Highlights

• Shark Tank judges, known to fans as "the sharks," are business moguls evaluating pitches to offer backing capital to businesses they deem potentially profitable.
• Shark Tank judges seek reduced-cost stakes and scrutinize plans for investments, increasing competition on the show.
• Shark Tank's judges have varying backgrounds, and similarly diverse net worths.

Under the surface of the sea, the shark is considered the most dangerous predator, viewed by humans as having intimidating teeth and the ability to eat people alive.

But in the ocean of business, "sharks" chew through stakes and royalties with abandon, and have the ability to give any fledgling business a boost with their sizable fortunes.

In entrepreneurial settings, however, aspiring tycoons desperately await the arrival of sharks — hoping to pitch their ideas, entice them to invest in their business plans, and hopefully, get lucky enough to secure a shark's funding.

In 2009, ABC Network introduced the now-familiar reality competition show Shark Tank with a simple premise: business moguls (the titular "sharks") evaluate aspiring entrepreneurs' pitches, offering backing capital to ideas they believe have potential.

The Shark Tank judges are sometimes considered venture capitalists, defined by Investopedia.com as a "private equity investor that provides capital to companies with high growth potential in exchange for an equity stake"; others have described them as "angel investors."

But things aren't all sunshine and rainbows. Shark Tank judges seek to obtain company stakes at a reduced cost, and they scrutinize business plans with a hawk's intensity — which makes the show more interesting and heightens the stakes.

Contestants (aspiring business owners) must present a solid pitch and possess good negotiation skills. Otherwise, they might secure an investment, but on terms less favorable than "shark-ier" entrepreneurs.

On Shark Tank, the battle for funding and equity is waged between these small fish and the mighty "sharks."

Over the past 15 years, the Shark Tank judges have helped many businesses to grow from foundation to apex, with myriad successful companies getting their start on the show.

But a question lingers: how do sharks become sharks? What led them to fame, and how big is their fortune?

Let's take an in-depth look at the Shark Tank judges, their reported net worths, and their backgrounds, and see how they graduated to shark status.

6 Barbara Corcoran

Barbara Corcoran's Net Worth (Estimated): $100 Million

Barbara Corcoran was born to a working-class family, the second child among ten siblings.

A young Barbara was raised by her homemaker mother, and her father bounced from job to job to make ends meet.

Much like her father, a hard-working Barbara had 20 different jobs by the age of 23 to stay afloat financially, including waiting tables and, eventually, one on the ground floor in real estate.

Barbara liked real estate, and she secured a position as a receptionist for a real estate company to learn more about the business.

At the age of just 24, Barbara started her company, The Corcoran Group, in 1973, with a $1,000 loan from a boyfriend. Adjusting for inflation, $1,000 in January 1973 is worth $7,331.74 today.

After 28 years of unwavering commitment and hard work, Barbara turned this $1,000 investment into millions — after she sold her real estate firm The Corcoran Group to NRT in 2001, for $66 million.

A bona fide real estate mogul today, Barbara Corcoran is everywhere — she is an investor in over 100 businesses, an in-demand motivational speaker, and has appeared on numerous series, TV shows, and talk shows.

Although the salaries of Shark Tank judges remain undisclosed, Parade and Variety speculated that they pocket around $50,000 for an episode. (That sum may seem shockingly low, but it will make sense in a minute.)

According to Barbara, her most fruitful investment was in the brand Comfy, which she made on Shark Tank in 2017.

Corcoran secured a 33 percent stake in Comfy for $50,000, and her stake in the apparel brand rose to $348,000 in just three years — translating to a near seven-fold return on her investment.

5 Lori Greiner

Lori Greiner's Net Worth (Estimated): $150 Million

QVC queen Lori Greiner is a deft businesswoman, and due to her unconventional but clever methods, she has built quite an impressive fortune.

After completing her Communications Degree from Loyola University Chicago, Greiner wanted to pursue a career as a playwright, and to make and sell jewelry as a side hustle.

But she soon discovered that her jewelry was gaining traction with buyers, and she established the brand "For Your Ease Only" in 1996.

Lori secured a $300,000 loan and began to explore the potential of affordable women's jewelry, developing and patenting a plastic earring organizer.

In just a few months, a big player in the retail business at the time, JC Penney, discovered her product and decided to add it to their inventory just ahead of the holiday shopping season.

Eighteen months after taking out the loan, Lori was debt-free, and making a pretty penny from her bustling business. But her sharp instincts led Greiner to pivot.

In 2000, Lori launched her show, Clever & Unique Creations, to promote her products on the free-to-air legacy shopping network QVC.

Clever & Unique Creations was an instant success, and Lori was dubbed "the Queen of QVC" due to her fame on the channel.

Lori Greiner's For Your Ease Only brand now boasts 700 products, with 120 of them being patented.

In addition to her Shark Tank compensation, Greiner earns an estimated $5 million every year from her company.

Lori is known as a bold shark who doesn’t hesitate to spend big — as was recently the case in season 15 of Shark Tank.

She spent a whopping $700,000 for 95 percent equity in the brand Legacy Shave:

She has invested $10 million in more than 60 businesses, most of which are growing impressively, and Lori Greiner's net worth is likely to continue rising.

4 Robert Herjavec

Robert Herjavec's Net Worth (Estimated): $300 Million

Robert Herjavec's life story is like something out of an inspirational movie.

Herjavec was born into unrest in Yugoslavia (now Croatia), where his father was jailed no fewer than 22 times for anti-communist beliefs.

Eventually, his family decided to emigrate. An eight-year-old Robert and his family, with just one briefcase and just $20, fled to Canada.

Herjavec's family started over, and his father earned $76 weekly ($3,952 annually) in Ontario in 1970.

Currency Conversion And Adjusting For Inflation: That $76 wage is worth around $55.54 when converted to American dollars at the current rate of exchange.

Per the Bank Of Canada's inflation calculator, $76 Canadian dollars in 1970 would equate to around $597.47 today, or $436.62 in American dollars.

Annually, that's around $31,000 Canadian, or $22,700 in American dollars today, a modest sum by all accounts. For another level of contrast, the estimated per-episode salary for Shark Tank judges more than twice what Herjavic's father earned in a year.

When Robert grew up, like his father, he took many minimum-wage jobs — as a paperboy, a waiter, in retail, and as debt collector.

But Herjavic's breakthrough came when he was hired by IBM in spite of his atypical educational background, by agreeing to work free for six months.

He learned valuable lessons at IBM, and soon landed an even bigger opportunity, a general manager position at Logiquest.

Unfortunately, Logiquest fired him in 1990, and it looked like Robert was back to zero again. But he didn't give up, instead focusing on his internet security software, BRAK Systems.

This inspirational story's first chapter ended in 2000 on a decidedly upbeat note — AT&T Canada acquired BRAK Systems for $30.2 million.

Herjavec later founded a technology company, the Herjavec Group, which is now raking in a stunning $103.3 million in profit each year.

Herjavec invested more than $16 million in 57 companies on Shark Tank. His largest deal was with Zero Pollution Motors, securing 50 percent equity for $5 million.

3 Daymond John

Daymond John's Net Worth (Estimated): $350 Million

Like Robert Herjavec, Daymond John wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth — after his parents divorced, he got his first job at the age of ten.

A young Daymond distributed advertising fliers for $2 per hour; John was ten in 1979, and $2 in 1979 is worth around $9.15 today.

After doing odd jobs for a while, Daymond spotted a wool ski hat with fishing line on top, and he felt that they were overpriced at $20 each.

John started to stitch the hats the way his mother had taught him. He sewed 90 top-quality hats, and an archival New York Times profile of Daymond John from 1999 explained:

"The fashion rage at the time was wool hats with their tops cut off and tied with string. When Mr. John saw the hats being sold for $20, he corraled a next-door neighbor, Carl Brown, to help sew up a bunch.

"The two sold their homemade headwear for $10 a pop in front of the New York Coliseum. They made $800 in a single day, and a clothing label was born."

Daymond John had tasted victory, and he didn’t stop there — he started to sell screen-printed t-shirts and launched the iconic brand FUBU (For Us, By Us).

To turn his dream of building a big brand into reality, he worked a full-time job at Red Lobster, and at night he stitched together a brighter future.

Now, more than three decades later, FUBU has generated revenue of over $6 billion.

New York-born streetwear mogul Daymond John has invested in over 60 ventures in his time on Shark Tank.

John's most successful deal is considered to be Bubba's-Q Barbeque, on which he spent $300,000 for a 30 percent equity stake.

At that time, Bubba Q’s revenue was $154,000. In just three years, they increased sales more than 100 times over, to $16 million.

2 Kevin O'Leary

Kevin O'Leary's Net Worth (Estimated): $400 Million

Canadian-born businessman Kevin O'Leary's life was – unlike many of his fellow Shark Tank judges – not marked by struggle, as he comes from a business-oriented family.

However, Kevin's father died when he was just seven, and he was later diagnosed with dyslexia, something he later considered a strength in his business dealings.

O'Leary founded the software company Softkey, later renamed The Learning Company, which he sold to Mattel for $4.2 billion in 1999 ($7.98 billion in 2024 dollars).

However, the sale and its aftermath were described as "fraught," and a Wikipedia entry about Softkey detailed a chaotic transition:

"The sale proved to be fraught. A report from the Center for Financial Research and Analysis a few weeks after the merger highlighted the 'lack of proper due diligence by Mattel during the Learning Co. acquisition,' and listed numerous systemic problems with The Learning Company.

"A few weeks later, O'Leary, who had been hired as president of Mattel's new TLC digital division, sold his stock in the company for $6 million. In the fourth quarter of 1999, Mattel reported a loss of $184 million, reportedly due to poor sales and inventory problems.

"The stock price valuation of Mattel dropped $2 billion in one day. Michael Perik and Kevin O'Leary, founders and heads of the Learning Co, left the company."

As indicated above, due to lawsuits and huge losses, O’Leary sold his shares for $6 million and "left the company."

Shark Tank fans have dubbed Kevin "Mr. Wonderful" due to his dark wit and sharp retorts, but he is the most popular judge on Shark Tank for his straightforward approach.

O'Leary has invested $8.5 million in over 40 businesses, and his biggest deal was with Zipz. In that deal, he spent $2.5 million on a ten percent equity stake, marking it as the largest Shark Tank deal ever.

Kevin O'Leary's net worth has taken a hit in recent years, because he remains an avid investor in big stocks like McDonald's, Apple, and Pfizer, among others.

Broadly, traders (like O'Leary) have endured ongoing volatility with respect to their holdings since 2020, as the stock market has yet to stabilize following a "black swan" event — the pandemic.

Updated, May 2024: Kevin O'Leary was in the news in late May, due to his interest in "buying" the embattled app TikTok.

According to CNBC, O'Leary raised the idea of a TikTok acquisition as early as March, and his interest in doing so made headlines at the time.

On May 29th, Inc.com indicated that O'Leary's interest in buying TikTok hadn't abated, citing his recent Instagram reel and adding:

"O'Leary suggested the idea of buying TikTok back in March during a Fox News interview, remarking, in his customary straightforward style, that TikTok was 'not going to get banned because I'm going to buy it.'

"O'Leary's plan joins the queue: Earlier this month [of May], billionaire former L.A. Dodgers owner Frank McCourt also said he was going to launch a crowdfunded 'people's bid' to save TikTok. And Bobby Kotik, former CEO of gaming giant Activision, also said he'd be interested in the site.

"Meanwhile, TikTok continues to run its business as usual, and has joined other plaintiffs suing the government to overturn the ban-or-sale law. What on earth is going on?"

On May 30th, NewsBytes reported that Kevin took steps to attempt an acquisition of TikTok via crowdfunding:

"O'Leary has posted an item on the StartEngine crowdfunding site titled 'Mr. Wonderful's Plan to Buy TikTok.'

"He describes himself as a 'renowned entrepreneur with a 'sharp business acumen,' citing the $3.8 billion sale of his software firm The Learning Company as evidence.

"At this stage, he is not soliciting funds but inviting potential investors to make non-binding reservations, with plans to inform them when the offering launches."

1 Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban's Net Worth (Estimated): $5.5 Billion

American billionaire Mark Cuban is light years ahead of any other Shark Tank judge in terms of net worth, and is the only billionaire among the main Shark Tank judges.

Although Cuban comes from a middle-class family, his knack for business has been evident since childhood.

At the precocious age of twelve, Cuban sold garbage bags so he could buy expensive sneakers; in his teens, he sold stamp coins for pocket money.

At the age of 16, Cuban's business acumen came into play, after a notable newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, went on strike.

At an age when most teens are focused on proms and parties, Mark saw an opportunity, and he transported papers between Cleveland to Pittsburgh to leverage a hole in the market.

In 1982, when Cuban was just 24, he co-founded the brand MicroSolutions with his college buddy Todd Wagner.

When the company started to generate massive revenue, Cuban and Wagner sold the brand for $6 million. After taxes, they each walked away with $2 million.

In 1995, along with Christopher Jaeb, Wagner and Cuban co-founded Broadcast.com, an internet radio company. Just four years later, Yahoo acquired Broadcast.com (Audionet) for $5.7 billion in 1999.

Before the 1990s ended, Mark Cuban was already a billionaire, having netted more than $1 billion from the Yahoo acquisition.

In 2002, Todd and Mark co-founded 2929 Entertainment, a movie production and distribution company.

They have produced many notable projects, like Two Lovers, The Road, Serena, and Deadfall.

Mark Cuban kicked off his Shark Tank journey in the third season, and has invested around $29 million across 85 deals, the most deals of any Shark Tank judge.

In one notable deal, Cuban invested $2 million in the live horror event company Ten Thirty-One Productions, in exchange for a 20 percent stake.