On September 23 my husband, Sina, and I did something almost as exciting as having a baby – we were on live national TV pitching my little baby products business to the investors on the season 14 premiere of Shark Tank! And the sharks believed in us and our mission so much that we got three offers to invest!
I still can’t believe it. Our appearance on the show was the culmination of months and months of preparation — many, many late nights and weekends. It was exhausting, but in the end, so worth it.
If you’ve never seen Shark Tank, it’s a show in which small business owners pitch five potential investors (called sharks) on the idea of buying a portion of their company. Many businesses leave without a deal, but the ones that do get one receive a lot more than money, they also get guidance, expertise, and mentoring from some brilliant business minds. Our initial ask was for a $400,000 investment for 5% of our company, and after some back-and-forth with the sharks, we received three offers. In the end, Sina and I chose to go with marketing guru Barbara Corcoran, who teamed up with another shark, Robert Herjavek. Their offer was $600,000 for 10% of the company with the qualifier that if we didn’t reach a particular sales target in two years, they would give half of their equity back.
I’ve admired Barbara Corcoran for so long that this was just too much to pass up. We took the deal she and Robert offered, and I just know this is going to be a very fruitful partnership.
But what excites me most about it has nothing to do with revenues, profits, or any of the other “bottom line” aspects of running a business.
What I’m most excited about is the opportunity to continue to serve babies and parents like you with innovative, thoughtfully designed products that promote baby health and comfort and parental peace of mind. It seems to me that the entire baby products category has been stuck in a rut for decades now. There’s very little inspiration and an awful lot of same old same old. Well, I intend to change all that, and on September 23, we took a big step towards that goal. Thank you so, so much for helping us get to this !
Nina
PS If you would like to watch the episode, it’s available on demand on Hulu or at this link.
