ORIGINALLY AIRED: 10/14/2004
Mark Cuban
Episode #315
Mark Cuban may be known to many as the multi-billionaire star of The Benefactor, but he wasn't always rich.
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Cuban started his first business at the age of 12 selling garbage bags door to door to buy himself a pair of tennis shoes. In college at Indiana University, Cuban became co-owner of a local bar before the age of 21 and enrolled in business school. However, it wasn't until he started working in computers after college that he started making his money after forming Micro Solutions in 1983. By the time he sold the company to CompuServe seven years later, it was worth $6 million. He decided to retire at the age of 32, though his retirement didn't last long.
Cuban partnered up with an old college pal, Todd Wagner, to start Audionet, which was a broadcast communications system for corporations. Eventually, Audionet became Broadcast.com when they added video to their list of services, and the company blew up with the dot-com boom. Eventually, Yahoo decided to buy Broadcast.com for $5 million, making Cuban a billionaire.
Today, Cuban is the proud owner of the Dallas Mavericks and one of the founders of HDNet. And of course, he's The Benefactor.
Watch Icons to discover the secrets of his success!
