‘Shark Tank’ Season 16 Preview: Mark Cuban Scores ‘The Toy of the Summer’ and Reflects on Legacy in His Final Bow

On Friday (October 18), Shark Tank returns for its 16th season on ABC, and as Mark Cuban finishes out his celebrated tenure as Shark, he’s going out with a bang — that is, a product that he’s particularly excited about.

“This season, I had one deal, and I wish I could give you all the details, but I think it literally has a chance to be the toy of the summer,” Cuban told TV Insider. “It uses [kids’] minds, dexterity, creativity — it takes something that you can’t wait to get rid of and utilizes it in a play situation. So it’s going to be great.”

For Cuban, the product at hand in any given pitch is the very first priority. “I want to see a product that makes me say, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ Because then my mind starts churning on ways I can sell it or make it profitable,” he explained. “Then from there, I look for somebody who is curious and agile and can sell because again, you’re gonna be learning new things and things aren’t gonna go the way you want… And there’s no company that’s ever survived in the history of companies without sales.”

Indeed, Cuban can point to a number of successful sales stories that came through his time on the show, but one, in particular, holds a special place in his heart (and wallet): “The one that really changed it all for me in terms of understanding the power of social media was way back over a decade ago in Wicked Good Cupcakes. Tracey and Dani, a mother-daughter team, they were the first to post their arguments on Twitter, which is the only thing that really gave 30 seconds of video before Facebook, and it went viral,” he remembered. “They were the Kardashians of cupcakes, and they got hundreds of thousands of orders that we couldn’t even fill the night we aired. There wasn’t enough commercial kitchen capacity in Massachusetts… That was the beginning of my understanding of the power of Shark Tank.”

He also lists Dude Wipes, Twist It Up Combs, and BeatBox Beverages as some of his favorite deals to flourish, and not just because the former of those is marketed with never-ending “poop jokes.” They also make hundreds of millions of dollars a year in sales.

“I’m proud of the fact that we’ve inspired multiple generations of entrepreneurs. We all have the experience of walking down the street or running into somebody and hearing the story about how ‘I watch Shark Tank, and that inspired me to start a business’… It’s the one show on television that we all watch together or even stream together,” Cuban said of his legacy ahead of his final season on the show. “Now that makes me proud. And the show will do well without me, it’ll continue for years. But I just love the fact that we inspired entrepreneurs to go out and follow their dreams and there’s who knows how many thousands of companies or more out there that really got their start because someone was watching Shark Tank and saying, ‘If that person on the carpet can do it, so can I. I’m gonna go for it.'”

Stay tuned for more of TV Insider’s exclusive interview with the hosts of Shark Tank on Friday.

Shark Tank, Season 16 Premiere, Friday, October 18, 8/7c, ABC