“Shark Tank” lands Colorado entrepreneur 300K investment

Colorado entrepreneur

Anthony Franco got

$300,000.

Kevin O’Leary, one of the business titans on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” got a 25% stake in Franco’s business and Franco’s colorful jacket, designed to look like it has sticky notes stuck all over it.

The episode featuring Franco, CEO of mcSquares, was recorded in June and aired Wednesday night.

Franco was looking for $300,000 from the investors in exchange for a 10% stake in the startup. O’Leary anted up, but wanted a bigger share.

“If I’m going to take the journey with you, 10% is not enough at all given the risk,” said O’Leary, who made his fortune in the computer software business.

Franco said the deal is being finalized.

“You want to negotiate as little equity as you possibly can in any venture deal,” Franco said Thursday. “That said, the value that a shark brings to a company is way beyond the capital. You have to weigh that into the decision. Thankfully I did a lot of that calculation before I went on.”

His company makes a line of products that includes dry-erase tablets, desktop white boards and a type of reusable sticky note that doesn’t use adhesion, designed for use in classrooms and corporate meeting rooms. The company plants a tree for every order of the notes, which Franco said can be used about 2,000 times each.

The company saw 600% growth in the first quarter of this year and expects to do $3 million in sales in 2020, he added.

The company, which does its manufacturing inhouse, is in a 7,000-squarefoot space in Lower Downtown Denver.