A couple from Loveland snagged a $75,000 deal on the ABC reality show "Shark Tank" to scale their startup that produces wearable hummingbird feeders.
HummViewer, founded by husband and wife John and Joan Creed, was featured in an episode that aired Dec. 2. The Creeds pitched their innovation to a panel of high-profile investors, including Mark Cuban, Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner, Daymond John and "guest shark" Daniel Lubetzky.
Lubetzky, the billionaire founder of KIND Snacks, was the only investor to make an offer. The Creeds gave away 35% of their business in exchange for the $75,000 investment. While the Creeds had been looking to trade a 10% stake in exchange for that amount, they agreed immediately to Lubetzky's deal.
"The crazy man in the mountains did it. How about that?" John Creed said after agreeing to the deal.
The HummViewer, which retails for $69.95, is a plastic shield with three hummingbird feeder tubes on the outside. It's worn over a user's face to offer a close-up view of hummingbirds.
"Birdwatching has surged in popularity as people crave ways to experience nature and disconnect from their hectic lives," John Creed said in a statement Monday. "I knew I wanted to sell the product so that as many people as possible could experience these magnificent creatures for themselves."
The Creeds said that they wanted to bring on an investor to help manage the company and run its marketing efforts. Simply appearing on Shark Tank is likely to boost HummViewer's visibility. Startups that go on the show often experience at least a temporary boost in sales.
As the episode aired Friday evening, the Creeds hosted a watch party in Fort Collins, where the crowd gathered around Joan Creed's phone to see the sales pour in, she told Colorado Inno in an email.
Come Monday evening, HummViewer was still experiencing higher-than-average sales, she said.
"For us to partner with Daniel Lubetzky ... at this stage in our lives is something we could have never even dreamt of," Joan Creed said in an email. "He is the man in real life you see on TV and read about in the news. KIND is one of the best words to describe him."
John Creed had been interested in hummingbirds since the 1970s, when his family purchased a cabin in Westcliffe — an ideal spot for hummingbird watching, he said.
Creed had the idea for the mask in 2017 and made a prototype. He tweeted a video of hummingbirds flocking to the mask, which was viewed by someone at Denver's 9News. The television station produced a story about the mask, after which the Creeds began receiving inquiries from hopeful buyers.
At that point, the Creeds decided to launch a business, they said. Since then, they put $40,000 of their own money into patenting and developing the HummViewer. By the time the Shark Tank episode was filmed, they had produced 2,000 masks and sold 500 of them.
While most of the panel of investors dropped out quickly, Lubetzky said he was drawn to the idea because of his deceased father's love for hummingbirds.
"He loved hummingbirds. He always talked to us about the hummingbird, and they're just extraordinary engineering feats of nature," Lubetzky said on the show. "So for me, this is like fate."
In addition to tweeting about their product, appearing on the news and on Shark Tank, HummViewer has taken to the social media app TikTok to market their feeder. They partnered with a social media influencer, the self-described "Hummingbird King," to show off the mask. His video of the HummViewer garnered about 3.5 million views, John Creed said.
"Don't be fooled by how goofy this helmet looks -—Joan and John have come up with a genius solution for experiencing the magic of hummingbirds up close," Lubetzky said in a statement Monday.
