Mont Handley introduces PittMoss to the Shark Tank Investors in Season 6. He is searching for six hundred thousand dollars in exchange for twenty-five percent equity in his company. PittMoss is made of recycled materials, taking the place of natural peat moss.
PittMoss Shark Tank Episode Details
Season: 6 Episode 24
First Run: 2015/04/17
Shark: Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec
Company: Pittmoss
Entrepreneurs: Mont Handley
Ask: $600k for 25% equity
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Deal: Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec
PittMoss is a soil alternative to Peat Moss. Peat Moss is stripped away creating a significant amount of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere.
The price of PittMoss is about 15-20% lower than Peat Moss. PittMoss is superior in that the product is consistent, unlike peat moss and water needs cut in half.
PittMoss Sales Volume – Shark Tank
Sales coming into Shark Tank “suck” according to Mont Handley. He could not find investors, so he cashed in his 401k, and quit his job to build the plant. He fully expected not to have any sales for eight to twelve months. PittMoss landed the first deal in two months. Sales are only $22,000 for the last six months, despite having orders for $168,000 as of the Shark Tank pitch.
Mont cannot fill the current orders because of capacity because the existing plant can only make about 200 tons of the product a year which generates $60,000 in revenue. He built the factory to prove his concept.
Kevin O'Leary asks about the path of resistance. Mont says that growers have no loyalty to peat moss. He says that greenhouses will grow about 10% to see the comparison verses PittMoss. He is also growing plants and branding them with the company name and get into retail environments.
Mont is giving away a sample of PittMoss so that the growers will see the results.
He is closing a deal with Blue Tree Allied Angel Investors for $400,000 in convertible notes.
For $240,000 he can create two lines to generate $3.2 million in revenue.
He currently owns 70% of the business, and then he is diluting down to past control. Kevin O'Leary and Mark Cuban are asking if he would be willing to walk away from the Angels if he got a deal with Shark Tank.
Barbara Corcoran goes out because he only has $22,000 in sales in seven months. Lori Greiner agrees with her and goes out.
Governments around the world are banning Peat Moss because of the environmental issues that go with it.
Kevin O'Leary offers $600,000 for 40%, but Mont says he undervalued it too much and he might go 30%.
Mark Cuban, Kevin O'Leary, and Robert Herjavec step up and change the deal to $600,000 for 35%.
PittMoss founder Mont Handley steps out of CEO Role
Mont Handley left the company after the Shark Tank pitch and is now at Purdue University Northwest as Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Associate Director, Commercialization and Manufacturing Excellence Center. According to his LinkedIn profile, Mont continues to reside on the board of PittMoss, the company he founded.
PittMoss earns second investment from Mark Cuban according to an article in Biz Journals. Investor, Brian Scott became CEO of the company, and the company focuses on selling online direct to the consumer instead of selling to the nursery and big-box retailers. You can buy this product on Amazon using your Prime membership and get your order in two days with no shipping cost.