Mark Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur known for his success with the Dallas Mavericks and his time on Shark Tank, once faced a moment that nearly destroyed his young company. In a candid conversation, Cuban shared the story of how a trusted employee nearly bankrupted his company, taking out $82,000 of the $84,000 they had in the bank.
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It all happened in the early days of Cuban’s first company, MicroSolutions. At the time, Cuban and his small team were living on a tight budget, making every dollar count.
He remembers the moment he received a call from the bank that gave every entrepreneur chills. The receptionist at MicroSolutions, Renee Hardy, had a fairly simple task: prepare the payments to the supplier, seal them in envelopes and deliver them to the post office.
However, she had other plans. Instead of sending the payments to the right place, she used an age-old trick: Wite-Out. She hid the names of the beneficiaries and wrote down her own names, then took the checks directly to the bank.
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“I got a call from the bank and said, ‘Sir, this woman just came through the drive-thru and the checks had been whited,’” Cuban said, still amazed by the memory. He asked if they had cashed them, and the answer made his heart sink: “Of course, we are a bank, sir.” In one fell swoop, she had eaten $82,000 – almost everything MicroSolutions had at the time.
“We were broke,” Cuban said. Cuban faced a crisis that may have closed the company permanently, with only $2,000 left in the bank and payments to suppliers already declining. He had to call every salesperson, explain the circumstances, and beg them to work with his company.
