Mark Cuban and 'Shark Tank' are a pitch-perfect match

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban became a billionaire because he took small ideas and made them big -- most notably, after he and Todd Wagner started Broadcast.com in 1995 in a spare bedroom of Cuban's home because they wanted to hear Indiana University basketball games in Dallas. Four years later, they sold the company to Yahoo in a deal then valued at $5.7 billion.

When it comes to pitching potential investors, he has been on both sides of the table, doing the pitching himself and hearing pitches from budding entrepreneurs. All of which makes Cuban a good fit for Shark Tank, ABC's reality series in which small-business entrepreneurs try to persuade a group of sharks, or high-profile businesspeople, to invest in their companies in hopes of turning them into bigger businesses.

Cuban, who was offered a slot as a shark in the show's first season but didn't have the time to do it, says that if the show gets renewed for a third season, he'd like to return. He says the show proves that the American dream is alive and well.

"Despite what's happened in the economy, despite bankers and Wall Street taking advantage of us in many ways, there are people that are our friends or our cousins or people we grew up with that have an idea and go for it," Cuban said during a brief phone interview. "Those are the people that make this country what it is. I know that sounds kind of hokey, but there's just that resolve and spirit in this country that, when I go anywhere else, I just don't see."

In the show's second season, which premiered Sunday and will air regularly Fridays on ABC, Cuban will alternate with comedian Jeff Foxworthy as the show's sixth shark, along with regulars Barbara Corcoran, a New York real-estate mogul; Kevin Harrington, chairman of infomercial company TVGoods; Robert Herjavec, described as a "serial entrepreneur" who has developed and sold several companies and now runs cyber-security provider the Herjavec Group; Daymond John, founder of sportswear company FUBU; and Kevin O'Leary, who developed Softkey Software Products and eventually sold it to the Mattel toy company for $3.7 billion -- and then founded his own mutual-fund company.

Cuban looks like he's having a blast doing the show, and that's the starting point for this Q&A.

You look like you're having a good time on the show.

I haven't even seen the episodes yet, but I can just tell you, I loved every minute of it. I'm so used to getting pitched -- people are pitching me every minute of every day, it seems like. And I like it. And finding somebody and helping them reach toward their dreams is always rewarding. Add to it the element that I get to tell Kevin O'Leary exactly what I think about him and battle it out with the other sharks, and that just made it even more fun.

How much does this reflect your own experiences, both in pitching investors and people pitching you?

It's 100 percent accurate. The only difference is, because it's on TV and it's being filmed, they get a little bit more anxious and more nervous and sometimes embellish a little, as opposed to just sitting in a meeting, where it's all gradual and you can have an easier exchange.

I think some people who haven't watched the show might expect some of the entrepreneurs might be a little goofy, or that the show might make fun of them. But they usually have pretty good ideas, just not necessarily thought all the way out.

I would say more often than not, they're thought out, but when they're there and the pressure's on -- it's like anything else, where you walk out of the room and think, 'Why didn't I say this? Why didn't I think of this?' This is your life's dream, this is something you've put your heart and soul into, told all your friends, all your family, probably asked them for money to invest in you. You're going to do whatever it takes to be successful, and you're going to have an opportunity, in front of these sharks, to make it happen.

The people who don't succeed in getting the sharks to invest always seem like they're going to continue fighting.

You don't get to the point where you make your presentation, and having enough confidence in your business to make that presentation to us, without already being fully committed to your business. I'm just as happy if someone comes back and says, 'See, I told you you were a moron. You should have invested in me. Look how much money you left on the table.' Because I went through the same thing. ... When we had AudioNet [Broadcast.com's original name] and people laughed at us and wouldn't invest or told us we were crazy, I loved throwing it back in their faces.

Was there any pitch that just made you roll your eyes and think, 'This person is really lost'?

I don't know if the show ended up using it or not, but it just so happens that the guy who was responsible for installing all those extra seats at the Super Bowl pitched us. I rolled my eyes and said, 'I don't trust this guy as far as I can throw him.'

Robert Philpot, 817-390-7872