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Mark Cuban becomes latest billionaire to bash San Francisco

Mark Cuban | Mike Stobe/Getty Images

It’s clear that billionaire Mark Cuban hates losing. You can see it when a fellow investor edges him out of a deal on the hit ABC show Shark Tank, and you could spot it on his face as the Golden State Warriors easily beat his Dallas Mavericks 4-1 in the Western Conference Finals this year. 

In fact, Cuban recently refused to invest in a Shark Tank contestant because they handed him an air freshener with a Warriors logo on it. 

That stinging defeat could go part of the way towards explaining the apparent antipathy to San Francisco that he detailed in an appearance on comedian Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast this week.

In response to prompting from Maher about issues around regulations in California, Cuban said that although he liked visiting, he could not live in the state as a permanent resident “because of taxes and the regulation.”

His critique then zeroed in on San Francisco, which he said has pushed out the tech sector through its policies.

“The whole technology industry went from ‘This is growth; this is the new thing,’ and now it’s just about people shitting on the street,” Cuban said. 

Cuban went on to specify his issues with the personality types of San Francisco and Silicon Valley, which he characterized as rife with “arrogance.” He said that he tries his best to not let any of his investments work out of the Bay Area.

“I’ve never been a big San Francisco fan at all,” Cuban added, calling the city “pretentious as fuck.”

Maher responded with some of his familiar critiques around political correctness, which he said makes it difficult to do his comedy act successfully.

“Being in the tech industry, everybody’s the smartest motherfucker in the world if you live in Silicon Valley,” Cuban said. “The attitude is ‘We’re tech bros; of course we’re smarter.’ You know, ‘We went to Harvard, we went to MIT, you just can’t hang.’”

“They’re not even that good at it; they’re just there to pretend they are,” he said. 

READ MORE: Steph Curry Says ‘No’ to Living in Luxury Downtown SF Building

Cuban did offer some grudging acknowledgment of the venture and investment capital that draws people to the region, but said a successful business can be launched anywhere in the world.

“I’d rather start a business in Dallas all day, every day. I will not do it in San Francisco,” Cuban said. 

Kevin Truong can be reached at kevin@sfstandard.com