The evolution of the tech industry (ft. Mark Cuban)

Sat down with serial entrepreneur Mark Cuban to discuss the evolution of the tech industry, how to fix America’s healthcare system, and much more

Jules: Mark, thank you for your time. I feel like you're always super generous with your time. I remember when I would first watch interviews of you and everything, people would bring up how you would just answer their emails, even kids and so on. I feel like that's pretty rare.

Why do you feel like that's important to make the time for that?

Mark: I think I learn a lot. It doesn't limit the information that I get and ideas that I get. When I was a kid, I would walk through bookstores. I would sit there and I'd read a little bit of this book, because all it took was one idea. I would buy magazines, and go to magazine racks, and if I could afford to buy different magazines, because all it takes is one idea.

I've invested in companies for people I still have not met, because they just emailed me with an idea. Cost Plus Drugs, from an email. Relatively Space, from an email. Synthesia, from an email. All these things. It's not like I have a team that goes out and sources deals or anything. It’s just, when you have an open door like that there's no limit to what you might learn and what you might see. And it's always worked out really well for me.

Jules: How do you keep your sanity? Because I feel like you probably get so many emails throughout the day. Like how are you sifting through those?

Mark: I hit the delete key a lot. You can tell within the first paragraph whether it's legit and worth spending any time with. And I have this rule, the longer the back story the worse the email. So if they start going, “I grew up in Kansas City, and my mom was this, and my uncle was that, and when I was in 3rd grade…” Delete. I'm not even going to get to the rest of it. They're setting up a story that has anything to do but—

Jules: The value.

Mark: The value of the email, yeah.

Jules: So what's the perfect email, like a paragraph max?

Mark: No, not even a max. it's just like, “Hey, I got this technology. It does A, B, C, D, E, and F. Are you interested? Do you want to learn more?” Or, “Here is a link to our website. Here's a proposal that we've done for somebody else. If you're interested, let me know.” I'll click to the website. Takes two seconds to look at it. And if it's interesting, I'll dig in and look for more information. If it’s not—if it's the Uber of something, if it's the Airbnb of something—

Jules: The TikTok of something.