Daymond John

Daymond Garfield John was born in Brooklyn in 1969 and raised in Hollis, Queens. Dyslexic and working from an early age — handing out flyers, waiting tables, a high-school co-op program — he learned hustle before he learned business.

In 1992, with roughly $40 of fabric, he started sewing wool ski hats and selling them on the street. That side project became FUBU ("For Us, By Us"). John turned his mother's house into a factory, talked the brand onto rappers in New York music-video shoots, and built it into a global powerhouse — around $350 million in sales at its 1998 peak and more than $6 billion grossed worldwide since.

In 2009, he joined the original cast of ABC's Shark Tank, where he's invested $8.5M+ across startups over 16+ seasons. His most lucrative deal — Bombas, taken for $200K and 17.5% — has since surpassed $2 billion in lifetime sales.

He's a 3× New York Times bestselling author (The Power of Broke, Rise and Grind, Powershift) who built that writing career despite dyslexia, and the author of Display of Power, The Brand Within, and the children's book Little Daymond Learns to Earn. In 2015, President Obama named him a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship. Today he runs The Shark Group, founded the Blueprint + Co workspace, and reaches millions through programs like Daymond on Demand and CEO Access.

A thyroid cancer survivor (2017), John increasingly speaks on health and longevity as the foundation of sustainable success — the throughline of a career built on the belief that the right mindset, not the right circumstances, makes the difference.