Source: New York Post, Cindy Adams

August 13, 2009

YOU know about ABC-TV’s newest thing “Shark Tank” by Mark Bur nett, who’s fashioned reality shows about everything except athlete’s foot, right? This one’s about cre ators pitching to entrepreneurs in hopes of seeking capital. Only woman on the panel is Barbara Corcoran, who founded then sold the Corcoran real estate group. The show is in its early stages, and this lady has already invested $1 million of her own money.

Myself being a deep thinker and financial whiz, I said to her, “Barbara, you nuts?”

“Some of these ideas are great,” she said between breaks in the filming in LA. “I’ve bought into 14 businesses already. Like I put $150,000 into the pie maker.” Pies? She wants pies? For $140,990 less, she could’ve gotten a blueberry one on my corner.

“This Todd Wilson fellow makes sweet-potato pies, which you can freeze. I love sweet-potato pies.”

Yeah? So?

“So I now own 50 percent of his company. The Tiffany Elephant lady? Whose little elephant idea dispenses medicine doses for children? Besides financial and marketing advice, I gave her $50,000 and now own 51 percent. So far I’ve spent $1 million in cash. I thought maybe I’d spend that during the whole run of the series, but I’ve already gone through that and we’ve just started on the air.

“Look, these people can’t get loans from their local banks. They’re in the same position I was when at 23 I started my real estate firm. So I now want to help them. See, I made money when I sold my business so I have some to spend. But it’s not altogether altruistic. I believe in these concepts and hope to make money off them. My husband, however, who has no business sense, is staring at me, my son, who has business sense, is saying things like, ‘Come off this already,’ and I won’t repeat what my mother says.”

And will the show’s compensation make up for what she’s spending?

“Oh, please. I get a fee per show. Between these investments and the wardrobe I need for TV, it’s costing me a fortune . . . but I tell you one thing, to me these ideas still look safer than the stock market.”