http://finance.yahoo.com/news/shark-tank-investor-daymond-john-160432083.html

'Shark Tank' investor Daymond John explains how he reinvented himself in his 40s
Business Insider By Richard Feloni

Daymond John got a call from Mark Burnett at the perfect time in his career.

It was 2008 and John was 39 years old. He had established a career on the success of his clothing brand FUBU, which he started from nothing out of his mom's house in Hollis, Queens in 1992. Though the brand was bringing in over $300 million in revenue in the late '90s, its popularity faded in the early 2000s.

John acquired stakes in about 10 other clothing companies and served as a marketing adviser. When the Great Recession hit, he told Business Insider, only two or three were making him money. John needed a way to grow beyond the fashion industry.

Burnett, the executive producer behind the massively successful reality television shows "Survivor" and "The Apprentice," told John over the phone that he was creating an American spinoff of Sony's business reality series "Dragon's Den," which started in Japan and spread to the United Kingdom and Canada. It would be called "Shark Tank" and he wanted John to be one of the investors.

"I decided that absolutely, I wanted to do it," John said. It would not only provide a spotlight for John and his brands, but would give him an opportunity to diversify his portfolio. He was 40 when the show began the next year.

"What I am is a manufacturer and a producer and somebody that likes to brand products and companies," he said. "And I was only getting pitched clothing companies. If I was going to sell to one of the big amazing stores that I deal with, I don't want to only just sell and be in Aisle No. 1 with clothing, I want to be in Aisle No. 3 with soft drinks, I want to be there with electronics. I want to diversify my portfolio. So I took on this new journey to do a show called 'Shark Tank.'"

The show's first season was a moderate success for ABC, averaging about four million viewers for each new episode, but it was renewed for a second season and John was all in.

He built his show persona as the brand expert with a signature classy-yet-subtly flashy fashion sense, and used this as the fuel behind a new company intrinsically linked to the show: Shark Branding. This new company used John's heightened profile and increasingly diverse investments, direct results of the show, as a way to market himself to major global corporations.

Shark Branding has developed relationships with clients ranging from Home Shopping Network to Reebok CrossFit, from Jamba Juice to Shopify. John has used these relationships for the benefit of his "Shark Tank" investments, which then provides him with more ammunition for pitching himself to entrepreneurs who appear on the show.

"Shark Tank" is now in its seventh season. Last year was its strongest season yet, with an overall viewership of 9.137 million viewers, according to Deadline Hollywood.

John said his most profitable deals over the past seven seasons have been, relative to size, Bubba-Q's Boneless Ribs, Bomba's socks, and the TITIN training vest. He thinks he's going to help bring Bubba-Q's past $200 million in total sales soon. "Now I'm making more money than ever with boneless ribs!" he said.

John did not make a deal with Mo's Bows 13-year-old founder Moziah Bridges when he appeared on "Shark Tank," but he agreed to be his business mentor and helped him secure deals with a factory and Nordstrom.

FUBU will always have a special place in John's heart and will always be associated with his name. But he was able to, in his 40s, take a risk on a reality show in the depths of a recession and reinvent himself for the public.

His reputation and public presence has benefited so greatly that President Barack Obama appointed him as one of the White House's Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, which makes him as a White House representative for entrepreneurship initiatives across the country and abroad.

John said his 40s have proven to him that his passion is spreading a love for entrepreneurship and growing businesses the right way. He's been most moved by stories of kids, like Mo's Bows' 13-year-old founder and CEO Moziah Bridges, who grow up idolizing entrepreneurs they same way some do musicians and athletes. He feels similarly fulfilled by helping small business owners avoid the same mistakes he already made in his career.

"That, I think, is more fulfilling than anything else when it comes to this amazing journey with 'Shark Tank,'" he said.

"Now I'm making more money than ever with boneless ribs!" he said.

and some of my adulthood in Jamaica Queens too.


Jamaica Queens is sort of near Hollis.


Nah, never saw Daymond there.

the greatest marketing campaign was ll cool j shouting out fubu in that gap commercial

i think he even had a fb hat on wtf

)))--####---###--(((

bunda
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get busy living, or get busy dying.

http://news.yahoo.com/daymond-john-reveals-learned-losing-203400683.html


Daymond John reveals what he learned from losing $750,000 on the first season of 'Shark Tank'


Business Insider By Richard Feloni

January 29, 2016 3:34 PM


When reality-show producer Mark Burnett called FUBU founder Daymond John in 2008 to ask him if he wanted to be an investor on his upcoming show "Shark Tank," John had previously only worked within the fashion business but saw the opportunity as the perfect way to promote his existing brands and diversify his portfolio.

John had invested in around 10 clothing brands before joining the show, but he was hardly a seasoned angel investor. As he reveals in his new book "The Power of Broke," the growing pains of the first season cost him "about $750,000 of my own money that I've yet to get back."

In retrospect, the experience taught him the following lessons that have allowed him to become a savvier investor and corporate adviser, whose small businesses now make millions of dollars in annual profit.

Don't get caught up in the moment

Because "Shark Tank" was new in 2009, the producers weren't able to book the generally high caliber of entrepreneurs that appear on the show now. This was the season where a urologist got $25,000 to build a business around his hollow golf club that lets you pee into it.

So that meant that not only were the offerings slim, but about half of the deals made in front of the cameras didn't close because the businesses didn't pass due diligence — about 80% of the deals closed last season, according to John.

But even if he was seeing something he normally wouldn't want to invest in, he found himself getting caught up in the excitement of a bidding war with his fellow investors. And even if he found himself in a dud deal, he would spend too much time thinking he could transform a hopeless business, since he had already made it that far.

Throwing money at a problem doesn't solve it

John named his book "The Power of Broke" because, as he looked back on his career, he found that the common thread in all of his failures since becoming successful was the belief that an injection of capital could save a dying business or enhance a deal.

The scrappy attitude he had while building FUBU out of his mother's house in the 1990s helped him become the CEO of a hundred-million-dollar business because he made decisions as though every cent mattered — and it did.

Not only did he try keeping his handful of "Shark Tank" season-one businesses alive for longer than he should have, but he unnecessarily spent $200,000 on legal fees vetting and closing deals with them.

When he looked more closely at it, he realized that while he trusted his law firm, they weren't fit for that type of business. He began working with a venture-capital firm the next season, and cut his legal fees down to $30,000.

Rely on your team

To help with his season-one investments, John hired consultants for licensing, marketing, and social media.

"All these different experts, when I was hiring them on an as-needed basis that first year, their fees were killing me," he writes.

It was unsustainable. It's why he built a new company, Shark Branding, with a full-time staff that handled licensing, business development, legal issues, contracts, marketing, and internal management.

"I was able to pursue similar deals away from the show, growing my business in ways I hadn't even anticipated and helping to spread those overhead costs across a number of different properties," he writes.

It turned out that a reality show, of all things, forced John to become a better investor, manager, and entrepreneur.

John writes:

I lost a bunch of money because I found myself making decisions in ways I'd never made them before. I was spread thin, with all these new demands on my time, so a lot of times I would just throw money at a problem and hope that would take care of it. But of course, that's not how it works, right?

Why did Mark Burnett called him for Shark Tank? It seems like Shark Tank is the source of the revival of his career and that all hinged on the producer deciding to call him for the show. Knowing the answer to that question, would probably tell alot about the secret of his success.



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