Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Companies compete for big TV prize
One lands $105K deal
Two Broward companies vied to become suppliers for Landry’s restaurants and casinos, but only one landed a deal, as revealed on the popular “Billion Dollar Buyer” television show.
Smart LED Concepts, an architectural lighting business in Oakland Park, initially fumbled but ultimately landed a $105,000 contract from Tilman Fertitta, the billionaire host of the show who owns Golden Nugget Casino and Landry’s, a Texas-based restaurant and entertainment company.
The program’s premise is that many small businesses across America hold great promise as vendors for farflung enterprises such as the one overseen by Fertitta, who is on the Forbes 400 list of the world’s billionaires. His goal is to identify entrepreneurs who can quickly scale-up their businesses and earn long-term contracts for their products and services.
“That contract was just a tip of the iceberg,” said Smart LED Concepts founder Sean Gleeson, who already is working on lighting for a new Landry’s restaurant in Houston.
But Luke Freeman, who pitched the services of his promotions company Wizard Creations in Fort Lauderdale, could not recover from Fertitta’s challenge on the show. Fertitta asserted that Freeman’s approach to a yacht party for Morton’s restaurant was too “selfpromotional,” with Freeman doing more to promote his own business than Ferttita’s.
Fertitta even gave Freeman a “do-over,” a promotion to bring in emails at Landry’s Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City.
But Fertitta said the promotional game that Freeman set up at the casino, with branded T-shirts and other items for prizes, didn’t impress him.
Freeman shrugged off the outcome, saying, “It’s TV, baby.” He said the show was “highly edited.” He later wrote in an email that his company has seen “tremendous growth in business overnight since the show aired.”
Gleeson, an Irish immigrant who began his Smart LED Concepts lighting business in 2012, had a better outcome. He won praise from Fertitta for outdoor lighting at a party held in Houston, but lost points for garish lighting inside the Chart House in Fort Lauderdale.
“He puts you through the paces but he’s fair,” said Gleeson, who said he finally won over Fertitta with his LED lighting system’s ability to change color, unlike incandescent lighting.
“His bet paid off,” Fertitta said of Gleeson. “He’s a hell of an entrepreneur and one I’m proud to support.”
“Billion Dollar Buyer” airs at 10 p.m. Tuesdays on CNBC.