They call Lori Greiner the "Queen of QVC" and it's not really an exaggeration. She's created over 700 products, holds 120 plus patents, and has been selling on QVC for decades. The woman understands retail products in a way that nobody else on the panel really does.
She grew up in Chicago and went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she studied communications. Her first big product was a plastic earring organizer that she designed, patented, and sold through QVC. It was a hit and basically launched her entire career. From there she just kept going, product after product, patent after patent.
On Shark Tank she came on as a guest shark in Season 3 and has been a regular ever since Season 4. She's known for having incredible instincts about whether a product will sell. She calls it knowing if something is a "hero or a zero" and she's usually right. Her biggest Shark Tank success story is probably Scrub Daddy, that smiley face sponge that became one of the highest-grossing products in the show's history. She also invested in Squatty Potty, which blew up after a viral marketing campaign and became genuinely unavoidable for a few years.
Lori tends to go for consumer products that she can put on QVC and in retail stores. If your business is a software company or a service, she's probably not your shark. But if you've got a physical product that solves a real problem and you can demonstrate it in under two minutes, she's the one you want making you an offer.
She also wrote a book called "Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!" which is basically her playbook for getting a product from idea to retail shelf. Worth reading if you're thinking about pitching a physical product anywhere, not just on the show.
Some highlights:
- Guest shark in Season 3, regular since Season 4
- Created over 700 products and holds 120+ patents
- Invested in Scrub Daddy, one of the highest-grossing products in Shark Tank history
- Invested in Squatty Potty, which went viral and became a household name
- Known as the "Queen of QVC" for her decades of retail product success
- Author of "Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!"