How Did Shark Tank's Lori Greiner Make Her Money?

To become an entrepreneur on "Shark Tank," one has to be well-seasoned, have diverse business knowledge, and know how to mentor people less experienced and more naïve. Lori Greiner started out as an inventor herself, with a small investment and a big dream. She's gone from strength to strength and managed to accrue a whole lot of money for herself in the meantime.

For Greiner, the trick has been patenting her inventions, and starting out with small investments. Since founding For Your Ease Only in 1996, she's created new ways to store jewelry and beauty products. Her inventions are broad-reaching and include household items and electronics too. Her very first invention was an earring organizer that she sold to JCPenney. The money she made from the deal paid off her $300,000 business loan. Her success definitely didn't stop there, as she's made over 1,000 successful products since then. Greiner also holds 120 patents. Even more impressively, she sports a 90% success rate on her launched items.

QVC further expanded Greiner's reach. She initially appeared on the Home Shopping Network, but with its competitor, she has fostered a major foothold in the business world. She hosted the program "Clever & Unique Solutions by Lori Greiner" on QVC, where she introduced viewers to dozens of products. All of this has made her very wealthy, and her work with "Shark Tank" certainly hasn't made her poorer.

"Shark Tank" has managed to make Lori Greiner even wealthier than she already was. She's invested in a number of popular products that have come out of the series, from Scrub Daddy to Squatty Potty to Parting Stones. While some of her investments have done well only to fizzle out – Bantam Bagels temporarily became a frozen food sensation and a Starbucks darling available in 8,500 locations before being bought out by T. Marzetti and then divested from the brand — many have gained traction to become household names. Scrub Daddy, the Simply Fit Board, and the Sleep Styler alone have made over a combined $300 million. 

If you're looking to follow in Greiner's footsteps — even though Forbes named her the Shark least likely to close a deal — she has a book entitled "Invent it, Sell it, Bank it! – Make Your Million Dollar Idea into a Reality." Her advice? Sincerity and pride in your product will take you far. "When your name is on the product, you have a responsibility to make sure it's as good as it can be. Being genuine to my customers about my products is really important to me," she told Parade Magazine in 2017. "I never set out to be a millionaire. My driving force comes out of a creative need. I love creating products and sharing them with others." 

Thanks to "Shark Tank," she'll be doing so for years to come.