The co-founders of tech startup TheMagic5 walked onto the "Shark Tank" stage as prepared as they could have been. What happened next was beyond their expectations.
The episode aired Oct. 31 on ABC, where Rasmus Barfred and Bo Haaber pitched the company to sharks Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec and guest shark Nirav Tolia, founder of Nextdoor.
Haaber said they went into the pitch asking for $500,000 for a 2.5% stake. After a bidding war among all of the sharks, they accepted an offer from Herjavec for $1 million and 6.5% equity in the company. After the cameras stopped rolling, Cuban approached Herjavec and they decided to do the deal together, with each investing $500,000 and receiving a 3.25% stake in the company.
"We decided to go with Robert, but every shark made a bid ... We were just about to turn around and discuss a counteroffer when Robert said, 'Hey, I can’t let you go. I’ll double your ask,'" he said. "Robert was really the dream investor for us, and what happened after was that Mark approached Robert and asked to split it."
Haaber and Barfred said the entire experience was equal parts exciting, nerve-wracking and surreal.
"We were talking to each other just before the door opened, and we were actually talking about when it all started," said Haaber, who is based in Charlotte. "It took us back to the roots of why we were actually there and all the stories and the things we’ve experienced coming from the idea up until that door opened."
And for the next 50 minutes, the pressure was on. Haaber said the sharks understood, very quickly, what they aimed to accomplish with TheMagic5.
"I think we were very positively surprised over how fast they really understood what it was we were trying to do, and there was one point where Mark Cuban said, 'This is not a swimming goggle company, this is a technology company making swimming goggles,'" he said. "That changed a lot of the discussion, and that was really one of the turning points. It was surreal to experience them trying to explain why they were good investors for us."
TheMagic5 was founded in 2017 by Haaber and Barfred, alongside Niklas Hedegaard, after the pair, both of whom are triathletes, began toying with the idea of custom-fit goggles out of personal frustration. Haaber said the tipping point was needing a pair of goggles while on vacation.
"I purchased all the goggles I could find, and none of them fit, which makes sense because faces are different, and goggles are one size fits all," he said. "The idea came to me that you should be able to do this different, and with the 3D printing, scanning technology and robotics technology that was beginning at that time, it seemed like an obvious match."
They used that technology to create software that scans an individual's face through its app or website, and based on that scan, the goggles are created to perfectly fit the curvature line of the customer's eyes. The goggles, which cost between $55 and $65, are manufactured in a facility in lower South End.
"The purpose of something like this is that you don’t have to tighten your goggles, so they don’t leave red rings around your eyes," he said. "They are more comfortable to wear, and you can actually just swim longer. We infuse technology into what is an ordinary product."
TheMagic5 goggles are worn by some of the world's top professional athletes, including U.S. swimmer Matthew Grevers and German triathlete Jan Frodeno. Barfred said one thing that drew every shark to the product was its appeal to swimmers of all levels.
"It’s rare you have a product that caters to the Michael Phelps of a sport, the top, top athletes, and at the same time, caters to the recreational swimmer," he said. "It’s a crossroad where you have one product for all the segments."
Barfred said the past week has felt like a whirlwind, but all three co-founders are grateful for the outpouring of support from old and new customers, alike.
"It was equal parts excitement and stress. It was really, really exciting and then we felt like, time to to get to work," he said. "We’ve been very busy, and there are a lot of goggles that have left Charlotte (since the episode aired)."
