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Austin founder lands investment on 'Shark Tank' debut

The founder brought his mom out to help decide whether to take a deal


Card.io on Shark Tank
Card.io founder Destin George Bell brought his mom to the taping of a 'Shark Tank' episode. And the sharks invited her to the stage to help Bell decide whether to take a deal.
Christopher Willard

Sometimes, probably most of the time, your mom's advice is the best advice.

Just ask Destin George Bell.

Bell was almost frozen in place after pitching his gamified running app, Card.io, and getting an investment offer on the first episode of ABC's "Shark Tank."

He had asked the sharks for a $150,000 investment for 5% of his Austin-based startup, which he valued at $3 million.

But after a couple sharks declined, longtime shark Daymond John and guest shark and venture capitalist Rashaun Williams countered with $150,000 for a 15% stake.

Bell said he had one question: "Can I go talk to my mom?"

The hosts invited her to the stage and she said 'take the deal.'

And with that, Bell landed a handshake deal for the $150,000 investment. Such deals aren't official until well after the show is recorded, but the impact of getting that broad exposure on a popular primetime show is often enough to launch a startup into the limelight and drive hundreds or thousands or even millions of visitors to their websites and apps.

The deal on "Shark Tank" brought to fruition one of Bell's nearly lifelong dreams of being on the show and having his mom with him.

"What is that thing that's inside of you that's really pushing you?" one of the sharks asked earlier in the episode.

Bell said it was his mom, who was sitting back stage. She had encouraged him to watch the show when he was 10 years old. Bell, at the time, had a strong lisp and stuttering issues. His mom wanted him to see how people present under pressure.

"I watched it every Friday and Sunday... at 16 is when I first really started getting the business," Bell told the sharks. "And I told my mom, 'we're gonna be on this show one day, mom, and I'm gonna bring you.' She's back there waiting for me to give her a deal. I love that I'm creating generational wealth, and I want my kids to have something, so I'm here to do that. And I told my mom I [would] walk out of here with a deal."

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Austin-based Card.io, led by founder Destin George Bell, was on the season 16 premiere of "Shark Tank" on Friday, Oct. 18, on ABC. (Disney/Christopher Willard)
Christopher Willard

Bell had kept the "Shark Tank" deal secret for months after it was initially taped at a studio in Los Angeles.

He said that after he was selected for the show, he knew he had to bring his mom, who lives in Kentucky, with him.

Bell didn't know what parts of the pitch experience would make it onto the episode until recently.

One part that didn't make the cut was when Bell's mom made an off-hand basketball joke to Mark Cuban, who is part owner of the Dallas Mavericks, which lost in the NBA Finals to Boston earlier this year and shortly before the episode was taped.

Bell had asked his mom not to make any quips about the NBA Finals. But she had to get one in anyway.

"As we're leaving, she walks back in the room and says, 'by the way, Mark, we hate the Celtics,' and then just walks out," Bell recounted. "Luckily, he laughed. He thought it was funny, but I hope they keep that part, because I specifically said, 'Mom, no basketball jokes, no basketball references, please don't.' And she said, 'OK, I promise if I go in there, if something happens, I'm going to keep it to myself.'"

She apparently couldn't resist giving Cuban a little sass.

"Maybe she felt like, 'all right, we're playing with house money. I can do what I want. But it was just such a unscripted moment. I was like, 'oh my gosh, mom, that was the experience.'"

Now that his childhood dream is fulfilled, he and the sharks are going through due diligence to officially ink the deal, which is standard after the on-air handshake deals.

Bell celebrated during the initial airing on Oct. 18 at a watch party thrown by his University of Kentucky friends, and he'll have another watch party in Austin on Oct. 25.

"It was everything I thought it would be, and better," he said.


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