A pair of Miami University alums who pitched their tattoo aftercare company on ABC’s “Shark Tank” on Friday inked a half-a-million-dollar deal from the show’s most prolific investor.
Oliver Zak and Selom Agbitor, 2019 Miami graduates and co-founders of Mad Rabbit Tattoo, which started as a side hustle while the two studied in nearby Oxford, accepted a $500,000 offer from billionaire Mark Cuban for 12% of their company. Mad Rabbit is a fast-growing e-commerce brand, whose flagship product is an all-natural balm that promises to keep tattoos looking vibrant and prevents discoloration.
Mad Rabbit’s original ask was $500,000 for a 5% stake. The company entered the tank with a $10 million valuation.
“I think we made a phenomenal deal,” Agbitor said. “I’m speechless.”
Zak, in an interview with Cincy Inno Thursday, said he and Agbitor went into the show specifically targeting Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, and the shark with the biggest net worth. Zak said Cuban was the most natural fit for the brand.
“Our balm lends itself well to the sports market,” Zak told me. On the show, he told Cuban the company wanted “an angel who’s going to be behind us and believes in our growth.”
Besides Cuban, the episode featured sharks Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner and Kevin O’Leary. O’Leary, aka “Mr. Wonderful,” also made a bid for the business – offering a $500,000 loan with 9.75% interest, which O’Leary said is the average for his venture debt deals, for 5% equity – but was turned down.
The episode filmed in September, and Zak and Agbitor have since made the leap into the business full time. It's proved a fruitious move. Zak told me projected sales are $12 million this year, after topping $3 million in 2020, a 300% increase. The company has been profitable since week one, he said.
On “Shark Tank,” Zak credited a large part of Mad Rabbit's success to content creation. While growth has been largely organic, Mad Rabbit does partner with influencers – renowned tattoo artists or models, for example – and the company has also invested in tattoo education and research and garnering feedback from its customers.
“I think our secret sauce is this community of tight-knit people that we’ve been able to build,” Zak said.
Mad Rabbit Tattoo is one of only a dozen brands worldwide playing in the tattoo aftercare space. Zak said theirs is the only one with an all-natural offering in the U.S. The balm, for example, is made with seven ingredients, including beeswax, shea butter and cucumber.
Since taping “Shark Tank,” the company has also expanded its 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, who is from Cleveland, and Agbitor, who grew up in Columbus but was born in Ghana, met freshman year at Miami, largely through Delta Sigma Pi, the university’s business fraternity. Zak said he created the company's first batch of balm in a crockpot in his college kitchen from ingredients he bought off Amazon.
“[At Miami] it was very much Selom and I skipping class to cook this, and we got our neighbors involved; they were helping us ship out packages,” Zak told me. “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.”
Zak and Agbitor are now among a handful of other Miami alums to have appeared on “Shark Tank” – they’re also not the first to land a deal from Cuban. Rick Pescovitz, a 1985 Miami grad who founded Linwood-based Under the Weather, a portable pod business, accepted Cuban’s offer on the show in 2017: $600,000 for a 15% stake in the company with an option in 12 months to spend another $600,000 for another 10%.
Currently, Cuban’s “Shark Tank” portfolio includes more than 50 companies, per his website. He is also an investor in Mason-based Genetesis, a 7-year-old commercial-stage medical device company.
