It started as a side hustle in college. Now Oliver Zak and Selom Agbitor, both Miami University alums, will pitch their upstart e-commerce business, Mad Rabbit Tattoo, on the hit ABC TV show “Shark Tank” tonight.
The appearance, the second this season by a startup with Greater Cincinnati ties, marks their first ever formal pitch. The founders will try to convince a panel of judges, aka “sharks,” including Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner and Kevin O’Leary, to invest in their idea in exchange for a stake in the company.
Zak, in an interview Thursday, said Mad Rabbit, which has developed a line of tattoo aftercare products, including a balm that helps keep tattoos vibrant, fills a void in the space. The market is saturated by products, he said, containing ingredients harmful to tattoos. Mad Rabbit’s products are non-toxic and paraben-free.
Zak, from Cleveland, and Agbitor, who grew up in Columbus, met freshman year at Miami, largely through Delta Sigma Pi, the university’s business fraternity, and they started working on Mad Rabbit in 2019, after trying their hand at another e-commerce startup selling women’s bathing suits. Zak created the company's first batch of balm in a crockpot in his college kitchen from ingredients he bought off Amazon.
Two years later, Mad Rabbit boosts a $10 million valuation. Sales, which totaled $400,000 in 2019, topped $3 million last year, a 650% increase.
“[At Miami] it was very much Selom and I skipping class to cook this balm, and we got our neighbors involved; they were helping us ship out packages,” Zak said. “Some professors were our very first customers in some senses. It really took off from the start, which helped us solidify our theories about the need for this product.”
Both took full-time jobs after graduating from Miami in 2019, before jumping into Mad Rabbit full time. They’ve since expanded the product line beyond the balm, which retails for $15.99, to include a sunscreen ($29.99) and a gel ($29.99), which is tailored for new tattoos. The products are sold via its website as well as on Amazon. Mad Rabbit’s operations are based in Los Angeles, while its management team is currently working remote.
Zak said Mad Rabbit will top $12 million in sales this year, and the market is growing. Tattoos are becoming more normalized, he said. As many as 43% of people have a tattoo, a number that’s projected to increase 8% every year. When Mad Rabbit surveyed its current customer base, 97% of respondents said they planned on getting more.
Zak didn’t want to reveal Mad Rabbit’s exact ask on "Shark Tank" – typically, founders want a certain amount of capital in exchange for equity – but he did say that Mad Rabbit made a particular play for Cuban, also owner of the Dallas Mavericks.
“Our balm lends itself well to the sports market. It’s really cool for people to tell their life stories through tattoos,” he said.
Tim Holcomb, chair of Miami’s department of entrepreneurship and director of the John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship, told me he was excited to hear about the upcoming appearance. While Zak and Agbitor didn’t go through the university's entrepreneurship program, one of the nation's best, he remembers them as students, as well as Drew Fallon, another 2019 Miami alum, who recently joined Mad Rabbit as CFO.
A handful of other Miami alums have appear on “Shark Tank” throughout its nearly 12-year history, the university said, including Renata Rottinger Storer, a 1984 grad, and her husband Doug Storer, who appeared in 2018 to pitch Night Runner, a line of clip-on shoe lights, now called Night Tech Gear. Rick Pescovitz, a 1985 Miami grad, who founded Linwood-based Under the Weather, a portable pod business, also appeared in 2017.
Both ventures got offers on the show, although the Storers later decided to ditch their deal once the episode aired because sales had soared.
This season of “Shark Tank” has already featured one startup from Greater Cincinnati. Liberty Township teen Carson Grill and his dad Jason Grill landed $175,000 for a 17.5% stake in their company, Touch Up Cup, a paint saving product, from Blake Mycoskie, founder of Toms shoes, in October.
Tonight's episode will air at 8 EST.
