Yahoo Lifestyle Daymond John on Mark Cuban’s ‘Shark Tank’ Exit: ‘Who Cares About the Sharks?’
As businessman and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban exits “Shark Tank” after this season, his fellow shark and entrepreneur Daymond John isn’t worried about what it might mean for the long-running ABC series.
“The show will be around long after Mark, Daymond, Barbara and all of us,” John tells Variety. “(‘Shark Tank’) is the American dream, as you see with an Emmy after all these years and new people finding it.”
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Cuban announced last fall that he would depart “Shark Tank” after its 16th season, which launched last Friday. John says that the cast was fortunate to have Cuban for more than a decade and commended his larger-than-life personality for contributing to the show’s success. But John believes the series will continue to be successful in its post-Cuban era because it is bigger than any one person.
“Who cares about the sharks, to tell you the truth,” John says. “It is really about that mom and pop who have risked every single thing in their life and they need one shot…it’s about that kid, that little dyslexic, brown boy named Daymond John, who never thought he would be anything…who comes up with an idea and says, ‘I’m going to find a community that I love, and I’m going to empower my community.’”
Meanwhile, as Cuban departs, Daniel Lubetzky, who has guest-starred on “Shark Tank” in the past, has joined the show as one of the primary sharks going forward (although producers stress that he’s not replacing Cuban). John says he enjoys seeing the newer panelists such as Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers CEO Todd Graves, because they offer new perspectives and variations in business fundamentals to debate.
“There’s one thing in the world that we can all agree upon as Americans: It’s the American dream,” John says. “When you stand on that carpet, it doesn’t care about your color, your race, your gender, your creed. It cares about if you will wake up before everybody and go to sleep after everybody.”
Meanwhile, while Cuban is very vocal in his politics and criticizing Donald Trump, John prefers to stay clear of that conversation. He hasn’t endorsed either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump ahead of the election next month.
John says he does not rely on politicians or government to make sure the economy is stable and contextualizes that companies such as Uber and Airbnb were founded following the economic adversity surrounding the 2007-08 recession.
“Candidates will come and go, (political) parties will come and go…the people who make this country so great, it’s the everyday entrepreneur,” John says. “About 55% of businesses are small businesses out here, and small businesses, in the last five years, have employed 90% of the new hires in this country.”
John also highlights the fifth annual Black Entrepreneurs Day, which will take place Nov. 22 at Atlanta’s Fox Theater. The businessman says BED started in 2020 amid the collective frustration shared by people of color during the Black Lives Matter movement and following the murder of George Floyd. He references how he witnessed many people marching peacefully in the streets as well as others burning down neighborhoods to express their anger.
“I felt that I saw this reflection of this thing that happened in 1992 when I created a brand called FUBU because I said, ‘I’m not going to destroy anything. That’s not going to get anywhere,’” John says. “I’m going to build a business instead of burning a business.”
John recalls how he called a number of notable friends and convinced them to join him for a conversation on a streaming platform to discuss their failures, lessons learned and experiences in businesses. From there, BED featured notable guests such as Spike Lee, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Hart and more.
This year’s event includes Kelly Rowland, Flavor Flav, media personality Charlamagne tha God, Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles (presented by J.P. Morgan Wealth Management), financial educators Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings, and a performance by 2Chainz.
BED will have awarded over $1 million in grants to more than 40 Black-owned businesses, including a total of $100,000 in grants this year from JPMorgan Chase, Hilton, T-Mobile for Business and Constant Contact.
“It’s not Kevin O’Leary asking you for royalties. It’s free money,” John says of the grants awarded by BED, which close on Nov. 1.
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