It’s hard not to recognize Mark Cuban in a room full of billionaires.
He is one of those rare self-made people who has always known how to stand out.
If we were to conduct a poll to ask people what people remember about the entrepreneur, who some encourage to run in the 2024 presidential election, most of the answers would likely be around the following:
It is “Shark Tank”, named after the very popular TV show, which connects famous entrepreneurs and investors. On this ABC show, Cuban stood out for his candor and energy. These qualities made him likable and reassuring to businessmen. Not only did they have a vigilant investor on their side, but they also had someone who would advise them when they made mistakes.
Cuban has shown that he is not shy about admitting the mistakes he made and the losses he incurred.
“On a cash basis, I’m retracting my investment in a shark tank,” he admitted last July.
From a sports fan to a Krypto Evangelist
For other people, and especially for sports fans, the Cuban name is synonymous with the NBA and specifically the Dallas Mavericks franchise, which he has owned since 2000.
Cuban bought the franchise for less than $280 million. The Mavericks have a net worth of $2.7 billion on the latest check, according to Forbes. Under Cuban’s leadership, the franchise won its first and only NBA championship in 2011
NBA fans love his energy, sitting on the field during games.
To opponents, Mark Cuban is a crypto evangelist. The billionaire is involved in several crypto projects, including the highly selective Bored Ape Yacht Club, which is a collection of more than 10,000 online photos of monkeys striking funny poses. Bored monkeys are the most expensive non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
They will also add that he is an Ethereum fanatic, which means he strongly believes in the potential of the second largest cryptocurrency ecosystem after Bitcoin. Ethereum is the internet for cryptocurrency, an emerging industry that wants to disrupt traditional financial services.
The platform enables the development of various uses of Blockchain technology, ranging from NFTs to smart contracts. A smart contract is a piece of computer code that defines the terms of the transaction (loans, trade, etc.) and is not dependent on any third party.
Finally, some will say that an investor is above all someone who always knows what is needed to make a difference in technology. According to a 2007 Fortune magazine profile, Kuban’s father worked in a leather shop for the auto industry. In 1983, entrepreneur and former Texas Instruments CEO Martin Woodall founded a company called MicroSolutions, which was sold in 1990 for $6 million.
Five years later, he and attorney Todd Wagner founded Broadcast.com, an Internet radio broadcasting platform, and sold the company in 1999 to Yahoo! INC for $5 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal, he made more than $1 billion from the deal.
Then the big drug companies
But everyone will probably be surprised to learn that Cuban prefers to be remembered for something else. It’s a very recent thing, Cost Plus Drugs, an online pharmacy he co-founded earlier this year, to disrupt the pharmaceutical industry. If you don’t want to be stifled by the cost of your medications, turn to Costs Plus Drugs, the company says.
The billionaire told Katie Couric Media in an interview, “People are forced to choose between medicine, housing and food – it’s not right. That’s why this is so important to me.”
“That’s what I want to remember,” he added.
The Cost Plus Drug Company is the only company to which Cuban has attached his name, which indicates the importance of this project to the entrepreneur. In fact, the company’s full name is Mark Cuban CostPlus Drug Company.
On its website, the company said Coast Plus Pharmaceuticals “fills and delivers prescriptions at cost plus a fixed margin of 15%.”
For example, a 30-pack supply of 400mg Imatinib, a drug that treats leukemia and other types of cancer, costs $39, the company says. The retail price at the other companies is $9,657.30. You can save $9,618.30.
Cuban is able to provide this kind of price because there is no middleman. The Cost Plus Drug Company negotiates directly with drug manufacturers.
A study by Harvard Medical School researchers found that โin 2020 alone, Medicare could have spent $3.6 billion less on general acid reflux, cancer, and other drugs if purchased through the Cost Plus Drug Company, a new online pharmacy backed by Mark Cuban.
