SHARK TANK CAST

WHO ARE THE SHARKS & GUEST SHARKS?

The cast of ABC’s Shark Tank is a rotating group of investors, business experts, and self-made millionaires and billionaires. There is a core group of 6 sharks (Robert Herjavec, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary, and Daniel Lubetzky), 5 of which appear on any given episode of Shark Tank. From time to time the Shark Tank cast includes special guest investors. Mark Cuban left after Season 15 and was replaced with former guest shark Daniel Lubetzky.

DAYMOND JOHN

Seasons 1-Current

BARBARA CORCORAN

Seasons 1-Current

ROBERT HERJAVEC

Seasons 1-Current

DANIEL LUBETZKY

Seasons 11-Current

KEVIN O'LEARY

Seasons 1-Current

LORI GREINER

Seasons 3-Current
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FORMER SHARKS

MARK CUBAN

Seasons 2-16

KEVIN HARRINGTON

Seasons 1-2

GUEST SHARKS

Jamie Kern Lima Shark Tank
JAMIE KERN LIMA
Todd Graves Guest Shark
TODD GRAVES
Rashaun Williams Guest Shark Tank
RASHAUN WILLIAMS
Jason Blum Guest Shark
JASON BLUM
Michael Rubin Guest Shark
MICHAEL RUBIN
Candace Nelson Guest Shark Tank
CANDACE NELSON
Gwyneth Paltrow Shark Tank Guest Shark
GWYNETH PALTROW
Tony Xu Shark Tank Guest Shark
TONY XU
Kevin Hart
KEVIN HART
Nirav Tolia Guest Shark Tank
NIRAV TIOLA
Peter Jones Guest Shark Tank Season 13
PETER JONES
Emma Grede Shark Tank Guest Shark Season 13
EMMA GREDE
Blake Mycoskie Shark Tank Guest Shark Investor 2
BLAKE MYCOSKIE
Kendra Scott Guest Shark Investor 1
KENDRA SCOTT
Maria Sharapova Shark Tank Guest Shark Investor Cast
MARIA SHARAPOVA
Katrina Lake Shark Tank Guest Shark Cast Investor
KATRINA LAKE
Anne Wojcicki Shark Tank Cast Guest Shark Investor
ANNE WOJCICKI
Jamie Siminoff Shark Tank
JAMIE SIMINOFF
Matt Higgins Shark Tank
MATT HIGGINS
Charles Barkley Shark Tank
CHARLES BARKLEY
Alli Webb Shark Tank
ALLI WEBB
Rohan Oza Shark Tank
ROHAN OZA
Alex Rodriguez Shark Tank
ALEX RODRIGUEZ
Sara Blakely Shark Tank
SARA BLAKELY
Richard Branson Shark Tank
RICHARD BRANSON
Bethenny Frankel Shark Tank
BETHENNY FRANKEL
Shark Tank Chris Sacca
CHRIS SACCA
Troy Carter Shark Tank 1
TROY CARTER
Ashton Kutcher Shark Tank
ASHTON KUTCHER
Nick Woodman Shark Tank
NICK WOODMAN
John Paul Dejoria Shark Tank
JOHN PAUL DEJORIA
Steve Tisch
STEVE TISCH
Jeff Foxworthy Shark Tank
JEFF FOXWORTHY
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SHARK BIOS

KEVIN O'LEARY

  • Seasons 1 – Current
  • AKA Mr. Wonderful
  • Cast member of the Canadian series Dragons’ Den
  • Founder of O’Leary Mortgages, O’Leary books, O’Shares Investments, O’Leary Ventures, O’Leary Funds Management, and O’Leary Fine Wines
  • Cofounded and sold The Learning Company to Mattel for $4.2 Billion

LORI GREINER

  • Seasons 3 – Current
  • Known as “The Queen of QVC”
  • Has created more than 600 products
  • Holds over 120 U.S. and foreign patents
  • Host of “Clever and Unique Creations by Lori Greiner”
  • Founder of the For Your Ease Only (product development and marketing)

DAYMOND JOHN

  • Seasons 1 – Current
  • Founder of FUBU apparel company
  • CEO and founder of The Shark Group
  • Brandweek Marketer of the Year (1999)
  • NAACP Entrepreneurs of the Year Award (1999)
  • Crain’s Business Forty Under Forty Award (2002)
  • Ernst & Young’s New York Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2003)
  • Appointed by President Obama as an ambassador to promote underserved entrepreneurs (2015)

BARBARA CORCORAN

  • Seasons 1 – Current
  • Cofounded and sold The Corcoran Group (real estate) for $66 million
  • Founder of The Corcoran Report
  • Public Speaker and Author
  • Contributor to The Today Show on NBC

ROBERT HERJAVEC

  • Seasons 1 – Current
  • Cast member of the Canadian series Dragons’ Den
  • Founded and sold BRAK Systems to AT&T Canada for $30.2 million
  • CEO and founder of Herjavec Group (IT Security)
  • Ernst & Young, Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2012)
  • Sold RAMP Networks to Nokia for $225 million

DANIEL LUBETZKY

  • Seasons 11 – 15
  • Founder and CEO of PeaceWorks
  • Founder and CEO of KIND Healthy Snacks
  • Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship by President Barack Obama
  • Author of The New York Times bestseller
  • One of TIME Magazine’s “25 Responsibility Pioneers”
  • One of Advertising Age’s “50 Most Creative People”

MARK CUBAN

  • Seasons 2 – 16
  • Founded and sold MicroSolutions to CompuServe for $6 million
  • Cofounded and sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo! for $5.7 billion
  • Owner of Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures
  • Co-founder of AXS TV
  • Majority Owner of Dallas Mavericks
  • Founder of the Fallen Patriot Fund

JAMIE KERN LIMA

  • Season 16
  • Former news anchor who developed makeup to cover rosacea
  • Sold 300-product IT Cosmetics to L’Oréal for $1.2 billion
  • Earned an estimated $410 million, stayed CEO until 2019
  • Won Miss Washington USA in 1999
  • Invested in over a dozen businesses, including Dutch Bros Coffee and Duckhorn Portfolio

TODD GRAVES

  • Season 16
  • Founder of Raising Cane’s
  • 600+ restaurants
  • $7.6 billion Net worth 2023
  • Significant historical artifact collection
  • Owns 66-million-year-old triceratops skull

RASHAUN WILLIAMS

  • Season 16
  • Goldman Sachs, Wachovia Securities, and Deutsche Bank.
  • Founder of Dixsville Partners 
  • Co-Founder of Queensbridge Venture Partners
  • Founder of the Kemet Institute
  • Founder and Chairman of Value Investment Group
  • General Partner in the MVP All-Star Fund.

JASON BLUM

  • Season 15
  • Founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions
  • Pioneered a unique micro-budget film production model
  • Films produced have grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide
  • Multiple Academy Award nominations for Best Picture
  • Produced over 75 films and TV series
  • Former co-head of the Acquisitions and Co-Productions department at Miramax Films

MICHAEL RUBIN

  • Season 15
  • CEO of Fanatics, a leader in licensed sports merchandise
  • Executive Chairman of Rue Gilt Groupe
  • Founder of GSI Commerce, sold for $2.4 billion to eBay in 2011
  • Former partner in the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils
  • Co-chair of REFORM Alliance, a criminal justice reform organization
  • Forbes 400, World’s Billionaires, Bloomberg Billionaires Index

CANDACE NELSON

  • Season 15
  • Co-founded Sprinkles Cupcakes bakery
  • Introduced the concept of the Cupcake ATM cupcake delivery system
  • Co-founded Pizzana, an award-winning Neo-Neapolitan pizza chain
  • Served as a judge on over 100 episodes of Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars”
  • CN2 Ventures, a family office investing in early-stage consumer companies

TONY XU

  • Season 14
  • Graduated from Stanford University’s School of Business as an Arjay Miller Scholar
  • Co-founder and CEO of DoorDash
  • Became a billionaire at age 36 with DoorDash IPO
  • DoorDash became the first official food delivery partner of the NBA
  • Member of the Giving Pledge

GWYNETH PALTROW

  • Season 14
  • Founder and CEO of Goop, a wildly successful modern lifestyle brand.
  • Won an Oscar, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Golden Globe, and a Primetime Emmy for acting.
  • Recognized as an outstanding woman in entertainment by Women in Film Los Angeles.
  • Authored several cookbooks.

KEVIN HART

  • Season 13
  • Comedian, actor, producer, author, and entrepreneur
  • Recipient of multiple BET Awards, Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, Teen Choice Awards, and People Choice Awards
  • Founded Laugh Out Loud, a global media and production company, that includes LOL Network, LOL Studios, LOL Audio, and LOL X
  • Established Help From the Hart Charity to support underserved communities

NIRAV TOLIA

  • Season 13
  • Co-founder of Nextdoor, the world’s largest local social network
  • Discovered the wonders of the Internet as a Dallas Cowboys fan living in San Francisco
  • Learned how to run a business as manager of his a cappella group, Fleet Street Singers
  • Hired on at newly founded Yahoo with little experience in computers
  • Teaches at Stanford University in Florence, Italy, on Renaissance Florence and Silicon Valley

PETER JONES

  • Seasons 13 & 14
  • British tycoon, serial entrepreneur, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and reality television personality
  • 19 seasons on the Dragons’ Den, the UK version of Shark Tank
  • Established his first business when he was 16 years old—a tennis academy
  • Went from penniless to $44 million in 36 months

EMMA GREDE

  • Seasons 13 & 14
  • Started her own marketing agency, ITB Worldwide, when she was 24 years old
  • CEO and Co-Founder of Good American with Khloe Kardashian
  • Founding Partner of SKIMS with Kim Kardashian
  • Co-Founder of Safely, plant-based cleaning products, with Kris Jenner
  • Member of the Women for Women International Board of Directors

BLAKE MYCOSKIE

  • Season 12
  • Founder TOMS Shoes
  • Founder Social Entrepreneurship Fund
  • Founder Madefor
  • Secretary of State’s 2009 Award of Corporate Excellence
  • 2015 Next Generation Award from Harvard’s School of Public Health
  • 2016 Cannes Lion Heart Award

KENDRA SCOTT

  • Seasons 12 & 14
  • EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 National Award
  • Breakthrough Award from the Accessories Council Excellence Awards
  • Listed by Forbes as one of America’s Richest Self-Made Women
  • Texas Business Hall of Fame
  • Board of directors Breast Cancer Research Foundation

MARIA SHARAPOVA

  • Season 11
  • Tennis superstar: Five-time Grand Slam winner
  • One of the “30 Legends of Women’s Tennis: Past, Present and Future,” Time Magazine
  • Founded Sugarpova candy company
  • Established the Maria Sharapova Women’s Entrepreneur Program
  • Goodwill Ambassador to Chernobyl for the United Nations Development Programme
  • World Tennis Association Humanitarian of the Year

KATRINA LAKE

  • Season 11
  • Founder and CEO, Stitch Fix
  • Youngest female founder to ever lead an IPO
  • On the Forbes list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women

ANNE WOJCICKI

  • Season 11
  • Co-founder and CEO of 23andMe, named “Invention of the Year” by Time in 2008
  • Named “The Most Daring CEO” in 2013
  • Hosted an extravagant fundraising event for Barack Obama with tickets starting at $32,400
  • Co-founder of the Breakthrough Prize given for excellence in physics, life sciences and math

JAMIE SIMINOFF

  • Season 10
  • Only entrepreneur/contestant to return to the Tank as a Shark
  • Sold his invention, Ring, to Amazon for more than $1,000,000,000
  • First splurge after the sale: an $8,000 mountain bike
  • Donated $1,000,000 worth of home security devices to inner city residents and personally installed them with Shaquille O’Neal

MATT HIGGINS

  • Season 10
  • Rudy Guilani’s press secretary after 9/11
  • Executive VP of New York Jets, major force behind MetLife Stadium
  • Vice Chairman of Miami Dolphins for owner Stephen Ross
  • Together with Ross, founded RSE Ventures investment firm

CHARLES BARKLEY

  • Season 10
  • Played 16 years in the NBA
  • Member of Basketball Hall of Fame
  • Won two Gold Medals at Olympics as part of the Dream Team
  • Won an Emmy for Outstanding Television Analyst
  • Wrote a New York Times Best Seller

ALLI WEBB

  • Season 10
  • Creative genius behind Drybar, the premier hair salon for blowouts
  • Recognized by Fortune as one of the top young businesswomen in the world
  • Best-selling author: The Drybar Guide to Good Hair for All
  • Dedicated to helping children & families in need, Baby2Baby & Los Angeles Children’s Hospital

ROHAN OZA

  • Season 9
  • Made Vitaminwater and Smartwater household names
  • Known as the “Brandfather”
  • Beat Tyra Banks in a dance-off
  • Founder Idea Merchants Capital

ALEX RODRIGUEZ

  • Season 9
  • Founder A-Rod Corp investment firm
  • Most grand slams in history, member of the 3,000-hit club
  • Co-wrote two children’s books, Hit a Grand Slam and Out of the Ballpark
  • Emmy winning commentator for Fox Sports
  • Signed the largest sports contract ever (at that time)—$275,000,000 for 10 years

SARA BLAKELY

  • Season 9
  • Founder of Spanx
  • Part owner of Atlanta Hawks
  • Listed as one of the “100 Most Influential People” by Time Magazine
  • Committed to the Giving Pledge

RICHARD BRANSON

  • Season 9
  • Founder of the Virgin Group of more than 25 companies
  • First “office” was in a church crypt
  • World records in boating, ballooning, amphibious vehicle, kite surfing
  • First person to fly a balloon over Mount Everest—he had taken a wrong turn
  • Knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1999

BETHENNY FRANKEL

  • Season 9
  • Founder & CEO of Skinnygirl Cocktail
  • Author of Four Self-Help Books
  • Named by Forbes Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Celebrities

CHRIS SACCA

  • Seasons 7 and 8
  • Founded Lowercase Capitol in 2007
  • Served as Head of Special Initiatives for Google and received their highest honor, The Founders Award
  • Worked on Obama’s campaign as Telecommunications, Media & Technology Adviser
  • MIT Enterprise Forum Global Trustee
  • Avid skier and an Ironman Triathlete

TROY CARTER

  • Season 7
  • Manager for Lady Gaga and John Legend
  • Received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special
  • Founded AF Square, an angel fund and technology consultancy firm
  • Global Head of Creator Services at Spotify

ASHTON KUTCHER

  • Season 7
  • Actor, model, producer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist
  • Executive Producer of several reality television shows including ‘Beauty and the Geek’ and ‘Opportunity Knocks.’
  • Established DNA Foundation (THORN) to combat human trafficking. Addressed the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2017
  • First Twitter user to gain more than 1 million followers

NICK WOODMAN

  • Season 6
  • Became a billionaire when a Taiwanese manufacturer acquired 8.88% equity in GoPro
  • Won an Emmy in the Technology and Engineering category
  • GoPro held one of the most successful tech IPOs of 2014
  • That same year, was the highest compensated CEO in the US

JOHN PAUL DEJORIA

  • Season 5
  • Cofounder of John Paul Mitchell Systems
  • His life is portrayed in the documentary, Good Fortune
  • He joined Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in signing “The Giving Pledge” to give half of his earnings to better the world
  • He considers philanthropy his “way of paying rent on this planet.”

STEVE TISCH

  • Season 5
  • Co-owner of the New York Giants
  • Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
  • Has a private art museum in a “shed” behind his home—a 4500-square-foot shed

JEFF FOXWORTHY

  • Season 2
  • Top selling comedy recording artist ever
  • Eleven books on the best-seller list
  • Awarded a People’s Choice Award, “Favorite Male Newcomer,” for his sit-com
  • His Blue Collar Comedy Tour, the Movie was Comedy Central’s highest-rated movie

THE VOICE OF SHARK TANK

PHIL CROWLEY

  • Narrator Seasons 1 – current
  • Participated in Tournament of Roses for 26 years, often serving as MC
  • Worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation
  • Narrated The Nostradamus Effect and Snake Salvation

MARK CUBAN


  • Seasons 2 – 16
  • Founded and sold MicroSolutions to CompuServe for $6 million
  • Cofounded and sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo! for $5.7 billion
  • Owner of Landmark Theatres
  • Co-founder of AXS TV
  • Owner of Magnolia Pictures
  • Majority Owner of Dallas Mavericks
  • Founder of the Fallen Patriot Fund

As far back as elementary school, Mark Cuban has been a tenacious entrepreneur. Growing up in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, he was the son of a middle class family and watched his father spend the better part of his life working as an auto upholstery professional. His drive to accomplish more and to pave a better life for himself inspired him to make the most of what he was given, and today he is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the business world.

Cuban’s entrepreneurial spirit was cultivated in middle school and high school when he sold sets of trash bags to fellow students to make money to buy a pair of shoes he desperately wanted. He also sold coins and stamps throughout school and made a name for himself as salesmen before he ever graduated from high school.

After high school, he went on to enroll at Indiana University. During his college years, he purchased and managed the most popular bar in the city. However, after the bar was shut down he moved to Dallas to pursue bigger and better things. Although he initially took a spot as a bartender, he later launched a company called MicroSolutions and sold it in 1990 for $6 million. He cleared roughly $2 million after taxes, but saved another $1 million to pursue additional interests down the line.

At the ripe age of 30, Cuban took the $3 million in his bank account and purchased a $125,000 lifetime pass on American Airlines, and was flying first class anywhere he wanted to. Despite his near ‘’rock star” status, Cuban was still making moves for his future. He started working for a hedge fund and ended up selling it with a partner for $20 million.

In 1995, Cuban and longtime friend Todd Wagner developed a powerful business idea to stream audio over the internet. At the time, it was known as Broadcast.com. Over the next four years, they developed the company and created a significant audience for their services. They eventually sold the company to Yahoo for a record $5.6 billion dollars. Cuban had become a billionaire by the age of 37.

Five years after reaching billionaire status, Cuban took a dramatic turn in his investment portfolio. In 2000, he purchased a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks. The purchase set him back $285 million, but it might have been his biggest and best investment ever. Forbes reports that the Dallas Mavericks are the fifth most valuable sports franchise in the NBA, worth over $685 million.

Today, Mark Cuban is married with three children and continues to make major strides within the business and entertainment world. His appearance on the hit reality series “Shark Tank” has catapulted his popularity and brought his magnetic personality to the masses. His work as an entrepreneur and business investor is undisputed, and at not even 60 years old, he is far from done.

Mark Cuban shares his wealth of experience and business savvy in his first published book, How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It.

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Alex Rodriguez


  • Season 9
  • Founder A-Rod Corp investment firm
  • Most grand slams in history, member of the 3,000-hit club
  • Co-wrote two children’s books, Hit a Grand Slam and Out of the Ballpark
  • Won an Emmy as a baseball commentator for Fox Sports
  • Signed the largest sports contract ever (at that time)—$275,000,000 for 10 years
  • Headed up hurricane relief efforts for Florida, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean

Alex Rodriguez is one of the best-known athletes in the world, and he’s accumulated a long list of impressive accolades, including most grand slams in history, member of the 3,000-hit club, picked first in the 1993 MLB draft at age 17, three-time American League MVP, etc., etc., etc.

Alex was born in New York City in 1975. His family returned to the Dominican Republic when he was 4 and later settled in Miami, where his single mother worked three jobs to provide for her children. He excelled in baseball and football in high school and was offered an athletic scholarship to the University of Miami. He decided to go directly into professional baseball and signed with the Seattle Mariners for a $1,000,000 contract and a $1,000,000 signing bonus.

Less well-known is Alex’s talent for business. He started investing while still in his 20s, establishing A-Rod Corp with the purchase of a single duplex in Miami. He and his hand-picked team of accomplished investment professionals grew the corporation into a fully integrated real estate investment and development firm, later branching out into sports, wellness, media and entertainment ventures. Alex believes in keeping it simple: Invest in companies that you are passionate about and can contribute to over and above the capital.

Alex has a long memory for the people and organizations who helped him. He is dedicated to supporting the Girls and Boys Club, donating $1 million to the Miami-Dade chapter and funding scholarships for Girls and Boys Club alumni to attend the University of Miami. He also remains loyal to UM, donating $4 million to renovate the baseball stadium and $500,000 to the UM School of Business Administration.

In addition to guest-sharking, Alex mentors financially strapped former pro athletes on Back in the Game on CNBC.

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Alli Webb


  • Season 10
  • Creative genius behind Drybar, the premier hair salon for blowouts
  • Recognized by Fortune as one of the top young businesswomen in the world
  • Best-selling author: The Drybar Guide to Good Hair for All
  • Dedicated to helping children and families in need, e.g., Baby2Baby and Los Angeles Children’s Hospital

Alli Webb is the founder of Drybar, the nation’s premier hair salon offering blowouts exclusively—wash, blow dry, style. No cuts, no color. More than that, it’s a delicious experience: 45 minutes of relaxation and beautification in the trendy décor of white, bright yellow and gray. The “bar” atmosphere includes cashiers who are called “bartenders” and hairstyles such as the Cosmo, Mai Tai and Manhattan—eight unique styles that range from old Hollywood waves to metro-chic sleek.

Alli mastered hair styling when she was still a kid—she had unruly curly hair to tame. But after high school, she went into the fashion industry. It wasn’t the best fit for her, so she decided she needn’t chose one of her two major interests. She went to beauty school, training with some of the great stylists on the East Coast, and proceeded to do hair at fashion shows. That’s what she was doing when she met her husband, Cameron, moved to California and became a stay-at-home mom. After about five years, she was missing the creative outlet of styling hair and started a small business, Straight-at-Home: a mobile service that provided affordable blowouts at clients’ homes. She and her service were so wildly popular that she soon could not handle the demand. She unwittingly had filled a huge gap in the hair care market. Full-service salons were overcharging for blowouts. Alli charged reasonable prices while retaining the feel of a luxurious experience.

The mobile service was no longer sufficient to meet the demands of her clients. She had to open a shop in which she could stay in one place and have her devoted clients come to her. She enlisted the talents of her husband in branding, advertising and website design and her brother, Michael Landau, in business and growing world-class brands, and the three founded the first Drybar in Brentwood, an affluent neighborhood in Los Angeles. Today, Alli has more than 100 salons that stretch across the country, and she is looking toward Paris. Her product lines and hair-styling tools are sold in Nordstrom, Sephora, and Ulta, and she made the best-seller lists with her book on mastering the perfect blowout.

Alli has been named one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company and “Most Fascinating Women” by Marie Claire. She was featured on Fortune magazine’s “40 Under 40” list as one of the top young businesswomen in the world. Drybar was named one of the top “100 Brilliant Ideas of 2010” by Entrepreneur magazine and New York Magazine’s “Boom Brands of 2013.”

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Anne Wojcicki


  • Season 11
  • Co-founder and CEO of 23andMe, named “Invention of the Year” by Time in 2008
  • Named “The Most Daring CEO” in 2013
  • Hosted an extravagant fundraising event for Barack Obama with tickets starting at $32,400
  • Co-founder of the Breakthrough Prize given for excellence in physics, life sciences and math

Anne Wojcicki, Linda Avey, a biotech executive, and Paul Cusenza, a management expert, founded 23andMe in 2006 as a way of connecting individuals to their unique, paired set of 23 chromosomes. It is the only FDA-approved direct-to-consumer genetics testing company. Today, the company has more than 10,000,000 customers in more than 50 countries and has a $2.5 billion valuation.

Consumers mail a test tube containing their saliva to the company, which analyzes their DNA and reports any risk for more than 240 health conditions, including cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, certain cancers, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and coeliac disease, as well as information on their ancestry and where their relatives lived around the world.

The company’s goals are two-fold. The first is to give consumers control over their own medical destinies. For example, if a person finds that she is at a high risk for diabetes, she can make lifestyle changes, such as buy a workout DVD and change her diet.

The second goal is to amass genetic information from as many people on the planet as possible. 23andMe has a data set that is the largest in the world, and it has led to the discovery of numerous genes associated with illness.

Anne grew up on the Stanford University campus. Her father was chair of the physics department, her mother a journalism teacher at Palo Alto High School. They fostered independence in their daughters and expected them to do something meaningful with their lives: Anne, Susan (the current CEO of YouTube, previously instrumental in the founding of Google), and Janet, a PhD in anthropology and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco, where she researches everything from obesity to HIV.

Anne graduated from Yale University with a BS in Biology, having done molecular biology research at the National Institutes of Health. After graduating, Anne worked on Wall Street for investment funds, analyzing biotechnology companies. She was frustrated that such a wealthy country could neglect the basic medical needs of some of its citizens. She quit Wall Street in 2000, intending to enroll in medical school. Instead, she decided to focus on research. That year, she met Linda Avey and Paul Cusenza. They pitched the idea of a DNA profiling company to Google, which invested $3.9 million.

23andMe does not only indicate predispositions to certain diseases, but it also helps create the drugs that will treat those diseases. In 2018, GSK (formerly GlaxoSmithKline) invested $300 million into 23andMe, and the two companies will collaborate in developing new medications.
Anne understands the importance of an employee-oriented corporate culture. Happy employees are productive employees, and productive employees contribute to the overall success of the company.

One innovative perk Anne has initiated is “Social Integration Thursday.” Everyone in the company, in groups of five, goes out to lunch on the company’s dime. The members of the group are selected at random by a software program. They can get to know each other, understand one another’s work situations and possibly come up with ideas and solutions.

The Brin Wojcicki Foundation, started by Anne and Google co-founder Sergey Brin when they were married, has given hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to non-profits working on education, environmental issues and women’s issues, as well as to the Human Rights Foundation and the Tipping Point Community that seeks to eliminate poverty in Northern California. The bulk of their largess, however, goes to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

In her free time, Anne loves nothing better than spending time with her children, Benji and Chloe, and her extended family, walking in the park or simply hanging out.

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Ashton Kutcher


  • Season 7
  • Actor, model, producer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist
  • Won first place in ‘Fresh Faces of Iowa’ modeling competition and modeled for Calvin Klein & Ambercrombie & Fitch
  • Executive Producer of several reality television shows including ‘Beauty and the Geek’ and ‘Opportunity Knocks.’
  • Established DNA Foundation (THORN) to build software to combat human trafficking. Addressed the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on this subject in February of 2017
  • First Twitter user to gain more than 1 million followers

If you were a fan of That 70s Show or laughed through Dude, Where’s My Car?, you probably would not have predicted that joining the high level venture capitalists on Shark Tank was anywhere in Ashton Kutcher’s future.

But even though his most prominent roles were as a pretty boy with more brawn than brains, Kutcher had always been a hard-working, intelligent person. His early life in a middle class family in Iowa gave him a strong work ethic. He began working construction with his dad at age 10, then worked a variety of jobs, including janitor, butcher and factory worker during his high school years.

When he entered the University of Iowa, Kutcher planned to major in biochemical engineering. But fate intervened when he won a modeling competition and decided to drop out of college to move to New York. He eventually ended up in Los Angeles, pursued his interest in acting, and got his big break in 1998 when he got the part of Michael Kelso.

So how did Kutcher go from an actor playing the local pretty boy to sitting pretty next to Mr. Wonderful? In an interview with Zack O’Malley Greenburg of Forbes in April, 2016, he tells the story: “A decade ago 50 Cent took an equity stake in Vitaminwater parent Glaceau in exchange for becoming the face of the beverage–and earned an estimated $100 million when Coca-Cola purchased the company in 2007. … I’m like, ‘Whoa, hold on, wait a second. I’ve got to figure out how to get in the equity game, because it just makes so much more sense.'”

In 2011 Kutcher teamed up with music manager Guy Oseary (U2, Madonna) and billionaire Ron Burkle, investing in companies such as Uber, Airbnb, Skype, Spotify and Pinterest. Within five years the partners had created a portfolio estimated at $250 million and growing. Along the way they gained additional investors, among them Mark Cuban, David Geffen and Liberty Media.

Although Kutcher keeps his exact net worth private, in 2017 it was estimated by various sources at somewhere around $200 million. The roles played by Kutcher the actor simply showcased his talent in acting. His success in the high stakes world of venture capital clearly demonstrates his ability to recognize opportunity and his drive to take full advantage of it. When asked by Greenburg in the Forbes interview about how he became such a successful investor, he recalled meeting Silicon Valley elites such as Ron Conway and Michael Arrington. “I spent 90% of my time just listening,” he said. “Once you learn how to identify a snow leopard, it’s pretty easy to see a snow leopard coming along.”

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Barbara Corcoran


  • Seasons 1 – Current
  • Cofounded and sold The Corcoran Group (real estate) for $66 million
  • Founder of The Corcoran Report
  • Public Speaker and Author
  • Contributor to The Today Show on NBC

Barbara Corcoran is an American business icon, speaker, consultant, author, investor, and star of the hit show Shark Tank. Her tenacious business attitude and drive to assist other entrepreneurs down their paths to success makes her an audience favorite in the tank. However, her life wasn’t always so clearly defined.
Corcoran was born on March 10th 1949 in Edgewater, New Jersey. The second oldest of 10 children, she was immediately in competition from day one. Her mother was a homemaker and her father was a printing press foreman. She grew up learning the value of a hard work ethic, although Barbara struggled through school, barely managing to pull D’s in most of her classes. She eventually graduated from high school and enrolled at St. Thomas Aquinas College, graduating in 1971.

Once she completed her education she become a teacher, but only stuck with it for one year. Throughout her life, Corcoran has held twenty-two jobs. She credits her work as a waitress at a diner for helping her become the business mogul she is today. During one of her shifts she met a man made Ray Simone, a New Jersey based home builder. The duo started dating and shortly thereafter, she borrowed $1,000 from him to launch her own apartment rental company. However, it wasn’t long before their relationship dissolved.

Simone funded that initial investment of $1,000, but it was Corcoran who helped the company expand. After showing an apartment to a Union Carbide engineer who decided to purchase it rather than rent, Corcoran realized the potential within sales. She posted an ad for a sales agent the following day setting into motion her career in real estate. Within just two years, the Corcoran-Simone company was generating over a half million dollars in sales.

It took several years for the company to dissolve but according to Corcoran, Simone said she would never succeed without him, which further fueled her desire to make a name for herself. They divided the company in 1978 and she founded the Corcoran Group, the first female-run real estate company. The company earned over $350,000 in its first year.

Fast forward to 2001 when Corcoran decided it was time to sell the company. She had shifted her focus to family matters, after trying to get pregnant for over eight years and eventually giving birth to her son, Tommy. With negotiations on the table and an annual revenue of $100 million, and realizing she was the top broker in New York City, she told her attorney to find a buyer for $66 million—her lucky number. She sold the company to NRT Inc. within just a few short days.

After exiting the New York City real estate market, Corcoran wanted to get in front of the public in a fresh way. She decided to co-author a book, became a short-lived Fox consultant, and then went on to join the cast of Shark Tank. Her investments and public appearances have helped her multiply her millions and have given her a prominent place among business leaders.

You can learn from Barbara’s vast business experience in her books, Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business, and Use What You’ve Got, and Other Business Lessons I Learned from My Mom.

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