Daymond John

The Biography

Daymond John is a globally recognized entrepreneur, branding authority, investor, and television personality best known as the founder and CEO of FUBU and a longtime Shark on ABC's hit series *Shark Tank*. From the streets of Hollis, Queens, he built FUBU from the basement of his mother's house into a global lifestyle brand that has generated more than six billion dollars in retail sales, helping pioneer the streetwear market that has since grown into a $20 billion industry. Daymond's story is the original American hustle. With no capital, no connections, and no blueprint, he and a small team sewed hats between shifts at Red Lobster, sold them out of the back of a van, and turned a neighborhood idea into a movement. FUBU — For Us, By Us — was never just a clothing line; it was a declaration that a community could build for itself, name itself, and own its image. That instinct for branding born of necessity became the foundation of everything Daymond has done since. Today, Daymond is the CEO of The Shark Group, a brand management and consulting firm, and one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world. He has been named a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship and is a six-time New York Times bestselling author, including *The Power of Broke*, *Rise and Grind*, and *Powershift*. His books translate the hard-won lessons of his own journey into frameworks anyone can use — how to leverage scarcity, how to negotiate from a position of perceived weakness, and how to turn the things you don't have into the very things that set you apart. On stage, Daymond is magnetic, plainspoken, and relentlessly practical. He speaks with the authority of someone who has signed the front of the paycheck and the back of it, who has bet on hundreds of founders on national television, and who has watched more businesses fail than most people will ever start. His keynotes blend the emotional arc of his own story — a single mother, a learning disability, a neighborhood that didn't believe — with a sharp operator's playbook for branding, negotiation, and the discipline of outworking the room. What audiences remember most is not the billions in sales but the clarity of the lesson beneath them: that the power of broke is not about being broke, it is about being resourceful. Daymond teaches that the constraints people fear are usually the fuel they need, and that the most valuable brand any entrepreneur will ever build is the one they build in themselves.