One of My Favorite Interactive Stories

One of my favorite stories to tell about my experiences in the interactive medium is about Mark Cuban, current owner of the Dallas Mavericks and founder of AudioNet (later Broadcast.com). Mere days before the Yahoo acquisition was announced, Mark swung by the offices of K2 Design, where I was working at the time. My media department cronies and myself had asked him to come by and talk to the agency about ad opportunities in streaming media.

Mr. Cuban delivered an insightful and informative speech. After he left, I heard about the Yahoo transaction that made him a billionaire. The first though that occurred to me was "How was he able to contain himself? If I were about to become a billionaire, I'd be at home, making plans for my dream mansion."

So yesterday, I came across Mr. Cuban's blog and there was a contact form on the site. I submitted this letter to the site. Hopefully, he'll remember me and respond.

Dear Mr. Cuban:
I'm not sure if you remember me. The last time I saw you in person, you came to the offices of the little agency with which I was working at the time (K2 Design) and gave an intelligent and uplifting speech to us about Broadcast.com and the opportunities available in streaming media. This happened mere days before the Yahoo transaction was announced.
There's one thing I've always wondered about that day. Obviously, you had to know that you were about to become extremely rich. How did you manage to contain yourself? Personally, if I were you, I wouldn't have been able to get through the speech without bouncing off the walls. ;-)
Anyway, given the circumstances of the days following the presentation you gave, I never got the chance to thank you.
Thanks very much for an insightful presentation.
Best regards,
Tom Hespos

If he responds, I'll post the response here.