SWIFF has been around for about 3 years now and regularly gets interest from some business/product TV shows. However, interest doesn't mean they actually end up bringing us in to film. Well this year, we finally made it to filming with Shark Tank Australia after making it halfway to filming last year.
What's interesting is that we get a lot of push back from TV producers in general on our sales numbers and that these somehow make our business uninteresting for TV. The thought is, we should have monster sales from day 1 and should be printing money. The truth of the matter is that since we own SWIFF entirely, we have to cover extensive patent costs, manufacture ourselves, package ourselves, and use our own money for every single thing we do (new product design, box design, ads, etc.).
This is in stark contrast to investor-backed business and dropshipping businesses - the two most common types of e-commerce business with significant overlap between the two. I'll dive into how those operate on a separate blog post as we have a few planned for those interested in entrepreneurship, start-ups, manufacturing, and e-commerce. So we won't go too deep in today's blog post.
Back to Shark Tank! We went through the interviews and finally (probably barely), got invited to film. The day of filming is brutal. I had to be in the studio for around 5 hours, some of which is nerve wracking waiting, other bits are taking pictures, looking at our set, and of course filming. The pitch and everything in the tank is a single take, that means any awkward moments or brain farts are caught on camera. It also means if the sharks miss any important business questions, they remain missed. I've heard of companies filming for different lengths of time, and I didn't have my phone or a watch on me (as a call halfway through filming would ruin it), but we were probably in there for an hour or more. I can't go into specifics, but it was really fun and the sharks were great.
They were blown away by SWIFF, by me as a scientist, and the potential for SWIFF to change the world. I knew they would, but for some reason it never felt like those interviewing me in the past really got that. In fact, it was such a hit that Channel 10 saved us for the finale, and put us as the first pitch to kick of the finale. That's a great honor because it means they think we're the hook to get people to tune in on time.
Crazy enough, the TV guide for the episode actually name drops me as Dr JJ. That's really rare as normally they'd just say: "a scientist has something new to stop smells", or something vague like that. I think the only other person to get a name drop was Dr. Matt Agnew, aka the bachelor. So that is a pretty cool fun fact.
That also means Channel 10 wanted to market that I got an offer from all 5 sharks. Can't say which, if any, I took until it airs. But it's really rare that they broadcast that offers were made, too. There's something special about SWIFF.
Finally, smart company got so carried away, they actually leaked their recap 5 days before filming and had to try and scrub it from the internet (not so successfully), so it was clear that a lot of people got very excited.
The great thing for us, was that the reaction to our pitch by the sharks and Channel 10 acted as huge validation that SWIFF is really special and that Susanna and I have done a really good job to get it to here.
Tune in to watch it live, and if it's already aired, check 10Play (channel 10's app and website), and you should be able to watch it free in Australia.