Mark Cuban believes Black women founders should prioritize bootstrapping their businesses.

Cuban has found great success and is a well-regarded entrepreneur, businessman, and billionaire. His impressive list of business ventures and investments includes being the majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks. In 2023, he sold most of his stake and now owns 27% of the organization, per NBC News. Cuban is also a serial investor with a portfolio that includes Black-led edtech company Beanstack. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, the company, owned by married couple Felix Brandon Lloyd (CEO) and Jordan Lloyd Bookey, appeared on Shark Tank and scored a $250,000 investment from Cuban, who later participated in its $1.5 million seed round led by Riverside Acceleration Capital and Evoce Capital.

According to CNBC, Cuban launched his journey into entrepreneurship by launching MicroSolutions with a personal investment of $2,000. The software company found itself in difficult circumstances after $82,000 was stolen by his secretary. At the time, he had not yet brought in any investors and had only accepted $500 from a former customer in 2017, according to The New York Times.

Cuban’s Advice To Black Female Entrepreneurs

In hindsight, Cuban views the situation as a blessing in disguise. He bounced back and later sold the company for $6 million in 1990. Cuban has amassed an approximate net worth of $5.7 billion. He sees a silver lining in his journey, which he’s translated into a call to action for Black women entrepreneurs.

Cuban spoke with Essence ahead of a SXSW 2025 panel hosted by Clover, a fintech company that recently partnered with Tabitha Brown—who, in her role as Chief Empowerment Officer, also joined the panel—to further support small business owners. Cuban reveals that he believes Black women should take the same approach he did in his early days—bootstrapping their businesses rather than seeking outside investments. This method allows entrepreneurs to maintain full ownership and control over their businesses, though it often requires financial discipline, strategic growth, and reinvesting profits to scale over time. Cuban’s perspective suggests that self-funding can lead to long-term stability and independence, particularly for Black women entrepreneurs navigating barriers to securing traditional funding.

Black women entrepreneurs are currently the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the nation, per CNBC. However, Black women entrepreneurs received just .35% of venture capital dollars, according to Forbes. 

Despite this disparity, Cuban underscores the importance of self-sufficiency and financial preparedness.

“I would tell you not to look for funding,” Cuban told ESSENCE. “You have to figure out a way to use sweat equity to build it on your own, even if it means starting smaller and slower, because there is a learning process, and it’s twofold. One is learning about your business and making it loan-worthy. Then, two is learning the language of those making the loans.”

He added, “You can’t rush it. You have to take whatever time to get it right because if you go into that bank if you go somewhere to try to get a loan and you don’t get it, you still have to be in a position to work and go forward.”