election fast approaching.

    “Like any good CEO trying to turn around a battleship, there’s only so much you can do every single day,” Cuban said. “Like any good CEO, you’ve got to do it when you get it right.”

    Read the original article on Business Insider

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  • Mark Cuban Joins Calls Against Anti-Crypto Biden Administration, Slams the SEC 

    Mark Cuban Joins Calls Against Anti-Crypto Biden Administration, Slams the SEC 

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    On May 11, the American businessman and television personality said if Joe Biden loses the presidential election, “there is a good chance you will be able to thank Gary Gensler and the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission).”

    “Crypto is a mainstay with younger and independent voters,” he said before adding that SEC Chair Gensler “has not protected a single investor against fraud.”

    The outspoken entrepreneur didn’t stop there, adding that all the SEC has done is make it virtually impossible for crypto companies to operate in the United States, “killing who knows how many businesses and ruining who knows how many entrepreneurs.”

    Biden’s War On Crypto Riles Rivals

    The comments came in response to a May 10 Politico article reporting that Donald Trump has become the first major party presidential nominee to overtly court the crypto community.

    Trump told supporters this week that they should vote for him because of the way the Biden administration has cracked down on the crypto industry.

    Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, said, “President Trump’s remarks signal a sea change in the importance of digital assets this election cycle,”

    Cuban, who castigated the SEC in 2023, continued with a warning to Congress stating that crypto voters will be heard this election. He suggested that passing legislation specifically for crypto companies and the asset class could solve the problem for Biden before adding:

    “Or you could do the better option and assign all crypto to be regulated by the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission).”

    Bitcoin environmentalist Daniel Batten agreed with Cuban, commenting:

    “Joe Biden could well be the world’s first politician to lose an election due to his party’s open hostility towards Bitcoin, and indulgence of colleagues spreading misinformation about Bitcoin.”

    Cuban wasn’t the only one lashing out at the Biden administration this week. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson lambasted the White House in a video on X on May 9.

    “A vote for Biden is a vote against the American cryptocurrency industry,” said Hoskinson, who added that the Biden administration is actively trying to “destroy the American cryptocurrency industry.”

    Others, including Ethereum advocate Ryan Sean Adams and Stock-to-flow model creator “PlanB”, joined the calls against the anti-crypto administration.

    Crypto Crackdown Escalates

    Biden’s war on crypto has escalated in recent weeks. The SEC is now targeting larger trading companies, such as Robinhood, which received a threat of enforcement action over its crypto business this month.

    Additionally, Biden’s office said it would veto legislation seeking to overturn SEC guidelines that discourage banks from holding crypto assets in custody.

    Pro-crypto Senator Cynthia Lummis reacted to Biden’s threat to ban banks from holding crypto for their customers, stating, “We will not allow the administration to regulate tools for financial freedom out of existence.”

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    Martin Young

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  • Transform with The Transformation Factory

    Transform with The Transformation Factory

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    Alexiou Gibson, 37, the founder of a sea moss-based health supplement company The Transformation Factory, visited The Atlanta Voice office last week. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice

    Alexiou Gibson, 37,  a man who made his way seeking to learn what was beyond the sky eventually working as an intern for N.A.S.A, found his fortune from what lied in the sea. 

    Gibson, the founder of a sea moss-based health supplement company The Transformation Factory. Based in Wellington, Florida was raised in an island household with his family from the Bahamas. Gibson would find themselves interning at NASA, which after leaving would lead him to being a winning bid on Shark Tank from Kevin Hart and Mark Cuban. 

    After attending Florida Atlantic University and receiving his Bachelors of Engineering in Electrical Engineering, Gibson went to work spending approximately two years at NASA’s Huntsville, Alabama facility, where they played a role in the construction of the Curiosity rover, a key component of Mars exploration. Subsequently, his work on the project led to an invitation to join the team at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C, which he declined at his mentor’s encouragement for him to strive for greater. 

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    Noah Washington

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  • Mark Cuban: Biden Could Be on His Deathbed and I’d Still Vote for Him Over “Snake Oil Salesperson” Trump

    Mark Cuban: Biden Could Be on His Deathbed and I’d Still Vote for Him Over “Snake Oil Salesperson” Trump

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    Who is Mark Cuban planning to vote for come November 2024? Joe Biden could be falling off a cliff, about to plunge to his death—or be an alligator’s or lion’s dinner, you get the idea—and the billionaire businessman would still cast his ballot for the president over Donald Trump.

    Speaking to Bloomberg News on Monday, Cuban said: “If they were having his last wake, and it was him versus Trump, and he was being given last rites, I would still vote for Joe Biden.” Later, he told Axios, “I don’t want a snake oil salesperson as president. I’m voting for Biden-Harris over Trump all day every day. It’s the snake oil salesperson vs. the incumbent, traditional politician. One will tell you his snake oil will cure everything that ails you. The other will show you the details of his policies through charts, graphs, and statements. [Biden] is precise and methodical and wants to sell the steak. Not the sizzle.” He added: “Trump voters are happy with their snake oil whether it works or not.”

    Cuban also said Monday that he would be voting for Nikki Haley in the Texas GOP primary as a “protest vote against Trump.” Unfortunately for Haley, that won’t be enough to overcome her current deficit, which, as of the afternoon on Super Tuesday, was just 43 delegates to Trump’s 273.

    Meanwhile, the ex-president scored a win on Monday when the Supreme Court ruled that he can remain on the ballot despite inciting an insurrection after he lost the 2020 election. Responding to the ruling, Quentin Fulks, Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager, said, “We don’t really care,” telling MSNBC: “It’s not been the way we’ve been planning to beat Donald Trump. Our focus since day one of launching this campaign has been to defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box. And everything we’ve done since the president announced back in April that he’s running for reelection is to build an infrastructure and apparatus to do so.” Considering that four separate polls show the ex-president beating the guy in November, perhaps the Biden campaign’s plan could use some tweaking.

    Unfortunately for Nikki Haley, not enough voters think treason is a bad thing

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    Republicans are all about the workingman, except when the workingman doesn’t want to die of heatstroke

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    Bess Levin

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  • In billionaires’ brawl over DEI, Bill Ackman knocks Mark Cuban’s rebuttal to Elon Musk: ‘I fell for the same trap’ 

    In billionaires’ brawl over DEI, Bill Ackman knocks Mark Cuban’s rebuttal to Elon Musk: ‘I fell for the same trap’ 

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    Billionaires are duking it out on X over diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

    On Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, wrote: “DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it.”

    That was in support of a long post by hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman on the reasons he pressured Harvard president Claudine Gay to resign, as she announced she would earlier this week. Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, is a Harvard alum and prominent donor to the university. 

    Gay received intense criticism last month for her answers to lawmakers over anti-Semitism on campus following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. Specifically, she failed to condemn calls for genocide against Jews as a violation of university policy. That was followed by allegations by conservative activists that she had committed plagiarism in her academic work, and suggestions that she had been unqualified for the role of president, which she assumed last July, in the first place.

    “It was a thinly veiled exercise in race & gender when they selected Claudine Gay,” entrepreneur and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a Harvard alum, posted to X on Tuesday. “Here’s a radical idea for the future: select leadership based on *merit.*”

    When an X user responded to Musk by questioning whether DEI qualifies as racism, Musk countered: “Discrimination on the basis of race, which DEI does, is literally the definition of racism.” 

    At this point, another billionaire weighed in: Mark Cuban, the Shark Tank star and Dallas Mavericks owner (last month he sold his majority stake in the NBA team to families linked to Sheldon Adelson, the late Las Vegas casino magnate). 

    “Let me help you out and give you my thoughts on DEI,” he responded to Musk. 

    “Good businesses look where others don’t, to find the employees that will put your business in the best possible position to succeed,” he continued. “You may not agree, but I take it as a given that there are people of various races, ethnicities, orientation, etc., that are regularly excluded from hiring consideration. By extending our hiring search to include them, we can find people that are more qualified. The loss of DEI-phobic companies is my gain.”

    Ackman responded to Cuban, writing: 

    “That’s exactly what I thought until I did the work. I encourage you to do the same and revert. DEI is not about diversity, equity, or inclusion. Trust me. I fell for the same trap you did.”

    Musk replied to Ackman with “Yup.” 

    Musk, who owns X, has been a frequent critic of DEI in recent weeks. In mid-December, he wrote: “‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ are propaganda words for racism, sexism and other -isms. This is just as morally wrong as any other racism and sexism. Changing the target class doesn’t make it right!”

    (The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against Tesla in September alleging it failed to probe complaints of racist conduct and has fired or retaliated against employees who reported harassment. In other such cases, Tesla has said that it doesn’t tolerate discrimination and takes such complaints seriously.)

    Ackman, in a similar vein, wrote on Wednesday: “DEI is racist because reverse racism is racism, even if it is against white people (and it is remarkable that I even need to point this out).”

    In her resignation note, Gay wrote, “It has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor—two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am—and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”

    Subscribe to CHRO Daily, our newsletter focusing on helping HR executive navigate the changing needs of the workplace. Sign up for free.

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    Steve Mollman

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  • Mark Cuban Explains to Elon Musk Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Is Not “Racism”

    Mark Cuban Explains to Elon Musk Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Is Not “Racism”

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    Elon Musk has never been a fan of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We know that because last month, he took to X—seemingly out of nowhere, but one never knows—to write, “DEI must DIE,” and on Wednesday—in response to a 4,000-word post by fellow billionaire Bill Ackman on the matter, and how it relates to former Harvard president Claudine Gay—he declared, “DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it.” So, do we think a primer from another billionaire, Mark Cuban, on DEI and why it’s good for the workplace will change the guy’s mind? Probably not, but Cuban has taken a shot!

    Responding to Musk’s claim, Cuban wrote: “Good businesses look where others don’t, to find the employees that will put your business in the best possible position to succeed. You may not agree, but I take it as a given that there are people of various races, ethnicities, orientation, etc that are regularly excluded from hiring consideration. By extending our hiring search to include them, we can find people that are more qualified. The loss of DEI-Phobic companies is my gain.” (Ackman, who waged a war against the former Harvard president, comes down on the Musk side of the argument, writing in his original post that diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are “racist,” that he’s worried about “reverse racism” and “racism against white people,” and that DEI is “a powerful movement that has not only pervaded Harvard, but the educational system at large” and must be stopped.)

    Musk’s Tesla highlighted its DEI efforts in its 2022 Impact Report, saying, “We are proud to be a majority-minority company with a large representation of employees from communities that have long struggled to break through the historic roadblocks to equal opportunity in the US.” And as Bloomberg noted last month, Tesla has “held hiring events targeting women and students of historically Black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions, as well as several internal events to celebrate employee diversity. It also has several employee resource groups, and the company in 2022 launched a nationwide internal DEI newsletter.”

    Last year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Tesla, with the federal agency accusing the company of “engaging and continuing to engage in discrimination against Black employees at the Fremont factory by subjecting them to severe or pervasive racial harassment and by creating a hostile work environment because of their race.” In response to a similar lawsuit from California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the company said is “strongly opposes” all discrimination.

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    Bess Levin

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  • How Mark Cuban Changed CVS and the Pharmacy Business Forever | Entrepreneur

    How Mark Cuban Changed CVS and the Pharmacy Business Forever | Entrepreneur

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    This story originally appeared on Business Insider.

    CVS just announced plans for a major shift to how drugs are sold in its pharmacies — and it’s a sign the retailer is bending to market pressures.

    The retail pharmacy chain is set to launch a program that will flip how its pharmacies get reimbursed by pharmacy-benefit managers and insurers. Under that program, called CostVantage, CVS’s pharmacies will get paid based on the cost of the drug plus a set markup and a service fee. It’s not clear if it will always lead to lower costs for customers at the pharmacy counter.

    The new program offers a far simpler model than how CVS’s pharmacies have traditionally been reimbursed. At least in part, it’s a response to models like billionaire Mark Cuban’s online pharmacy taking hold in the market.

    CVS has been facing increased pressure to provide transparent drug pricing in the past two years as consumers turn to companies like Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs for lower drug prices. Blue Shield of California, for example, said it’s ditching a CVS unit and replacing it with Cuban’s company for some prescription drug tasks. Cuban declined to comment for this story.

    The billionaire’s drug-pricing model, which made waves across healthcare when the company launched at the start of 2022, looks remarkably similar to the program CVS is now adopting.

    Federal lawmakers and the US Federal Trade Commission have also been scrutinizing the prescription drug supply chain. They’ve been especially focused on pharmacy-benefit managers and the lack of transparency around how much drugs cost.

    CVS’s new model “provides our PBM and payor clients a foundational step towards more pricing clarity for consumers,” said Prem Shah, executive vice president, chief pharmacy officer, and president of pharmacy and consumer wellness at CVS Health, in a statement.

    Getty Images / Justin Sullivan via BI

    How Mark Cuban changed drug pricing

    Cuban’s pharmacy buys drugs directly from manufacturers and sells them to consumers at a 15% markup, plus pharmacy fees.

    The company’s patients pay for the drugs out of pocket, skirting middlemen like PBMs or insurers, and generally paying far less for their medications as a result. Cost Plus says it has more than 2 million members.

    Cost Plus isn’t the first company to try to revolutionize how consumers pay for pricey drugs. GoodRx has offered coupons for drug discounts for more than a decade.

    Still, GoodRx works with PBMs to get those discounts rather than with the pharmacies, and has made some enemies in the process. The drug-discount startup took a revenue hit last year when an unnamed grocer, rumored to be Kroger, renegotiated a number of its drug pricing contracts at once and forced GoodRx to stop offering discounts for those drugs at the grocer.

    Kroger announced in July that it’s now partnering with Cost Plus.

    GoodRx’s stock tumbled more than 6% on Tuesday, while CVS gained 3.8%.

    Other healthcare firms have been feeling the pressure to provide lower prices, too. Walgreens announced a new drug-discount app last week that helps patients find savings for their prescriptions. Cigna’s pharmacy-benefits unit, Express Scripts, announced a transparent pricing option last month.

    CVS is the biggest US pharmacy chain by prescription revenue, followed by Walgreens, according to Drug Channels.

    It’s not clear if CVS’s new program will result in lower prices overall for consumers. Some drugs will cost more under CostVantage, while others will cost less, according to the Wall Street Journal. The costs could also depend on the terms of an individual’s insurance plan, and whether they choose to use it.

    But the announcement looks to be a step in the right direction for drug pricing transparency.

    CVS said it plans to launch the program in full through contracts with commercial payers in 2025.

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    Rebecca Torrence

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