"They hit their targets 95% of the time" - Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says 90% of his returns have come from companies run by women

Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary uploaded a video on Instagram on May 12, 2025, where he claimed that 90% of his returns have come from companies run by women. The clip was taken from one of his recent TV interviews, where Kevin spoke about his companies run by women, on the occasion of Mother's Day.

"Almost 90% of my returns have come from companies run by women, particularly all the Shark Tank deals," he said in the video.

After sharing the companies' stats, the Shark Tank investor asked how these women achieved such success. Kevin explained that while companies often meet their goals, things get tricky when they do well—everyone wants to stay on the team, and there's little staff turnover.

Because of this, "no disruption in business," Kevin believes the women-run companies have such superior returns.

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Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary explains why women-based companies meet their targets on time but have a lower growth rate than men-based companies

In the interview clip uploaded by Kevin O’Leary, the Shark Tank investor shared that after looking at his yearly returns, he found out that almost 90% of his returns have come from companies run by women, particularly the ones that came from all Shark Tank deals.

Kevin was amazed by the numbers, especially since the women leading these companies didn’t know each other and had worked across 11 different sectors. He wondered how they were hitting such strong results on time. He added that private companies don’t worry about stock prices and instead focus on revenue and available cash.

After taking empirical data from "real businesses living and dying in America," he found out that in the companies run by men, the average growth rate for seven years was projected to be over 30%, with targets being hit 65% of the time.

Meanwhile, the average forecast for the growth rate women women-based companies was almost half, 15.9%. Even though they hit their targets 95% of the time.

"In the companies run by men over a seven-year period, the average growth rate that was projected by the CEOs was just over 30%, which is very aggressive. And they hit those targets 65% of the time, which I thought was fantastic," he said.

The Shark Tank star continued:

"Then we looked at the companies run by women over the same seven years. Their average forecast for growth rate was just over 15.9%, almost half. So I thought, you know, okay, so what? But they hit their targets 95% of the time. Why does that matter? I'm getting half of the growth, but I'm hitting the target."

While Kevin found that women-led companies were hitting their targets 95% of the time, compared to just 65% for men-led companies, he was puzzled that the growth projections for women-led firms were only 15.9%, nearly half of the 30% projected for men-led firms.

After further research, the Shark Tank star discovered that when teams consistently hit their targets, they feel secure in their roles and are rewarded accordingly, through bonuses and other incentives. This sense of stability encourages employees to stay, and according to Kevin, leads to what he calls "zero attrition of staff."

He emphasized that a consistent, stable team minimizes business disruptions and, in turn, allows for stronger long-term returns.

"When I saw this data, I held a conference down here in Miami at all my companies, and I said, "Guys, look at this data. It's real data. Let's drop our growth targets to where you can hit your numbers 90% of the time". And son of a gun, within 24 months, free cash went up 20%," he concluded.

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Shark Tank season 16 episodes air every Friday on ABC.