When Shirah and Michael Benarde held a socially distanced watch party to view themselves on the small screen for ABC's "Shark Tank," the siblings also set up an analytics screen in the back of the room to track just how many visitors their site would get over the course of the episode.
As the co-founders of NightCap appeared on screen, the number of visitors began to climb. In eight minutes, the site went from 20 visitors to thousands, continuing to increase throughout the night.
"It's a lot of people, but we were prepared," NightCap co-founder and University of Tampa freshman Shirah Benarde said in an interview with Tampa Bay Inno. "When you go on 'Shark Tank,' you know there's going to be a lot of people watching and going to your site."
Millions from around the nation tuned in Feb. 6 to see the Benarde siblings pitch their NightCap product — a scrunchie that holds a drink covering which can be used to avoid drinks being spiked. Many who have pitched in "the tank" are seen in a back-and-forth barter with the real-life investors, or pleading their case to make a deal. But as soon as the Benardes' pitch was done, they already had a bite.
"I'm just going to come out and say it — I love this, I don't think I've ever seen a product come to the 'Shark Tank' that resonated with me more deeply, in a social mission way, as this," investor Lori Greiner said.
She quickly offered the co-founders their requested $60,000, although bumped their 20 percent equity offer ask to 25 percent.
"I want to be a partner," she said. "And I want do everything I can to blow it up on social media. This needs to be in every woman's hands."
Benarde said Greiner has held true to her word. The contract with the "Queen of QVC" has officially been signed, according to the NightCap co-founders.
"Lori jumped on it really quickly and I wasn’t expecting that, but Lori was the shark I initially wanted, so I'm glad that did happen," Benarde said. "But as you can tell by my face [on the show], I was a little surprised. When she said all the good things about the product, it was a dream."
Greiner carved out a niche in online shopping by creating and patenting consumer products, and launched a segment on QVC titled "Clever and Unique Creations," which is among the longest-running segments on the network.
"We definitely wanted a deal and definitely wanted it to be with Lori; all the sharks are awesome but she’s the one we wanted," Benarde said. "It is just her field and I think she’s also really nice to work with. But basically, she's the perfect fit for our product."
Benarde was tight-lipped when it came to the details of their partnership, but as she previously told Inno, partnership opportunities are the next focus for the company.
"Hopefully we will get to see it in bars, clubs, on college campuses," she said. College logos or bar logos could appear on the NightCap covering. "There's so many things you can do with NightCap, I can't even tell you where we want go right now. But the possibilities are very large."
As for Benarde's own career at UT and in the school's Lowth Entrepreneurship Center, she is staying put, for now. Her brother remains an MBA student at Florida State University, and the company's headquarters is in West Palm Beach.
"Walking into the tank, you don't know what to expect," she said. "I'm glad they all liked it and I think they liked my brother and I, too, how we were young and passionate and of course the social mission behind it."
And if the NightCap founders take the advice of the other sharks, this could be the first of many ventures for them.
"[This idea] came to you through a dream and now you have $60,000," Kevin O'Leary said, with fellow shark Barbara Corcoran adding, "You should go to bed early tonight and see what else you can come up with."
