In conversation with Mark Cuban

**Jason** (0:00)
All right, everybody, welcome to the number one podcast in the world. Here we are on the All-In podcast. We have a fifth bestie with us today. Joining David Friedberg, Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks, and myself is the one and the only Mark Cuban. How are you doing, buddy?

**Mark Cuban** (0:15)
What's up, guys? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on.

**Jason** (0:17)
Of course.

**David Friedberg** (0:18)
Good to have you here.

**Mark Cuban** (0:20)
Thank you. I've been practicing my virtue signaling, so I'm ready. You ready to go?

**David Sacks** (0:25)
I think we're going to have twice the virtue signaling as normal in this episode.

**Jason** (0:29)
Double the virtue signaling.

**Mark Cuban** (0:30)
I promise you, I don't virtue signal. I'll say f*** you to anybody.

**Jason** (0:51)
You have gotten very vocal about politics during this cycle. And you seem to be, I don't know if it's official, you know, speaking on behalf of the Kamala ticket.
So why, why are you this active? What is the reason that you've decided to get this active during this election?

**Mark Cuban** (1:10)
because I'm proud to be an American. That's exactly why. I mean, you know, we all make choices and think what's best for the country and show our patriotism in different ways. And, you know, I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Republican. I'm an independent through and through.

**David Sacks** (1:25)
Oh, my God, like Jay Cal. He's an independent too. There we go. What is it that all the Democrats are afraid to call themselves Democrats?

**Mark Cuban** (1:33)
Well, look, I've said this many, many times. If it wasn't Donald Trump running, if it was a non-MAGA candidate, particularly if it was Joe Biden still, I'd vote Republican. I've voted Republican before. If it was a non-MAGA candidate versus Kamala Harris, it would be, you know, let's look at the policies, let's look at the character of the people involved and let's make a decision. It's just Donald Trump is not a Republican. Republicans are Donald Trump.
You know, the Republican Party is now the family business for Donald Trump. And to me, I just think Kamala Harris is a better choice for the country.

**Jason** (2:05)
On a percentage basis, how often have you voted, just to level set, Democrat versus Republican, would you say, out of 10 elections?

**Mark Cuban** (2:11)
Presidential, probably. I voted for George W twice. Then I voted for Obama twice. And then I voted for Clinton and Biden. But before that, I voted for Ross Perot Jr. My first vote was for a guy named John Anderson. So, I mean, I literally worked on Ross Perot Jr.'s campaign way back when.

**Jason** (2:34)
Tell us about that. That's fascinating. He got 19% of the vote as an independent candidate.

**Mark Cuban** (2:40)
Yeah, I was living out in LA and this was 92 And this is when computers were relatively new. I sold my company and I was taking acting classes and just living by Manhattan Beach and just loving life. And, you know, being from Texas, I knew people there and they were like, look, we need somebody who understands PCs and computers and software. Can you help us? And I was like, definitely. I mean, I wasn't to the point where I was involved in his decisions, but I actually hadn't met him.
My first company was a company called Micro Solutions, where we did systems integrations, local and wide area network. I wrote software for single and multi-user app, wide area network apps. And we literally helped Perot systems get into local and wide area networking. And so one of my favorite stories from back then is, I'm terrified. I'm a 26-year-old kid. I'm in Dallas. I'm going into Perot systems. I get to meet Ross Perot senior, the man, right? And I'm walking through and he's got the original, the model for the, he had the original Magna Carta, one of like the 13 Magna Cartas. And he had the original model for the Iwo Jima statue, right, with the flag up and everything. And I'm just terrified. I'm going to trip and just wipe out American history. And I walk up to him and I said, Hi, Mr. Cuban, I'm Ross Perot.

**Jason** (3:59)
I mean, I'll reverse that.

**Mark Cuban** (4:01)
Yeah, you know, I was so nervous. And he like made fun of it and, you know, got to be friends and did a lot of business, helped those guys a lot. I made them a lot of money. They made me a lot of money.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (4:11)
Did you have any more interactions with them when you were on the campaign? Did you get a sense of?