
TC50 interview with Mark Cuban - ericwan
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/09/mark-cuban-when-i-die-i-want-to-come-back-as-me/
======
staunch
> _You can drown in opportunity. We all have this aversion to finishing work
> because once you get into it, it gets mundane._

By far my favorite topic and he only slightly touched it, and not from the
perspective of a founder. He's lucky (I think) that he can just drop money on
something exciting and check in to see how it grows.

The growing part is so damn hard. It seems like it boils down to two options:

Do something that:

A) Is profitable but definitely not something you'd do for free.

B) Is something you'd do for free but much less likely to be profitable.

I always struggle with something PG said[1]: "where there's muck, there's
brass."

I wonder if PG was wrong or not. It definitely seems like Viaweb was done
purely for the money and that the experience was so excruciating that it
almost scarred him. He talks about doing another startup like someone who
doesn't want to do another tour in a war zone. Yet he seems to have found
something (YCombinator) that may turn out to be more profitable than Viaweb
and certainly seems much less painful. Mark Cuban doesn't seem to have found
his businesses nearly as painful -- yet they don't seem so much more exciting
than online stores.

Maybe you only get to do the fun+profitable stuff once you've made it? Or is
it just as easy to find something you're deep down passionate about that's
also just as likely to be profitable as anything else you can think of?

Most of what I think are my best ideas come from needs I see. I need to solve
a problem, so I look around to see if I can pay someone who already solved it.
On occasion I find that no one seems to have created a product to solve the
problem. A lot of the time it's something I could create myself in weeks or
months, which isn't very painful because as soon as my need is met my job is
done. The painful part comes when I try to turn that solution into a business.
Now I'm spending years solving a problem that was barely interesting for
weeks.

Filling needs you see is probably the most commonly recommended way to start a
business. But, is it really the best way considering that you have to expect
to spend _years_ in the trenches with it?

1\. <http://www.paulgraham.com/bronze.html>

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fallentimes
My favorite Cuban quote: "I can't tell you how many girlfriends I’ve had that
said: 'me or the business', and I said 'what's your name?'"

I actually emailed him my freshman year of college asking him about happiness
and what he's going to do now that he has all the money anyone could ever
want. He told me (and I'm paraphrasing) that he's just as happy now as he was
living in a dumpy apartment living off of happy hour bar food.

I'll never forget it. God I wish I still had my .edu email :(.

~~~
ericwan
gotta do it while I still have a university email!

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dustineichler
Today seeing Mark Cuban speak completely changed my opinion of him. I also
assumed wrongly he'd be an ass, but damnit he's now my hero. Really insightful
and hysterical funny. His advice was spot on and I loved the honesty.

Highlight from today's tc50 "Maybe I’m missing something, but that just
sounded like the biggest bunch of bullshit I’ve ever heard in my life."
Reference below to Imindi.

([http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/09/imindi-wants-to-get-
ins...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/09/imindi-wants-to-get-inside-your-
head/))

~~~
thorax
That particular comment made me walk away thinking he was rather jerkish. I
didn't know who he was at the time of tuning in live, but there's about 10
different ways to say that without making the poor startup guy feel like a
humiliated loser. He has a dream-- maybe Mark will bring him back down to
reality, but I personally think the same sort of response could have been said
about Wikipedia, Knol, About.com, Mahalo, etc.

Just because Mark and Kevin Rose didn't quite follow the long-term vision, it
doesn't mean it can't catch on or grow. Hopefully the imindi guys will figure
out a better way to present/grow their technology such that people won't have
that kind of reaction, but that kind of comment didn't give me any new respect
for Mr. Cuban. (I did enjoy the transcript of his one-on-one interview,
though.)

I guess I have a lot of dreams like the imindi guys and can empathize with
them. I also think there's a lot of long-term value in gathering cross-
related/semantic data.

~~~
ojbyrne
How did Kevin Rose get into the conversation? No exit yet, lots of hype so
far, and screwing me was a big part of it :-(, whatever "it" is. But it does
reinforce the point - a lot of it is luck. Cuban wants to come back as
himself? I bet the odds are 1000-1 he wouldn't have the same success. And he'd
probably admit that.

~~~
rokhayakebe
Had Mark Cuban been a quite guy everyone would have called him a genius. He
has been right several times and has created or made investements in winning
companies that were ahead of their time ( Live Broadcast on net several years
ago, HD several years ago,a better distribution model for small movies a few
years ago and you can bet there is a need for this one, Redswoosh, selling a
hedge fund 3 years in). I mean seriously, most VCs cannot tell you they have
had this much success. Most VCs are not billionaire. Frankly if you started
with zero dollars and made a Billionaire out of yourself, you are one smart
guy.

~~~
ojbyrne
Survivorship Bias.

------
wave
Here is the video:

<http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/700958>

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aneesh
He's a straight talker, no BS. He knows his worth, but isn't arrogant about
it. That's a recipe for being well-liked and respected.

~~~
ericwan
yep, he is so not pissed at what people say about Broadcast.com, as he knows
its worth. And he backed that up with numbers.

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thomasmallen
Nowitsky? Nicks? I know this isn't ESPN, but come on!

~~~
ryanb
Seriously. I know it's stupid for this to bother me, but it did.

~~~
ojbyrne
Its also "Broadcast" not "Broadband" right? Broadcast.com. The transcript
seems riddled with typos, though I didn't watch the video to know if they are
actually what was said.

"There was a different crede"?

~~~
trickjarrett
The transcript was typed from them talking, not from watching the recording.
They wanted it live as quick as possible and damn the editors!

~~~
ojbyrne
Except its 2 days later and still lots of typos. Though they seemed to have
gone through and changed JS (which is what they had for Jason Calacanis's
initials) to JC. Probably because he whined.

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rantfoil
This interview was inspiring and really cool. My favorite quote:

"When I die, I want to come back as me." --Mark Cuban

~~~
ericwan
another one that really strikes me:

Ill tell you what I learned from Bobby Knight: everybody’s got the will to win
but when it comes time to doing something, it’s always about someone else. Not
many people have the will to prepare. You got to be willing to know your
product and environment better than anybody. No matter what you do there is
someone out there trying to kick your ass. You got to be the smartest guy in
the room about your product.

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zandorg
I wouldn't presume to be as talented, and I wouldn't bother him with my
startup ideas, but I have a lot of respect for him.

