"90 seconds or less" — Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary reveals three attributes of making a successful pitch

Shark Tank mentor Kevin O'Leary shared a video clip via his Instagram on March 11, 2025. It featured him revealing three attributes of making a successful pitch for their product or service. Fans who watch the ABC reality show Shark Tank must know how vital it is to present a product/service in a way that people can understand easily.

Only after understanding the characteristics of your product or business are there chances of attracting more customers and potential investors. Referring to these essential factors, Kevin O'Leary opened up, and his tips could benefit entrepreneurs.

The Shark Tank judge captioned the video clip on the social media platform with the following:

"Want to nail a pitch? These three things must be right—100% of the time: 1. Explain your idea in 90 seconds or less. Nobody has time for a long-winded pitch. 2. Prove you can execute it. Great ideas are worthless without the right person behind them. 3. Know. Your. Numbers. If you don't, you deserve to burn in hell, and I'll put you there myself."

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Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary reveals his thoughts on making a "successful" pitch

While explaining your business/product, it is important that others understand it easily. Only after that there would be more potential customers, and that would attract more investors.

For that to happen, Shark Tank mentor Kevin O'Leary opened up about three important attributes that could help entrepreneurs give impressive pitches. The first thing to keep in mind was to finish your pitch in 90 seconds. He said:

"What makes a successful pitch? They're three attributes, so here they are. Number one, can you articulate the opportunity in 90 seconds or less? Because people are busy as hell, and the average time was 24 seconds."

The second thing was having "execution skills." As the Shark Tank mentor noted, everyone has a "great idea." However, real work starts when individuals have the skill to move forward with executing that idea. For that, he asked a few important questions, which were:

• What it is about you that can take it and make it work?
• Did you work for a competitor?
• Have you tried before and failed and figured out what you did wrong?

The last attribute that Mr Wonderful revealed was the "killer." He stated:

"And the last one, and this is the killer, because when you get the first two right, everybody wants a piece of the deal. They start asking about your numbers."

He mentioned that investors would be interested in learning facts such as how big is the market and how fast your product is growing. He also noted breakeven analysis, gross margins of different volumes, competitors and more.

The Shark Tank investor added that after getting the first two attributes right, it was important to get the numbers right:

"You deserve to burn in hell and perpetuity, and I'll put you there myself. If you get all three right, the probability of success goes up geometrically."

According to Kevin O'Leary, getting the factual data and numbers correct is the key to a successful pitch, among other factors.

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Viewers can stream Shark Tank Season 16 on ABC Network and witness Kevin O'Leary sharing his thoughts on the latest products and services featured on the series.