Barbara Corcoran

Barbara Corcoran is an American businesswoman, investor and television personality who built one of New York City's best-known residential real estate brokerages before becoming a longtime investor on the reality competition series Shark Tank. She is widely recognized for her entrepreneurial story and her advocacy for small-business founders.

Early life

Corcoran was born on March 10, 1949, in Edgewater, New Jersey, one of ten children in a working-class family. She has spoken often about struggling academically as a child, including challenges she later attributed to dyslexia, and about working many different jobs before finding her path in business. She attended college in New Jersey and earned a degree in education before moving to New York City.

Career

In the early 1970s Corcoran started a real estate business in New York City with a modest loan from a business partner, building it into The Corcoran Group, which grew into one of the most prominent residential brokerages in the city. She became known for innovative marketing and for publishing influential market reports on Manhattan real estate. In 2001 she sold The Corcoran Group for a sum widely reported at roughly $66 million, establishing her reputation as a self-made entrepreneur.

Recent work

Corcoran became a household name as one of the original "sharks" on the ABC business reality series Shark Tank, where she has invested in and mentored numerous startups and small businesses since the show's debut in 2009. She has written books on business and entrepreneurship, including titles drawing on lessons from her own career, and she hosts a podcast and speaks frequently on business topics. Through her television work, investing and public speaking, she has remained a visible advocate for entrepreneurs and a recognizable figure in American business media. Corcoran has often recounted that she launched her business with a small loan, around a thousand dollars, and grew it into a brokerage responsible for billions of dollars in real estate sales before selling it. Beyond Shark Tank, which has won Emmy Awards as a reality program, she has competed on Dancing with the Stars, hosted the podcast Business Unusual and written books such as Shark Tales drawing on her path from a working-class upbringing to business success. A frequent media commentator on real estate and entrepreneurship, she has positioned herself as a mentor figure, emphasizing resilience, salesmanship and personality as keys to building a business. Her blunt, plain-spoken approach and frequent media appearances have made her one of the most recognizable business personalities on American television, regularly sought out for commentary on housing markets and small-business trends.