Madhav Aggarwal can’t remember a day since 2014 that he hasn’t watched “Shark Tank.”
“I would not just say I’m an avid fan, I’d say I’m pretty obsessed,” says Aggarwal. “‘Shark Tank’ is something that’s been a part of my daily routine since middle school, and there’s literally never been a calendar date where I’ve not watched episodes and episodes of ‘Shark Tank.'”
So the Michigan State University senior was thrilled when he was offered the opportunity to pitch BRCĒ, the shoelace company he founded alongside fellow Spartan Tanvi Gadamsetti, on ABC’s entrepreneurial business show.
And now they’re a “Shark Tank” success story: on last week’s episode, Aggarwal and Gadamsetti made a $300,000 deal to partner with two “Sharks” in exchange for a 20% stake in their business, which promises no more untied shoelaces, ever.
About that offer to be on the show in the first place, which came from a “Shark Tank” producer: “Tanvi and I just looked at each other, and we did not say a word for like an hour,” says Aggarwal. “We were shocked. It felt like our biggest item had just been checked off our bucket list.”
They still had to pitch the “Sharks,” of course, but the pair knew their business up and down, left and right, since founding it two years ago.
Both were athletes growing up — Aggarwal played badminton, Gadamsetti ran track — and they came up with the business together after meeting at Michigan State as freshmen, when they both lived in Wonders Hall in MSU’s South Neighborhood.
The night before they taped their appearance — they can’t say when the episode was filmed, per an NDA from the show — Gadamsetti said they were up until 2 a.m. going over their sales pitch.
“We were pacing around our hotel room and just trying to rap questions at each other, trying to think, based on episodes that we watched, what we’ve seen on the show, trying to think of what questions they might ask and rapid fire them at each other,” Gadamsetti says. “And then when we walked down that hallway and we stood in our place on that stage, we completely forgot everything and our minds went totally blank.”
They played it off well, selling the panel — Fawn Weaver, Kevin O’Leary, Robert Herjavec, Lori Greiner and Daniel Lubetzky — on their miracle shoelace company, which uses “patented microscopic interlock technology,” per their words, to ensure no more untied shoelaces.
They received multiple offers from the “Sharks,” and ended up partnering with Weaver and Lubetzky on a deal that includes a right of first refusal on their next business plan.
During their appearances, they each got emotional about their backgrounds, Gadamsetti tearing up over the death of her father during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Aggarwal about coming to the U.S. after growing up in New Delhi, India, and being the first member of his family to board an airplane.
Viewing the episode at a watch party last week in Lansing with family, friends and advisors was like living the experience anew, Gadamsetti says. They both attended a second watch party the following day at Newlab in Detroit.
“It felt like we were watching it for the first time,” says Gadamsetti. “We were extremely emotional, but we are also very proud of ourselves. It felt like another version of ourselves standing on that stage, and I’m like, I don’t even know if I could do it now, but that version did.
“And I was extremely grateful to be supported by the community, by our investors and our advisors, and they cheered us on even before and after and all throughout the showing as well. So we just have an immense gratitude to have been surrounded by them in that moment and to have people that we trusted and supported us coming out to celebrate us.”
Next up, the pair is scheduled to graduate in May and then go into business full-time. Or even more full-time than they already are: on Monday, they were calling from New Orleans, where they were attending a pitch competition for new businesses.
BRCĒ, pronounced “brace,” has expanded since the “Shark Tank” taping beyond shoelaces into broader material tech, says Aggarwal. “Shoelaces is just the beginning for us, as we expand into other applications across other industries as well,” he says.
And he’s still watching “Shark Tank” every day; he says he was even watching “Shark Tank” the day his episode aired.
“I could not have been more proud of how far Tanvi and I have come, which is a long way,” Aggarwal says. “Being on the show, it was the most fulfilling feeling I’ve ever had.”
agraham@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: ‘Shark Tank’ was a ‘bucket list’ item for Michigan State duo
Reporting by Adam Graham, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
