Who is Daymond John?
A: Daymond Garfield John is an American businessman, investor, television
personality, author, and motivational speaker.
He is best known as what?
A: Founder, president, and chief executive officer of FUBU.
He appears as an investor on what ABC reality
television series?
A: Shark Tank.
When was John born?
A: February 23, 1969.
Where was he born?
A: In Brooklyn, New York City.
Where did he grow up?
A: In the Hollis neighborhood of Queens.
He began working at what age when his parents divorced?
A: The age of 10.
One early job entailed what?
A: Handing out flyers for $2 an hour.
In high school, he participated in a program that
allowed him to do what?
A: Work a full-time job and attend school on an alternating weekly basis.
He credits the program with instilling in him what?
A: An entrepreneurial spirit.
After graduating from high school, he started what?
A: A commuter van service and waited tables at Red
Lobster.
When John was 16, his mother had a boyfriend, a Jewish
attorney, who he considered what?
A: A stepfather and mentor.
Where did John start FUBU?
A: In his mother's house in Hollis, Queens.
When John first had the idea for a clothing company for
young men, his mother taught him what?
A: How to sew and supported him by allowing her house to be taken over to
grow the business.
Wool ski hats with their tops tied off with
fishing
line were popular at the time, and John noticed them being sold for $20,
which he considered what?
A: Overpriced.
He went home and sewed about 90 hats with whom?
A: His next-door neighbor.
They sold their homemade hats for $10 each on the
corner of Jamaica Avenue and made in a single day in 1992?
A: $800.
After the hats, they began selling what?
A: Screen-printed T-shirts.
To break into the market, they sold on consignment and
where?
A: At large events around the Northeast.
To make ends meet, where did John hold a full-time job?
A: at Red Lobster, working on the FUBU business in between shifts.
Sensing potential, John and his mother mortgaged their
house for $100,000 for what?
A: To generate start-up capital.
In addition to Brown, he recruited what longtime
friends into the business?
A: J. Alexander Martin and Keith Perrin.
They began sewing the FUBU logo onto what?
A: Hockey jerseys, sweatshirts, and T-shirts.
They loaned about 10 of the hockey jerseys out to
rappers for their music videos for two years and got product placements in
how many videos?
A: About 30 videos.
They were perceived as a large clothing brand, despite
being what?
A: A relatively small company and stores started requesting their brand.
In 1993, he convinced LL Cool J, an old neighborhood
friend, to do what?
A: To wear a FUBU T-shirt for a promotional campaign.
Later, while filming a 30-second advertising spot for
The Gap what did LL Cool J do?
A: He wore a FUBU hat in the commercial and incorporated the line "for us,
by us" in his rapping.
In 2009, John received a call from Mark Burnett asking
him to join the cast of what?
A: ABC's new reality business show Shark Tank.
John has invested how much of his own money in Shark
Tank companies as of May 12, 2017?
A: $8,567,000.