Austin Jewelry Mogul Kendra Scott has joined the cast of Shark Tank as a guest shark.
The 12th season of the Emmy-award winning entrepreneurial pitch show kicks off Friday, Oct. 16th at 7 p.m. central time on ABC News. The show features scrappy entrepreneurs looking for funding for their bright ideas.
Scott is an accomplished entrepreneur who founded her own jewelry business 19-years-ago in a spare bedroom of her house with just $500. At the time, she also had a three-month-old son. She overcame so many obstacles while building her namesake jewelry company into the global powerhouse brand it is today.
Today, Kendra Scott has over more than 2,000 employees, 100 standalone stores across the US and is sold in premiere retailers including Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, and 600 specialty boutiques worldwide and boasts a thriving web business. It has also expanded into fine jewelry, home décor, and beauty products.
In a promo for the show, Scott tells a person pitching the sharks “I’m one of only 20 women who have built a billion-dollar brand and I can help you become a unicorn too.”
In 2019, Scott made Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women with an estimated net worth of $550 million, according to Forbes.
Last year, Scott launched the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute, known as the WEL Institute, at the University of Texas at Austin. And this year, she joined the faculty at the university to co-teach Women in Entrepreneurship. Scott is a professor of practice in the College of Fine Arts. She teaches the class along with Jan Ryan, professor of practice and executive director of the Center for Creative Entrepreneurship. The course is being taught online.
The other guest sharks to join for Season 12 of Shark Tank include Daniel Lubetzky, founder and executive chairman of Kind Snacks, Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS, and Alex Rodriguez, three-time MVP and 14-time All-Star, World Series Champ baseball shortstop and third baseman and CEO of ARodCorp. The guests join the regular cast of Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Robert Herjavec, Daymond James, Kevin O’Leary, and Lori Greiner.
Several Austin-based startups have appeared on Shark Tank throughout the years including Eterneva, a diamond memorial company, EverlyWell, an at-home testing company, PopUp Play, an app for customized playhouses, Chi’Lantro BBQ, Mexican-Korean BBQ chain, and BeatBox Beverage, the seller of wine-based punch in a box.