Local entrepreneurs talk about landing a deal on ‘Shark Tank’

CHARLOTTE — The co-founders of tech startup TheMagic5 walked onto the “Shark Tank” stage as prepared as they could have been. What happened next was beyond their expectations.

[PAST COVERAGE: Charlottean to pitch product on ‘Shark Tank’ airing Sunday on ABC]

The episode aired in late October on ABC, where Rasmus Barfred and Bo Haaber pitched the company to sharks Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec and guest shark Nirav Tolia, founder of Nextdoor.

Haaber said they went into the pitch asking for $500,000 for a 2.5% stake. After a bidding war among all of the sharks, they accepted an offer from Herjavec for $1 million and 6.5% equity in the company. After the cameras stopped rolling, Cuban approached Herjavec and they decided to do the deal together, with each investing $500,000 and receiving a 3.25% stake in the company.

“We decided to go with Robert, but every shark made a bid ... We were just about to turn around and discuss a counteroffer when Robert said, ‘Hey, I can’t let you go. I’ll double your ask,’” he said. “Robert was really the dream investor for us, and what happened after was that Mark approached Robert and asked to split it.”

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