STANLEY DEBAS
INDUSTRY
65
WHEN DAYMOND JOHN
was 8, his mother took him
with her to flea markets,
where he helped sell the skirts
and blouses she designed and sewed
to pay the bills. By age 10, hewas running a
snow-shoveling businesswith 20 employees in
his Queens, N.Y., neighborhood. While other kids
were running a er ice cream trucks, John was
busy amassing a fortune (albeit a very small one).
John’s self-confidence eventually gave rise to
an enterprise that would make him genuinely
rich: the hugely popular, hip-hop-inspired FUBU
clothing line, which he startedwith three friends
in 1992. A er all, from the get-go, confidence was
pre ymuch the only thing John had. He and his
co-founders made FUBU’s early products them-
selves, primarily hats, and sold themon the street
outside the New York Coliseum.
Now 44, John is a billionaire, author, motiva-
tional speaker andone of the “investors” onABC’s
“
Shark Tank,” a reality show inwhich successful
business execs advise would-be entrepreneurs
hunting for capital. For John, though, seedmoney
is far from being the most important element in
a startup. “They can get cash anywhere,” he says.
“
It’s the
advice
they need.” And he
MOTHER
KNOWS
BEST
FUBU CO-FOUNDER DAYMOND
JOHN HAS BECOME A GO-TO
GUY FOR BUSINESS ADVICE.
BUT THE NUGGETS OF
WISDOMHE DOLES OUT TO
BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS,
HE SAYS, ARE MOSTLY
HIS MOM’S.
BY REYNA GOBEL
