Terence Thomas Kevin O’Leary is a Canadian-Irish businessman, author, and television personality. He is widely known for his appearance on Shark Tank, an American television series featuring exchanges between budding entrepreneurs and already business tycoons.
Kevin O’Leary’s Net Worth 2017: $ 400 Million
O’Leary, or “Mr. Wonderful” in Shark Tank, is worth a whopping $400 million. After getting an investment from his mother, he founded SoftKey Software Products in his basement upon graduation from college. This tid-bit of his life shaped who he is today: a multimillionaire!
1986-2003
O’Leary started Softkey in a Toronto basement in 1986, along with business partners John Freeman and Gary Babcock. The company was a publisher and distributor of CD-ROM-based personal computer software for Windows and Macintosh computers. In 2003, O’Leary became a co-investor and director at StorageNow Holdings, a Canadian developer of climate-controlled storage facilities. StorageNow became the operator of storage services in Canada, with facilities in 11 cities, and was acquired by in Storage REIT in March 2007 for $110 million. He sold his shares, originally worth $500,000, for more than $4.5 million.
2004-2008
In March 2007, O’Leary joined the advisory board of Genstar Capital, a private equity firm that focuses on investing in healthcare services, industrial technology, business services and software. Genstar Capital appointed O’Leary to its Strategic Advisory Board to seek new investment opportunities for its $1.2 billion fund. In 2008, O’Leary co-founded O’Leary Funds Inc., a mutual fund company focused on global yield investing. He is the company’s chairman and lead investor, while his brother Shane O’Leary serves as the director. In 2006, O’Leary appeared as one of the five venture capitalists on the then-new show Dragons’ Den on CBC, the Canadian installment of the international Dragons’ Den format. On the show, O’Leary developed a persona as a blunt, abrasive investor, who at one point told a contestant who started crying, “Money doesn’t care. Your tears don’t add any value.”
2009-Present
In 2009, the American version of Dragons’ Den, Shark Tank, began. Shark Tank became a ratings hit, averaging 9 million viewers per episode at its peak in the 2014-15 season. It has also been a critical favorite, winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Structured Reality Program three times. In September 2011, O’Leary released his first book, Cold Hard Truth: On Business, Money & Life, in which he shares his views on entrepreneurship, business, finance, money, and life. A sequel, The Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women, and Money: 50 Common Money Mistakes and How to Fix Them, was published in 2012.
