ABC’s Shark Tank premiered 13 years ago and has since become a staple show in American culture. Some 300 episodes have aired featuring companies around the country with innovative products, useful technology or downright wacky ideas. Many companies featured on the show have since become household names after closing deals with one of the investors or “sharks.”
To pitch on the show, companies and their founder must apply and be selected from a nationwide pool of candidates. Alternately companies can also attend an open call to clinch a spot to appear on TV.
During Shark Tank’s tenure, many Chicago-based startups have made appearances on the show and closed deals with the sharks. While the show isn’t just limited to tech companies, these four tech startups appeared on Shark Tank, and some landed deals with investors like Mark Cuban and Daymond John.
The Players Trunk is the most recent Chicago startup to appear on Shark Tank. The company was founded by two Chicago collegiate athletes and helps other college athletes make money from their likeness by selling their game-worn gear and other memorabilia. The Players Trunk asked the sharks for a $650,000 investment in exchange for 5 percent equity in the company. It received counter offers from several investors but ultimately walked away without striking a deal.
Rent Like A Champion appeared on the show back in 2015 and pitched its platform for short-term rental properties geared toward college football fans. The company provided a solution to traveling fans who were not able to find hotel rooms when visiting other schools to root on their team. Rent Like A Champion mainly focused on establishing a presence in college towns. The founders behind the company walked away with a $200,000 investment for 10 percent equity from sharks Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca.
Packback was part of the 1871 accelerator program and burst into the tech scene with its platform that offered digital textbook rentals for as low as $5. It has since developed other edtech solutions. Now, the company has solutions that assess writing skills and other products geared toward instructors. In 2014, Packback was featured on Shark Tank and landed $250,000 from Mark Cuban. Since then the company has raised more than $10 million in funding.
Resultly pitched to investors on Shark Tank back in 2014 and struck a deal with Daymond John. Back then the company had developed a mobile search engine-style app that let users search for any topic. The app would then help the user stay on top of the latest news related to that topic. Resultly went on to raise $2.7 million in funding and has since closed.
