INTRO:
Daymond is likely the most conservative investor on Shark Tank, but usually, it’s not because
he’s afraid of capital loss but because of his investment philosophy. You see, all the sharks are
there for various reasons. Mark and Robert like to invest in businesses that excite them. Kevin likes
to invest in businesses that carry low capital risk. Lori likes to invest in ideas she can blow
up TV, and Barbara invests in entrepreneurs that she believes in. But, Daymond doesn’t really
care about any of this. He’s not there to make money or gain popularity. His primary goal is
to help entrepreneurs who really truly need it. There are so many times that he’s turned down
super lucrative deals because he doesn’t feel that the entrepreneur needs it. I think this makes
Daymond the most wholesome investor on the show, and given his rough background, it makes
sense that he wants to help those in a similar situation. This wholesome investment strategy has
rewarded him quite handsomely given that he was the one to invest in Shark Tank’s most successful
business as of the end of 2021. So, here’s how Daymond went from the ghettos to Shark Tank and
became Shark Tanks’ most empathetic investor. LIFE IN THE SLUMS: Taking a look back, Daymond was born
on February 23, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. Initially, his life wasn’t that bad
financially given that he was an only child, and his dad made enough money to make ends
meet. But, by the time Daymond was 10 years old, his parents would get a divorce, and Daymond
would be raised by a single mother. To make things worse, Daymond’s mother was a homemaker and
it was extremely difficult for her to find a job. The family quickly sank into poverty and
ended up in the Hollis region of Queens. This region is officially known as a low-income
African American neighborhood, but really, it was a ghetto. So, to help out his mom through this
situation, Daymond began working odd jobs at the age of 10. This included handing out fliers for
$2 an hour and becoming an electrician apprentice. He also shoveled snow for neighbors and
sold pencils. Moving into high school, Daymond joined a program that allowed him to
attend school on an alternating weekly basis. This allowed him to hold a full-time job as a
waiter at Red Lobster, and run a small commuter van service on the side. Daymond says that this
program is what really ignited his entrepreneurial spirit. Anyway, moving on to college, Daymond
really had no intention of attending college. First of all, he was dyslexic which made
traditional academics quite difficult, and secondly, he didn’t have 4 years to go sit
in a classroom. He was already busting his butt to make ends meet, and quitting his job would
make it extremely difficult for his mother. So, he decided to not attend college and
continued on with his waiter job after high school. Daymond wasn’t satisfied with just
working this job for the rest of his life though. He knew he wanted to create some sort of business,
but he didn’t know what exactly it would be about. This would all change, however, when he
came across some overpriced wool ski hats on the market. Daymond was convinced he could
produce the hats for significantly cheaper, so he bought some low-cost fabrics, learned how to
sew from his mother, and began knitting wool hats. He was able to produce 80 hats, and he went around
the neighborhood and sold them for $10 apiece. He made a solid $800 in revenue from the venture,
but for Daymond, selling these hats meant much more than just making money. You see, during
his teenage years, Daymond was a massive fan of hip-hop and rap. He aspired to be like his
favorite artists, but he usually couldn’t even afford the clothes they wore. By selling
affordable clothes rooted in hip hop, Daymond felt that he could appeal to his younger
self and give modern kids what he never had. And with that, Daymond founded For Us By Us
or FUBU in 1992. Daymond barely had any money himself, but his mother would pull through
and risk it all for Daymond. She mortgaged her house and lent him $100,000 to start up the
business. The stakes couldn’t have been higher, but this was Daymond’s one shot at a better life,
and there was no way he was going to give that up. FUBU: From the very beginning, Daymond knew that the key
to growing a large clothing brand was exposure, but he decided to start small and keep things
simple. Daymond continued to produce the wool hats that had already sold well, and he continued
working as a waiter. In the meantime, he started experimenting with sewing screen-printed
T-shirts. As the hat business grew, Daymond hired two of his childhood friends to start
selling the T-shirts around the neighborhood. This worked out decently well at the beginning,
but selling clothes door to door clearly wasn’t a very good sales channel long term. So, Daymond
started leveraging consignments. A consignment is simply an agreement with a store or vendor
to sell your products for a set commission or fee. Daymond was able to score a couple of
consignment deals with vendors in the Northeast, and with that Daymond could start focusing
on actually building a brand. Daymond and his friends started sewing the FUBU logo into hockey
jerseys, sweatshirts, and T-shirts, and they lent out this clothing to up-and-coming rappers to use
in their music videos. Within 2 years, Daymond was able to secure product placement within 30 music
videos which gave FUBU quite a bit of exposure. People watching these music videos thought
that FUBU was a decently sized mall brand, but really, it was just Daymond a couple of his
friends. And this became painfully apparent when FUBU started to receive their first big orders.
In the early 1990s, Daymond traveled to Las Vegas to showcase FUBU at a fashion trade show called
MAGIC. This was definitely a worthwhile trip given that he received $300,000 worth of orders, and an
offer to be sold at select Macy’s outlets. Daymond happily took the orders, but only he knew that it
was going to be a massive struggle to produce that many clothes. As soon as he returned home, Daymond
applied for loans at every bank he could think of, but he was rejected by all 27 banks. So, in
a last-ditch effort, Daymond use the last of his money to put out an advertisement in the New
York times looking for a manufacturing partner. And luckily for Daymond, Samsung Textiles
responded to the ad and helped FUBU complete their first mega-order. Around the same time, Daymond’s
hip-hop partners including Will Smith, Beyonce, and LL Cool J were starting to get some notoriety.
LL Cool J and Daymond were actually childhood friends, and Daymond was able to convince
Cool J to wear a FUBU hat in a GAP commercial. Cool J didn’t just stop right there either. He was
hired to rap in the commercial and he snuck in the phrase For Us By Us in the rap. Honestly,
I’m not sure how GAP let this one slip by, but it worked out great for FUBU. As their hip-hop
partners evolved into full-fledged celebrities, FUBU transitioned from being a small
home business to a national brand. In 1998, FUBU pulled in $350 million in
sales, but Daymond was just getting started. BUILDING AN EMPIRE:
While FUBU was doing better than ever before, Daymond knew that hip-hop fame was fickle and that
it could disappear just as fast as it appeared. So, Daymond cleverly started to diversify as soon
as possible. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, FUBU put hip-hop promotions on the back burner and
started to reinvest their profits into building an international audience. They primarily targeted
Saudi Arabia, China, Korea, Japan, and South Africa. Daymond didn’t just limit the company to
streetwear clothing either. In 2000, he launched FUBU Entertainment also known as FUBU Records. As
the name suggests, this subsidiary was focused on producing and releasing music albums. One of their
first deals was with Universal Records which ended up generating millions in revenue. Moving forward,
in 2002, Daymond embraced the internet with the launch of y2g.com which sold their various
products online. All of these efforts gave FUBU a pretty solid safety net, but Daymond
didn’t just want to rely on FUBU either, so he also started ventures outside FUBU. For
example, Daymond leveraged his newfound fame to start selling books. So far, Daymond has published
4 books called Display of Power, The Brand Within, The Power of Broke, and Rise and Grind. These
publications have won him the titles of New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling
author. Aside from publishing books, Daymond has also become a public speaker and he charges $50
to $75,000 per speech. Daymond has also partnered with several brands including Pitbull, Miss
Universe, Shopify, and most recently, Audible. It’s a good thing Daymond diversified so heavily
as FUBU’s sales did indeed start dropping just like he expected. From their peak of $350 million
in 1998, FUBU declined to $200 million by 1999 and they’ve stabilized around there ever since.
Daymond doesn’t seem to mind too much though. He knew the drop was coming and he prepared
as much as he could. Also, he had already made more money than he ever wanted, and now,
he wanted to focus his efforts on giving back. DAYMOND’S PHILOSOPHY:
Daymond isn’t interested in making the rich richer or even the middle class richer. His
primary goal is to help the poor break out of the poverty cycle. He knows firsthand how impossible
it was to secure a loan, and with Shark Tank, Daymond has prioritized giving opportunity just
like Samsung Textiles gave him an opportunity. One of the best examples of this was with Mo’s Bows.
In Season 5 of Shark Tank, a young entrepreneur named Moziah pitched his bowtie-making business
to the Sharks. He asked for a modest $50,000 for a 20% stake in his business, but instead of
offering him the money, Daymond offered to mentor him for free. Since then, Daymond has
helped Moziah secure a manufacturing partner, get into Neiman Marcus, and even get a 7 figure
licensing deal with the NBA. Daymond literally made this kid into a millionaire for free. I don’t
think it gets more wholesome than that. Another wholesome Daymond deal was with Bombas. Bombas is
a sock company that focuses on donating socks to homeless shelters. The founders, David and Randy,
started the company after finding out that the most needed item at homeless shelters was socks.
And for every item you purchase from Bombas, they donate an item to homeless organizations. It
looks like this message has really resonated with customers as Bombas is not only Daymond’s most
successful investment but the most successful investment in Shark Tank history grossing a total
of $225 million in lifetime sales. Shark Tank isn’t the only way Daymond gives back either. In
2015, he co-founded Daymond John’s Success Formula which teaches entrepreneurs how to start and
grow their business. And that same year, he was appointed by President Obama to be an ambassador
for underserved entrepreneurs. Considering all this, I don’t think that there’s any doubt that
Daymond is the most selfless shark on the show. DAYMOND TODAY:
As for Daymond today, he’s doing better than ever before. FUBU
crossed $6 billion in annual sales back in 2016, and they’re likely in the $7 to $8
billion range today if not even higher. In terms of Shark Tank investments, Daymond
has completed 61 deals on air which comes out to a total of $8.5 million invested.
Considering this, I don’t think you’d be too surprised to hear that his net worth is estimated
to be around $350 million. Unfortunately, though, his personal life isn’t progressing nearly as
smoothly. In April of 2017, Daymond was diagnosed with stage 2 thyroid cancer. He did undergo
surgery and get the cancerous nodule removed, but it’s definitely not something to take lightly.
Hopefully, the cancer never returns though as Daymond is not only relatively young at 52, but
he’s a phenomenal community-oriented person, and he would be a massive loss for everybody.
Do you guys think Daymond is the best shark? Comment that down below. Also, drop a like if
you think that the other sharks should take a couple of notes from Daymond. And of course,
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