Mark Cuban says he’s made zero profit from ‘Shark Tank’ investments – صحيفة الصوت

Turns out, after investing nearly $28 million in 85 start-ups on the popular television show, Cuban has made nothing.

With an estimated net worth of $6.8 billion, Cuban can absorb his fair share of misses, and so the owner of NBA franchise the Dallas Mavericks was in good humour when discussing the ups and downs of his Shark Tank adventures.

Pitched by founder Charles Michael Yim, Breathometer was touted as the world’s first smartphone breathalyser.

By blowing into a plastic device clipped into a smartphone, Yim claimed, the device would generate an accurate blood alcohol reading which could then prompt an over-the-limit driver to call a taxi.

“It was a great idea, and actually a decent product,” Cuban recalled.

Cuban detailed how Yim seemed to take his eyes off the prize, instead of pouring all his effort into making the start-up a success.

“I’d look at his Instagram and he’d be in Bora Bora,” Cuban said.

“Two weeks later and he’d be in Vegas partying.

“Then he’d be on Necker Island with Richard Branson.”

Cuban said he’d text Yim, saying: “What the f— are you doing? You’re supposed to be working.”

Yim, Cuban said, would reply and say he was busy “networking”.

“Next thing you know, all the money is gone,” Cuban said.

“That was my biggest beating.”

Cuban said “there is no point” trying to heap pressure on founders who don’t want to dig in for themselves.

“I haven’t gotten out more than I have put in,” he wrote in an email.

“But that doesn’t account for all the ongoing, operating businesses and their valuations.”

Yim, too, had some clarifications of his own, saying Cuban had portrayed him unfairly.

The trip to visit Branson on Necker had been a pitch, Yim told CNBC, not just pleasure.

“You can’t look at someone’s social media and take it for face value,” Yim said.

“That’s not how social media works.”