Like all successful men, Kevin O’Leary is a study in contrasts.
On CBC-TV’s Dragons’ Den (which returns to the air Wednesday night at 8) and ABC’s Shark Tank (back on Friday at 9 p.m.), the Montreal native has become known as the bombastic investor who routinely dashes the dreams of budding entrepreneurs, quite often in the most withering manner imaginable. “Life is hard, money doesn’t care and your tears don’t add value,” was his brutal assessment of one product pitch.
The softer side of Kevin O’Leary can be found on his Twitter page, where he posts frequently on his business dealings (“I’m thinking good investment themes for 2010 will be pharma, health care, energy and biotech”) and his fabulous life (“Dinner tonight at the Auberge de Dully in Switzerland … Best roast chicken on earth!”).
Either way, the man knows his business. In 1999, O’Leary sold his software company to the Mattel Toy company for a staggering $3.7-billion (U.S.) – still one of the largest deals in consumer software history. Soon after, he founded O’Leary Mutual Funds, where he’s still chairman.
Love him or hate him, O’Leary is very likely the reason why more people are watching Dragons’ Den (CBC, 9 p.m.), which has passed the two-million viewer mark this season. He’s also the sharp counter to business reporter Amanda Lang on The Lang & O’Leary Exchange on CBC’s The National . How did a simple billionaire become such a Canadian TV fixture? Meet the man behind the mouth.
Why do some people think you’re such a mean guy?
I don’t consider myself to be mean at all. I just tell the truth. I don’t think there’s any room for being grey when it comes to money. In many cases these entrepreneurs are spending their own family’s capital and they’ve never really market-tested the idea. They’ve never gone to an investor that’s indifferent and has no relationship to them. If they don’t like the outcome of that, I’m sorry for them. If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
Are some Dragons’ Den contestants undone by their own cockiness?
Few days ago, I conducted an exclusive interview with 2008 Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Ben Gulak from Milton, ONT where Ben gave an update of what happened after his 2008 TV pitch and shared some latest info happened after the Nov 11th, 2009 CBC Dragons’ Den update show.
Hello Fans of CBC Dragons’ Den and readers of Dragonfly on the wall,
You may have been wondering why the silence in the last few weeks and no reviews of the recent episodes? Well, I am still a big fan of Dragons’ Den and watch every episode but I have been busy with other things. And it takes time to write a good entry.
Don’t worry, I am still going to post new entries here from time to time. In fact, I am in touch with one of the cool Dragons’ Den entrepreneur. (Please see the following update)
*******
Nov 26, 2009 Update: I’ve done an interview with Ben Gulak (remember Uno?) yesterday. I will try to find some time to complete the research and processing of the interview and will post it soon. Stay tune.
This episode of Dragons’ Den recaps what happened to some of the memorable entrepreneurs plus hearing from the Dragons talking about “the deals, the disasters, and the ones that got away“.
I love this episode and it is one of my favourite. Watch episode 7 online.
P.S. By the way, at the moment I don’t have any more to add about Dragons’ Den Season 4 episode 6, so I will leave it at Trevor’s Schmotoboard audition video I already posted.
I am so happy to watch Calgarian Trevor Bielby getting a deal for his Schmotoboard at Dragons’ Den tonight. I will write more about the deal and the episode later. In the mean time, here is a video of Trevor showing off his Schmotoboard at the Calgary audition in March.
Product: Yummy Dough
Pitcher Timothy Kimber & Stefan Kaczmarek
Hometown Ottawa, ON
Ask 500K for 25%
Description This cross-Atlantic business duo hope to take a bite of the toy market with their edible modeling clay.
Comments:
I think the offer is 500K investment (in Canada) for 10% revenue until the 500K is recouped and then the perpetual (i.e. forever) royalty rate is reduced to 3.5%.
I think Kevin (?) said it right, after an appropriate Canadian advertising and marketing campaign, the success or failure of the business may be quickly found. As a side note, in our age of H1N1, when the kids (and adults) are told to wash their hands and don’t put stuff in their mouth, I don’t know enough about children and parenting to tell if much will be changed. May be, may be not. Don’t know enough to say.
Mind you, if the dough is played in a home environment where hands can be washed first and then the dough be put into an oven to be baked into cookies, may be that will be ok for parents. Again, I don’t know.
At least the dough is selling in Germany. And some current sales data and trends can be obtained. For example, it will be interesting to see if and by how much sales have been affected by H1N1.
Product: Pro Elvis Jumpsuits
Pitcher Eleanor & Tim Boetticher
Hometown Nanaimo, BC
Ask 30K for 30%
Description A husband and wife duo from Nanaimo, BC don’t want to sing the blues over their business that costumes Elvis impersonators worldwide.
Comments:
I love this “feel good” deal with Brett and Robert each investing $5,000 for 5% each and providing a loan of $20K.
Eleanor does great tailoring work and her Elvis jumpsuits are so cool and well-made that even I want to dress up as Elvis. If the due diligence of the business and financials checks out as I suspected, I am pretty Eleanor & Tim will work their butts off to honour their loans and make it a money making business.
“Warren Buffett talked to Evan Davis at the headquarters of his company, Berkshire Hathaway, in Buffett’s native Omaha, in the mid-Western state of Nebraska.
Buffett shares his ideas about the current financial crisis, his investment philosophy, and his one indulgence – his private jet.
The Money Programme special ‘The World’s Greatest Money Maker: Evan Davis meets Warren Buffett’, Monday, 26 October, on BBC Two at 2100.”
Product: Fortune Teller Card Game
Pitcher Cary Lucier
Hometown Windsor, ON
Ask 150K for 10%
Description A Windsor, ON casino dealer hopes the Dragons will take a gamble on his new black jack game.
Comments:
Brett offer: 150K for 100% of company and 50% royalty, money totally contingent on Cary Lucier striking deals with casinos. On some level, the risk can be pretty much held to minimum as Cary needs to make some money in deals with casinos first.
If the are totally in favour of the casinos, I don’t know how long will it take for the gamblers to catch on and not play it.
*******
Deal two
Product: MyCellMyTerms.com
Pitcher Kye Husbands & Paul Peic
Hometown Toronto, ON
Ask 400K for 33%
Description These Toronto, ON entrepreneurs hope to call in a dragon investment for their website that finds clientele the best deal in cell-phone contracts.
Comments:
Brett and Arlene offered 100K cash each and 200K in marketing services. I don’t remember hearing the profit margin on the show so I am not sure if this is a good deal or not. With the launch of more affordable wireless services like Wind Mobile in 2010 (?), I am not sure how sustainable this type of business is.
Source: digital photo by Larry MacDougal for The Globe and Mail
Calgary, Alta.—14/10.2009—CBC Dragons Den’s, businessman and entrepreneur Brett Wilson (left) repels down the side of the Calgary Tower with pro climbing partner Byron Smith (right) during an event to raise funds for the charities called The Sir Edmund Hilary Foundation of Canada and also AARC (Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre). The downtown area oif Calgary can be seen behind.
Two deals tonight going forward to the due diligence stage. See below for my comments.
Good to read from Brett’s Twitter feed that CBC Dragons’ Den has 1.3 million views for season 4 episode 1, and then 1.5 million for episode 2. The show should make some good and needed money for CBC (and CBC can really use the money).
*******
Product Miners Lunchbox
Pitcher Catherine Langin
Hometown Sudbury, ON
Ask 150K for 30%
Description A Sudbury woman hopes to whet the Dragons’ appetite with her father’s historic metal lunchbox.
My Comments: 50K cash and 100K loan (provided with good terms and protection) should be a good deal for Brett. The deal is probably also good for Catherine to get some cash out (though not much) and a needed loan to make the products (I think?). I hope this will be a win-win deal for Catherine and Brett.
Note: Depending on how the loan is structured, and how well the company is run, I am not sure if it will be a win for Brett if he ends up owning the brand if the company defaults on the loan. Lets think positive. :)
*******
Product Cavena Nuda
Pitcher Scott Sigvaldson
Hometown Winnipeg, MB
Ask 250K for 20%
Description A Winnipeg, MB farmer needs seed money to bring his new grain from the field to the food industry.
My Comments: 250K for 50% of the company (?). Jim’s Boston Pizza and food industry experience should work out great for Scott. This deal has all the ingredients for a win-win outcome. I am interested to see how this deal will turn out. Best of luck to Scott and Jim.
What an interesting opportunity for Brett to chat with President Bush on Oct 21st, 2009. Whether one agrees with or disagree withPresident Bush’s actions and decisions during his presidency, it must be a great opportunity to chat with him on stage.
I wonder what are the themes and types of questions Brett will be asking President Bush?
P.S. I just noticed that both have initials of “W”. :)
Last night episode of Dragons’ Den was pretty enjoyable for me. Here are a few observations,
* The deals the Dragons have been proposing are a lot more “creative” these days and, in some sense, less “risky” for them. Many of the offers contained loans and these loans can help the entrepreneurs as long as they are structured correctly and the interest charged “fairly” for the type of business/risk.
* The warrants and options work great for the Dragons but, very often as seen on episodes 1 & 2, much less so for the entrepreneurs. Some of the deals involving warrants and options proposed by Kevin in the first two episodes this season sounded more like daydreaming or creative drafting in a business school finance class.
* I admire Arlene’s insight and offering of marketing services as part of deals she proposed. At the same time, I will be showing my bias and less than honest if I don’t mention these marketing services are less costly to Arlene (and with a built-in normal profit margin). Part of me also sees this as a way to get around the Dragons’ Den rule of needing all the cash asked for or “no deal”. Oh well. Looking at this from another angle, when I try to negotiate a better deal with a company, I usually don’t accept “store credit” unless I have a fixed-term contract with the company already (i.e. I have to pay them regardless of the current deal).
* Modrobes looks interesting and if the due diligence pans out, the deal (loan & equity) Brett has may turn out to be a good one. I look forward to learning more about the business from Brett.
* While I wrote that I don’t want to review businesses with failed pitch, I can’t help but talk about Jim & Kim Georgopoulos of Freeze N’ Snip. $250K spent in developing a final product with very limited market (certainly not in the scale that matches the $250K spent) was a big enough hole that Jim wants to fill and prove that the whole thing was not a mistake. But sadly it was a mistake. Kim, being a dutiful wife, had to support Jim whole heartedly on TV (this is why wife/husband is exempted from testify against her/his spouse in court).
I hope Jim will snap out of the freezie snipper idea as it is not really a business.
Good to see all Dragons back healthy and breathing serious fire!
note: I am not going to comment on the non-businesses as the “fun” factor for me to review them has dropped to practically zero. I see little point in beating up ill-thoughtout businesses.
I don’t know much about cosmetic so I won’t comment on Mistura Beauty much other than to say the cosmetic industry is one that takes a lot of marketing and advertising dollars to build and not an easy industry to build a reliable and solid business in. I see Brett has a few other related business and getting into the cosmetic business may make sense to him.
“We Buy Gold”/”The Gold Network” (website??)
Potential problems with Tim Wallis’ ”We Buy Gold”/”The Gold Network”:
Trust is one big challenge in this business. Can Mr. Wallis be trusted? I don’t know Tim at all so I don’t know. Can the whole network of retailers be trusted to do the business fairly and honourably? In the age of online social media, it only takes a few bad apples to expose frauds and problems and breaking any public trust. Even Ontario Lottery has problems with its retailers.
May be I am too old school for this type of business but I value my business reputation deeply. So while the “gold” business may be a short run cash machine, it has one major problem. The problem is if some of these “retailers” decide to do business less honest than they should, the financial liabilities will be rest on the well-known Dragons/investors. And if the Dragons/investors wish to keep their reputations intact, they will have to pay up (even legally they don’t need to).
“We thought they [the LTCM people] were very smart people,” says Munger. “But we were a little leery of the complexity and leverage. We were very leery of being used as a sales lead. We knew others would follow if we got in.” Munger thought Long-Term wanted Berkshire as a “Judas goat.” “The Judas goat led the animals to slaughter in the stockyards,” he says, recalling Omaha. “The goat would live for fifteen years, and of course the animals that followed it would die every day as it betrayed them. Not that we didn’t admire the intellect of the people at Long-Term.”
Last week, I had had the pleasure of attending Brett Wilson’s yearly charity Garden Party. Each year, party guests are invited to make a donation to a featured charity. And this year over $100,000 was raised to fight blindness through 777 Run for Sight where Norma Bastidas is “running 7 ultramarathons [over 100 km each] in 7 continents in 7 months to raise funds for the blind and the visually impaired.” (see my earlier blog entry here)
It was very enjoyable listening to The Canadian Tenors performing at the party. And the highlight of the party for my better half and me had to be listening to the beautiful and accomplished Sarah McLachlan performing with the Tenors (singing Tenors’ Hallelujah) and then performing a few solos. Sarah’s performances were just beautiful and wonderful for us as it was our first live & really up close performance by Sarah!
So to me, Sarah & Brett seems to be more than just friends, but then only they really know! :) :) In person, Brett & Sarah are just super nice and very friendly people. I think it is in part of our Canadian DNA to be nice and friendly. :)
P.S. The following are better quality videos [recorded elsewhere] of the songs we had the pleasure to listen to at the party that evening. Enjoy.
P.S. Special thanks to CBC for posting these full & uncut interviews. You see, my point has always been that the work has been done, paid for, why not simply post the full interviews online somewhere for people who like to watch it? Like CBC posting this full interview of one of my hero, Louise Arbour.
Posted by kempton 
