Successful entrepreneurs are good at failure.
It’s knowing how to recover that is a key trait of anyone looking to start a business, special guest speaker Barbara Corcoran said at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition Wednesday. Corcoran is an entrepreneur, author and celebrity investor on ABC’s TV series “Shark Tank.”
Corcoran shared with IRCE attendees her path to success. At age 23, Corcoran borrowed $1,000 to start a New York real estate company that she grew into a $5 billion business. In 2014, she launched Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners Syndicate, an angel list investing platform that allows would-be angels to co-invest with her on deals and business opportunities outside the realm of “Shark Tank.”
Corcoran also shared insights from some of the successful businesses she has invested in over the years, such as online retailer of baked goods Daisy Cakes. Corcoran invested $50,000 in exchange for 25% of the company after it pitched its business on Shark Tank in 2011. After the episode of Shark Tank aired, sales exploded, Corcoran said. The website crashed the next day and Daisy Cakes could only take so many orders on its one phone line.
“I thought that was it for this business,” Corcoran said, noting that losing all those sales after the website crashed was detrimental to the company. But within a couple days, Daisy Cakes owner Kim Nelson called Corcoran and told her she hotwired her phone line to Corcoran’s office so Corcoran’s staff could take orders. “That showed me she’s good at failure,” Corcoran said.
Corcoran has invested in more than 50 entrepreneurs and said only 20% of them are successful. In addition to adapting quickly to varying circumstances, another trait successful entrepreneurs have is competitive drive.
Corcoran invested $55,000 in exchange for 15% of Cousins Maine Lobster, a food truck selling lobster rolls, in 2012.
“These guys are competitive,” Corcoran said of the owners. “Sometimes I’ll call them up and tell them Luke’s Seafood is opening in a location and immediately their blood boils and they start thinking about expanding to that location. They’re that competitive.”
The competitive drive helped Cousins Maine Lobster to expand to 13 locations and garner more than $20 million in sales in 2016.
