Mark Cuban is ready to exit Shark Tank.
In a recent interview with the Showtime podcast All The Smoke, Cuban told hosts Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson that season 16 of the ABC series will be his last. The reality show from Mark Burnett is currently in its 15th season.
“It’s time,” said Cuban, who first guested on Shark Tank in season 2 before becoming a regular shark the following year. He’s been a popular mainstay ever since.
“I love it because it sends the message the American dream is alive and well,” Cuban told Barnes and Jackson. “I feel like in doing Shark Tank all these years, we’ve trained multiple generations of entrepreneurs that if somebody can come from Iowa or Sacramento or wherever, and show up on the carpet of Shark Tank and show their business and get a deal, it’s going to inspire generations of kids. That’s what happens, right? Now we’ve got people coming on saying I watched you when I was 10 years old. I’m like, f—. But we’re helping them right? I’ve invested in, I don’t know how many hundreds of companies. On a cash basis, I’m down a little bit, but on mark to market meeting, the companies are still in operation. I’m way up.”
When asked how he knows what makes a good investment on Shark Tank, Cuban said, “I just listen to them. You can just tell. Body language matters, the harder they have to try to sell, the worse the deal … when someone walks in Shark tank, you can tell if they are trying to hard. I have this rule: the longer the back story, the worse the deal. The minute you start telling me you’re how hard it was for you, it’s hard for every mother fuckin entrepreneur tell me about your business, tell me why you are going to be successful.”
I look for ideas like, damn why didn’t I think of that,” Cuban continued.
Deadline has reached out to ABC for comment.
