On Wednesday, Florida Atlantic University welcomed three of the judges from ABC’s hit TV show, “Shark Tank.” Kevin O’Leary, Daymond John and Robert Herjavec hit the stage at FAU’s Carole and Barry Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium for the first-ever recreation of the show, known as the “CrocTank.”

Similar to the show, the Croc Tank allowed the opportunity for the Sharks to invest their own money in four FAU entrepreneurial ventures from Research Park and Tech Runway. Each of these organizations hosted internal competitions to choose the most promising companies. However, due to the time restraints of the events, the deals made were subject to further review.

The Sharks’ appearance came as a part of the second day of NobleCon 20, Noble Capital Market’s 20th annual convention, which aims to showcase emerging entrepreneurs. This is the second year the event is being hosted at FAU. 

In order to apply for a chance to showcase their company, students underwent a lengthy application process and were selected by representatives of the Sharks alongside Mark Pinvidic, Managing Partner of Noble Capital.

Epipaws, founded by Andria Beal, a scientist and researcher who works with FAU’s Research Park, was the only company to get a deal with the Sharks for $250 thousand with 20% equity — which is a percentage of ownership in a company. Epipaws uses epigenetics to provide the actual age of dogs and cats, and also uses this technology to reveal whether a pet is prone to disease.

O’Leary felt that due to the company’s ties to one of the best deals he made on the show, Basepaws, which uses DNA to learn about dogs’ and cats’ health and age. He said the company was more promising and had more potential to succeed.

Beal shared that she works with Anna Skaya, founder of Basepaws, and explained that she is extremely supportive of Epipaws’ initiative. 

Another company pitched to the sharks was TechRunway’s Carbon Limit, a company that uses carbon-capture technology in concrete to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. 

Tim Sperry, founder and CEO of the company, was not able to spark a deal with any of the Sharks. O’Leary worried about the product’s appeal to consumers, sharing that it is not solving an everyday problem. 

“I try to sell products or services that are native to the customer, so if the cement buyer is waking up every day and thinking ‘I need to reduce my cost, I need stronger cement, I have new codes coming up for buildings,’ especially here in Florida, those are the things I am thinking about. I don’t think the average buyer is waking up and saying, ‘Gosh, I just built that road and how do I get carbon credits from it?’” O’Leary said. 

Hannah Herbst, a 2020 FAU graduate and Rob Flippo, chief operating officer at Golden Hour Medical — invented a company called Auto TQ. They presented the pitch to the sharks as a first-of-its-kind tourniquet aimed at helping prevent blood loss from the common misapplication of standard equipment. 

Herbst and Flippo walked out of the CrocTank empty-handed as Herjavec, O’Leary and John weren’t willing to give the pair a $500,000 loan at a 12% interest rate, as originally pitched. O’Leary felt that although the company had merit, the deal was not something the Sharks wanted to invest in.

“[For] 17 years, we’ve been doing the show. We are not the loan tank, O’Leary responded. “There is no scenario in which I would like to give you a loan.”

Hemotag, a company based out of FAU’s Research Park, aims to provide hospitals with equipment to prevent recurrent heart attack patients from having to make frequent visits to hospitals. Even after being given an $11 million grant by the National Institute of Health. Kaustubh Kale, the founder of the company, hoped to spark a $200,000 deal with the sharks for 3% equity.

O’Leary offered Kale $200,000 at 15% equity, but he did not accept even after his family cheered him on to accept the deal from across the auditorium.

In an email to the University Press prior to the event, Vegar Wiik, executive director of FAU’s Executive Education program, shared that close to one hundred pitches were submitted for the event. Wiik revealed that the event saw a wide variety of applicants, from alumni to FAU High students.

Wiik expressed his hopes for the event through the ongoing success of FAU’s College of Business. 

“We are hoping this will continue to inspire students. The College of Business is nationally ranked in entrepreneurship, and six recent FAU Business graduates have made the Forbes ’30 under 30′ list of top young entrepreneurs,” he wrote.

Andrew Duffell, president of Research Park at FAU, expressed his excitement about the event. He shares the opportunity, this provides for students and faculty alike.

“I think it is a very valuable opportunity that really shouldn’t be missed because how often do you get to see these guys talking amongst themselves, answering questions, potentially investing in your fellow students,” he said. “I hope people will be inspired to pursue entrepreneurship — it’s just an overall great overall general learning opportunity and something that is completely unique to Florida Atlantic —it really does pay to study in paradise.”

Scott Singer, mayor of the city of Boca Raton, kicked off the event by sharing a few words of appreciation for Noble Capital’s engagement within the local community.

“Noble’s had a hugely positive impact on our local community through their creation of many jobs and charitable initiatives,” he said. “The ability to hear from the Sharks today is another example of what Noble leaves for our residents and how it helps elevate the business profile of a thriving city and with the great institutions like our host, Florida Atlantic.”

Before the pitches started, the Sharks were welcomed to share a “fireside” chat with Michael Kupinski, director of research at Noble Capital Markets, to discuss their views on the economy, how they got to where they are now and their own capitalistic ventures.

When asked by Kapinski how he got the nickname “Mr. Wonderful,” O’Leary said, “It’s because I am the only shark that tells the truth — that’s it. Everybody is worried about everybody’s feelings, but I don’t care.”

John and Herjavec were asked about how they got their start in the business world, considering that neither of them came from a wealthy socio-economic background. 

John reveals his experience in realizing his entrepreneurial spirit, explaining how he found out what problem he wanted to solve in the Hip-Hop community growing up and how that sparked the idea for his apparel company, FUBU.

“I felt that at the time when people were taking our money [and when] we were buying designers to reinterpret into the streets [clothes] for break-dancing, that they were taking our money but they didn’t have any empathy — they were going like ‘we don’t want you to wear our clothes,” he said. “I find in every successful entrepreneur that they do two things: they are either solving a problem or bring somebody joy and when you bring somebody joy, you are solving a problem.” 

When deciding what he wanted to do with his life, Herjavec shares how his main goal was to avoid poverty.

“I just didn’t want to be poor. I remember, at like 12, looking at my situation and just thinking, ‘I don’t want to live like this.’ I didn’t have dreams of starting a business, or owning a jet, or buying cars–it wasn’t any of that; I just didn’t want to be poor,” he said, noting he did not have the know-how or the education of how to start a business. 

Herjavec shared that at 21 years old, he was fortunate to get a job in cyber security and stay with it for the last 40 years, owning the Herjavec Group, a cybersecurity firm based in Canada.

O’Leary shares his biggest piece of advice for companies that are struggling to break out into the market.

“The difference between the successful [is] they have been able to embrace the idea, particularly generated through the pandemic, of dealing directly with their customers and forming a narrative with their customers, forming a community with their customers, of mutual respect of what they do what they make and how they sell it to you,” he said. “The ones that are failing — they have not figured that out.” 

Gabriela Quintero is a Staff Writer for the University Press. For more information on this or other stories, contact Quintero at gquintero2022@fau.edu