Episode 484: Mark Cuban's Cold Email Empire: How $750K Investments Turn Into Billion-Dollar Returns

Listen to the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThY-UBFtGK8 What if I told you Mark Cuban has invested over $100 million in companies from complete strangers who just sent him an email? In this Fitness Friday episode, I'm sharing insights from my conversation with Mark Cuban about his unconventional investment approach and the incredible companies built from cold outreach. We discuss how Cuban manages 200+ investments with just 12 team members, why he answers every single email personally, and the remarkable stories behind two of his biggest wins: a $4 billion space company and a revolutionary pharmacy that's disrupting Big Pharma. Mark Cuban is a billionaire entrepreneur, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and star investor on Shark Tank who has built his reputation on being accessible to anyone with a compelling business idea. What we discuss: The $750K Investment That Became Worth "A Whole Lot of Money" at $4B Valuation Why Cuban Reads Every Email and Deletes Most in Under 2 Seconds How He Manages 200 Companies with Only 12 Employees The Cold Email Strategy That Led to Cost Plus Drugs Revolution Behind the Scenes of Shark Tank: Why 75% of His Deals Actually Close The Real Reason Most Shark Tank Entrepreneurs "Ghost" Their Deals How Cuban Turns Alyssa's Cookies Into a $20M Business With Zero Advertising Why He Refuses Meetings But Responds to Strangers' Emails Within Minutes The One Question Every Entrepreneur Must Ask: "Why Didn't I Think of That?" Thank you to our sponsor: Therasage: Head over to therasage.com http://therasage.com/ and use code Be Bold for 15% off Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com http://airdoctorpro.com/ and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Magic Mind: Head over to www http://www/.magicmind.com http://magicmind.com//jen and use code Jen at checkout. 99designs by Vista: 99designs.com/jen20 http://99designs.com/jen20 – click "Claim my discount" to get $20 off your first design contest. Momentous: Shop this link https://www.livemomentous.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorDUIZz3psr1Qsq_n1yE8_6JTq_QUFabOO9lH65HDEXCIoJOPLj and use code Jen for 20% off Manna Vitality: Visit mannavitality.com and use code JENNIFER20 for 20% off your order Find more from Mark Cuban: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcuban/ Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Hi guys, this is Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.

• 0:09Jen Cohen?

  Hey friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle Podcast, where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up.

• 0:32Jen Cohen?

  Before we dive into today's episode, I first want to thank our sponsor Therasage. Their Trillight Panel has become my favorite biohacking thing for healing my body. It's a portable red light panel that I simply cannot live without. I literally bring it with me everywhere I go. And I personally use their red light therapy to help reduce inflammations in places in my body where honestly, I have pain. You can use it on a sore back, stomach cramps, shoulder, ankle. Red light therapy is my go-to. Plus, it also has amazing anti-aging benefits, including reducing signs of fine lines and wrinkles

• 1:11Jen Cohen?

  on your face, which I also use it for. I personally use Therasage Trillight everywhere and all the time. It's small, it's affordable, it's portable, and it's really effective. Head over to therasage.com right now and use code BEBOULLED for 15% off. This code will work site-wide. Again, head over to therasage, T-H-E-R-A-S-A-G-E.com and use code BEBOULLED for 15% off any of their products.

• 1:56Jen Cohen?

  How many people actually work for you and your organization?

• 1:58Speaker 02

  Um, just in dealing with the Shark Tank and other deals, probably 12. That's all.

• 2:06Jen Cohen?

  Oh, that's it?

• 2:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:07Jen Cohen?

  You have one, this is like a side note, Alyssa's Cookies or oatmeal?

• 2:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, Alyssa's Healthy Cookies.

• 2:11Jen Cohen?

  Oh, my God. I'm obsessed with those things.

• 2:13Speaker 02

  So am I. I am every morning for breakfast. No exceptions.

• 2:15Jen Cohen?

  They are delicious. You can't get them on the West Coast.

• 2:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can. You can get them at Ralph's, I think.

• 2:21Jen Cohen?

  No.

• 2:22Speaker 02

  No?

• 2:22Jen Cohen?

  Trust me. I've checked because I found them in Florida at the Super Bowl two years ago. And I became obsessed with them and you can only get them at like public Safeway. I, and I, on the website, it was a whole schmageray. So I never ended up ordering them, but I called them a bunch. I was wondering when they're going to be here because they are so delicious.

• 2:41Speaker 02

  Cause no, cause I know, cause one of my deal parts with Shark Tank is they gotta have Alyssa's there during the day for me to munch on. So they're here, so I'll find out for you. But you gotta hear the story about, yeah, this guy. Doug sent me an email saying basically he was living out of his car and broke. And he sent me samples of these cookies. And the first thing I always do when anybody sends me any food is I look at the nutritional information.

• 3:04Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 3:04Speaker 02

  You know, cause if it's all fat, sugar, or whatever, I'm not gonna be interested.

• 3:08Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 3:08Speaker 02

  So it's this huge cookie and I turn it over. It's 190 calories for enormous cookie. That's not bad. Then I look, it's like no added sugar. I'm like, that's good. All this fiber, you know, huge amount of fiber, like a whole day's worth of fiber. And then protein.

• 3:23Jen Cohen?

  Yep.

• 3:24Speaker 02

  I'm like, okay, let's see how this thing tastes. So I break off a little piece. I'm like, this is good. I'm like, what's wrong with it? What's, you know? So then I go to pull the cookie out of the wrapper and it falls apart. And I'm like, ah, that's the problem because when people go to buy a cookie, they wanna eat a cookie.

• 3:39Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 3:39Speaker 02

  So I made them change it to Healthy Bites because the way their whole manufacturing process works, it's really easy to combine it with a little bit of moisture and put it together. So it's taste moist, right? And they're just these little bites and they stay together. Put eight into a package and with eight of them, it's only 360 calories, right? So I eat, yeah, so 45, so I eat like all eight of them for breakfast.

• 4:04Jen Cohen?

  Oh, that's what I do too. You had to eat four or two.

• 4:06Speaker 02

  No, no. And it's only 360 calories for breakfast and I'm getting my fiber. I'm getting, you know, it's like eating healthy cereal, only it tastes better.

• 4:13Jen Cohen?

  It's delicious and you don't, and you feel like you're actually giving, like you don't feel like you're depriving yourself with it. Yeah, that's what I felt like I feel like, but I for this is like two years ago or three years with COVID. I can't remember everything like blends, but I haven't looked for the last probably a year. But I did, I was like obsessive over them.

• 4:32Speaker 02

  We gotta, we gotta find you where they are up here because I know they are and and I ordered them either from Amazon or from.

• 4:38Jen Cohen?

  I guess.

• 4:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, and from um, right from the website, Alyssa's Healthy Cookies.

• 4:42Jen Cohen?

  I should just do that too. Are they doing well?

• 4:44Speaker 02

  Oh, Russian. So this guy, this guy went from living out of his car and help us helping him get started. I mean, I went to um, Central Market in Dallas and did one tasting thing.

• 4:57Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 4:57Speaker 02

  And then it just blew up from there.

• 4:59Jen Cohen?

  Really?

• 4:59Speaker 02

  And that was more than 10 years ago. Now they'll do just under $20 million in revenue. But that's not even the good part. We spend no money on advertising, not a nickel.

• 5:10Jen Cohen?

  Right. No, yeah, nobody knew what they were when I was telling them.

• 5:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, and but people go in there and buy them and they but people who buy them keep on buying them over and over and over again. And we'll make $10 million in profits.

• 5:21Jen Cohen?

  That is amazing.

• 5:22Speaker 02

  So this guy went from living out of his car to like being Mr. Badass down in Florida, making millions of dollars a year.

• 5:29Jen Cohen?

  That's incredible. You know, it's funny that you say that because for the super, it was for like Maxim, Super Bowl party. And the whole stuff, like everybody who was doing it, everyone became obsessed with these things and we would buy, we would, we would like clean the shelf of every single.

• 5:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, I go in there and I buy like six at a time, eight at a time, wherever I'm traveling.

• 5:49Jen Cohen?

  Easily.

• 5:50Speaker 02

  For sure. I mean, Alyssa's Healthy Cookies and now we have a vegan version and we've got a chocolate version. Yeah, they're all really, really, really good. And like, if you got a little bit of time, you throw them in the microwave and they get really like smushy. Yeah, so um, they're great. They're great. And they've got a little travel pack. So you can, I take them in the row with me in my little computer bag and backpack. Yeah, so I can travel with them and I always have something healthy.

• 6:13Jen Cohen?

  Okay, we gotta find out about this West Coast thing because that doesn't, yeah, because that doesn't make sense. You must, what's with you and oats though with mush?

• 6:19Speaker 02

  Mush, yeah, yeah.

• 6:21Jen Cohen?

  I'm Canadian mush.

• 6:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:22Jen Cohen?

  And you just love oats, is that?

• 6:24Speaker 02

  No, it's not that at all. I like things that are tasty and healthy.

• 6:26Jen Cohen?

  Yeah, it's true.

• 6:27Speaker 02

  You know, and you know, Ashley, the female entrepreneur behind it is just insane. I mean, she's just.

• 6:32Jen Cohen?

  Amazing.

• 6:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, she's a force of nature. So when you get companies like that and um, the entrepreneurs are amazing and the product's amazing and it's healthy. Yeah, why not?

• 6:41Jen Cohen?

  Totally. What's the one thing you look for when you do an investment with a startup? Is it the people or is it the product?

• 6:47Speaker 02

  Product first, because you can have great people, but if it's not going to sell, it's not going to work. But, you know, I look to see, is this something where I say to myself, why didn't I think of that?

• 6:57Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 6:58Speaker 02

  That's the first thing. And then even if it's not quite that, I'm like, okay, you know, if I'm looking to buy it or typical consumer or company is looking to buy, is this something that's going to be compelling, differentiated, easy to buy? And if it passed those tests, then I look at the entrepreneur and say, okay, can these people do it?

• 7:14Jen Cohen?

  Yeah. Well, you know, I find it interesting. I always stare at you when I watch the show because I feel like you're very decisive.

• 7:21Speaker 02

  That's not the answer I wanted after you said that.

• 7:24Jen Cohen?

  Well, maybe I stare at you for other reasons too, but this is like an ad, you know, a family show. But what would, why is it that like, I feel like it's my, maybe it's just my opinion, but like you're like so decisive that you like could, either you like someone, I feel, or you don't like them. Like you know, pretty quickly.

• 7:42Speaker 02

  Well, remember, there's a lot of editing that goes on.

• 7:44Jen Cohen?

  I know. That's what I'm saying. Is it just because of the editing?

• 7:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's because of the editing.

• 7:47Jen Cohen?

  Because how long is each pitch really in real life?

• 7:49Speaker 02

  Stupid ones, 20 to 30 minutes.

• 7:51Jen Cohen?

  Oh, wow.

• 7:52Speaker 02

  Intense ones, 90 minutes to two hours. Medium ones, an hour.

• 7:56Jen Cohen?

  Oh, so they're, so that's why, because there's such, there's so much longer.

• 8:00Speaker 02

  It's our money and we know nothing about them when they walk into the room.

• 8:03Jen Cohen?

  They're not vetted at all.

• 8:05Speaker 02

  They're vetted by producers, but not by us. So we know nothing about them. Here comes Jen. They'll say, this is Jen and that's it.

• 8:12Jen Cohen?

  So you really, so it really is a surprise when people walk in?

• 8:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, no idea whatsoever.

• 8:16Jen Cohen?

  So then what happens? Like then you guys do due diligence, right?

• 8:19Speaker 02

  After we say yes to a deal, we can do due diligence.

• 8:21Jen Cohen?

  So what's the, what's the ratio or how much percentage of things that go through?

• 8:25Speaker 02

  So early on for me, it was about 75%, but now we get more and more people who just come on for the commercial.

• 8:32Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 8:32Speaker 02

  And so they'll say, oh, great. We got a deal. And then they'll ghost it.

• 8:35Jen Cohen?

  They they do.

• 8:37Speaker 02

  They do, yeah.

• 8:38Jen Cohen?

  Cause I've had a few people come on here or I've met in like real life, whatever. And like they said that they went on and it was not you actually. Other people, other sharks.

• 8:46Speaker 02

  Wouldn't close the deal.

• 8:47Jen Cohen?

  Wouldn't close the deal. And it just like.

• 8:48Speaker 02

  Or try to change it, yeah.

• 8:49Jen Cohen?

  It dragged on and dragged on.

• 8:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's not me. Yeah, some of the other ones will do that where they'll like try to change the deal terms and this and that. And that's up to them, right? However, they want to do it. But if I agree to it, I'll agree to it. But if you drag me out, then you're playing with fire.

• 9:03Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 9:04Speaker 02

  Because either you want to do a deal and you agree to what you agree to or not.

• 9:07Jen Cohen?

  Yeah. And who's your favorite shark besides, you know?

• 9:09Speaker 02

  I like Barbara, the work with the best.

• 9:11Jen Cohen?

  Yeah, I like her too.

• 9:12Speaker 02

  Cause we complement each other because she's really, she looks at people first and I look at deal first or product service first. And so we complement each other really well.

• 9:21Jen Cohen?

  Right. So you do you do most of the deals you do you do with her though?

• 9:24Speaker 02

  If I can, yeah, if I can, yeah.

• 9:25Jen Cohen?

  How about those other two? We'll move off of this, but like I'm so fascinated by this show. Like, how about the Mr. Wonderful?

• 9:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's okay. But Kevin doesn't do a lot of deals.

• 9:33Jen Cohen?

  Nothing. And he also wastes people's time. That's.

• 9:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's your shtick, right? And so, um, but he's a great guy. So, uh, yeah, he's a really good guy. He's not like he is on TV.

• 9:41Jen Cohen?

  Oh, he's not?

• 9:42Speaker 02

  No, he's a really good guy.

• 9:43Jen Cohen?

  The other one seems very nice, Rob.

• 9:45Speaker 02

  Robert's too nice, you know?

• 9:46Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 9:46Speaker 02

  Um, but he's a good guy too. Lori does a good job. You know, Lori is all about her wheelhouse, things that she can just plug in and sell, QVC or whatever she's going to be great at.

• 9:55Jen Cohen?

  Right. So then I want to ask you back, cause you, when you were a kid, obviously you were selling the baseball cards and the garbage bags and like stamps, everything for those basketball shoes that your dad didn't want to get you.

• 10:07Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 10:07Jen Cohen?

  Like you were like a bo- you were like a born hustler. Like you just were.

• 10:11Speaker 02

  Without question.

• 10:12Jen Cohen?

  Without question. So were you like the guy, like if I went to school with you, would I be like, oh, that guy's for sure going to be a billionaire? That guy's for sure going to be successful?

• 10:19Speaker 02

  No, no, you probably didn't even know who I was. You'd be cute and I'd be a little fat guy.

• 10:23Jen Cohen?

  I don't know. I don't know if I'd be the cute one back then either, but.

• 10:26Speaker 02

  Um, yeah, like when I was sixteen, no, when I was. Fifteen, fourteen, uh, fourteen, um, freshman in high school. I was playing baseball and I ran into a bicycle and my parents, like my dad did upholstery in cars.

• 10:40Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  Didn't have a whole lot. And like, rather than getting me caps, cause I broke two teeth running into a bicycle. And rather than getting me caps that matched all my other teeth, they got me stainless steel caps so that, cause they would last longer. They were cheaper.

• 10:51Jen Cohen?

  No way.

• 10:52Speaker 02

  And so every time I smiled, even like in my high school graduation picture, like you, you, there would be these two teeth at the bottom that were steel colored.

• 11:00Jen Cohen?

  Really?

• 11:01Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, and like, if I showed you my sixteen year old picture, I was like five, eight, five, nine. Um, weigh thirty pounds more than I do now.

• 11:12Jen Cohen?

  Really? Can I see a picture? Do you have one?

• 11:16Speaker 02

  Let me see.

• 11:17Jen Cohen?

  That is, I would never have guessed it. Cause you seem super.

• 11:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, things change.

• 11:22Jen Cohen?

  Yeah, no kidding. Things definitely, yes, four point seven billion dollars later, things definitely change. But like, you seemed very, all, I mean, I don't know.

• 11:31Speaker 02

  That's picture of me at sixteen.

• 11:33Jen Cohen?

  My god, no, it isn't.

• 11:35Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 11:37Jen Cohen?

  This does not even look like you.

• 11:39Speaker 02

  That's me at sixteen.

• 11:41Jen Cohen?

  Wow. Wow. I don't even know what to say. The teeth are gone. Like you got them fixed.

• 11:47Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no. You just can't see it there.

• 11:49Jen Cohen?

  No, I'm saying that right now.

• 11:50Speaker 02

  Oh, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 11:51Jen Cohen?

  You got them fixed after you kind of like got out of this whole phase. That's insane. So like you showing everybody, it's pretty amazing, actually. I would never, but also.

• 12:01Speaker 02

  That's one handsome motherfucker.

• 12:02Jen Cohen?

  I was gonna say, but I was gonna say, the truth is like, at the time, if you saw some pictures of me when I was fifteen, sixteen, it would, it's mortifying. You know, exactly. Thank you. You don't need to be so, you know, dramatic there. But like, the point is that still, like you are not know, like you, you seem to have like a, a confidence though. A self-confidence. What, where did it come from to even do all these deals and wheeling and dealing?

• 12:27Speaker 02

  I mean, there's two different things, right? Like being confident about around girls when you're sixteen.

• 12:32Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 12:32Speaker 02

  And then being in business. Like in business, you can just do the work.

• 12:35Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 12:36Speaker 02

  You know, I.

• 12:36Jen Cohen?

  That's your thing.

• 12:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:37Jen Cohen?

  Do the work.

• 12:38Speaker 02

  You do the work. So you pick whatever topic and if I need to learn it for business, for whatever reason, I can just spend the time.

• 12:44Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 12:45Speaker 02

  And it's just up to me. You know, it's like the saying, you know, the one thing in life you can control is your effort.

• 12:48Jen Cohen?

  Absolutely.

• 12:49Speaker 02

  And so that's just my style. I mean. You know, I learned early, early, early on that most people didn't.

• 12:56Jen Cohen?

  Yep.

• 12:56Speaker 02

  You know, and whether it's learning how to code, whether it's learning about business, whether reading this book or watching that video, you can figure shit out.

• 13:04Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 13:05Speaker 02

  Most people don't do it. And so that that's what gave me confidence because I knew I do, I do the work.

• 13:10Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 13:10Speaker 02

  Prepared. And that that set me apart, always.

• 13:14Jen Cohen?

  So you're just like, you, you love, I read this a bazillion times. And I know you've said this, like, you just love to learn. You read a ton, like, four hours a day.

• 13:21Speaker 02

  Curiosity is one of the greatest business skills anybody can have.

• 13:24Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 13:24Speaker 02

  And once you're curious and you find something that's interesting to you, particularly if it fits what you're trying to accomplish, then it's just a matter of taking the time to learn it.

• 13:31Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 13:39Jen Cohen?

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• 14:24Jen Cohen?

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• 14:49Jen Cohen?

  Were you always just very interested in like computers and

• 14:52Speaker 02

  Not computers necessarily, yeah.

• 14:54Jen Cohen?

  My software, what do you call it?

• 14:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, all the above, right? Technology and it wasn't until when I got to Dallas, I got a job working for a software store. And I had to learn it all right there and then on my own. And, and that's really what got me into it. I found out that because, you know, I didn't mind reading software manuals, hardware manuals, whatever, that, that gave me an edge and I could sell. So you combine the two together and I was taught myself how to program and, you know, I did really well as a salesperson selling software until I got fired, you know? And then I started my own company and the rest is history.

• 15:29Jen Cohen?

  Well, also like you're very self-reliant, like you don't like mentors. You never had a mentor, right?

• 15:34Speaker 02

  No, never, nope.

• 15:36Jen Cohen?

  What's your reason for like, do you like, cause when people have asked you that before, you're like, no, I don't believe in them.

• 15:41Speaker 02

  It's not that I don't believe in them to each their own, but it's just like, you just, going through the process of figuring things out is a skill.

• 15:48Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 15:48Speaker 02

  Learning how to understand a market or a company or a product or service is a skill.

• 15:56Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 15:57Speaker 02

  And, you know, there really aren't shortcuts. And I get, you know, having a mentor to introduce you to people and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, those same people will introduce you just as a referral. If you have a great product or service and you're good at what you do.

• 16:11Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 16:11Speaker 02

  And that's the way I always looked at it.

• 16:13Jen Cohen?

  And like, so like, what do you do? Because you're in this situation now where everybody wants you to be their mentor or something from you, you know?

• 16:20Speaker 02

  All the time.

• 16:21Jen Cohen?

  All the time, right?

• 16:22Speaker 02

  I just say fuck off.

• 16:22Jen Cohen?

  Do you say that, does it work? Does it work because?

• 16:25Speaker 02

  Especially to 16 year old kids, you know?

• 16:27Jen Cohen?

  Exactly, right?

• 16:28Speaker 02

  No, I mean, it just depends on the circumstances. Like typically what I'll do is just say, okay, you know, send me an email.

• 16:34Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 16:35Speaker 02

  And if it's a question I can answer, I will. And as long as they don't ask me 50 questions, you know, as long as they don't ask me things that are easily answered just by searching online.

• 16:44Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 16:44Speaker 02

  You know, then I'll try to help them. Cause sometimes, I mean, it's crazy, even like probably what I would have done, like 12, 13 year old kids that'll email me with business questions, you know, though. It's very, you can tell it's very self-serving.

• 16:57Jen Cohen?

  Mm-hmm.

• 16:58Speaker 02

  You know, or you'll, I'll get parents emailing me for their kids and so.

• 17:01Jen Cohen?

  They do what they say.

• 17:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's just like, oh, my son or daughter is really interested in A, B, C. Can you answer these questions?

• 17:07Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 17:07Speaker 02

  I'm like, no, I'm not gonna answer them for you. Now, if your son or daughter took the initiative.

• 17:11Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 17:11Speaker 02

  What's insane, not to go too far, like now I'll get emails from parents of adults, you know, twenty-two, twenty-four, twenty-eight years old, you know, asking for job advice for their kids or whatever. I'm like, hell no, you know?

• 17:29Jen Cohen?

  Crazy, the coddle culture we have now.

• 17:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't know if it's culture per se, or just like these parents that are just like.

• 17:35Jen Cohen?

  A lot of them.

• 17:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, helicopter parents to the nine-thousandth degree.

• 17:39Jen Cohen?

  Absolutely.

• 17:40Speaker 02

  And I'm like, no, you know, I just won't respond.

• 17:43Jen Cohen?

  Information, like you're so accessible, though.

• 17:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, my email's public.

• 17:46Jen Cohen?

  Like, so, as I say, like, every, how do you not have, like, aren't you just inundated all day? I know you have ten phones you carry around.

• 17:53Speaker 02

  Well, no, I got two, yeah, well, three I have, yeah. Um, just in case I need better service, or I can be working on one and whatever, talking about them. But in any event, um, like, you know how you can just set up preview mode on your email? So I just read the preview, and if it's interesting, I read it, and if it's not, I hit the delete key. It takes me two seconds.

• 18:11Jen Cohen?

  Wow, you must be doing that all day, though.

• 18:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, you know, it doesn't matter if I'm eating lunch or doing whatever, you know? And it's, you know, me time, where I can just bang through them, and there's always something interesting there. And I've literally gotten emails where I've invested probably over a hundred million dollars from people I don't know. And a lot of, there's one company that I invested, I don't know how many millions now, and they're out here in LA, and they're begging me to come visit, because I've never, never met the guy, Relativity Space, and, um.

• 18:38Jen Cohen?

  That's what it's called?

• 18:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, Relativity Space. They do 3D printing for, um, space rockets, for rockets.

• 18:44Jen Cohen?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 18:44Speaker 02

  And it's enormous, and, you know, I think their last valuation was four billion dollars, which made my stuff worth like a whole lot of money.

• 18:51Jen Cohen?

  No kidding.

• 18:52Speaker 02

  Because there was just these guys from Dallas who were telling me about, you know, they want to use 3D printing to build rockets. I'm like, that's really cool. I asked them questions, did some homework. They answered all the questions great and everything. And so I gave them like seventy-five, seven hundred and fifty grand for twenty. Or 25% of the company. Now I've been diluted significantly since then because they've raised a bunch. But and you know, even as I've put in more, um, but yeah, it's worth, you know, enough to cover all my bad investments.

• 19:17Jen Cohen?

  That is amazing. And you never met them.

• 19:19Speaker 02

  Yeah. With the cost plus drugs, Dr. Ash Myansky, that was a cold email.

• 19:23Jen Cohen?

  I was gonna say, tell the story. That is crazy. The guy just called, like, just emailed.

• 19:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, just emailed me. Um, guy named Dr. Ash Myansky, who is a radiologist, um, practicing radiologist. Also has a PhD in math and statistics. Also did one year of law school just for the fun of it. I mean, just insanely smart. Everything comes easy to him intellectually. And he sends me an email.

• 19:46Jen Cohen?

  What was the subject line?

• 19:47Speaker 02

  I don't even remember. Um, but it was basically saying that, um, he wanted to create a compounding pharmacy to, um, to make generic drugs that are often out of supply, right? And because they're out of supply, the people who make them can charge anything they want. Because if you happen to have that disease that needs it, you're going to do all you can to get it. And I'm like, oh, that's pretty cool, but that's too short sighted. We got to do it for all generics.

• 20:16Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 20:16Speaker 02

  And so, um, this was going on four years ago. We started what turned out to be a company called costplusdrugs.com. And I kind of massaged the whole business plan and invested. And basically, we have built this company. If you go to costplusdrugs.com, we tell you exactly what our cost is for any drug we sell. We just added 113 more today. So now we're closing in on a thousand different SKUs.

• 20:40Jen Cohen?

  Today alone? Because yesterday you added a bunch.

• 20:41Speaker 02

  No, we reduced prices yesterday.

• 20:43Jen Cohen?

  Oh, those are the, okay.

• 20:44Speaker 02

  And added a bunch today. Um, and so, you know, just the fact you're reducing prices on drugs at all is insane, right?

• 20:51Jen Cohen?

  People are, that's a real problem.

• 20:53Speaker 02

  No, it's a huge problem, right? That's why we, we did this. And so now if you go to costplusdrugs.com and you put in a monitub, which is for people with leukemia, as I found out. And you could see that our cost is $45 and we sell it for, or $48 and we sell it for $54, right? You'll see our cost, we add 15%, that's it. It's $3 for the pharmacy handling fee and $5 for shipping.

• 21:18Jen Cohen?

  That's, that's a good, that's a good game changer.

• 21:20Speaker 02

  It has been.

• 21:21Jen Cohen?

  That is a disruptor.

• 21:22Speaker 02

  It's changing a lot of things. You know, it's crazy. Some things that we didn't even expect to see. Somebody, because they see our, our costs, let alone our pricing, now they're able to back into a lot of the, the bidding that goes on for different insurance companies.

• 21:36Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 21:37Speaker 02

  And somebody did, um, some research that said if for just 77 of our, of our drugs, buying a basic quantities, if Medicare bought from us instead of where they buy now, it would say $3.6 billion a year. And that's just 77 drugs and you know.

• 21:54Jen Cohen?

  That's crazy.

• 21:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, now we've got more than 900. So you can see where it's going, but you know, in this country in 2022, we should never be in a position where you have to choose between your rent, your food and your medication.

• 22:08Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 22:08Speaker 02

  And we've been able to change that. And you know, we were, thought we were going to primarily deal with people without insurance. But as it turns out, not only were people without insurance really benefiting and saving a ton of money, but people with insurance were more often than not cheaper than people's copays.

• 22:23Jen Cohen?

  Yeah, that's what I was gonna say to you, because of copays alone are so high.

• 22:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I mean, you might have a $25 copay.

• 22:28Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 22:29Speaker 02

  You know, and if any of our, you're buying a drug that costs less than 25 bucks, you're saving money.

• 22:33Jen Cohen?

  That is, well, actually, the other thing is like, you have to hit, hit a minimum. So for me, I don't even bother. I have to just pay out of pocket until I hit a place where it's so expensive that like this, even like, it doesn't even matter where you are socio-economically. It's so helpful.

• 22:46Speaker 02

  Yep. So you check us out, costplustrugs.com. Just go in there, look for the medication or your parents or your aunts, your uncles, your grandparents, whatever. And if we have it, we will save you money guaranteed.

• 22:57Jen Cohen?

  That's amazing. So like even like something like a GoodRx, right? That was, that you know, that crushed and all these other ones are coming in.

• 23:03Speaker 02

  Good, GoodRx is great, but any of the coupon companies, what they do is they work within the system.

• 23:08Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 23:09Speaker 02

  And so you'll see like the Walmarts two, you know, two miles away is a different price than the Walmarts one mile away.

• 23:16Jen Cohen?

  Right. And CVS, you know, can save you the $4.

• 23:19Speaker 02

  And if you go, yeah, and if they, if you go back two weeks later, it's a completely different price. And so with ours, it's just the same price.

• 23:25Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 23:25Speaker 02

  No matter what. Now you can't just go pick it up because we, we mail it to you, right? But it'll show up in three to seven days and you can order as, you know, whatever quantity you want. And the more, the bigger the quantity, as long as your doctor prescribes it, the lower the price you'll pay. So guys out there that want, you know, um, generic Cialis, I mean, it's like 18 cents a tablet where it was, you know, who knows how much otherwise.

• 23:46Jen Cohen?

  So how do you, it's every, like, how are you guys, like, what's your projection? Like, by next year, are you gonna have how many drugs? And like, what's available?

• 23:53Speaker 02

  We hope to have over, you know, close to 2,000 by year end. And, you know, and there's other things like meth, methoxane, I forget which drug it is, that, you know, is really an issue right now because of Roe versus Wade being overturned.

• 24:08Jen Cohen?

  Yes.

• 24:08Speaker 02

  You know, birth control. So our pricing, you know, both are generic. And so our pricing is so much lower. So people can buy, you know, birth control far less expensively than they could before.

• 24:19Jen Cohen?

  Right.

• 24:19Speaker 02

  This drug that has a lot of different uses, but because one of them is for, could potentially cause a medical abortion, there's a lot of pharmacists who won't sell it now, particularly in southern states.

• 24:31Jen Cohen?

  Oh, right.

• 24:32Speaker 02

  So we'll sell all that stuff, you know, as long as it's prescribable and we can carry it, we'll sell it.

• 24:36Jen Cohen?

  That is, and I went last night and I looked around, like, it's so, it's also very simple.

• 24:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:41Jen Cohen?

  Like user-friendly to do.

• 24:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, just put it in. Yeah, so, you know, if you're buying birth control, you just put in whatever brand you use and we'll show you the generic version. And you can, you know, buy it, you know, what did I just say? I was talking to somebody.

• 24:54Speaker 02

  The recount 48, you know, for $25 or whatever is like just insanely low versus.

• 24:59Jen Cohen?

  And also I saw there was a button there where it's like, well, if you don't have a drug, I can say, okay, I'm looking for.

• 25:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, just sign up and tell us what you're looking for.

• 25:07Jen Cohen?

  Yeah. And then what's the, can you guys, like, if you get enough requests, are you guys able?

• 25:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, we tried to, we're trying to add everything, but it's just good to know if we, you know, if we get a ton of people asking for one specific drug, then we'll prioritize that first.

• 25:19Jen Cohen?

  Now, is that your major thing right now that you're super excited for? Yeah, that's like, that you're super excited for?

• 25:25Speaker 02

  Type thing.

• 25:26Jen Cohen?

  That is more than game changing. Like, I mean, when I heard, when I initially heard about it, I was like, I was, I didn't even believe it because I thought it was too good to be true.

• 25:33Speaker 02

  That's what a lot of people say.

• 25:34Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 25:34Speaker 02

  What's, what's the catch?

• 25:36Jen Cohen?

  Yeah.

• 25:36Speaker 02

  You know, we don't sell your information, you don't have to pay a monthly fee, none of that stuff.

• 25:41Jen Cohen?

  Yeah, it's amazing.

• 25:42Speaker 02

  You don't need a card. It's just straight up, you know, we take our cost plus 15% and then we just hope we sell enough to, to cover all our costs.

• 25:49Jen Cohen?

  And did I, is it true that you guys now have already surpassed what you thought you were gonna be?

• 25:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, we're, we're way past what we thought would be two years in.

• 25:56Jen Cohen?

  That's amazing.

• 25:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's incredible.

• 25:58Jen Cohen?

  So no wonder you're like all in on that one.