March 12, 2025

Mark Cuban Tells ESSENCE That Founders Should ‘Stop Looking For Funding’

It’s difficult for Black female founders to get their foot in the door, especially when it comes to raising capital for their business. However, billionaire businessman Mark Cuban told ESSENCE that Black women shouldn’t necessarily be looking for funding. Instead, he believes they should take a different approach, one that he has personally followed in his own journey.

Why should founders stop looking for funding?

The Shark Tank investor spoke with ESSENCE at SXSW in Austin, Texas, ahead of his panel discussion on entrepreneurship with Tabitha Brown and entrepreneur Justin Fenchel. Cuban suggested that instead of searching for funding, Black female founders should find a way to use their sweat equity to build capital on their own, even if this means starting smaller and slower.

“Because there is a learning process, and it’s twofold. One is learning about your business and making it loanworthy. Then two is learning the language of those making the loans,” he said.

Cuban frequently warns founders against assuming they need outside investment. He believes relying on external funding can leave entrepreneurs beholden to investors with different visions for the business. Instead, he advocates a DIY approach, the same one he has followed in his own journey.

Lack of funding for Black women

Cuban did acknowledge the funding gap between Black women and their white peers. Black women business owners who seek funding experience three times more rejections than white business owners, as stated by Stearnsbank. Additionally, only 2% of venture capital funding in the US goes to female-only founding teams. 

Even though, 55.2% of Black-female owned business make between $100,000 and $999,999 in annual sales, which is slightly higher than 54.7% of all Black-owned companies with similar figures.

It’s for this reason that Cuban says founders should lean into their knowledge of the financial side of their business so when they’re ready for a loan they won’t be exploited.

“You have to take whatever time to get it right, because if you go into that bank, if you go somewhere to try to get a loan and you don’t get it, you still got to be in a position to work and go forward,” he explained. “What’s even worse, and this is something I think is the most important point—there’s a lot of predatory lending out there, and it’s awful. [The lenders] see people who may not have the financial literacy or understanding, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ll make you a loan.”


Image: David Ryan Jones

Amendment: This article was edited on March 18 to clarify that Mark Cuban shares this advice with all founders and has followed it in his own entrepreneurial journey.

Habiba Katsha

Habiba Katsha is a journalist and writer who specializes in writing about race, gender, and the internet. She is currently a tech reporter at POCIT.