| NET WORTH: | $295 Million |
|---|---|
| Source of Wealth: | Businessman, Television personality, Investor, Author, Speaker |
| Born: | February 23, 1969 |
| Age: | 51 |
| Spouse: | Heather Taras |
| Children: | 3 |
| Birth Name: | Daymond John |
| Height: | 5ft. 7in. (1.69m) |
Daymond John is known as the founder, CEO, and president of the hip hop apparel company FUBU. He is an American businessman, television personality, investor, author, and a motivational speaker.
Early Life
John was born on February 23, 1969 in Brooklyn, New York City. His parents got divorced when he was at a young age. He started working when he was at the age of 10, where he hand out flyers for $2 per hour. John attended high school where he participated in a program so he could work a full-time job, and at the same time attend school on an alternating weekly basis. After he graduated high school, he had a commuter van service and also waited tables at the dining restaurant Red Lobster.
Career
Clothing company
John developed the idea for a clothing company intended for young men. He started his company FUBU in his mother's house in Queens, where his mother supported him to take over his house to grow his business and taught him how to sew. John noticed that wool ski hats were popular at that time and was sold for $20, which he thought was overpriced. When he went on that day, he started sewing and made around 90 hats wit the help of his next-door neighbor. They made $800 in a single day in 1992 for selling their homemade hats for $10 in Jamaica Avenue. John started selling screen-printed T-shirts after their homemade hats.
To generate a start-up capital, John and his mother mortgaged their house for $100,000, and recruited his longtime friends J. Alexander Martin and Keith Perrin into the business. They began sewing the "FUBU" logo onto T-shirts, hockey jerseys, and sweatshirts. Their company was viewed as a large clothing brand despite of being a small company. Several stores started requesting for their brand and between the year 1992-1994, he received a $300,000 worth in orders. John and his mother had to take out a second mortgage of his mother's house for the sake of fulfilling the orders. Despite of getting turned down by several banks for a loan, his mother used their last money to make an advertisement in the NY Times, and as a result FUBU got a deal with Samsung Textile and letting them to complete their orders. For the past several years in the business industry, FUBU made an earnings of more than $6 billion in global sales.
Shark Tank
John was asked by Mark Burnett to join the cast of ABC's new reality business show "Shark Tank" in 2009. The show gives opportunities to entrepreneurs to pitch in their businesses to investors or to what they called "Sharks" with the aim of receiving an investment.
John has invested over $8 million of his own money in Shark Tank companies on the year 2017. He invested in the Bubba's-Q Boneless Ribs on the 5th season of Shark Tank. It helped the company grow its sales from $154,000 to $16 million in three years.
On the 6th season of Shark Tank, John invested in Sun-Staches, and have grow more than $4 million in sales.
The Shark Group
John is the founder and CEO of the brand management and consulting firm, The Shark Group.
Motivational Speaker
John became a public speaker and has worked with several brands and other celebrities for revenue streams and brand extensions.
He has been a motivational and business speaker for California First Lady Maria Shriver's 2010 Women Conference, Babson College School of Entrepreneurship, AT&T's History Makers Tour, Rutgers University and the Creative LIAisons program at the annual London International Awards.
Personal Life
John married his second wife, Heather Taras in 2018. He has 3 daughters: 1 from his second wife and 2 from his first wife.
In 2017, he was diagnosed with stage II thyroid cancer, and successfully underwent to a surgery to remove cancerous nodule.
Net Worth
Daymond John started from selling handmade hats for $10 each to having several collaborations, and numerous stores ordering and requesting for their brands. He became a well-known investor, CEO, author, and a motivational speaker throughout his hard work. As of today, 2020, John has an estimated net worth of $295 million.
