Barbara Ann Corcoran

 Barbara Ann Corcoran (born March 10, 1949) is an American businesswoman, investor, speaker, consultant, syndicated columnist, author, and television personality. The Corcoran Group was a New York City real estate brokerage that she founded. NRT purchased it for $66 million in 2001. Corcoran eventually left the company. Corcoran, one of ABC's first Shark investors was a featured guest of each episode of Shark Tank. As of February 2020, she's signed 53 deals on the show, with the biggest being a $350,000 investment for 40% of Coverplay. Corcoran was the second of a family of 10 kids born to an Irish Catholic couple of working class in Edgewater, New Jersey. Florence Corcoran was Florence's mom and also a housekeeper. Her father, Edwin W. Corcoran Jr. was a bouncing from job to job during Corcoran's early years. Her family was sometimes dependent on food deliveries from an artisanal local grocery store for free food. Corcoran remembers her father as a man who sometimes drank too much and was rude to her mother and condescension, particularly when he was drinking. Corcoran struggled throughout her schooling, later learning that she had dyslexia. She attended a local Catholic elementary school, and then began high school in St. Cecilia High School in Englewood. Corcoran completed her studies at Leonia High School with a degree in English after having failed several classes during her first year of high school.