"Remember being a broke entrepreneur" - Shark Tank guest investor Jamie Kern Lima reflects on her past

Jamie Kern Lima joined the panel as a guest investor on Shark Tank season 16, episode 9, which premiered on ABC on January 24. The episode featured four new businesses, and Jamie successfully closed deals with two of them.

The episode included a profile segment on Jamie Kern Lima, where the guest investor shared her journey—from working as a waitress at Denny's to earning a spot on Forbes' list of America's Richest Self-Made Women.

In the segment, Jamie reflected on how, as a "broke entrepreneur," she once watched Shark Tank from her living room. Years later, she found herself sitting among the Sharks she had once admired on TV, emphasizing that achieving such success was possible.

"I remember being a broke entrepreneur in my living room watching Shark Tank. For anyone in their living room right now who has that feeling who's imagining themselves in the chair, it's possible," she said.

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Shark Tank guest investor Jamie Kern Lima shares her journey from being a waitress to a Forbes list position holder

Jamie Kern Lima's background and education

Jamie Kern Lima reflected on her past and discussed her entrepreneurial journey in a profile segment featured on Shark Tank season 16, episode 9.

Jamie revealed that she was raised in a suburb outside of Seattle and was the first in her family to attend college. She also shared how she worked to pay her way through school, taking jobs bagging groceries at Safeway, and waitressing at Denny's.

She graduated valedictorian from college and after completing her MBA she decided to enter the world of journalism.

"When I graduated valedictorian from college, my mom just cried, and that was really special. I got my MBA from Columbia. I was writing for the school paper, and I love sharing other people's stories so much that I decided to go into journalism," she added.

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Starting her company

The Shark Tank guest investor further shared that when she was anchoring a live news in Portland, Oregon her producer told her that she had something on her face.

Jamie knew what her producer was referring which she explained was her "hereditary rosacea." Due to her condition her face used to get "bright red" and even the makeup she was wearing used to break up under the hot HD lights.

At this moment she realised that if she couldn't find a product for her condition then she would have to make her own product which could also help people dealing with similar conditions.

So she started IT cosmetics (which stood for innovative technology cosmetics) and created a formulated product to deal with the skincare issue.

"I had this idea, what if I put real people as models; every age, shape, size, skin tone, skin challenge like me, call them beautiful and mean it for every little girl out there who's about to start doubting herself and every grown person who's still does,'' the Shark Tank guest investor added.

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Appearance on QVC and growth

After starting her company and creating her product line Jamie managed to get the head of QVC on a call. However, she was left disappointed when the head told her that she was "not the right fit."

Jamie took this rejection as a challenge and eventually got one shot on QVC. The appearance skyrocketed her sales and they were sold out within 10 minutes of her segment.

The QVC appearance gave Jamie's business a profitable boost. Her company ended up doing 250 live shows a year and they started getting acceptance from every single retailer that had said no to them.

"Then in 2016, Loreal paid $1.2 billion cash for the business that we created in our living room. Then Forbes put me on America's richest self-made women's list, which I just kept thinking about. Every girl is going to see that and save themselves 'Wait, she was a Denny's waitress? And now she's done this? It's possible for me to,'" she concluded.

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Shark Tank season 16 episodes air every Friday on ABC.