Billionaire and Pittsburgh native Mark Cuban knows a bit about starting and growing businesses, but he first learned about being broke, eating condiment sandwiches and scraping by to keep a fledgling enterprise going.
Speaking to a room of small business owners and entrepreneurs Saturday in East Liberty, Cuban, 66, used his post-college experiences to draw a distinction between the presidential candidates who are deadlocked nationally 10 days from the election.
Cuban said Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, raised by a single parent in a middle class household, who worked in a McDonald’s as a teenager, understands most people’s struggles and has a viable economic agenda that will help.
Cuban contends former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump does not.
To engage his audience gathered in a crucial swing state, Cuban recounted being one of six roommates in a dumpy Dallas, Texas, apartment, without a bed or closet, too broke for regular meals and with only one towel stolen from a Motel 6.
‘’Do you think Donald Trump ever ate a mustard and ketchup sandwich? Do you think Donald Trump ever slept on the floor?” he asked the audience inside Duolingo headquarters. “Do you think Donald Trump ever had to, literally, go to a company and almost beg them to give an advance to start a business?”
As entrepreneurs, “you all do,” he said.
“You know the fear of trying to make payroll if business isn’t good. You know the fear of your biggest customer who’s maybe not sure if they’re going to keep doing business,” Cuban said. “You know the fear of the cost of health care.”
He said Donald Trump “has never been in your shoes.”
Dressed in black shirt, black jeans and white sneakers, he mixed in references to the Steelers and Pirates and delivered playful plugs for the ABC-TV show “Shark Tank,” where he is one of the shark investors. He and Duolingo co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn were introduced as the “Pennsylvania Polka” played in the background.
Organizers put the number of attendees at about 100, a mix of Democrats and Republicans mostly from the Pittsburgh area. Cuban fielded audience questions about the high cost of prescription drugs, trying to pay a living wage while keeping a business going, and the $50,000 tax credit proposed by Harris for business startups, among other topics.
He said 99% of the nation’s 33 million companies are small businesses.
As for personal taxes, Cuban said the rates for entrepreneurs making $400,000 or less would stay the same or decrease, while Trump tax cuts would focus on a small sliver of large corporations.
On the subject of Trump’s plan to impose trade tariffs, he warned it will lead to higher prices.
“If there’s tariffs on the stuff you sell, and people are buying less, what happens to your business? You get hit,” Cuban said. “And in Pittsburgh, we love our neighborhood shops — more so than most cities.”
He asked the audience, “What’s going to happen to those small retailers that we all grew up loving? You’ve already seen a lot of them disappear.”
He said Trump is serious about mass deportations of undocumented workers and asked the group about the impact on them, their businesses and bonds they have with those workers.
Cuban hosted what was billed as a town hall with local business owners and leaders to showcase Harris’ and Pennsylvania Democrats’ Opportunity Economy agenda and warn about Trump’s Project 2025.
They argue Trump’s plans “would hurt small businesses, raise costs on families and drag Pennsylvania backward.” They point to economists who have expressed concerns about the Trump’s agenda.
They contend it would reduce assistance for small businesses and increase costs on Pennsylvania families by nearly $4,000 a year, even as tax cuts are awarded to billionaires and large corporations.
They cited a Wall Street Journal survey of 50 leading economists conducted last week which found that a vast majority believe inflation, interest rates and deficits would be higher under Trump.
Cuban is a billionaire entrepreneur and TV personality. Born in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, he grew up in Mt. Lebanon, attended the University of Pittsburgh for a time, and later graduated with a management degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., in 1981.
Cuban acquired the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks in 2000. During his time as majority owner, the pro basketball franchise enjoyed the second best record in the NBA and won their first league title in 2011. He sold majority ownership in 2023, but retains a minority stake, according to his website.
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Since the summer, Cuban has been an increasingly visible Harris supporter and surrogate, giving interviews and stump speeches on her behalf such as Saturday’s hour-or-so town hall.
Speaking with reporters after the event, he said he has no interest in a position in a Harris administration, if she is elected, saying he prefers to remain in business, including a health venture, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co.
Its website describes the public benefit corporation as aiming to provide “safe, affordable medicine or medication with transparent low prices.”