Mark Cuban Was So Broke He Didn't Even Have $200 Needed To Open A Bank Account And Now He's Worth Billions – 'Nobody Had High Hopes For Me'

Mark Cuban may be worth billions today, but it wasn't always that way. Cuban was once so broke he couldn't even scrape together the $200 needed to open a bank account. This personal anecdote was shared during the latest episode of Shark Tank, where Cuban reflected on his early days while hearing a pitch from Spare, a virtual ATM network aimed at the underbanked.

"When I was broke and sleeping on the couch, I couldn't open a bank account. You needed $200," Cuban explained, before committing $500,000 to the startup.

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Cuban's journey from couch-surfing to billionaire status is well-known, but the details offer insight into the grit that powered his rise. Born in Pittsburgh, Cuban grew up in a working-class family. He started a business early as a teenager, reselling baseball cards, stamps and coins. But not everyone believed in his potential. "People thought I might go work at a mill," he said. "My mom even wanted me to learn how to lay carpet."

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After graduating from Indiana University, Cuban arrived in Dallas with just $60 in his pocket. He shared a small apartment with five other guys, sleeping on the floor or couch and worked as a bartender to make ends meet. Cuban's initial career stints didn't go smoothly either; he said he quit or was fired from three jobs in a row.

But then he found his footing in technology. "When I started working with computers, I realized I could go hours without even noticing time passing. That's when I knew I had found something I loved," he shared in a previous episode of Shark Tank. Cuban's tech passion eventually led him to launch MicroSolutions, which he sold for $6 million in 1990.

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Cuban's next big break came in 1995 when he and Todd Wagner launched Broadcast.com, an online streaming service born out of their desire to listen to Indiana Hoosiers games from Texas. Yahoo bought the company in 1999 for $5.7 billion in stock.

"Nobody had high hopes for me," Cuban reflected. "But I was a hustler." His story, from struggling to open a bank account to becoming a billionaire, shows how far determination – and a little tech savvy – can go.

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When you hear about a self-made billionaire, there's usually a moment when you're bracing for that "Surprise!" – the part where a rich relative swoops in with a hefty check. After all, real life doesn't usually involve fairy godmothers. 

But in Cuban's tale, there's no twist, no secret benefactor. His story reads like a bona fide rags-to-riches saga, where every dollar was earned the hard way. No hidden chapters, no magical shortcuts – just a relentless grind that turned into a $5 billion net worth.

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