Shark Tank is a popular Television show where budding entrepreneurs and small business owners present their ideas to a group of highly successful businessmen and women called Sharks. The contestants put together their own special presentation which is brought to the Sharks as well as the rolling cameras.
Beyond the drama that can erupt from bidding wars between the sharks and the intense negotiations, the show is also very educational for entrepreneurs. It reveals a lot about different presentation styles as well as things like business valuation and accurately identifying target market demographics. The show also reveals opportunities for growth and different types of investment strategies. They also air follow up segments with past contestants to update viewers on the impact Shark Tank has had in their business.
Patrick Ambron appeared on Shark Tank in 2015 where he presented brandyourself.com to the Sharks. He is the site’s co-founder as well as a graduate of Syracuse University. Brandyourself.com helps individuals to improve their online appearance and reputation.
“Our customer base ranges from people who are just out of school and looking to put their best foot forward while looking for their first job, all the way to high-level executives,” Ambron explained.
The impetus for the site emerged from Ambron and his co-partners days at Syracuse, where his focus was on studying advertising psychology. “Early on they were teaching us a lot of stuff about newspaper ads and magazines. My co-founder and I were really into things like graphic design and developing user interfaces and other types of front-end stuff.”
“Neither one of us had built anything like build web-based software. So, we had to learn as we went,” Ambron reminisced.
Brandyourself.com can help clean up your internet appearance and reputation. Which can be especially helpful if you have made some mistakes in the past, or you want to address someone else’s past impact on your reputation.
“It could be anything from a divorce record or an ill-advised tweet,” Ambron explained. “What we’ve learned is that a bad result can happen to just about anybody!”
Negative comments about a person of their business can come from a wide variety of sources. Some comments can even be anonymous. The person behind them could be a bitter ex-boyfriend, ex-girlfriend, business rival or a disgruntled former employee.
“It can potentially ruin your livelihood. An old photo that your friend tagged you in, or a negative comment about you. All that stuff lives on the internet somewhere,” Ambron added.
Brandyourself.com also goes beyond fixing unwanted google results and cleaning up social media. They also help their clients build a more impressive online presence and improve their reputation report.
Like many entrepreneurs, good ideas can come in the blink of an eye. “One night I was getting ready for bed, watching Shark Tank. I kept thinking that it could be a good opportunity, so I decided to email the show.”
Eventually an associate producer got back to him to explore the opportunity further. “They are pretty good about screening out people who just want exposure, and that you are really looking for a deal,” He said.
“They do a good job of making sure that the Sharks know nothing about you and they meet with you to see if you present well and your company also presents well.”
Ambron also notes that timing and scheduling are important and not always thought of factor. “The show isn’t live, but they don’t stop or edit anything while they are filming. You want to get a morning time slot because they won’t go over on time filming after five o’clock.”
To prepare I basically sat in a room and started to rip my company apart looking at all its weaknesses. That way if they asked me a tough question, I was prepared for it. Of course, Shark Tank doesn’t always have the same roster of Sharks. For Ambron’s airing, the panel was made up of Mark Cuban, David John, Mr. Wonderful, Lori Greiner, and Robert Herjavec.
“My co-founder and I knew that we were most likely to get interest from Mark Cuban or Robert Herjavec.” Ambron explained.
After a heated and energetic presentation, interest from the Sharks whittled down to Robert Herjavec. The offer he presented was 2-Million Dollars for 20% of the company. “That was about half of the valuation we were offering at that point,” Ambron explained.
“There was more of a negotiation than you see on the show. It’s not that they are hiding anything about the process it’s just not that interesting.”
During the negotiation, Herjavec said, “This idea is either going to be worth a lot of money or nothing.”
Ambron struggled to accept the offer. “His offer was half our valuation, which would have been twice the deal we were offering everyone else. I could have legally accepted his offer, but ethically it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do!”
Negotiations continued on, but those segments ultimately ended up on the editing room floor. “We had advisory stock and other options that we tried to offer, but it wasn’t enough that we could meet where we needed to meet,” Ambron explained.
Walking away without a deal in place was hard, but it had been a good experience. His particular episode of Shark Tank didn’t air for nearly a year. “You don’t know if they’re going to air it until two weeks before it comes on,” Ambron said.
Preparing for the increased exposure was very important, and it included Ambron and his co-founder stress testing to see if their servers and employees could handle the volume. “I put something together, that said here is the range, if it converts at 2 calls a day into 30 calls a day, how do we handle it?”
At that time Brandyourself.com had around 40 employees. “Anyone who had an inclination to sell was brought onto the sales team. Anyone else was on support or they were part of our live chat team,” Ambron explained.
Over the course of the two months following the show the calls and sales volume increased significantly “We ended up doing about a million dollars in new revenue over what we normally do!”
Shark Tank was certainly a good experience for Ambron and his company. Thanks to some dedicated preparation and schedule he was able to make the most out of the opportunity.
“Our customer base ranges from people who are just out of school and looking to put their best foot forward while looking for their first job, all the way to high-level executives,” Ambron explained.
The impetus for the site emerged from Ambron and his co-partners days at Syracuse, where his focus was on studying advertising psychology. “Early on they were teaching us a lot of stuff about newspaper ads and magazines. My co-founder and I were really into things like graphic design and developing user interfaces and other types of front-end stuff.”
“Neither one of us had built anything like build web-based software. So, we had to learn as we went,” Ambron reminisced.
Brandyourself.com can help clean up your internet appearance and reputation. Which can be especially helpful if you have made some mistakes in the past, or you want to address someone else’s past impact on your reputation.
“It could be anything from a divorce record or an ill-advised tweet,” Ambron explained. “What we’ve learned is that a bad result can happen to just about anybody!”
Negative comments about a person of their business can come from a wide variety of sources. Some comments can even be anonymous. The person behind them could be a bitter ex-boyfriend, ex-girlfriend, business rival or a disgruntled former employee.
“It can potentially ruin your livelihood. An old photo that your friend tagged you in, or a negative comment about you. All that stuff lives on the internet somewhere,” Ambron added.
Brandyourself.com also goes beyond fixing unwanted google results and cleaning up social media. They also help their clients build a more impressive online presence and improve their reputation report.
Like many entrepreneurs, good ideas can come in the blink of an eye. “One night I was getting ready for bed, watching Shark Tank. I kept thinking that it could be a good opportunity, so I decided to email the show.”
Eventually an associate producer got back to him to explore the opportunity further. “They are pretty good about screening out people who just want exposure, and that you are really looking for a deal,” He said.
“They do a good job of making sure that the Sharks know nothing about you and they meet with you to see if you present well and your company also presents well.”
Ambron also notes that timing and scheduling are important and not always thought of factor. “The show isn’t live, but they don’t stop or edit anything while they are filming. You want to get a morning time slot because they won’t go over on time filming after five o’clock.”
To prepare I basically sat in a room and started to rip my company apart looking at all its weaknesses. That way if they asked me a tough question, I was prepared for it. Of course, Shark Tank doesn’t always have the same roster of Sharks. For Ambron’s airing, the panel was made up of Mark Cuban, David John, Mr. Wonderful, Lori Greiner, and Robert Herjavec.
“My co-founder and I knew that we were most likely to get interest from Mark Cuban or Robert Herjavec.” Ambron explained.
After a heated and energetic presentation, interest from the Sharks whittled down to Robert Herjavec. The offer he presented was 2-Million Dollars for 20% of the company. “That was about half of the valuation we were offering at that point,” Ambron explained.
“There was more of a negotiation than you see on the show. It’s not that they are hiding anything about the process it’s just not that interesting.”
During the negotiation, Herjavec said, “This idea is either going to be worth a lot of money or nothing.”
Ambron struggled to accept the offer. “His offer was half our valuation, which would have been twice the deal we were offering everyone else. I could have legally accepted his offer, but ethically it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do!”
Negotiations continued on, but those segments ultimately ended up on the editing room floor. “We had advisory stock and other options that we tried to offer, but it wasn’t enough that we could meet where we needed to meet,” Ambron explained.
Walking away without a deal in place was hard, but it had been a good experience. His particular episode of Shark Tank didn’t air for nearly a year. “You don’t know if they’re going to air it until two weeks before it comes on,” Ambron said.
Preparing for the increased exposure was very important, and it included Ambron and his co-founder stress testing to see if their servers and employees could handle the volume. “I put something together, that said here is the range, if it converts at 2 calls a day into 30 calls a day, how do we handle it?”
At that time Brandyourself.com had around 40 employees. “Anyone who had an inclination to sell was brought onto the sales team. Anyone else was on support or they were part of our live chat team,” Ambron explained.
Over the course of the two months following the show the calls and sales volume increased significantly “We ended up doing about a million dollars in new revenue over what we normally do!”
Shark Tank was certainly a good experience for Ambron and his company. Thanks to some dedicated preparation and schedule he was able to make the most out of the opportunity.
