Mt. Lebanon native Mark Cuban gives business advice to Penn-Trafford students
Students at Penn-Trafford High School got a little celebrity business advice this week thanks to a video chat visit with Mark Cuban.
The Mt. Lebanon native, Dallas Mavericks owner and “Shark Tank” investor met virtually with students Tuesday in the school’s administration and management class.
“It’s the chatter of the building today for sure,” said business teacher Kim Stefkovich, who organized the meeting.
Stefkovich emailed Cuban in November asking if he’d be willing to chat with her students, not expecting an answer. To her surprise, she got one later that day. Cuban told her his schedule was packed, but offered to take part in January.
Stefkovich had her students come up with questions for Cuban.
“We just started fielding questions, and he answered every single one of them,” he said.
Cuban speaks with entrepreneurship classes every now and then, he said via email Wednesday. Students interested in starting a business should get real-world experience as soon as possible, he said.
“The most important element is to get experience running a business that makes and sells real products, just as they are doing with their company at PT,” he said.
Students in the class are tasked with designing and selling apparel, with profits going to charity.
Cuban spoke with students about how to succeed in business and the importance of doing work they’re passionate about.
“He gave them some really awesome advice about selling products… and just stuff about life,” Stefkovich said.
Cuban said he was surprised to find he wasn’t the only celebrity involved in the meeting. Penn Trafford student Kendall Vertes was on the reality show “Dance Moms” and has millions of followers for social media.
Cuban asked a favor of Vertes and her classmates, according to Stefkovich. He told the class he was trying to get more followers on social media site TikTok. He had about 526,000 followers as of Wednesday. Vertes has 6.5 million.
Cuban asked her to post a video to her account and tag him in it to steer her followers to his account. Vertes, her fellow students and Stefkovich recorded a dance video for Cuban and posted it to Vertes’ TikTok.
@kendallvertes @mcuban thank you for joining our google meet today!! We have a pitch for you on shark tank? @kimberlyann418 #mavs #sharktank
Stefkovich said she’s not much of a dancer, but having Cuban speak to her class was one of the highlights of her career.
“It was one of my proudest teaching moments for sure,” she said.
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