Wow!! What a rollercoaster ride!
We had never considered going on Shark tank. We loved the television show and many people said we should apply but we always thought that our StandInBaby wasn’t a “Shark Tank” kind of product – far too niche. So you can imagine our surprise, when one of the shows producers contacted us in December to ask if we’d consider taking part in series 4. They had seen our product in the news and thought it would be perfect for their audience.
We were flown to Sydney on the 12 of March 2018 for filming on the 13th. We’d been preparing since New Years so we were very confident walking in. We knew our numbers, knew our lines and felt capable of answering any question they through at us – It’s incredible how quickly that can change! Instantly we were thrown on the back foot as Steve bombarded us with his onslaught of question after question – I can confidently say we are not “TV people” and the reality of standing there in front of the glaring production lights, being pressed by Steve was one of the most difficult and confronting things we had ever experienced. The trauma is real ?
We were in the tank for roughly and hour and a half, it was exhausting, scary, overwhelming and just as intimidating as it looks. But one thing that we definitely weren’t expecting walking in, was a deal – again we just figured it wouldn’t be their kind of product. I think you can see the shock or confusion on our faces when we received our first offer and even more so as the next 3 offers followed. Steve Baxter, Janine Allis, Dr. Glen Richards and Andrew Banks, were all in!! And to our total shock, we were being offered exactly what we were asking for. It was a HUGE rollercoaster ride with clearly a few more inverted loops then were were expecting but to walk out of the tank with a million dollar deal, partnering with both Andrew and Glen exceeded all our expectations.
I remember after we walked out of the tank turning to the producers and saying with a giggle … “wow, that was a train wreck!” And then he laughed back “yes but first it went over a cliff and just kept tumbling!” as he rolled his hands in a dramatic tumbling motion and we all had a good laugh. Luckily both Brendon and I have a good sense of humour and understand that in the end it’s all “good television”.
We are so thankful for the experience, the opportunity and to have such well respected, proven business people validate our product, it’s success and it’s potential by investing their own hard earned money.
In the months following filming we have discovered the unexpected up side to our dramatic and slightly controversial experience as not only did we make the TV ad for the launch of season 4’s Shark Tank – We were the ad! We were also the ad promoting our week and we’ve had countless mentions in Shark Tanks media releases giving us and our product heaps of unanticipated exposure across many different media platforms. This is already seeing an increase in sales and enquires and so many hits to our newly renovated website.
Since getting the deal, we have been moving ahead in leaps and bounds. I don’t think we’ve had a chance to look sideways. We’ve rolled out our newly renovated website, incorporating the Health and Education side of StandInBaby, we’ve launched our new community forum where we are connecting Health Care Professionals directly with Newborn Photographers so they can get access to the latest safety information, right from the people who matter. We are booked to exhibit at multiple medical conferences around Australia in the coming months and we have a few more secrets up our sleeves that we will be releasing in the coming months.
Thank you to everyone for your kind words of support and encouragement, not only over the past few weeks but thought out our entire StandInBaby journey and to the Sharks tank team Steve Baxter, Janine Allis, Dr. Glen Richards, Naomi Simson, Andrew Banks, as well as everyone behind the scenes making magic happen, we learnt more then you could imagine and for that we are eternally grateful.
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