Posted by Two Guys Bow Ties on 23rd Oct 2015
It was officially two weeks ago today since our company aired on the hit TV show, Shark Tank, on ABC. Which also means, it has been four weeks ago today since we found out our segment was even going to be on the show. What an amazing ride this last month has been!
It all started when we went to our first open audition last summer in Oklahoma City. Only the first 500 attending the audition were guaranteed to be seen by casting officials, so Tim drove down at 5 a.m. to get a place in line at the Devon Boathouse. He stood in the rain wearing his “nice dress clothes” until 10 a.m., when we were allowed inside.
But instead of a quiet room where the attention is seemingly focused on just one or two potential contestants, this casting call involved a row of picnic tables with one casting person behind each, listening to the one-minute pitch — all at the same time.
There was definitely a moment in our audition when the girl we were pitching to — who was acting moderately disinterested — set down her cell phone and asked us to repeat what we had said. At that point, we could tell we had definitely gotten her attention.
What was supposed to be a one-minute presentation turned into 10 to 15 minutes and, pretty soon, the other contestants were gone and the rest of the casting staff was coming over to ask us about our products.
After we had left that night, we could tell we made a good impression, and felt we had done the best we could.
But the road to getting on the TV show became much more involved. Once we were notified we had made the next round, there were follow-up phone interviews, an audition video to make, paperwork to file, background checks, producers to work with on crafting our pitch, etc. And along with every step, we were told there was no guarantee we would make it on the show.
Finally in July, we were asked to fly to Los Angeles to tape our segment for the show. The producers did a good job of preparing us for the show, but the reality of what was happening didn’t hit us until taping time. When those huge doors open and you walk down that hall, it gets really real, real fast.
When we walked into the Tank, they asked us to pause for 30 seconds while they took some display shots, then they said go, and we started our pitch. No producer stopped us, so it really was just a conversation between us and the sharks.
After close to 45 minutes of being in the Tank, we walked out with smiles on our faces after making a deal with Daymond. But the process wasn’t over yet! We still had paper work to fill out, conference calls, and Skype appointments to make. But after several months on wondering if our segment was going to be chosen to air, we finally found out at the end of September we were in!
Our episode aired on October 9th, and we hosted a “Watch Party” with our employees, friends, and family at our Tulsa shop. It was incredible to see the amount of support we got from our hometown of Tulsa, as well as people all over the country and even the world.
Since then, we have been able to grow our team from 7 people to 13 people and are looking to even hire a handful more. We have been able to become more efficient in our making process while maintaining the utmost quality that we require, and our sales in one month have already beat last year’s numbers!
All in all, this whole Shark Tank experience has been great, we are so thankful for the opportunities we’ve been given as a result of it, and we’re excited for this year’s holiday season.