The 2013 Shark Tank Christmas special featured an eclectic group of products including ugly Christmas sweaters, magnetic outdoor Christmas lights, and tree toppers for interfaith families who celebrate Christmas and Hanukka. Somehow a company that makes female hair extensions also appeared as well. The clear winner of this week’s Sharky Award for entrepreneurial excellence was…..
Nick and Evan from Tipsyelves ……..These two specialize in making ugly Christmas sweaters. With sales of $862K last year (with great margins), they have concentrated their efforts on maximizing online sales. With prior expertise using SEO (Search Engine Optimization), they have done a great job executing their Marketing plan. They’ve received national exposure using online tools and have made several appearances on TV shows (including the Today show in addition to Shark Tank).
Nick had quit his $175K per year job as a lawyer to go full-time with the company. Shark Robert Herjavec loved the fact that these two were “all in” and totally committed to the new venture. Robert made them an offer of $100K for a 10% stake and they accepted. This will allow them to test the retail waters and try to increase their market penetration.
Being in a holiday mood, no Shark Chum Awards will be given tonite.
The other three entrepreneurs included Shawn from Lite-Netics. The Sharks thought his outdoor Christmas lights were too expensive for the retail market (approximately 2X more expensive than conventional lights), and that Shawn should concentrate on the professional installers. He somehow got two offers but turned them down because he thought he could do better on his own. I was surprised he rejected both offers……they were based on reasonable valuations based on his sales history.
Morri from Hanukka Tree Topper got a deal from Shark Daymond who thought he could sell Morri’s interfaith product with other holiday items he has access to. This was a great deal for Morri who was tapped out and needed the money to continue his company. Mazel tov.
Rachel and Melissa from Cashmere Hair have developed attractive hair extensions for ladies. Despite the fact that they’re off to a good start ($38K sales in six months), their product was thought to be quite expensive relative to the competition and they didn’t get an offer.
Reblogged this on TimMcEneny and commented:
This Shark Tank episode was re-broadcast on May 23, 2014