Kevin Harrington describes how he built a business around infomercials and expanded product distribution internationally. In this conversation, he shares lessons on investing, branding, deal flow and executing business ideas.
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About the guest
Kevin Harrington. Kevin Harrington says he began as a serial entrepreneur in the early 1980s, acquiring cable network airtime for product programming. He built As Seen on TV businesses, later became an investor, and says he invested in Celsius and appeared on Shark Tank for several seasons.
Key takeaways
- Harrington began by acquiring cable network downtime and placing product programming in those time slots.
- He says his company built a portfolio of infomercial products, took the business public, and expanded distribution internationally by licensing successful products for other markets.
- He says the company financed more than a thousand projects over time, including products such as Tony Little's Gazelle.
- After selling As Seen on TV businesses, he shifted toward investing in companies and helping them grow without serving as CEO.
- Harrington says his Celsius investment was supported by the product's claimed calorie-burning benefit and marketing through influencers rather than television.
- He says a lesson from Richard Branson was to build his own personal brand, not only the brands of the products and personalities he promoted.
- He recommends becoming a key person of influence through podcasts, books, content and video, and says podcast appearances helped promote one of his books.
- His incubator brings entrepreneurs together with specialists in areas such as digital marketing and takes equity in the businesses it helps.
- He looks for distinctive consumer products and says his team may help founders improve their pitch materials and prepare to raise money.
- Harrington emphasizes sustained execution, saying entrepreneurs need to act repeatedly on what they imagine, desire and believe.
Best quotes
"So, that's and then I owned As Seen on TV.com, As Seen on TV Inc. And and so I was a product guy."
"And so I started investing in in companies and saying, "I don't want to be the CEO, but I can help these companies get up and running and and and and take off.""
"So, what I started doing, I started creating brand building and I've wrote books. I've written now nine books."
"And it when you become a key person of influence, you're the go-to person in your industry and you can do this by doing podcasts."
"I have a saying whatever you vividly imagine ardently desire sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass and that's Paul J Meyer's that came up with that quote"
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