"Decades too early" - Shark Tank star Mark Cuban reflects working on the 1992 multiversal social network game, Willisville

Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban was once a part of a multiversal social network game, Willisville. In 1993, he collaborated with songwriter and multimedia artist Allee Willis who envisioned an innovative online interactive community/platform that combined storytelling with user engagement.

In a clip from Allee Willis' documentary, The World According to Allee Willis, shared on his Instagram on November 23, Cuban reflected on the significance of the project.

While revising the product description for the venture, he recalled how "insane" the entire project was. The Shark Tank star added that Willisville was way ahead of its time and was "decades too early".

"This is insane. These are the pictures. Oh my God. If you took all of this as and just changed the technology to metaverse and multiverse this is groundbreaking That's how far ahead of its time it was. We were way... I mean, decades too early," Cuban said in the clip.

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Shark Tank's Mark Cuban and Allee Willis talk about the scale of the Willisville

Allee Willis is a Grammy-winning songwriter best known for writing the Friends theme song, Earth Wind & Fire mega-hit September and The Color Purple musical.

Her documentary film The World According to Allee Willis was released on November 15 and it presents Willis' life over the years from when she was a kid in 1950s Detroit to achieving greater success in the modern world.

The film interviews with some of her closest friends, including Mark Cuban, Julie Brown, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Bruce Vilanch

The documentary was distributed by Cuban's Magnolia Pictures. He took to his Instagram on November 23 to promote the digital release of the film by sharing a clip that showcased the collaboration between him and Willis.

"Honestly, I didn't know commercially if it would go anywhere, but I knew Allee was a genius. Willisville was a lifestyle. We got connected. This was not even internet days yet," Cuban shared in the clip.

The Shark Tank investor described the concept as "crazy and unique". The fact that it didn't use any commercial platforms and it already had users, stood out to him and Willis.

He shared that he doesn't focus on the present output but rather on the return that he would get over five to twenty years. Following that philosophy, he knew that there was a role for Willisville in the future.

"Like, my thing was always not what was happening now, what's going to happen in five and ten or twenty years. And to me, it was going to be obvious that there was a role for this," the Shark Tank star said.

Cuban recalled the time when they flew to Silicon Valley to showcase the venture and Willis had prepared all the presentations for the event. The Shark Tank investor said that he just sat next to her during the event marveling at her.

"But, you know, it's the future. I've been building a radically new approach to interactive entertainment. The future content providers. Cause the masses, by the way, those are the people who are gonna define the 21st century," Willis said during the event.

The clip from the document also included a podcast interview featuring Willis where she briefed out the early days working on her project. She shared that she was the "first one ever that said the internet is a social place".

The Grammy-winning songwriter created a prototype of the fictional community called Willisvillea and populated it with characters in cyberspace. In 1993, Cuban joined her in the venture and took on the role of CEO.

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Shark Tank season 16 episodes air every Friday on ABC.