Why Mark Cuban avoids Silicon Valley: ‘Tech bros’ are ‘pretentious’ and overestimated

Mark Cuban constructed his fortune within the tech global. That does not imply he worships Silicon Valley.

The billionaire celebrity of ABC’s “Shark Tank” makes a mindful effort to stay his investments out of doors of the California tech hub, he instructed Invoice Maher on a up to date episode of the “Membership Random” podcast. California has upper taxes and stricter laws than Texas, the place Cuban is primarily based.

However Cuban stated he additionally cannot stand the tradition of Silicon Valley’s “tech bros.”

“[It’s] pretentious as f—okay. The attitudes, it is identical to … ‘In fact we are smarter. We went to Harvard, we went to MIT, we are in tech,’” Cuban stated, including: “I do all I will to not let any of my investments figure out of Silicon Valley.”

Cuban, who has a $6.25 billion web price consistent with Bloomberg, constructed his personal tech fortune in Texas. His laptop consulting corporate MicroSolutions, which offered to CompuServe for $6 million in 1990, used to be primarily based in Dallas.

His 2d corporate, web radio platform Broadcast.com, used to be additionally primarily based in Dallas ahead of getting got via Yahoo for $5.7 billion in inventory in 1999.

As of late, Cuban does not deny the good fortune of Bay House tech corporations like Apple, Meta, Alphabet and PayPal. Reasonably, he considers the attract of Silicon Valley — and the angle that incorporates it — overestimated.

“There is numerous capital there, so other folks apply the cash,” Cuban stated. “However the pretentiousness and the angle and the expectancies and the confidence — like, it is only a industry. You’ll be able to be excellent anyplace on the planet.”

Cuban’s standpoint is not new: In a 2019 episode of the “Recode Decode” podcast, he argued that it is if truth be told advisable for marketers to construct tech corporations out of doors of Silicon Valley, so they do not have to compete for assets.

He is not most effective billionaire who needs new tech out of doors of the Bay House, both. Melinda French Gates, as an example, needs to make use of her funding company Pivotal Ventures in particular to assist ladies get started companies that may thrive independently from Silicon Valley, she instructed Fortune closing yr.

“To re-create Silicon Valley or to switch it could be extremely laborious,” stated French Gates, who has a web price of $6.6 billion, consistent with Forbes. “However if you find yourself beginning recent and new, for those who get started with a type on this standpoint, then I don’t believe you’ll be able to reflect the previous one we had in Silicon Valley.”

Disclosure: CNBC owns the unique off-network cable rights to “Shark Tank.”

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