The Sharks

SHARKBITES - Meet The SHARKS (Literally) - Carnivores of Commerce:

Courtesy of ABC.Com


  • BARBARA CORCORAN - THE BLACKTIP SHARK- This American dream-doll of a real estate investor and agent also happens to be a real estate contributer on NBC's TODAY show commenting on trends in the real estate market. Although she graduated from college with a degree in education, she admits that her credentials also include straight D's in high school and college. After  graduating she taught school for a year and had 20 jobs by the time she was 23, including a side job renting apartments in New York City. She was driven and determined to be her own boss, and in 1973, she borrowed $1,000 from her boyfriend and started her own real estate business, The Corcoran Group, which she developed into a $5 Billion business, dominating the industry, and eventually sold it in 2001 for $70 Million. Back in the mid 70's she started publishing The Corcoran Report on real estate data trends in New York City and she is now a columnist for MORE MAGAZINE, THE DAILY REVIEW, and REDBOOK, and has also written a few books of her own, including, If You don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons On Your Pigtails, which has become a national bestseller. She released a second book, Nextville: Amazing Places To Live The Rest Of Your Life, which has garnered great reviews, and she has also recently released SHARKTALES: How I Turned $1,000 Into A Billion Dollar Business. Barbara is so vibrant on the show as in business, with her experience and energy. Her tell-it-lik-it-is, take-it-or-leave-it, work-with-what-you-got attitude is what sets her apart from the other sharks, and obviously what helped her reach the heights of success. 
Stats:
  • MAIN INDUSTRY - Real Estate
  • SIZE OF BUSINESS - 5 Billion Dollars
  • ZODIAC SIGN - Pisces 
Stats courtesy of ABC.Com
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  • DAYMOND JOHN - THE SHORTFIN MAKO SHARK - This fashion mogul and trailblazer revolutionized the sportswear industry with his creative vision and ambition opening more doorways of opportunity that allows him to excel as television personality, motivational speaker, and a sought after branding expert as well. He is known as being the founder, president and CEO of the FUBU clothing line, very distinctive and fashionable sportswear that helped pioneer the untapped urban apparel space laying the blueprint for companies to compete in this newly established market. Born in Brooklyn, but spending much of his youth in Hollis Queens, from a single parent houshold, he's quoted in People magazine as saying, "I owe my success to my mom, who instilled in me the fact that I could do anything I wanted to do." His foray into the apparel market came when he wanted a tie-top hat that he thought was too expensive. Daymond asked his mother to teach him how to use a sewing machine, and began making the distictive top-hats himself. After profiting $800 in just a few hours selling the hats on the streets of Queens, he recruited some of his neighborhood friends and FUBU was born, eventually expanding the apparel into hockey jerseys, sweatshirts, and t-shirts. His business reached a tipping point after convincing Hollis native and hip-hop superstar LL Cool J to wear FUBU for a promotional campaign. Daymond and his mother then mortgaged the home they lived in for $100,000 and soon turned it into a makeshift factory and office space. After traveling to an industry trade show in Las Vegas known as Magic, they returned to Queens with $300,000 worth of orders, and eventually a contract with Macy's expanding his line to jeans and outerwear. A distribution deal with Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung allowed FUBU to be manufactured and delivered on a massive scale, which led to $350 Million in sales in 1998. Placing it in the same league as Donna Karen New York and Tommy Hillfiger. Daymond has since transformed into more than a fashion mogul becoming an author penning his first book Display Of Power: How FUBU Changed a World of Fashion, Branding and Lifestyle which was named one of the best business books of 2007 by Library Journal. He also penned a follow up to that book titled The Brand Within as a second release in the Display Of Power Series, which examines the loyalty based relationships that brands and celebrities seek to establish with customers and fans. This streetsmart "Godfather of urban Fashion" is regarded as one of the most sought after branding experts and keynote speakers in the fashion and business world, with multiple businesses under his belt and winning many prestigious awards. 
Stats:
  • MAIN INDUSTRY - Fashion
  • FIRST HUGE SUCCESS - FUBU clothing line earned $350 Million in 1998
  • ZODIAC SIGN - Pisces 
Stats courtesy of ABC.Com

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  • JEFF FOXWORTHY - THE TIGER SHARK - This stand up comedian is no joke when it comes to bringing home the bacon. As one of the most respected and successful comedians in the country, he is the largest selling comedy-recording artist in history, and a multiple Grammy Award nominee and the best selling author if 11 books. His empire spans albums, books, hit comedy tours, and forays into television and radio, including his work as host of Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? Known for his You Might Be a Redneck one liners, his line of calandars have sold copies into the millions. Also, in addition to a line of beef jerky and barbecue sauces, he has a line of greeting cards and specialty products through American Greetings that are available at Walmart stores. If that's not enough, in October 2003 the Nevada Gaming Commission granted approval for Aristocrat Technologies, Inc. to place it's Jeff Foxworthy You Might Be A Redneck If video slot games in Nevada Casinos. Station Casinos Inc was granted the right to introduce Aristocrat's Jeff Foxworthy games into it's 11 las Vegas Casino properties exclusively for 45 days prior to the games release to other Las Vegas off-strip casino properties. Jeff Foxworthy has truly diversified his bite, sinking his shark teeth into a broad range of products and services. With such a vast resume under his belt, it's interesting to observe how he makes decisions to invest in a company as the entrepreneurial guppies get tossed into the tank as fresh meat to be devoured by the sharp fangs of finance in the bidding waters of capitalism. Come one, come all............
Stats:
  • MAIN INDUSTRY - Comedy, Greeting Cards, Food
  • ZODIAC SIGN - Virgo
Stats courtesy of ABC.Com

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Courtesy of ABC.Com


  • KEVIN HARRINGTON - THE HAMMERHEAD SHARK - This infomercial kingpin may as well be known as the Godfather of paid programming, pioneering that industry by producing one of it's very first 30 minute infomercials back in 1984. He is the chairman and founder of TV Goods Inc. and co-founder of Omni Reliant Holdings, Inc. and has financed more than 500 direct TV marketing product launches with sales totaling over $4 Billion. 20 of those products reached individual sales of over $100 Million. Yeah. Ouch! The sharks in these waters are ferocious. Kevin Harrington got his start, when his first company Quantum International, merged into national media in 1991 and grew to $500 Million  in annual sales with distribution in over 100 countries, in over 12 dozen languages. Quantum became a case study in the business course taught at Harvard and MIT for many years. Other ventures Kevin was involved in include HSN Direct with the Home Shopping Network and Reliant International, in addition to two global networking associations known as the Electronic Retailing Association, and the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), whose stated mission is to "Engage leading entrepreneurs to learn and grow." The objectives of the Entrepreneurs Organization were to support, educate and encourage young entrepreneurs under the age of 40 to succeed in building companies and themselves. The organization quickly expanded throughout the United States and Canada, and within a few short years, memberships grew to include chapters in Mexico and Asia. Today the Entrepreneurs Organization in it's current form is a global network of more than 7,500 business owners with over 120 chapters in 38 countries, constantly repopulating the sea of world economies with little embryo sharks, hoping to be great whites, in the shark pool of finance. 
Stats:
  • MAIN INDUSTRY - Infomercials (started the industry 25 years ago)
  • FIRST HUGE SUCCESS - His first company reached $500 Million in annual sales
  • ZODIAC SIGN - Libra
Stats courtesy of ABC.Com

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Courtesy of ABC.Com

"Here's how I think of my money -- as soldiers -- I send them out to war everyday. I want them to take prisoners and come home, so there's more of them." - Kevin O'Leary

Quote is Courtesy of ABC.Com


  • KEVIN O'LEARY  - THE BULL SHARK - This Canadian entrepreneur and venture capitalist is almost as savage as a a savage great white shark managing  to and capitalize from the educational software market gobbling up no less than 60 rivals and introducing a number of new children's educational software titles making millions teaching children how to read. He came from a middle class family, born in the suburbs of Montreal Canada and educated in Waterloo, Ontario. In his early years he got hired in an ice cream parlor called Magoo's where he engaged in a life changing experience. During his second day at work, the store owner commanded him to get down on his knee's and scrape the gum off the floor. He replied with a NO and she fired him on the spot. He later stated he didn't even know what the word "fired" even meant at that point in time. Moments later he was on his bicycle on his way home feeling ashamed and shocked that someone else could have that much control and power over him. Kevin said the impact of this particular incident still guides him in his business decisions to this very day. Since then he's been self-employed and self made. From a seed investment of $10,000 that his mother provided, planted alongside a big idea in the soil of his mind, Kevin O'Leary started Softkey International, a software  company in his basement, and eventually went on numerous mergers and acquisitions, aquiring rivals such as Wordstar, Broderbund, Spinnaker Software, and the Learning Company, succeeding in it's mission to become "the campbell's soup of software." By 1994 Softkey was a billion-dollar consolidator in the educational software market. In 1999 Kevin sold his company for a whopping $3.7 Billion. One of the largest deals in the consumer software industry. Deals like that measure up to his personal philosophy and ambition, .... in his own words - "greed is good." In 2003 he became a co-investor and a director in Storage Now, a developer of climate controlled storage facilities, which went on a gobbling spree to become Canada's third largest owner/operator of storage services before it was acquired in 2007 for $110 Million. In March 2007 Kevin O'Leary joined Genstar Capital as an advisor. This private equity firm with it's $1.2 Billion fund, of which O'Leary is a strategic advisor focuses on investments in selected segments. He is also on the executive board of the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, and a member of the investment commitee of Boston's Hamilton Trust. he has also started his own mutual fund, O'Leary Funds Inc, in 2008, which focuses on global investing with $960,000,000 under management across 11 different publicly traded funds. Jaws (ahem, ... excuse me) Kevin O'Leary is the company's chairman and leading investor. Miraculously, between all of these tasty entree's on his financial smorgasbord, O'Leary still manages to find time to lurk the waters of the Shark Tank for succulent new guppies to gobble, while still escaping on weekends to spend time with his family in his luxurious cottage in Ontario, and even play the guitar. At this point I believe it's a pretty safe wager to bet this shark will never be caught on his knees scraping gum off the floor at ice cream parlors, and anywhere else for that matter, and neither will his pups, grandpups and great grandpups for that matter. (Just for the record, ... baby sharks are known as pups). 
Stats:
  • MAIN INDUSTRY - Educational Software
  • LARGEST BUSINESS TRANSACTION - Sold his company to Mattel for $3.7 Billion
  • ZODIAC SIGN - Cancer
Stats courtesy of ABC.Com
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  • MARK CUBAN - THE GREAT WHITE SHARK- This media and sports tycoon is a great white shark in his own right. The man is credited by the Guinness book of world records with the "largest single e-commerce transaction" paying $40 million for his G-5 private jet shortly after becoming a billionaire from the dot com boom. How did he get to this level of success? Cuban grew up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon in a Jewish working class family. His first job was at age 12 when he sold garbage bags to pay for a pair of expensive basketball shoes. He also held jobs as a bartender, disco dancing instructor and party promoter while in school, collected and sold stamps, and once made over $1,000 from a chain letter hustle. After graduating from college Cuban started his own company called Microsolutions which was sold in 1990 to a subsidiary of H&R Block for $6 Million and retained approximately $2 Million after taxes, making him a millionaire at age 31. In 1995 him and his partner started a company which was later known as Broadcast.com in 1998, the leading provider of multimedia and streaming on the internet. By 1999 Broadcast had grown massively to $13.5 Million in revenue for the second quarter, and during the dot com boom in 1999 Broadcast.com was acquired by Yahoo for $5.9 Billion in Yahoo stock making Mark Cuban a Billionaire at age 40. From then on he went on to continue to be a very successful businessman diversifying  his wealth into several businesses and startups being recognized as one of the most influential people in the cable and sports industries. He is widely known for his purchase of the Dallas Mavericks in 2004, but also co-owns Landmark theaters, is the Founder of HDNet, and is an invester in several other succesful dot coms and businesses. He was featured on the cover of the November 2003 premiere issue of Best magazine announcing the arrival of high definition television, named a winner of the GQ "Men Of The Year" in 2006, included in New York Times Magazine's "Year In Ideas", and is known as being america's coolest billionaire. Mark Cuban has always been a basketball junkie, and besides his ownership in the Dallas Mavericks, he is a partner in Synergy Sports Technology, a web based basketball scouting and delivery tool used by many NBA teams. Cuban has improved the status of the Dallas Mavericks and changed the face of the organization on many levels since his purchase of the team. He took them from a 40% winning percentage to winning 69% of their regular season games, reaching the playoffs in each of those seasons, including their first trip to the NBA finals in 2006. Always on the front-line, in the trenches sitting next to the fans with his whatever-it takes attitude, he bought the party atmosphere back to the Mavericks games that he learned in his early years as a party promoter, bringing a sense of pride and passion back to the fans that was missing at one point. The guy has even personally responded to thousands of emails from fans himself, resulting in many innovative changes. Talk about customer service. No wonder he is successful on and off the court, managing to revolutionize the television industry with HDNet. In addition to all these successes he is still an active investor in leading and cutting edge technologies and continues to be a sought after speaker. 
Stats:
  • MAIN INDUSTRY - Media and Sports
  • SIZE OF BUSINESS - $2.5 Billion
  • ZODIAC SIGN - Leo
Stats courtesy of ABC.Com


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"If you're emotional, and your great at something, the money will follow." -Robert Herjavec

Quote is courtesy of ABC.Com
  • ROBERT HERJAVEC - THE BLUE SHARK - This Croation-Canadian entrepreneur managed to successfully capitalize from the Dot-Com industry. A first generation immigrant escaping communism in Yugoslavia, he escaped a world of poverty with a dream and a vision that has catapulted him from one financial success to another. He vowed early in life that his family would not be taken advantage of, and utilized hard work and keen intuition to place him where he wanted to be. In his early days he waited tables and delivered newspapers to earn a living. He began his business career at IBM Mainframe sales, and has successfully managed to launch a computer company from his basement. He is the founder of BRAK systems, his first technology company which was sold to AT&T for $100 Million. He also helped orchastrate the sale of another technology company, RAMP networks, to Nokia for $225 Million. In 2003, Herjavec founded the Herjavec Group, a leading security software company of which he now heads.  Herjavec lives in the Bradle path neighborhood of North York, Toronto in a 50,000 square foot mansion, but often jets to his very own private island near Miami. His passion is Motor Racing, and he competes in the Ferrari Challenge Series when he's not cruising around in one of his own luxury cars.
Stats:
  • MAIN INDUSTRY - Technology
  • FIST HUGE SUCCESS - Sold his first tech company for $100 Million
  • ZODIAC SIGN - Virgo
Stats courtesy of ABC.Com
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"Great financiers are simply channels for the distribution of wealth; enormous amounts come and go but it would be as dangerous to stop the outgo as the income; both ends must remain open; and so our greatest success will come as we recognize that it is just as essential to give as to get." - Charles F. Haanel

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  • GREAT WHITE SHARK - His jaws and teeth are valuable. He preys on a VARIETY of marine animals. When another shark approaches to closely they sometimes bite to show dominance. They are very curious, display intelligence, and may turn to "socializing" if the situation demands. A carnivorous appetite with a malicious grin. They enjoy big rewards like billion dollar profits and private jets.
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  • TIGER SHARK - Solitary. They feasts on a wide range of prey, have a reputation for eating anything, possesses the capability to take on large prey, and it's sight and senses allow it to react to faint traces of blood and follow it to the source. It can advance on it's prey with confidence, even in murky water. It circles it's prey, and studies it by prodding it with it's snout. Once the shark has come close, a speed burst allows it to reach it's intended prey before it can escape. Considered the hyenas of the shark world, having the most powerful bite amongst all living fish. They also eat other sharks including other Tiger Sharks, and enjoy poking their snouts in anything profitable and would even sell YOU a new line of sharks if at all possible. It's a strong possibility sometimes they just get bored and decide to go make money for fun.
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  • BULL SHARK - Well known for their unpredictable and aggressive behavior. They are solitary hunters, but occasionally hunt in pairs. They have been known to use the bump-and-bite technique to attack their prey. Relatively calm bull sharks can suddenly become violent, and are extremely territorial attacking animals that enter their territory. They enjoy power and control, watching their investments grow  sipping vintage wine, and poking at other sharks and guppies just for the hell of it.
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  • BLACKTIP SHARK - Extremely swift and energetic, they will make spinning leaps out of the water while attacking schools of small fish. They have a timid disposition, but if threatened or challenged, they may perform an agonistic display: They swim towards the threat, and then turn away and do a little intimidating dance to gracefully let you know to back off or suffer the consequences. They are also prone to feeding frenzies when large quantities of food are suddenly available. They enjoy diamonds, pearls and luxurious fragrances, and definitely do NOT like to lose money.
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  • HAMMERHEAD SHARK - These sharks are rather shy, and can blend in to sneak up on their prey. They can sweep for prey more effectively than other sharks because their detectors are highly sensitive to find their target, and they will swim to the bottom and stalk their prey and their unique head can be used as a weapon when hunting them down. They are also known to form schools during the day, sometimes in groups of over 100. They enjoy tailer made suits, and teaching little guppies with potential to be millionaires, spawning a whole world of capitalistic hammerheads to fulfill their goal of Hammerhead world domination. 
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  • BLUE SHARK - One of the most eloquent sharks of all the species. They are not considered an aggressive species, but they will attack a whole small boat, and it's "exploring bite" is often deadly. They are excellent travelers, and can move very quickly, and are known as the "wolves of the sea." They also enjoy fine dining such as lobster shrimp and crab served with a glass of premium white wine, and cruising in Italian automobiles for thrills. 
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  • SHORTFIN MAKO SHARK - A relative of the Great White. The Mako will travel long distances to seek prey. They hunt by lunging vertically up and tearing off chunks of their prey's flanks and fins. Mako's swim below their prey so they can see what is above, and have a high probability of reaching it's prey before it notices. It is powerful, aggressive and endowed with enormous teeth and high speed. They are said to be able to swim up to 62 mph. When not swimming in search of new prey they enjoy cruising in exotic foreign  luxury vehicles, hanging out with beautiful models, wearing fancy clothes and making multi-million dollar investments. 
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  • ME - THE GREAT GUPPY - Ok I might be I guppy now, but in my MIND I am a GREAT WHITE SHARK! Eventually I'll GET IT. Run with wolves, and you'll learn to howl right?! ... Well, .... float with sharks and you'll learn to swim. Capish.
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