Nick and Elyse Oleksak are the founders of a bagel equivalent of doughnut hole. They have a line of products that have different bagels with different cream cheeses filled inside. They are arguably one of the most successful companies that has aired on Shark Tank.
Nick and Elyse were both big fans of Shark Tank and would watch it every Friday. Nick would constantly pitch Elyse his ideas but nothing really stuck. That is until one night when he claims he had a vision about these bagels stuffed with cream cheese. He woke up and started brainstorming about it. The next day, they had to research how to make a bagel. They went through many different recipes and combinations. They had friends test them, one of those friends being my uncle. Nick and my uncle were part owners of GFI Group, a financial company.
Eventually Nick and Elyse got the right mix and started cranking them out in their oven. They decided to go right into retail in order to test “to see if it had legs.” Elyse said, “If you can make it here (retail), you can make it anywhere.” Then they found a manufacturing plant that could pump out roughly a million bagels a week. Things started rolling.
Then they took things to Shark Tank, and the rest is history. They got $275K while giving up 25% of the company to Lori Greiner. They’re experience on Shark Tank can be summed up by Elyse’s words:
“We put together a study guide, we spent hours and hours watching every single episode, we wrote down every question and quizzed each other on how we would answer it, we had our study guide on numbers, cut our financials in every way possible, and we memorized everything. I think we studied harder than either of us did for the SATs. We went in there so ready—we even had signals of how to respond, like different nods for what we’d accept so we didn’t have to step out. Preparation was certainly key, and it showed because the Sharks responded well and we got a deal and it was so exciting.”
They got a ton of exposure and sold in retail, QVC, and later in Star Bucks. They even got Oprah to approve of their product when she said it was one of her favorite things in 2014.
Bantam Bagels wasn’t just a cake walk however. They admitted that they didn’t do the best job branding their product at first which would’ve grown the company faster and burn through less cash. Regardless, they learned and made it into an empire.
Links:
https://www.delish.com/food-news/a49617/how-bantam-bagels-got-on-shark-tank/
I think this is awesome that these people studied shark tank as a sort of test. It is awesome and I think that it is the best way to go into it, super prepared and connected with your partner. I think that a married couple doing a business venture together is can be either a fantastic idea or a horrendous failure. This couple worked together successfully and it was a fantastic idea as they now have a business empire. I also love this idea but I have never heard of it nor seen in, so I guess I will have to keep my eye out for these bantambagels.