Looking for the next big thing
Open audition for ‘Shark Tank’ draws hundreds of hopefuls to pitch their ideas
Aaron Novak laughed and said he wasn’t going to disclose the name of his girlfriend. Likely, this was because the young woman, Katie Simons, was dressed as a huge bright yellow lightbulb.
You could see where this might be rather embarrassing.
Yet in general, when it comes to selling your product, and yourself, on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” there’s no holding back. As Mindy Zemrak, the show’s supervising casting producer, told room after room of hopefuls, “What matters to us, is YOU. Fifty percent of this is business, 50 percent is your back story.”
Hundreds of entrepreneurs with 317 pitches showed up Wednesday for a daylong open casting call at the Rivers Casino, North Shore. As morning broke over a fog-covered Ohio River, they arrived cradling boxes of inventions, poring over pitch scripts and carrying oddly shaped, custom-made boxes of … what, exactly?
Some were dressed to promote their products, which is how Mr. Novak happened to be sitting next to the lightbulb. An artist, he and partner Glenn Miller own Whiskert in, a craft custom lighting company in Akron, Ohio, and were pitching an artsy light.
“Shark Tank” is casting for its 10th season. Auditions have already been held in Las Vegas, Dallas and Los Angeles with more cities — Oklahoma City, New York, Chicago, Atlanta — to come. In Pittsburgh, hopefuls came from New Jersey, Indiana, New York, Connecticut and beyond.
The premise of the show involves small-businessmen and women, in ashort period of time, pitching their ideas to a panel of big-time capitalists sitting on a nicely decorated set. These “Sharks,” who include Pittsburgh native Mark Cuban, have the power to invest in the company or send dreamers home in tears.
In the open casting call, hopefuls had one minute to impress a handful of producers sitting at tables in a ballroom. No “Sharks” here: to have them at auditions would ruin the spontaneity of the pitches making it to broadcast.
On hand was someone wellversed in the art of the pitch: Fox Chapel native Lani Lazzari. Five years ago Thursday, she appeared on an episode of “Shark Tank” to promote her homegrown line of skin scrubs. Mr. Cuban invested in her company, Simple Sugars.
“Know your product,” Ms. Lazzari said. “It can be really intimidating, so be prepared.”
The Naqvi family of Shelton, Conn., was indeed prepared. Amanda Naqvi, her husband, Hamza, and children Mika’l, 11, Ayaan, 9, and Sofia, 6, were there to pitch something that’s been part of their family for more than seven years.
Kudo Banz are a high-tech version of sticking gold stars on your refrigerator. Every time one of the kids performs a chore or achieves a certain goal that week, the children are allowed to add small plastic charms to their brightly colored wrist bands.
The charms — such as dinosaurs, baseballs, super heroes — can be scanned to a smartphone app, which unlocks augmented reality and a customized “award wheel.” The wheel spins, stopping on a reward. These range from staying up past bedtime an extra 15 minutes to perhaps another bedtime story reading.
Thispositive behavior reinforcement,Ms. Naqvi said, “is aboutbuilding a kid up, insteadof breaking him down.”
Some of the presenters Wednesday were superniche, such as Irwin’s Don Brill. Mr. Brill inspects commercial fire systems. Waiting downstairs by the casino escalators — “I’ve been standing here about an hour, and the line has moved about 10 feet,” he joked — he carried several pieces of white PVC piping.
What at first appeared to be a makeshift golf putter was instead a length of the pipe, attached to a can of smoke. Those in his line of work perform tests with such smoke, but it’s often difficult to place it up high. His lightweight product, he said, brings the can within easier reach of systems.
As the day went on, contestants came and went. Those who were pitching with minors were among the first, which left Brandy Campbell of Baltimore with enough free time to consider taking her twins, Brielle and Arielle, 5, to the nearby Carnegie Science Center.
They had pitched Mane Tea, an herbal drink that promises to improve both hair and scalp health. You can also let it cool and use it asa hair-washing rinse. Like everyoneelse hoping to take aswim in the “Shark Tank,” theywere told that if producers called them in three weeks for the next round, they were one step closer.
If not, well, back to the drawing board.
After 10 years of open calls, Ms. Zemrak said, she is “still completely surprised by what you see.
“Youthink you’ve seen it all,and then you realize that after all these years, the spirit of entrepreneurship is still 100 percent full throttle.”