Kevin Harrington Speaker Biography
Inventor of the Infomercial, Original ‘Shark Tank’ Speaker, CEO, Entrepreneur, Sales and Marketing Expert
Original Shark Tank Speaker Kevin Harrington is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time. In 1980 Harrington started The Small Business Center and Franchise America. Kevin, as a real estate and business broker, sold thousands of businesses and then offered one stop services from accounting to insurance to advertising to finance and more.
Inventor of the Infomercial
While watching television one night in 1984, Kevin Harrington noticed that sometimes the only thing on the screen were the color test bars that stations ran when they had nothing else to air, thus giving Kevin the idea to produce the industry’s first 30-minute infomercial to fill that dead air space, which is what coined him the Inventor of the Infomercial.
Serial Entrepreneur
Since then, he has been involved with over 500 product launches that resulted in sales of over $4 billion dollars worldwide and 20 products that reached individual sales of over $100 million. By 1990, Kevin Harrington was named one of the 100 best entrepreneurs in the world (by Entrepreneur Magazine).
As Seen on TV
In the mid- 80’s he formed Quantum International which grew to $500 million in sales selling products in 100 countries in 20 languages. He then formed HSN direct in conjunction with Home Shopping Network and soon after formed Reliant International Media. Kevin also founded As Seen on TV, Inc. and acquired AsSeenOnTV.com, the world’s largest web site featuring as seen on TV products.
Clients
Harrington has worked with some of the biggest celebrities including Cee Lo Green, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, 50 Cent, Jack LaLane, George Foreman, Frankie Avalon, Paula Abdul, Montel Williams, Chubby Checker, Hulk Hogan, Kris and Bruce Jenner, Tony Little, Billy Mays and many more.
Original Shark Tank Investor
In 2009, Kevin was selected as one of the original ‘Shark Tank’ Sharks on the ABC hit show. As an innovator and pioneer in the industry, Kevin has been featured on over 150 Shark Tank segments over the last five years on both ABC and CNBC.
Marketing Expert
Kevin is regularly featured as an industry expert in numerous media outlets including the NBC Today Show, ABC Good Morning America, CBS Morning News, The View, the Wendy Williams Show, CNBC, Squawk Box with Jim Kramer, the Bethenny Show, Bloomberg, Fox Business, CNN, MTV, Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, Fortune, Inc., Wall Street Journal, New York Times and many more.
Affiliations
He went on and founded two global associations – ERA (Electronic Retailers Association), which is now in 45 countries and Young Entrepreneur’s Association (now EO – Entrepreneurs Organization) which boasts combined member sales of over $500 billion dollars.
Education
Original Sharktank Speaker Kevin Harrington is on the board of University of South Florida (USF) entrepreneur programs, and teaches regularly. He has also been involved with Moffit Cancer Research, and is constantly giving back to the community. Harrington’s recent book, Act Now: How I Turn Ideas Into Million-Dollar Products, details his life and achievements in the direct marketing world, and his business was used as a class case study for 12 years at Harvard/MIT, illustrating the essential principles of grass-roots entrepreneurship.
Kevin Harrington Speaking Topics
Learning from Success and Failure
In this highly requested talk, Harrington tells the story of how he became regarded as visionary with a knack for knowing what will sell and how to sell it. Residing on the cutting edge of innovation and business trends, Harrington helps audiences turn good ideas into sound businesses, and teaches them how to launch products that will compete in today’s market. Harrington’s keynote presentations are powerful and relevant making him one of the most in-demand speakers on the circuit today.
The Art of the Pitch
If you had one chance to deliver a knock out elevator pitch, could you do it? Or would you stumble and miss out on a potentially life changing opportunity? This finely tuned lecture was designed to ensure that you never fumble another pitch. Over the course of pitching and listening to pitches for more than 30 years, Kevin Harrington has synthesized the core principles of what to say, how to say it and just as importantly, what not to say.
The Definitive Guide to Translating College Opportunities into Career Opportunities
By the time Kevin was a junior in college, he had a 3.85 GPA and was on the Dean’s list by day. By night he had 25 employees and a business doing more than a million dollars in sales each year. In this tailored lecture, Kevin has extracted the specific strategies he employed as a student in order to help others make the most of their 4 years, while planning for the future. Whether it’s teaching students how to identify, capitalize on or create opportunities, Kevin has been engaged in helping students see and attain their goals for the better part of his adult life. Whether or not your goal is to follow in Kevin’s entrepreneurial footsteps, his business and life lessons can help you become more valuable and appealing to the job market after graduation.
Test Before You Invest
While an entrepreneur at heart, Kevin never jumps in head first; he always tests his ideas before he invests his capital. He will teach you his systematic approach to retail readiness and show you how to realistically and objectively approach your goals.
Kevin Harrington Books
Mentor to Millions: Secrets of Success in Business, Relationships, and Beyond
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Key Person of Influence: The Five-Step Method to Become One of the Most Highly Valued and Highly Paid People in Your Industry
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Act Now!: How I Turn Ideas into Million-Dollar Products
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Kevin Harrington Speaker Testimonials
Kevin’s innovative mindset is brilliant! His recommendation of our utilizing AT&T U-verse television content and AdWorks advertising solutions to market our newly developed Apps was a major WIN at our conference.
- Senior Vice President of Marketing, AT&T |
The conference more than doubled its participants from the previous year, in part because of the teaser featuring Kevin as a keynote speaker, along with his Pitch Tank panel. The conference received one of the highest ratings for a conference…
- Former CEO of E-trade, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Pennington Ventures, LLC |
Kevin’s presentation was excellent and was extremely well-received by our crowd and administrative staff alike. Kevin was passionate about getting to know each and every one of our general members that we brought to the VIP Event on Friday evening.
- Bryant University |
We were extremely happy working with Kevin. He went far above and beyond to make sure that our messaging was included in his keynote. His messaging was spot on and we definitely heard from the attendees that they liked what…
- Partner Development Manager, Microsoft |