Daymond John

Daymond John is the founder, president, and CEO of FUBU a fashion brand that has been featured at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture. He is also a New York Times best-selling author, the founder of a brand consulting company The Shark Group and is most well known for being a Shark on the four-time Emmy Award-winning ABC show, Shark Tank. Daymond’s humble beginnings and his entrepreneurial journey are deeply fascinating and incredibly inspirational. As a speaker, he talks about his epic journey from rags to riches where he overcame many adversities to turn $40 into $6 billion, he also shares his vast business knowledge.

After his parents divorced, Daymond began working at the age of 10 for $2 an hour and during high school, he was part of a scheme that allowed him to hold a full-time job alongside his studies. Those early experiences awoke his entrepreneurial spirit, and this eventually led to the founding of FUBU at his mother’s home. Initially, to make ends meet, Daymond held a full-time job as a waiter, only able to focus on FUBU in between shifts. His amazingly supportive mother taught him how to sew, which came very handy when he created a popular hat from his home, undercutting rivals to make $800 in a single day. Seeing potential in FUBU, Daymond recruited his friends and took out a mortgage on his mother’s home to generate seed capital.

The next part of the journey is where Daymond’s creative genius is demonstrated and perhaps the reason behind FUBU’s success in the highly competitive fashion industry. Coming up with the phenomenal idea to loan out FUBU branded clothes to rappers to be used in music videos provided Daymond with product placements and created the perception of FUBU being a prominent brand when in reality it was a small start-up from his home. The brand was propelled further when he convinced LL Cool J, a friend from his neighbourhood to wear a t-shirt for a promotional campaign and incorporated a hat in The Gap commercial. They quickly started receiving orders from stores and Daymond received a participation offer In Macy’s Las Vegas fashion trade show Magic. However, strapped for cash to fulfil his orders, he mortgaged his mother’s home for the second time and used the last of his mother’s savings to pay for an advert in the New York Times.

The huge gamble paid off and Daymond was able to make a deal with Samsung Textiles to complete his orders. He shares his amazing journey in Display of Power, a New York Times best-selling book. In recognition of his entrepreneurial work, he has received multiple awards such as Ernst & Young’s New York Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Details 50 Most Influential Men, and the Congressional Achievement Award for Entrepreneurship. In 2015 President Obama appointed him an ambassador to promote underserved entrepreneurs. An exceptional motivational speaker with a highly engaging story to share Daymond is an exciting speaker to book.