When Mark Cuban launched his first tech startup, he could not have identified he’d find yourself a billionaire right this moment.
He was assured, although, that his sales pitch for the corporate — a software program startup referred to as MicroSolutions — would work.
In a recent post on X, previously often called Twitter, Cuban shared a 544-word excerpt of proposal he despatched in 1989 to a legislation agency he hoped to land as a consumer, Dallas-based Jenkens & Gilchrist.
In the proposal, Cuban wrote that his instrument can be an awesome useful resource for attorneys trying to streamline their workflow — by having data “instantly printed electronically to the group,” versus utilizing notebooks.
“Imagine with the ability to print or view a columnar report exhibiting methods by trial, with the opposing agency, choose and outcomes!” he wrote. “The alternatives for a aggressive benefit are limitless, as are the flexibility to display to present and potential purchasers the facility of the qualitative instruments obtainable.”
The pitch worked, he added.
“And sure, we closed the deal. Basically, it was our model of Slack lengthy earlier than Slack,” Cuban wrote in a follow-up publish. “My large pitch again then was, ‘Post as soon as, printed in every single place.'”
The proposal relied on Cuban’s No. 1 key for making a sale, which he discovered at age 12 whereas promoting rubbish baggage door-to-door: “You’re not making an attempt to persuade individuals. You’re making an attempt to assist them,” as Cuban told GQ final month.
“It’s all about placing myself in your sneakers,” he added. “It’s, ‘I actually suppose that this could be a higher resolution for you. And if I discover you a greater resolution, will you do enterprise with me?'”
If Cuban may return in time and inform his youthful self one factor, it’d be to maintain honing his sales expertise, he noted in a TikTok video posted final yr.
“Once you learn to promote, you possibly can all the time begin a enterprise [because] you are an entrepreneur at coronary heart,” mentioned Cuban.
A yr after sending his pitch to the legislation agency, Cuban offered MicroSolutions to now-defunct web companies firm CompuServe for $6 million. He in the end turned a billionaire after his subsequent startup, web streaming service Broadcast.com, offered to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999.
His present web value is $5.2 billion, according to Forbes.
Disclosure: CNBC owns the unique off-network cable rights to “Shark Tank,” which options Mark Cuban as a panelist.
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