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Quick Summary
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Kevin O’Leary once doubted a $29 cat DNA test on “Shark Tank,” but his investment in Basepaws later became one of his most profitable deals, returning an estimated 20 to 35 times his money.
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Big wins often come from small, unconventional bets—but balancing those with a solid financial plan matters. SmartAsset’s free tool can match you with up to three financial advisors who can help decide how much of your portfolio should go toward higher-risk opportunities versus long-term investments.
Kevin O’Leary has heard thousands of pitches, but even by “Shark Tank” standards, a cat‑DNA Q‑tip was a hard sell.
In a virtual appearance, he recounted how Anna Skaya, a biological scientist, walked onto the set with a product called Basepaws, offering at‑home genetic tests for cats at $29 a kit. O’Leary pushed back on air, pointing out that you could buy a new cat for a few dollars and questioning why anyone would pay several times that for a swab.
What changed the conversation, he said, was Skaya’s estimate of the market that roughly 110 million Americans own cats.
That pitch eventually turned into one of his most profitable bets. Basepaws, which started out selling genetic tests for cats and later expanded to dogs, was acquired by animal‑health giant Zoetis in 2022. Business Insider, citing Zoetis filings and O’Leary’s own comments, reported that the deal was worth at least $50 million and potentially much more, and that the stake O’Leary acquired on “Shark Tank” likely returned 20 to 35 times his money, depending on the exact structure and any dilution.
Zoetis disclosed spending $93 million in cash on acquisitions that quarter, and Basepaws was the only takeover it named in its earnings report, suggesting the final price tag sat well north of the public shorthand.
O’Leary describes it as his best “Shark Tank” investment in percentage terms, a small check that paid for “so many” of his other mistakes.
In his telling, the prize wasn’t the mail‑in DNA kit itself, it was the dataset Skaya built in the process. Zoetis was effectively buying a proprietary map of feline genetics it could use to refine drugs and pet foods.
For regular investors watching from the outside, it is tempting to treat the story as a one‑off lottery ticket. O’Leary is a celebrity with access to televised deal flow and a portfolio built across dozens of private companies. Most people will never see that pipeline.
What they do have, though, is a growing menu of ways to put smaller amounts of capital to work—in public markets, workplace plans, side businesses and, in some cases, higher‑risk bets on private deals or crowdfunding platforms.
That’s where objective planning can matter as much as stock picking. Services like SmartAsset’s free matching tool connect users with up to three vetted financial advisors in their area based on a short questionnaire about assets, goals and time horizon, making it easier to get a second opinion on how much of their portfolio, if any, should sit in speculative ventures versus diversified core holdings.
The Basepaws deal is also a reminder that outsized winners often look uncomfortable at the time. O’Leary says none of the other sharks wanted to back a business built around swabbing cats. Early sales were modest—about $200,000 at the time of the pitch, according to Insider—and it took the next 18 months to scale revenue into the low single‑digit millions.
For individual investors, the lesson is that a portfolio can sometimes benefit from a few measured, high‑risk positions.
Platforms like SoFi make that foundation easier to build by offering commission‑free stock and ETF trading, fractional shares and no account minimums inside a single app, along with periodic stock bonuses for new self‑directed investing accounts.
Instead of waiting to accumulate a large lump sum, investors can start with smaller recurring contributions, spread them across diversified holdings and still have the flexibility to back a handful of higher‑risk ideas if their plan and risk tolerance allow.
Or, a brief conversation with a financial advisor—the kind SmartAsset matches users with through its online tool—can help translate a “Shark Tank” clip into numbers that reflect their own income, net worth and timeline.
Image: Imagn
This article Kevin O'Leary's 'Basepaws' Bet Proves Small, Weird Investments Can Drive Big Returns originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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