It pays to have a Shark on your side.
Every entrepreneur that hooks a Shark as a partner sees at least a slight bump in sales as a result of the so-called "Shark Tank" effect — but only companies that take the long view toward sustained growth turn out to be good investments.
Here are six businesses that walked out of the Tank with a deal and have been scaling up ever since, generating a handsome return for their big fish investors.
Pipsnacks
Brother and sister team Jeff and Jen Martin struck a deal with Barbara Corcoran in the beginning of season six for their company Pipsnacks, whose flagship product Pipcorn is an all-natural miniature popcorn that doesn't get stuck in your teeth or cause digestive problems.
After Corcoran invested in the Brooklyn-based company, she took the product nationwide by adding co-packers in the Midwest and on the West Coast. Pipsnacks's sales went from $200,000 prior to "Shark Tank" to more than $1.1 million within just three months of the company's landing a deal with Corcoran.
Sun-Staches
In season six, novelty sunglasses company Sun-Staches attracted a $300,000 investment from Shark Daymond John, who immediately secured a licensing deal for the company with Marvel Entertainment.
Having access to Marvel's roughly 8,000 characters for its sunglass designs has certainly paid off, helping the company generate $4.1 million in sales in less that five months, just shy of the $5.7 million in revenue it earned the previous year.
Q-Flex
When 13-year-old entrepreneur Andrea Cao made a deal with Barbara Corcoran and Mark Cuban for her handheld massage device Q-Flex during season six, she had just $20,000 in sales.
Since launching a website and moving manufacturing out of her garage and into a fulfillment center, sales have risen to $500,000. Cao and her mother have also had to hire four employees to help with customer service and product assembly.
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