Daymond John

Daymond Garfield John turned $40 worth of fabric into a billion-dollar brand. FUBU — For Us, By Us — began in 1992 in John's mother's house in Hollis, Queens, where he sewed hats and T-shirts and sold them on street corners. Within a decade, FUBU had generated over $6 billion in global retail sales and become one of the most iconic fashion brands of the hip-hop era.

Born in Brooklyn in 1969 and raised in Queens, John was an entrepreneurial kid who hustled from an early age — selling pencils, handing out flyers, waiting tables at Red Lobster while building FUBU. His mother mortgaged her house to fund his dream, a sacrifice he has never forgotten. The brand's genius was authenticity — it was created by the culture, for the culture, at a time when major fashion brands were trying to co-opt hip-hop style without crediting its origins.

After FUBU, John reinvented himself as a branding expert and investor on ABC's Shark Tank, where he has been a cast member since 2009. He has invested in over 60 companies on the show and authored four books on entrepreneurship. His story — from sewing hats in Queens to advising Fortune 500 companies — is one of the most compelling bootstrap narratives in American business. He has received multiple awards for his mentorship of minority entrepreneurs.