Meghan Wolfgram had a tough choice to make.
The founder and CEO of SwiftPaws Inc. in September pitched to a room full of investors during a taping of the new season of the ABC show “Shark Tank.” However, there’s no guarantee an entrepreneur’s taped segment will make it to air, leaving Wolfgram with a tough decision in the following months: should she stock up on inventory of her Melbourne-based startup’s pet fitness device?
“You want to prepare, but you don’t want to be in a position where you bulk up on inventory and then don’t air,” Wolfgram told Orlando Inno.
In March, Wolfram was informed by the network that her segment would air in three weeks. The company stocked up “as much as it could afford” in anticipation of the exposure it was about to receive, Wolfgram said. The episode aired the evening of April 8, showing Wolfgram landed a $240,000 investment into her company from entrepreneur, investor and “Queen of QVC” Lori Greiner.
By the next morning, SwiftPaws had sold $100,000 worth of product, coming close to selling out of its available inventory, Wolfgram said. “It’s been the strongest response it could’ve been without being crushing.”
The public’s reaction to SwiftPaws appearance on “Shark Tank” highlights one of the benefits of the Emmy Award-winning show, besides the potential to land a cash investment from one of its “sharks.” The company has gained some traction since it launched a product that uses remote-controlled machines and lines to move a lure for dogs to chase in 2017, but the show exposed a new audience to the device.
To put SwiftPaws’ $100,000 day into perspective, the company has sold $1.5 million worth of product in its lifetime, Wolfgram said during her “Shark Tank” pitch. That means SwiftPaws in a few hours did roughly 7% of the sales it previously did in 10 years.
Meanwhile, traffic to the SwiftPaws website spiked during the airing. Melbourne startup incubator Groundswell hosted a watch party for the showing, and a monitor was set up to track live web traffic data. It peaked Friday night at 20,000 web visits, Wolfgram said.
Many entrepreneurs who wind up on “Shark Tank” see business boosts after their appearances. For example, NightCap, founded by former University of Tampa student Shirah Benarde and her brother Michael, brought in more in sales in the two months after the company’s February appearance on the show than the firm did in the previous year, sister publication Tampa Bay Inno previously reported.
After that spike in orders nearly depleted its inventory, SwiftPaws wasted no time in getting to work, Wolfgram said. “Guys are in the warehouse assembling stuff right now.”
Tampa Bay Inno Reporter Lauren Coffey contributed to this report.
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