Our Journey to Shark Tank - Part 2

If you missed part 1 of our journey to the tank, check it out here.

We will never forget the moment. The dual phone ding. The Shark Tank Season 11 in the subject line. Over the next few days, we kept interrupting normal conversation and reminding ourselves about that e-mail.

Having been rejected before, we were still very cautious in our excitement. So, after loads of paperwork and phone calls, we still wouldn't let ourselves get hopes up. Finally, one afternoon we got the phone call we were waiting for.

You're going to LA to pitch the sharks.

The Prep

How do you prep for the tank? Great question. Think of it like a massive college exam that you're pulling all nighters preparing for, and you're getting close. First, we watched every episode of the show available and made a master list of every question a shark asked that might apply to our business as well.

Then, we turned that master list of questions into sticky notes and started crafting responses to all of them. The result went onto a wall of information, categorized by the type of questions that were similar to one another. We dove deep into our financials and analyzed them in every way we could think of.

Can you tell I'm an engineer by background?

We blew up photos of the "sharks" and placed them everywhere. Above our computers as we worked. Staring at all of our answers to the questions they might ask. Anything to help us get used to seeing their faces and not being intimidated.

And most importantly, we practiced. Tirelessly. We practiced at home. We practiced in the car. We practiced walking down a hallway and staring at pictures of the "sharks" on a wall. We scrutinized our hand gestures and how we emphasized the words during our pitch. (We may have OVER practiced if you've seen the episode!)

We even practiced being brutal to one another: "Nice hobby." "They're going to crush you like the cockroach you are." "Your valuation is ridiculous."

We knew that Mr. Wonderful would attack our valuation if we didn't have solid sales and reasoning to back it up. Mark usually attacks companies that make big claims, and we were afraid he might come at us about our claim that a single blade shave is better than multi-blade. After analyzing each shark, we had a pretty good idea how they would respond to our Single Edge.

And to say that we were mentally exhausted was an understatement. But this was our one chance, and the last thing we wanted was to show up to the tank unprepared. 

 

The Set

We had a lot of fun designing the Supply bathroom scene for our set. Since we design and develop every product at Supply from scratch, we wanted every detail of our set to reflect our dedication to design and functionality.

After sketching and scouting online, we came up with our final product, as seen below. A big shout out to IKEA being an MVP. While ABC didn't show a ton of footage of it on the episode, we still love how it turned out.

 

Let's Do This

We finally felt ready. After dropping our daughter off with grandparents, we headed to the airport for our flight to LA. With a mixture of nerves and excitement, we boarded the plane, unaware of how everything would pan out. 

Check out the final part of our journey HERE!