Multi-millionaire investor Kevin O’Leary has earned his nickname, Mr. Wonderful, after 15 seasons of dealmaking on “Shark Tank.” Now, he’s using that reputation to launch a new venture with a cheeky play on his name.
Entrepreneur exclusively spoke to O’Leary, 70, about his latest endeavor, WonderAds, a television advertising agency he started with Philip Inghelbrecht, the founder of Shazam and CEO of Tatari, to give small businesses the same access to large-scale television advertising. The platform allows businesses to run and purchase ad campaigns they can track and optimize on their own dashboard.
Most private companies with less than 500 employees don’t know how to use television advertising, and have never known how to use it, O’Leary tells Entrepreneur.
“They go to a cable outlet, and they buy TV ads at some crazy price because they have no idea what they’re doing,” he says. “[WonderAds] solves all that.”
Related: Kevin O’Leary: Inflation Is Responsible for Restaurant Closures
The television advertising industry was valued at $235.9 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach over $337 billion by the end of 2024. O’Leary says WonderAds was created after he saw the complications that can arise from trying to buy and use television ads as a marketing technique with his businesses.
“We modernize the way TV advertising is done using technology. If you are a brand, really what it means is we’re going to give you the tools to measure the effectiveness of your ads and allow you to buy the TV ads,” Inghelbrecht said. “TV advertising has always worked, it’s just that it was hard to approach for people, if anything, it was deliberately kept opaque by the traditional agencies.”
WonderAds is essentially the “AI of television advertising,” O’Leary muses because it offers businesses the ability to buy smaller packages better suited to their needs (and budgets) instead of going to big networks and agencies and getting “bamboozled” into expensive ad campaigns.
O’Leary said now is the perfect time to introduce WonderAds because high inflation means businesses need to be “extremely specific” when spending marketing and advertising dollars.
“[Inflation] has affected everything because number one, it’s affected the cost of media,” he says. “But it’s also affected how much discretionary income, the consumer you’re going after has. And so they become very more discerning about what they’re going to buy in products and services.”
O’Leary’s portfolio includes over 85 businesses, including an estimated $8.5 million invested in roughly 40 “Shark Tank” businesses.
Related: Kevin O’Leary: Do Not Merge Finances With Your Spouse
“I’m not the kind of guy that promotes stuff for the sake of promoting it,” O’Leary says. I promote stuff that I’m eating and using and spending on because I know with certainty it works.”
O’Leary’s net worth is an estimated $400 million.
