Shark Tank Sales Surge

Julia Cheek shares her journey of getting on Shark Tank and securing a deal with Lori Greiner.

"Shark Tank was a 9-month process. In 2017, about 80% of my year was just Shark Tank-related things. We applied with a 50-page written application that had to be printed and written out. I tried to use a PDF editor, but their technology was pretty outdated.

After the application, you do a voice interview with producers, a video interview, and another video interview of your pitch. Then the producers work with you for about 4 months on your story, brand, and script. It's ultimately a human interest story - you're there to make good reality TV, but it's your decision how you want to display yourself.

I ended up making a deal with Lori Greiner - it was the largest deal ever for a female entrepreneur in terms of valuation at the time. I pitched at a $20 million post-money valuation, and we agreed to a line of credit deal at an 8% interest rate for 5% of the company.

What people don't realize is how long the actual filming can be. They edit it down to 5-7 minutes, but my segment was probably an hour long. Some people's pitches have gone on for 2-3 hours, some are 15 minutes. After you shake on the deal on the show, over half of those deals never come to fruition, another quarter change terms, and only a quarter get done at the terms you shook on."