LORI GREINER

Born December 9, 1969, in Chicago. She studied communications at Loyola University Chicago, worked for the Chicago Tribune in college, and wanted to be a playwright.

She sold jewelry on the side.\n\nIn 1996 she invented and patented a plastic earring organizer that held 100 pairs. She took out a $300,000 loan to make it.

JCPenney picked it up before the holiday season and she paid off the loan in 18 months.\n\nThen came home shopping TV. On her first appearance she had 2,500 organizers and sold out in four minutes.

She has sold on QVC since 1998, and in 2000 got her own show, "Clever & Unique Creations by Lori Greiner". That is where the "Queen of QVC" nickname came from.\n\nShe joined Shark Tank in 2012.

Scrub Daddy, her most famous investment ($200,000 for 20%), became the biggest success in the show's history. Her book, Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!, came out in 2014.

She does not run one company. She runs a consumer product machine.

For Your Ease Only, the company she founded in 1996, sells her own product lines on QVC and in retail. Then there is her Shark Tank portfolio (Scrub Daddy, Squatty Potty, Bantam Bagels, Drop Stop, FiberFix, Sleep Styler, ReadeRest and dozens more), plus licensing deals.

She holds more than 120 US and international patents. She is basically a one-woman consumer products conglomerate.

Greiner is a product-first investor. She doesn't care about your deck or your TAM.

She cares about one question: will this sell on QVC? If she can picture holding the product on camera and explaining why someone needs it in 60 seconds, she's in.

Her investment thesis is visceral, not analytical. She backs products she can physically demonstrate and immediately distribute through her QVC and retail relationships.

Scrub Daddy. She paid $200,000 for 20% on Shark Tank in 2012, when the smiling sponge had done only about $100,000 in sales.

Her own website now claims more than $2.9 billion in sales since that episode, 165-plus products, and shelf space in over 240,000 stores in 75 countries. Even if you knock that number down a lot, it is the deal every other shark wishes they had made.

Not every Shark Tank bet works. Greiner has invested in products that flopped — consumer products are inherently hit-or-miss.

She's spoken about backing products she loved personally that consumers didn't respond to. The specific losses are small individually (most deals are under $300K), but the occasional misread is part of the model.

Make something people need, make it easy to understand, and get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Greiner's philosophy is radically simple.

She believes great products sell themselves if you can explain them clearly. No complex marketing funnels.

No growth hacking. Just a great product, a clear pitch, and direct access to customers.

Married to Dan Greiner. They met at a sports bar in Chicago while she was at Loyola.

Dan left a manufacturing job to become vice president and CFO of her company, For Your Ease Only. In the early days he would stand in the crowd at her demos pretending to be a random shopper.

She calls him "a numbers guy" and herself the inventor.

Grew up on Chicago's North Side. Bachelor's degree in communications from Loyola University Chicago, and she worked for the Chicago Tribune while she was a student.

She originally wanted to be a playwright. The product business was a happy accident.

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