20VC: Mark Cuban on Reshaping the Pharmaceuticals Industry, How To Hire and Build Truly Great Teams and What Brand Really Means Today and How To Build One Successfully

02/04/22 • 30 min

2 Listeners

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Mark Cuban is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Today we are focused on Mark's latest entrepreneurial endeavor, starting Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drug Company, the online pharmacy taking out the middlemen, meaning no price games and huge drug savings. As mentioned, Mark is also the proud owner of Dallas Mavericks, since his taking over they have competed in the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history in 2006 – and became NBA World Champions in 2011. Before Dallas Mavericks, Mark co-founded Broadcast.com – streaming audio over the internet. In just four short years, Broadcast.com (then Audionet) was sold to Yahoo for $5.6 billion dollars. If that was not enough, Mark is also one of ABC’s “Sharks” on the hit show Shark Tank.

In Today’s Episode with Mark Cuban You Will Learn:

1.) Cost Plus Drugs: Origin

Why Mark decided to build Cost Plus Drugs?
Why has no one done it before?
How does Mark think about resource and time allocation with Cost Plus?

2.) Building the Team: Hiring

How does mark analyze his approach to hiring? Where is he weak? Where is he strong?
What one motto does Mark always use when it comes to hiring?
What is the most common mistake Mark sees founders make when it comes to team build?
How does Mark identify stress removers? What are the core signals?

3.) Brand + Capital + Business Strategy:

Why is the current cost structure of healthcare so damaged in the US? How does Cost Plus change this?
How does Mark think about what it takes to build great brand today? Why will Cost Plus not be doing big TV and traditional media advertising?
What types of guerilla marketing is Mark most excited by? Why will Mark never have a billboard in Times Square?

4.) AMA with Mark Cuban:

What 3 traits does Mark most want his children to adopt?
What worries Mark most today?
What are Mark's biggest strengths? What are his biggest weaknesses?
What single purchase has brought Mark the greatest joy?

In Today’s Episode with Mark Cuban You Will Learn:

1.) Cost Plus Drugs: Origin

Why Mark decided to build Cost Plus Drugs?
Why has no one done it before?
How does Mark think about resource and time allocation with Cost Plus?

2.) Building the Team: Hiring

How does mark analyze his approach to hiring? Where is he weak? Where is he strong?
What one motto does Mark always use when it comes to hiring?
What is the most common mistake Mark sees founders make when it comes to team build?
How does Mark identify stress removers? What are the core signals?

3.) Brand + Capital + Business Strategy:

Why is the current cost structure of healthcare so damaged in the US? How does Cost Plus change this?
How does Mark think about what it takes to build great brand today? Why will Cost Plus not be doing big TV and traditional media advertising?
What types of guerilla marketing is Mark most excited by? Why will Mark never have a billboard in Times Square?

4.) AMA with Mark Cuban:

What 3 traits does Mark most want his children to adopt?
What worries Mark most today?
What are Mark's biggest strengths? What are his biggest weaknesses?
What single purchase has brought Mark the greatest joy?

Previous Episode

undefined - 20 Sales: How To Build Sales Teams with a Product-Led-Growth GTM, What is a Sales Hiring Scorecard and How To Construct Yours & How To Structure the Onboarding Process for all New Sales Hires with Dannie Herzberg, Partner @ Sequoia Capital

20 Sales: How To Build Sales Teams with a Product-Led-Growth GTM, What is a Sales Hiring Scorecard and How To Construct Yours & How To Structure the Onboarding Process for all New Sales Hires with Dannie Herzberg, Partner @ Sequoia Capital

Dannie Herzberg is a Partner @ Sequoia Capital and one of the great sales leaders of the last decade. Prior to entering the world of venture, Dannie spent 4 years at Slack as their Head of Enterprise Sales, there Dannie built & scaled the self-serve / SMB, mid-market, and enterprise sales orgs across the Americas as Slack grew from $100M - $1B in revenue. Before Slack, Dannie spent over 5 years at Hubspot building sales, opening an SF office, and then joining product to launch CRM & platform.

In Today’s Episode with Dannie Herzberg You Will Learn:

1.) How Dannie got her first job in sales at Hubspot through being a waitress in a Boston Diner? What were her biggest lessons from her 5 years scaling sales at Hubspot? How did Dannie's 4 years at Slack impact her operating and sales mindset today?

2.) The Playbook:

Does the founder need to be the one to create the sales playbook?
When is the right time to bring in the first sales hire? Should they be a sales leader or rep?
When is the right time to bring in a CRO, sales enablement and revenue ops?
What are the single biggest mistakes founders make when hiring their first in sales?

3.) The Hiring Process:

How should founders structure the hiring process for their first sales hires?
What should be achieved or learned in each consecutive interview?
How can founders use sales case studies most effectively?
What are early signs of a 10x sales hire? What are red flags to look out for in the process?

4.) Sales Onboarding:

What does the ideal onboarding process look like for new sales hires?
What tasks and duties should all sales hires perform in the first 60 days?
What are early signs that a new hire is not performing to the right standard?
How does the first few months differ for sales reps when comparing a product-led-growth company to an enterprise company?
How can new sales hires really engage with broader functions within the team in the first 30 days?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Dannie Herzberg

Inbound Marketing, Revised and Updated: Attract, Engage, and Delight Customers Online

Next Episode

undefined - 20VC: Biggest Lessons and Challenges Building One of the Most Successful Seed Funds, How To Manage Investor Psychology, Self-Doubt and Insecurity & The Secret to Truly Successful Venture Partnerships with David Frankel, Co-Founder @ Founder Collective

20VC: Biggest Lessons and Challenges Building One of the Most Successful Seed Funds, How To Manage Investor Psychology, Self-Doubt and Insecurity & The Secret to Truly Successful Venture Partnerships with David Frankel, Co-Founder @ Founder Collective

David Frankel is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner @ Founder Collective, one of the great seed firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Uber, Coupang, Airtable, Whoop and many more incredible companies. Previously, David was Co-Founder and CEO of Internet Solutions (IS), the largest ISP in Africa, ultimately acquired by NTT. David is also a founding board member of Endeavor SA and in the past has been selected by the World Economic Forum for the Global Leader of Tomorrow (GLT) program.

In Today’s Episode with David Frankel You Will Learn:

1.) How David made his way into the world of angel investing? How his mindset changed when making the transition from angel to an institutional investor with the founding of Founder Collective?

2.) Building the Firm: Founder Collective

What are the biggest challenges in venture firm building today?
Why is "deploy" and "the game" banned as words within Founder Collective? What terms are promoted as an alternative?
How does David construct investment decision-making in the partnership?
How does David create a safe space where all team members can share their thoughts in a non-judgemental, safe environment?
What are the biggest mistakes or challenges that David sees firms make when building?

3.) David Frankel: Investor Mindset

How does David analyse the current seed market today? What does he like? What worries him?
Does David agree that early stage investing has never been less collaborative?
How does David reflect on his own relationship to price today? How does he determine when to pay up vs when not to?
How does David think about the compression on fund deployment timelines? Will this change?
How does David keep a fresh and clean mind when viewing new opportunities, having seen many work and not work? How does one retain that mental purity when investing?
What have been some of David's biggest misses? How did it impact his style of investing?

4.) The Partnership:

What was the most recent disagreement David had with the partnership? How was it resolved?
How does David approach self-doubt and insecurity within the partnership? How can this be managed successfully?
What have been some of David's biggest lessons on how to give effective feedback without being judgemental?
In a world of Zoom, how did the partnership retain the same level and quality of connection that they had in person? What works? What does not work?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with David Frankel

David’s Favourite Book: The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race

David's Most Recent Investment: PairTree