By Philip Etemesi
From Kevin O'Leary to Chris Sacca, here are the best (and worst) sharks from ABC's Shark Tank.
Shark Tank is a business reality TV show where aspiring and established entrepreneurs seek investments to their businesses from a panel of five titans of the business world (popularly known as sharks). Negotiations usually ensue, then the sharks decide whether to invest or not.
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Theshow has won the Emmy forOutstanding Structured Reality Program four times. There are usually six recurring hosts/sharks/investors and a couple of guest sharks that appear in selected episodes. Taking into account every main and guest shark that has appeared on the show, here are the 5 best and 5 worst.
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Best: Kevin O'Leary
He isn't referred to as Mr. Wonderful for no reason. Kevin is the most humorous shark of them all. He always has a bucketload of quotes to dish out. Some of his best quotes include "$4000 in sales is absolutely nothing. I'd take you out for dinner and spend more" and "Did you say $1 million? I am having indigestion but go on.: He also has the classic line "You are dead to me" that he tells every entrepreneur he fails to reach an agreement with.
Kevin is also not a greedy investor. He often prefers royalty deals instead of taking a huge chunk of an entrepreneur's business in the name of equity. He is also brutal with facts as he always tells people whether their business is a waste of time without sugarcoating things.
Worst: Daymond John
Daymond rose to prominence as the found of FUBU before going on to make plenty of other investments. He's often a calm and collected shark. He just doesn't show up a lot. Out of the 23 episodes in last year's Season 10, for example, he only made 7 appearances.
Daymond also tends to be reluctant to risk his money in businesses he isn't familiar with. He normally shies away from dipping his fingers in potential businesses that aren't food or apparel related. The bright side? He is a very good mentor. According toRandy Goldberg, a former Shark Tank contestant and the co-founder of apparel brand Bombas, "Daymon is very generous with his time and thoughts."
Best: Mark Cuban
With a net worth of $4.1 billion, he is the only billionaire among the recurring sharks. This gives an unfair (or much welcome) advantage. Entrepreneurs always appear to look in his direction more than that of any other shark. Obviously, the more money you have, the more people trust you with their life's work.
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Cuban alsohas better judgment skills concerning the businesses that are likely to make money and those that are potential failures. He is quick to close deals when he sees a potential money-maker. He also offers solid advice straight away if he feels that an entrepreneur's business model isn't viable in the long run. When he is not busy making money, Cuban attends basketball games. He is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. He also has cameos (appearing as himself) in various fictional movies and TV shows including Billions and Entourage.
Worst: Kevin Harrington
Harrington was one of the first main sharks. He appeared in only the first two seasons before walking away. Perhaps he didn't believe the show could be a major success. Or perhaps he was just too busy. He also made deals with 18 entrepreneurs across the two seasons but only invested in 16% of the businesses.
Despite his flows, Harrington is quite successful. He is known as the "Inventor Of The Informercial" after he came up with ways to fill idle time on TV networks at night. He also has a net worth of $450, which puts him only second to Mark Cuban among the main sharks.
Best: Lori Grenier
She is the most polite of all the sharks and she tends to have sympathy for entrepreneurs that the other sharks wouldn't make a deal with. She is also known as the"Queen Of QVC" since she has the most-watched show on the shopping network.
Her show often gives her an advantage with entrepreneurs who have consumer products since shenormally promises to promote them on TV. Known for standing up for herself, Lori never shies away from hitting out at the male sharks if she feels they are using unfair tactics to make deals.
Worst: Barbara Corcoran
Barbara often seems reluctant to invest.Throughout Shark Tank's 11- season run, Barbara has closed less than 20 deals. According to Forbes, an almost equal number of deals have failed to materialize. With a net worth of$80 million, she's the least wealthy among the main sharks, so her reluctance to invest is understandable.
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Despite being mean with the money, Barbara is a straight-forward person. She asks genuine questions about the business before opting not to invest. She's a hard person not to like given that she comes off like a boss that would never yell at you.
Best: Robert Herjavec
When it comes to trying out products, whether its a special bicycle or a gym machine, Robert is often the first to volunteer. To add to that, he often makes sure to congratulate entrepreneurs on the good work they are doing even if he has no intention of investing in their business.
Robert has also appeared on the Canadian version of Shark Tank called Dragon's Den.With a net worth of $200 million, he is not close to being the wealthiest shark but he still quite generous. He is the only shark to make two multi-million dollar investments on the show.
Worst: Chris Sacca
Sacca is known for having huge shares in companies such as Uber and Twitter, but on Shark Tank, he just didn't feel at home. It thus came as no surprise when he retired from the show after appearing as a guest in selected episodes from Season 7 to Season 9. He also retired from investing altogether.
In an interview with Forbes, he said: "Mypersonal style of startup investing doesn’t work when I’ve just got toes dangling in the water. Investing part-time doesn't work for him."In short, he likes total control and involvement, hence the Shark Tank-style of investing wasn't suitable for him. His heart clearly wasn't in it. Despite having a net worth of $1.2 billion, he only invested in less than 5 businesses on the show.
Best: Richard Branson
Richard Branson always spices up Shark Tank.The only time Mark Cuban has met his match has been when Branson has appeared as a guest shark. They are both billionaires, hence the battle for egos. In one episode, a heated argument between the two ensued, resulting in Branson throwing water at Cuban. Quickly, Cuban returned the favor and made Branson's suit wet.
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Ironically, the two were fighting over a meditation app that had been pitched by an entrepreneur. It looks like they both really need to use that app for anger management.After the incident, Cuban toldEntertainment Tonight, Cuban: “I don’t want to be in the same room with that guy for the rest of my life.”
Worst: Alex Rodriguez
As a former New York Yankees player and husband to Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez is quite famous. He appeared as a guest shark on a number of episodes but failed to make any worthy investments. He was later barred from returning to the show by after it was revealed that he wanted to start a similar show on the NBC network.
On Shark Tank, Alex often preferred the role of "advisor" than the role of "investor." Despite his shortcomings, his status as one of the greatest baseball players of all time remains. Perhaps he is still getting acquainted with the world of venture capitalism.
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