Daymond’s Mom Impacted FUBU’s Success And Was His First Investor

Source: Jim Spellman / Getty

Daymond John recently shared that his mother’s early investment was crucial to the ultimate success of his widely popular clothing brand FUBU.

The investor on ABC’s Shark Tank explained during a guest appearance on the Club Shay Shay podcast that his mother, Margot John, became his first investor after seeing his years of unwavering determination.

“I go to my mother and tell her I got turned down from 27 banks,” John told the podcast’s host, former NFL player Shannon Sharpe.

“She says, ‘Daymond, you’ve been trying to contribute to this house as long as you were a kid. I wouldn’t do this if you didn’t have the money. Let’s take all of the money we can out of the house. You manufacture and deliver the clothes and put the money back into the house.’ And that’s how she gave me the money,” the Shark recalled.

“My mother went out and got a $100,000 loan on [the house],” he shared, before highlighting how he wasn’t sure how his mom pulled that off since the residence was worth a lot less.

“To this day, I haven’t asked her what she did for the rest of the money, but shout out to moms,” he continued.

There were other times the mogul’s mother came through with saving graces, such as when she took out an advertisement in the newspaper that requested strategic partners.

The ABC star said that three out of the 33 callbacks the advertisement received were legit.

He and the trio later landed a manufacturing and distribution deal with Samsung’s textile division.

“There were some dark times and that’s the best part [of me having] three amazing partners,” John said candidly. “Every time they were down, I’d pick them up and vice versa. My mother was still there saying ‘You got this’ and my community was behind me. I realized that I had to make it work. Everything was on the line and there was nothing else to discuss. It was just I had to make this work.”