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Business In A Box Shark Tank



Life has been a bit of a whirlwind this week for Minneapolis entrepreneur Amber Leong, who reeled in a $750,000 investment on ABC’s “Shark Tank” for her fledgling business. Her company, Circadian. Watch the official Shark Tank online at ABC.com. Get exclusive videos, blogs, photos, cast bios, free episodes. Kaeya and her business are what a lot of fans think Shark Tank should be all about: smart entrepreneurs with good products and ideas who need a bit of money and advice to have their business explode. BZ Box fits that mold and its uniqueness ought to make for multiple offers. Life has been a bit of a whirlwind this week for Minneapolis entrepreneur Amber Leong, who reeled in a $750,000 investment on ABC’s “Shark Tank” for her fledgling business.

How to Run Your Own Shark Tank with Internal Crowdfunding

Let’s say you very wisely choose to use our new internal crowdfunding platform Ignite to identify and prioritize seed stage ideas at the front end of your innovation/product development process. You put out a call for ideas that match your strategic themes, you set strict guidelines that projects must be completed with a budget of a few thousand bucks and completed in a few weeks time, and you give people a few weeks to come up with ideas. Then you turn your people into angel investors by giving them some house money to make investments. At the end of the funding round, you have a few ideas among many that have been crowdfunded - a clear signal from your employees that those should be your funding priorities. You're hitting all the right notes: lean startup, fail quickly, employee engagement, experimentation at scale. Well done.

A few weeks later, some of the ideas that get funding have built prototypes, written good business plans, or are generally viewed as showing promise. Now they need more money. Typically, the bigger budget requests would happen behind closed doors or through a budget process a few months down the line. But why miss an opportunity to rally your teams and create a little Hollywood-style drama?

Run your own internal Shark Tank, Series-A funding round instead!

Here’s how the whole process works:

Seed stage funding using Cultivate Ignite

  1. Figure out the basics:
    1. Decide where you want to solicit ideas. Typically companies use existing strategic themes or areas where they need to solve problems as guide posts for the types of ideas they're looking for.
    2. Who in the organization should participate?
    3. What's the total budget you want to allocate to seed stage funding of multiple ideas?
    4. Define what qualifies as 'seed stage,' i.e. max budget of $20k, must be completed within 6 weeks, etc. We like Michael Schrage's 5x5 framework here
  2. Give people 4-6 weeks to work together and come up with ideas and budgets for fulfilling those ideas.
  3. For those who participated in the ideation process, give them budget to crowdfund.
  4. Those ideas that tip Kickstarter-style (ie: are fully invested in) get actual funding and are ready to be executed.
  5. With the budget they were crowdfunded, teams go off and execute their plans.

As in the real-world of venture capital, after the seed stage of funding, to start to explore an idea further or more ideally grow/mature it, a company needs to go get more money at a larger scale. Welcome to the Shark Tank.

Contact Shark Tank Investors

Series A - Shark Tank Style

  1. Decide who are going to be the Sharks. (suggestion: it doesn't have to be just executives or management!)
  2. Figure out how much money each Shark can bring to the table, or combine resources into a single budget.
  3. Solicit intrapreneurs among those who received funding in the first round. Do they want to now try and get more budget and present to the Sharks?
  4. Define clear guidelines for presenting such as time allowed and general topic areas they need to cover.
  5. Pick a date and venue for presentations. Plan to have someone livestream it to other remote locations and record the event for prosperity.
  6. Pick a theme song to play before the event starts. The O'Jays 'For the Love of Money' is probably too overt, so maybe something to better capture the mood, like Queen's classic Under Pressure.
  7. Ask someone to MC the event. A C-Level executive is always best because it gives the event more credibility.
  8. Each team presents, say for 5 minutes, max. Then each Shark is required to give their feedback and can ask one question. After every Shark has had an opportunity to interact with the team or individual, they are asked if they are willing to provide some funding or not.
  9. If this is too scary, you could wait until the end for funding decisions, or disclose exact amounts later.
  10. Send a company or group-wide email that evening announcing the funding recipients.
  11. Most important of all - make sure you actually deliver and get the projects the money to give them an opportunity to achieve their goals!

..............................

Interested in running your own Shark Tank? We'd love to talk.

You might also enjoy these other related articles:

  • Introducing Enterprise Crowdfunding
  • Just Start Asking

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you to start following us on Twitter. It will probably be one of the better decisions you make today.






innovation managemententerprise crowdsourcingenterprise crowdfunding

Born
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Other namesThe Queen of QVC
Alma materLoyola University Chicago (B.A.)
OccupationTelevision personality, inventor, Entrepreneur
Net worth$100 million
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 2010)​
[1]
Websitewww.lorigreiner.com
Box

Lori Greiner is an American television personality, inventor, and entrepreneur. She is an investor on the reality TV show Shark Tank and its spin-off Beyond the Tank. She has been known as the 'Queen of QVC' since 2000, with the premiere of her show Clever & Unique Creations.[2] Greiner is the president and founder of For Your Ease Only, Inc.[1][3]

Early life[edit]

Greiner grew up in Near North Side, Chicago. She majored in communications at Loyola University Chicago and worked for The Chicago Tribune while in college. She was briefly a playwright and a jewelry designer and seller.[4]

Career[edit]

In 1996, Greiner created and patented a plastic earring organizer. J.C. Penney picked up the product before the holiday season, allowing her to pay off her $300,000 loan in eighteen months.[5][6] Greiner has patented consumer products in other categories such as cosmetic organization, jewelry storage, travel, electronics, and household items.[citation needed]

QVC[edit]

After her success with J.C. Penney, Greiner expanded her company, with her product appearing on Home Shopping Network and in the retail store Bed, Bath and Beyond. Shortly afterwards, she transitioned to QVC and, in 2000, she launched Clever & Unique Creations, one of the longest-running shows on the network.[5][7][8]

Shark Tank[edit]

In 2012, Greiner joined the U.S. TV series Shark Tank. In 2014, her investment in Scrub Daddy, a company that produces a texture-changing household sponge, was regarded as one of the biggest successes in Shark Tank history.[9][10]

Greiner's other early Shark Tank investments include Bantam Bagels (which was fully acquired by T. Marzetti Company in 2014), Squatty Potty, Readerest, Paint Brush Cover, Hold Your Haunches, Drop Stop, FiberFix, Simply Fit Board, Sleep Styler, and Screenmend.[11][12][5][8]

Box Pilot Shark Tank

Business in a box south africa

Publications[edit]

In March 2014, she authored the book Invent it, Sell it, Bank it! – Make Your Million Dollar Idea into a Reality, a how-to guide based on her entrepreneurial journey.[13][14]

Personal life[edit]

Lori is married to Dan Greiner.[1]

See also[edit]

A Table Business In A Box Shark Tank

  • Joy Mangano, HSN inventor

References[edit]

  1. ^ abcBertagnoli, Lisa (September 26, 2009). 'Neat trick: patenting her way to wealth'. Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  2. ^Vulpo, Mike (February 11, 2018). 'How Shark Tank's Lori Greiner Earned Her 'Queen of QVC' Title'. E News. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  3. ^Kassar, Ami (October 12, 2012). ''The Queen of QVC Talks About the Risks of Dealing With Sharks''. NY Times. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  4. ^Collins, Karyn D. (April 2, 2010). 'Lori Greiner marks a tidy 10 years on QVC'. The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  5. ^ abcHochwald, Lambeth (15 September 2017). 'Lessons From the Shark Tank: Lori Greiner Shares Advice, Inspiration and a Season 9 Sneak Peek'. Parade. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  6. ^Weisman, Aly (April 23, 2012). 'A Grueling 22-Hour Workday In The Life Of A QVC Host & 'Shark Tank' Judge'. Business Insider. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  7. ^Scinta, Jude (August 13, 2017). 'Lori Greiner - A Consistent Rise to The Top'. Advisor Magazine. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  8. ^ abLevitt, Shelley (17 October 2017). 'How The Sleep Styler Survived the Shark Tank'. Success.com. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  9. ^Walker, Jodi (December 5, 2014). 'Where To Buy 'Shark Tank's Scrub Daddy So You Can Help It Remain the Series' Most Successful Product'. Bustle.com. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  10. ^Morabito, Andrea (May 15, 2014). 'Who profits the most from 'Shark Tank' success?'. New York Post. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  11. ^Schultz, Clark (October 22, 2018). 'Lancaster Colony scoops up Bantam Bagels'. Seeking Alpha. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  12. ^Van Allen, Fox (April 30, 2016). 'The 18 best Shark Tank success stories'. ZDNet.com. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  13. ^Cassell, Warren Jr. (December 15, 2014). '3 Takeaways From Lori Greiner's Invent It, Sell It, Bank It'. Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  14. ^Sraders, Anne (June 27, 2018). 'What Is Lori Greiner's Net Worth?'. The Street. Retrieved 6 September 2019.

Business In A Box Shark Tank

External links[edit]

Alice On Shark Tank

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