Kevin O'Leary: Mr. Wonderful

[Lisin]

He always has some crazy deal, and has always had whatever business the "contestants" are attempting to run.

[Kromm]

He's the one who doesn't even pretend to care about the people involved, but wants the money most.  But it plays well image-wise for him in a way, because it makes him seem like the "Simon" of the show.

[fivestone]

Kevin is my absolute favourite. I love that he won't B.S. you. If he says that your product, pitch, etc. are excellent, you can bet that he's sincere about it. If I went on the show and got the green light from Kevin that would be one of the highest compliments I could get.

[MrMattyMatt]

I do like how Kevin does not sugar-coat anything, however I get the impression that he's just on the show for his amusement and could really care less.  Very rarely is he seriously interested in anyones ideas and when he wants to "play" he gives an offer that really has zero risk.  Smart, yes, Nice, not so much,

[A Boston Gal]

It's just dawned on me that even though Kevin always asks if an idea is "proprietary" or not (and then will give examples of how he can recreate it instantly if the answer's no), I've seen him make many (but not generous) offers on non-patented ideas. I think he'll make an offer if 1) someone else seems to sniff out an opportunity, or 2) if the presenter is really impressive.  Seems like his Gold Standard is the Patent, but failing that, he might give you a hard time, but won't automatically rule you out.

[hurrrz]

I like him, even though he comes off as a greedy f#ck sometimes. The good thing about that though is that when he offers you a deal, it should bring you money as well, as long as you keep enough equity in your company. :D

[Amarsir]

I wonder if this show needs Kevin anymore.

In the Canadian version and Seasons 1/2, a fair number of pitches were just bad ideas. A complete waste of time and money on the inventor's part. And Kevin's "Mr. Wonderful" personality played a valuable role: he told them to stop. This is actually a kind thing to do. When someone has spent 10 years and their life savings on a product that clearly has no future, someone has to slap them out of it before they wind up homeless. His willingness to tell them that with no punches pulled was good for everyone.

However, with less than half a percent of all applicants making the show now, Shark Tank doesn't have that problem. Even people with disasterous pitches are rarely of the "quit this immediately" variety. More often it's a bad pitch, not ready for investment, that needs a new direction. They need advice and a reality check but not a wet blanket.

Furthermore in Season 1 Kevin was the most experienced. His habit of doing summations and willingness to make ( exorbitant) offers on stuff no one else would kept the show going. But now anyone can do the "you have 3 offers" summary and his offers are so frequently ignored that I have trouble remembering he made one.

So I wonder if he plays any needed role on the show anymore. His areas of expertise - finance and wine - aren't so common to be worth devoting a chair. Playing the "bad guy" isn't often necessary and the other sharks (notably Cuban) can lash into someone who deserves it even better than him. And he doesn't make enough competitive offers to add value on that end. (Although I have liked some of the more creative structuring ideas he's brought in from time to time - from royalties to straight payback to venture debt.)

Kevin recently appeared on 20/20 doing a segment where he taught recent college graduates how to sell. (With a big dash of self-promotion for Wicked Good cupcakes.) He has good insight and is good on TV, but I don't know if this is the show for him anymore.

[Katmai]

I gave Wicked Good cupcakes a whirl for my hubby's birthday last year. They tasted alright, but very, very sweet/too sweet (and I'm one with a sweet-tooth!). Glad I got it out of my system to try them, but I won't order them again. They are expensive for what they are and only last two weeks in the fridge.

[Wings]

I could not remember any deal Kevin made until I read about the cupcakes here.  I had forgotten. 

 

He adds to the cast and I cannot imagine this show without him.  I enjoy his cantankerous approach.  No one ever falls for his royalty deals but he just keeps on making them!   

[fivestone]

I wish more people would take him up on his offers. I think he could be a good strategic partner.

[roseha]

I'm not sure Kevin is losing deals because of his on air personality, I think he lets Lori, for example, undercut his offer (usually) and if it's not good value to him he just doesn't care.  I would like to see him get more deals though, he's a smart guy.  I think they could balance things out if Lori wasn't on every single week and so ready to undercut on every deal.

[retrograde]

Kevin is the de facto host of the show. I'm sure he's happy making deals when they suits him, but he's really just there to promote himself. I mean, I guess all the sharks are -- as the money they make on even the successful products are pocket change to them -- but where the others seem more interested in proving their business savvy via deals and success stories, he just wants to promote himself as a ruthless capitalist, and he does that very successfully without making deals by being the biggest personality and appearing in control of the proceedings (which he is).

[yeswedo]

Kevin is the de facto host of the show. 

 

I've never liked that 'what are you going to do?' line from him. Since it's his assigned job I'll try to stop getting annoyed. The 30 second stare-down sounds really rough for the entrepreneurs. 

[Dots And Stripes]

I think Kevin has been getting a bad wrap in the episode threads. I agree that he doesn't necessarily care about getting a deal. He's talks about wanting to get his money back. I don't think Kevin wants to do 10 deals and hope 5 work out well enough to pay for the others. He sort of knows his role as the miser. Presenters seem to get a kick out of the whole Mr. Wonderful thing too. I appreciate the fact that he has a strong personality, which is what you need on a tv show. 

 

Meanwhile Robert sits at the end not getting many deals either. I think both are hampered by the fact that they don't have as strong of a hook as Lori or Damon. You want QVC, go to Lori. You want to manufacture clothing, go to Damon. To me, Robert seems less willing to accept his place as a less favored partner. He looks like Charlie Brown constantly having the football taken away by Mark or Lori. 

[Cherry Cola]

Kevin has grown on me.  I think he likes to come off as a bad ass with, your dead to me, etc.  But, I don't think he seems like he is really a mean person.  

[cooksdelight]

Kevin has announced he is running for prime minister of Canada!!

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/19/politics/canada-kevin-oleary-conservatives/

[The Crazed Spruce]

And here's his former co-star on Dragon's Den (the Canadian version of Shark Tank) weighing in on the topic...

[cooksdelight]

Jealous, much? LOL

He said on GMA this morning that there must be something about working for Mark Burnett that spurs people on to run for office. HA

[rhys]

I find his idea about running for office intriguing.  He seems money/business smart but I saw him on Jeopardy and he was awful. Course I don't remember topics & questions. I Just recall being surprised at how bad he was. He also mispronounced Persephone once on Shark. I was gobsmacked at that. But I suppose neither of those disqualifies him from office.

[statsgirl]

15 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

Jealous, much? LOL

It's not jealousy -- she was a far more popular dragon on Dragon's Den than O'Leary.

They clashed a lot, A LOT, because Arlene was willing to support projects that had a social benefit or good ideas that wouldn't necessarily make a million in the first year and O'Leary was all about money, money, money.  I used to listen to him on the Lang-O'Leary report, or rather I listened to Amanda Lang and muted O'Leary when I was ready to throw the TV out the window.  He's about money, and about his own narcissism.  He's say outrageous things like it's a good thing that the richest 8 people in the world have as much money as the poorest 50% because it encourages people to want to be in the rich group and he really believes it.  As she said, he bails when it looks like he might lose.

He's not that smart but he is cut throat and probably thinks he can ride in on Trump's coat tails.  If he actually thinks he could be the leader of the country, he's delusional. Probably wanting to make his name more well known.

Edited January 20, 2017 by statsgirl

[Amarsir]

Arlene was slightly selective in her memory. Kevin has given to charity, even in the guise of a Dragon, and she knows that. What he opposes is the idea of presenting as an investment and getting sympathy as a charity. 

That said, of course he's cartoonish. And rather than breaking from that character to enter politics, he's using it. It is absolutely a coattails strategy and I don't think it will work. But then I didn't predict the US result either.

[mtlchick]

Quote

Kevin has announced he is running for prime minister of Canada!!

He's running for the leader of the Conservative Party.  Should he win that, he can challenge Trudeau for the job in 2019 (or earlier depending on what happens in parliament.)   

[statsgirl]

Kevin O'Leary has made donations to charity. On his own terms i.e. giving money and getting a tax benedift for it.

What Arlene Dickinson was referring to is Hope Blooms,  A dietician in a food desert area of Halifax, Nova Scotia found an abandoned garden site and got the city to donate it.  She and a group of kids (there's 40 now) cleaned it up and started growing plants, which they then made into salad dressing.  They went on Dragon's Den to ask for $10,000 to build a greenhouse on the land.  At that time there were five dragons. Four of them were so impressed, they offered $10,000 each.  Kevin O'Leary was the one hold-out because it wasn't going to make him enough of a profit.

It turned out to be a success story.  Local businesses bought their product and helped them get a new kitchen, and they couldn't keep up with the demand.  The kids learned about healthy eating and  how to work hard and run their own business.  And all of the original kids went on to  university.

As far as I know, the dragons got their initial monetary investment back and maybe some more on top of that.  But in terms of investing in young people and the future of their country, the returns were even greater which is what Arlene was talking about.  For Kevin O'Leary, it's only about how much money he gets to put in his own pocket.

O'Leary has now started a Facebook war with Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne.  He says how badly Ontario is doing, she replies with facts (as opposed to "alternative facts") and he doesn't deny that she is right.  So he's willing to lie and distort reality to get people riled up so they'll support his bid for power.  Sounds all too familiar.

Edited January 24, 2017 by statsgirl

[sadiegirl]

That Hope Blooms episode is one of my favorites.  I still tear up if I catch it in re-runs.  I could not believe that Kevin would not toss in 10K with the rest of them.  And just for the record, the other dragons did not ask for equity in the business.  The first one to offer was David (my fave) and he said he didn't want any equity, he wanted everything to go back into the business.  And I think the others followed suit.  But even if they got their money back, obviously the return they might get on 10K was not why they did it.  They did it because, to me, they all seem to have a heart.  Kevin, not so much.

[KaveDweller]

Kevin was in a boat accident where two people were killed this past weekend.

https://deadline.com/2019/08/shark-tank-kevin-oleary-fatal-boat-crash-two-people-killed-1202706945/

[DEL901]

There is now a lawsuit for wrongful death.

https://nationalpost.com/news/kevin-and-linda-oleary-sued-for-wrongful-death-by-family-of-boating-crash-victim