Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran (born March 10, 1949) is an American businesswoman investor speaking, consultant, syndicated columnist, author, and television personality. She was the founder of The Corcoran Group, a real estate brokerage located in New York City, which she sold to NRT for $66 million in 2001, and shortly thereafter exited the company. Corcoran was one of the original Shark Tank investors. She has appeared on every season of ABC's Shark Tank. She has been involved in 53 deals as of February of 2020. The largest was a $350,000 purchase to cover 40% of Coverplay. Corcoran was born in Edgewater, New Jersey, the second child of 10 from a working class Irish Catholic family. Florence Corcoran's mother was a homemaker. Edwin W. Corcoran Jr. became her father throughout Corcoran's early years. Her family often relied on free food delivery from a local grocery store. Corcoran remembers her father, one who would drink too much and treated her mother with disrespect and condescendingly, especially after he'd had several drinks. Corcoran struggled in school and later learned that she had dyslexia. Corcoran went to an area Catholic elementary school, and then began high school at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood. Corcoran, who had failed several courses in her first year of high school, was moved to Leonia High School. There, she received a D.