Tower Paddle Boards Shark Tank Pitch
Stephan Aarstol tells the Sharks that Tower Paddle Boards is the next wave of entertainment for outdoor water entertainment. He's sold $100,000 in four months and is able to sell a 1,200 board for half the retail price. His strategy is Internet Marketing or Affiliate Marketing.
Tower Paddle Boards focuses on promoting the fitness benefits of the stand up paddle boards because one hour of boarding is equivalent to eight hours of riding the waves on a surf board.
The real key to Tower Paddle Boards success is Stephen Aarstol's knowledge of online marketing to sell his boards and Mark Cuban recognizes that ability while the other Sharks miss the opportunity to capitalize on his strength.
Stephan Aarstol is an Internet Geek, and has an MBA. He doesn't want to be in the corporate world and leverages his talent doing affiliate marketing and online marketing of Standup Paddle Boards. He stumbles in his presentation, and struggles to get through the presentation, but then hits on his ability to market it online.
The sales online get the attention of the Sharks. His ability to market at a lower price is key. Robert asks his assistant to demonstrate the cardio benefit. Stephen is searching Search Engine Optimization techniques to obtain the customers in the same way, I am leveraging Shark Tank and Search Engine Optimization to land this traffic.
Tower Paddle Boards Episode Data
- Company: Tower Paddle Boards –Website
- Entrepreneurs: Stephan Aarstol
- Ask: $150,000 for 10% equity
- Episode Season 3 Episode 309
- Companies in this episode:
- Tower Paddle Boards
- Instant Lifts
- Vinamor
- Miso Media
- ReadeREST – Featured Update
- Sharks:
- First Aired: 03/16/2012
- Deal: Mark Cuban $150,000 for 30% equity and the right of first refusal on other businesses created by Stephen Aarstol.
What do the Shark Tank Investors say about Tower Paddle Boards?
- Mark Cuban – recognizes that Barbara Corcoran is way off, and that he knows what he is doing. Mark offers $150,000 for a 30% equity stake plus a right of first refusal on all new business created by Stephen Aarostal
- Daymond John – can't get over how Stephen can value the business at present. He says he is out.
- Kevin O'Leary – believes their needs to be something proprietary about Stephen's business, and he wants to create a custom board. He offers $150,000 for 50% equity and a 10% royalty for all his products he creates. Kevin can't pour boiling oil on the competition, and that frustrates him. Kevin is interested in Stephen, and he wants to sell other stuff. Kevin's deal is too much of the deal. He goes out, but comes back in after Mark's deal and offers 25% equity.
- Barbara Corcoran – tells Steven Aarstol that he is the worst presenter that I've heard. You are like all the other guys that talk like Steven. Barbara missed it with this guy, as much as I like Barbara, she blew an opportunity with him.
- Robert Herjavec – loves the sport, it makes old guys think they are cool, but the valuation today is not cool. He is out. Robert says he did not see it coming. Daymond chimes in and repeats the same thing Robert said. Then Barbara realizes that he bought his brain.
Tower Paddle Boards after Shark Tank
Sales for Tower Paddle Boards screamed to over twenty-five million dollars! Sales for the four days after the show amounted to $60,000. Mark Cuban continued to work with Stephen, helping to keep the business going when the success drove the need for more capital.
Stephen Aarstol expanded the line of goods being sold, but primarily focuses on beach related products. He is focused on the search engine optimization techniques to drive the traffic to his business, which is a great way to build traffic. Like Stephen, I spend zero dollars on the traffic coming into my site. It is 100% search optimized traffic.