It all came down to a cold email sent on a Friday night to Mark Cuban.

Steven Farag of Campus Ink in Illinois had heard that the billionaire “Shark Tank” investor actually reads and opens his emails. The bet paid off. Cuban responded to Farag’s initial inquiry, and over the weekend the pair exchanged multiple messages. By Sunday, Farag had an offer for Cuban to become a minority investor in Campus Ink and share his mentorship to help the company expand in the burgeoning college sports name, image and likeness (NIL) space.

In this episode of Promo Insiders, Farag speaks with Theresa Hegel, ASI Media executive editor of digital content, about what the investment means for his company, why NIL was a natural space for Campus Ink to enter, and why apparel decorators and promo distributors should embrace – rather than shun – new technology.

Campus Ink’s model has been to work with college students directly – right now, there are about 150 students across the U.S. selling apparel for them. The printer gives students a subscription to Adobe Illustrator and teaches them design and sales, enabling them to sell to their fellow students. When the company started working with college athletes, “the formula was almost the same,” Farag says. “It makes sense to us, and it fit our vision and values of putting our students first.”

Of course, the NIL space is still new territory, and there’s been a high learning curve to wade through all the legislations surrounding it. So Farag and his cohorts have been doing their best to understand what they’re allowed to do and what they aren’t.

“The last thing I wanted to do was take an athlete I was a fan of and make them ineligible to play basketball,” Farag says.

Cuban’s investment will help Campus Ink replicate the online merch model it created for University of Illinois athletes on other college campuses.

Farag also talked about the importance of embracing new technology so distributors and decorators aren’t left in the dust. “It’s 2022,” he says. “We order our coffee on an app. … We live on our phones. It’s kind of adapt or fizzle out.”

It’s crucial, he adds, to make transactions frictionless and fun for customers.

“We’re in a fun business,” Farag says. “T-shirts are a fun thing, and we should make them as fun as possible.”