Barbara Corcoran

Barbara Corcoran is the kind of person who makes you realize that grades don’t mean anything. She was a D student in high school, went through about twenty different jobs before she turned 23, and then borrowed $1,000 from a boyfriend to start a tiny real estate company. That company became The Corcoran Group, one of the biggest real estate brokerages in New York City, and she sold it for $66 million in 2001.

She grew up in Edgewater, New Jersey, one of ten kids. Went to St. Thomas Aquinas College and got a degree in education. After that she waitressed, did some cocktail waitressing, worked as a receptionist at a real estate office, and somewhere in there figured out she was really good at selling apartments. By 1974 she had her own brokerage.

On Shark Tank she’s been there from the very beginning and she’s probably the most fun to watch. She’s got this incredible ability to read people, which makes sense when you’ve spent decades in New York real estate. She tends to bet on the person more than the product. If she believes in the entrepreneur, she’ll make a deal even if the numbers are shaky. That’s made her a lot of money and also led to some interesting picks that the other sharks passed on.

She’s also the queen of the one-liner. Half the best moments on the show are Barbara saying something that makes the whole room laugh. She brings an energy that keeps things from getting too serious, which is important when you’ve got five rich people arguing about equity percentages.

Some highlights:

• Built The Corcoran Group into a NYC real estate powerhouse, sold for $66 million
• Original Shark Tank cast member since season 1
• Started her business with a $1,000 loan
• Author of “Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business”