Kevin O'Leary - Shark Tank Secrets

What better way is there to kick off Season 7 of Shark Tank than with this Forbes interview with Kevin O'Leary. In the interview, Kevin shares some of his Shark Tank secrets - specifically, what type of entrepreneur makes him interested in investing his hard-earned money.

You can watch the interview and read the original article written by Steve Schaefer of Forbes here.

They may call him Mr. Wonderful, but in the Shark Tank boardroom Kevin O’Leary is often anything but friendly to the entrepreneurs pitching their ideas for hot-selling consumer products. O’Leary’s barbs, zingers and critiques have made him a reality TV star alongside colleagues Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec and Daymond John.

It takes a lot to cut a deal with O’Leary, a tenacious negotiator and harsh critic of gimmicky contraptions, but in a recent interview with Forbes he shared the secrets to success and why viewers can expect him to bet on a lot of women founders in the news season premiering Friday night.

There are three keys to getting one of the sharks to buy in, O’Leary says, evident in virtually every case where a deal is reached with the inventors and entrepreneurs pitching their idea.

First, the basic elevator pitch. “In 100% of cases an entrepreneur can articulate their idea in 90 seconds or less,” he says.

Second, the team “can articulate why they’re the right people to execute the business plan.” Plenty of inventors might be able to come up with a great idea; far fewer have the wherewithal to see it through production, distribution and profitability.

Above all though, O’Leary says there’s a single most important trait Shark Tank success stories have in common.

“The one that really matters is the entrepreneurs know their numbers inside out,” he says, rattling off examples like break-even points, market share statistics and margin analysis. “In Corporate America, when you want to be a leader…above all, you need to know your numbers.”

That doesn’t mean O’Leary is infallible. While he holds the crown for the largest exit in Shark Tank’s history — the $14.5 million sale of smartphone photo collection app Groovebook to Shutterfly SFLY -5.71% last year — the product that has proven to be the best revenue generator completely stunned him.

Scrub Daddy is a sponge product funded by fellow shark Greiner. The selling point is that under cold water the sponge is hard and can be used to scrape food residue off a plate; under warm water it’s softer and can be used in more delicate applications.

“I thought it was a piece of crap,” says O’Leary. But after landing a deal to hit the shelves in Wal-Mart, Scrub Daddy is up to $50 million in revenue.

While he missed out on Scrub Daddy, O’Leary has more hits than misses with his Shark Tank investments, and after studying all of them through 2014 he found a surprising statistic.

“One hundred percent of my returns the last six years have come from companies run by women,” O’Leary says, across different sectors and geographies. “There’s an old adage that says ‘if you want to get something done give it to a busy mother,’” he adds, but he’s less interested in how it’s happening – he speculates speculating that women are more mindful of risk and better at time management, both crucial for the small companies in the Shark Tank pool — than about the outcome.

“I don’t care why. I care about the actual financial results. So this year on Shark Tank, I’m investing in a lot of women.”

Let's Thank Women Inventors

As we approach Thanksgiving, many of us find ourselves thinking about all we have to be thankful about. Whether it be your family, your community, your job, or your talents, there is no one out there who can say they have not been blessed with one thing or another. This year, in addition to everything else we say "thank you" for, we'd like to acknowledge and thank all the inventors out there who make it their job to create products that not only serve to benefit their bank accounts, but serve to better the world. In particular, let's highlight some of the brilliant American women inventors of the past who have played integral roles in bettering our daily lives.

We can't forget that in the past, American women inventors faced challenges their male counterparts didn't, as American women couldn't get patents in their own name for years among other proverbial hurdles throughout history. Here are some of the many amazing women who defied stereotypes and created some of the coolest inventions the world has seen:

Hedy Lamarr

Mainly remembered as a silver screen beauty who captivated movie-goers around the globe, the Austrian actress was also a wireless communications pioneer! Lamarr and co-inventor George Anthiel created a “secret communications system” used by Allied forces during the Second World War. The system “manipulated radio frequencies at irregular intervals between transmission and reception” to create codes the enemy couldn't figure out. Talk about being more than a pretty face!




Mary Anderson

Did you know windshield wipers were invented by a woman? Mary Anderson’s invention design won her a patent in 1903, and became a vehicle standard in 1916. Nifty, huh?

Dr. Temple Grandin

A famous teacher and speaker the world over, Dr. Grandin never let autism stand in her way. Not only did she have a Ph.D. in animal science, she also created a more efficient system for slaughtering cows. Her restraint system kept the animals calm and prevented injury, and is used by nearly half of ranchers in the United States.


Ruth Handler

The inventor of one of the most famous toys in existence, the Barbie Doll, Handler named the iconic toy after her daughter Barbara. She is also the co-founder of Mattel, which remains a top American toy company.




Margaret E. Knight

While working in a Massachusetts paper bag plant following the American Civil War, Knight devised an invention design that created flat-bottomed bags. Paper bags were not flat-bottomed at the time, and Knight’s rotary engine machine automatically folded and glued bags in the flat-bottomed fashion still used today.






Patsy Sherman

One of the few female research chemists hired by the 3M Company in 1952, a 1953 “lab mishap” resulted in Sherman’s stain repellent liquid. Now known as Scotchguard Stain Repellent, the fluoro-chemical repelled oil and water without changing the look of a particular product, such as tennis shoes.


Pretty amazing, huh?