Kevin O’Leary is a venture capitalist who’s sometimes depicted as a ruthless and coldhearted investor with a motto which I’m sure anyone who’s watched the Shark Tank show knows is “It’s All About The Money”.

However, despite him putting up a “Terminator” image, he’s really had to overcome a lot to be where he is and his riches are as a result of helping children learn how to read so maybe he’s got a bigger soft spot than we may think and today our focus is on the “Tell it like it is” investor.

Kevin O’Leary Biography

Name:Kevin O’Leary

Born: July 9, 1954 (Quebec, Canada)

Nationality: Canadian

Occupation: Founder of SoftKey, Co-investor and Director of Storage Now, Co-founder and Chairman of O’Leary Funds, Venture capitalist in Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank and Co-host of The Lang and O’Leary Exchange.

Net Worth: $300M

Kevin O’Leary’s Early Life

Kevin O’Leary was born in Mount Royal, Quebec, to an Irish father who worked as a salesman and a Lebanese mother who worked as a seamstress. He however would experience living with only one parent as his parents divorced when he was still young and his father died after a while. O’Leary’s mother later on remarried.

When Kevin O’Leary was a student at St. Georges, he suffered from Dyslexia (Dyslexia is a developmental reading disorder in which the affected party finds it hard to read as a result of the brain not being able to interpret or understand certain symbols or processes) and Quilts blocks helped him learn math by understanding the basic concepts of mathematics e.g. multiplication and addition. Although O’Leary still found it hard to read, his teachers never tired helping him and they still kept him in the main class rather than leaving him behind as is the custom with students who are too dyslexic.

Kevin O’Leary later on studied at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean before proceeding to join the University of Waterloo where he received an Honors Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Psychology and in 1980, he received an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario.

Kevin O’Leary Ventures Into Business

Kevin O’Leary’s first company was born in the basement of his small Toronto home and he was in partnership with partners John Freeman and Gary Babcock. The trio started SoftKey, a software publisher whose products were intended for home audiences and Kevin O’Leary’s mother provided them with the initial investment capital of $10,000.

By 1994, SoftKey had become a major player in the education software market and had managed to acquire no less than sixty of its rivals; WordStar and Spinnaker being among them. In 1995, SoftKey spent $606 million in a move to acquire The Learning Company (TLC) and afterword’s, its headquarters was moved to Boston. The SoftKey Company used The Learning Company name as its official company name and in June 1998, The Learning Company parted with $416 million to acquire Brøderbund, its former rival.

In 1999, Mattel Toy Company acquired The Learning Company in a $3.7 billion stock swap and the deal was one of the largest ever done in the consumer software industry but the purchase by Mattel Toy Company was soon termed as one of the most disastrous acquisitions in history since Mattel’s sales and revenue declined soon after the acquisition.

Kevin O’Leary And The O’Leary funds

After Mattel Toy Company acquired The Learning Company, Kevin O’Leary took control of his

wealth from his lackluster money managers and founded O’Leary funds, his own mutual fund company. After O’Leary funds was born, Kevin O’Leary raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors who shared his “Get paid while you wait” investment philosophy.

In 2003, Kevin O’Leary became a co-investor and a director of Storage Now; a developer of climate controlled storage facilities. After some major acquisitions and development projects, Storage Now became Canada’s third largest operator of storage services working with companies like Merck and Pfizer and with facilities located in eleven cities. Storage Now was acquired by In Storage REIT in March 2007.

In March 2007, Kevin O’Leary joined the advisory board of Genstar Capital and he was later appointed to its Strategic Advisory Board to outsource new investment opportunities for its $1.2 billion fund.

Apart from serving on the executive board of the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario, Kevin O’Leary is also a member of the investment committee of Boston’s prestigious 200 year old Hamilton Trust, an investor and director of Stream Globe (an international business outsourcing company) and chairman of the O’Leary Funds. He’s also an investor in Discovery Channel’s Discovery Project Earth; a project aimed at exploring new and innovative ways that mankind can try and reverse climate change.

Kevin O’Leary The Author

Kevin O’Leary released his book, Cold Hard Truth: On Business, Money & Life in September 2011 and it’s within the two covers of the book that he shares his experiences and secrets on being a successful investor/entrepreneur as well as advice for upcoming entrepreneurs.

Kevin O’Leary: The Dragons’ Den And Shark Tank Investor

Kevin O’Leary is an investor in Dragons’ Den, a Canadian reality show

where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a group of investors who invest in ideas they deem profitable.

As an investor in Shark Tank, Kevin O’Leary is referred to as “Mr. Wonderful” (courtesy of himself of course) and his saying “All roads lead back to Mr. Wonderful” has become quite a sensation on the show.

Shark Tank is an American Reality TV show produced by Mark Burnett and aired on ABC television. The show basically involves entrepreneurs presenting their business ideas to a group of five investors better known as the sharks who are willing to invest in start-ups that they see as promising and if the idea is good enough, they’ll even fight each other for a piece of the cake (in monetary terms of course). The show first premiered on August 9th 2009 and it’s the US version of the Dragons’ Den.

He’s also hosted Redemption Inc. his own TV show.

Kevin O’Leary “The TV Linguistic”

Kevin O’Leary used the term “Indian giver” during a live Lang and O’Leary Exchange in 2010 but he later offered an apology after Alex Jamieson, an aboriginal individual filed a complaint. The CBC Ombudsman also condemned O’Leary’s speech.

In October 6^th 2011 during a segment on the Occupy Wall Street protest, Kevin O’Leary called Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges “a left-wing nutbar” on The Lang & O’Leary Exchange and Hedges responded by saying it would be the last time he would ever appear on the show. After the CBC ombudsman once again condemned his actions, Kevin O’Leary admitted that he had made a mistake during the interview by calling Chris Hedges “a left-wing nutbar” instead of comparing him to one.

Kevin O’Leary is a self-proclaimed “Eco-preneur” who looks for investments that are both profitable and environmentally friendly. He usually escapes on weekends together with his family to his luxurious cottage which spreads over prime Canadian wilderness on the shore of an ancient glacial lake.

“Here’s how I think of my money – as soldiers – I send them out to war everyday. I want them to take prisoners and come home, so there’s more of them”– Kevin O’Leary