How do the sharks on Shark Tank tend to invest? Thanks to one angel investor and VC firm co-founder, we now have a handy guide.
Halle Tecco, co-founder and managing director of Rock Health, a seed VC firm that funds health-care/tech startups, is also a fan of watching Shark Tank, according to her Q&A in CNN Money. The angel investor took to Twitter this week to update her latest data on how the Sharks invest:
Playing around with my Shark Tank DB this morning and finding all sorts of interesting things http://t.co/BzwlTxk8p1 pic.twitter.com/5Q4j7LJTHY
— Halle Tecco (@halletecco) July 29, 2015
Can we just stop and pause for a moment on the fact that she keeps a Shark Tank database? Bad. Ass.
Tecco’s number crunching, based on Seasons 1-5, found that the women Sharks tend to favor investing in companies led by women. Barbara Corcoran invests in female-led companies 47 percent of the time, while Lori Greiner’s female-led deals land at 29 percent.
Greiner still invests in men more than women, with 53 percent of her deals going to men. The men tend to favor companies run by men, with Robert Herjavec leading the way — 74 percent of his deals are with male-founded companies.
Interestingly enough, all the Sharks have invested less in companies with mixed founders (men and women), with percentages in the teens.
If you go into Tecco’s charts, in addition to noting gender, she breaks down Seasons 1-6 by company, industry, deal, amount invested, equity and valuation.
Here’s something else to chew on: According to Tecco’s data, women close about half the deals that men do at about half the average valuation. She has 67 deals closing for women with 142 for men. The average valuation for a women’s deal is about $760,000, and for men it’s around $1.5 million.
Mixed groups continue to perform just as badly here: Only 40 deals have closed, but at a higher valuation around $1 million.
Keep in mind that more male-led companies pitch the Sharks, which is a big reason why they probably receive more investment dollars. Tecco’s charts have 295 male-led companies pitching vs. 125 female-led companies.
Here’s hoping we see more women and mixed teams pitching the Sharks soon.
