Ladies and gentlemen, witness the “Shark Tank” effect.
Almost immediately after two of Foot Cardigan’s four founders, CEO Bryan Deluca and Chief Technology Officer Matt McClard, appeared on the popular ABC show, the company began logging an order every 10 seconds.
The spike began after the episode aired last Friday night at 9 p.m. (EST) and lasted throughout Saturday. By Sunday, the eclectic sock-subscription service was still seeing, on average, one new order per minute, Deluca told Footwear News.
Following the pair’s nationally broadcast acceptance of a $250,000 investment by Dallas Mavericks owner and “Shark Tank” regular Mark Cuban and guest shark Troy Carter, founder and CEO of production company Atom Factor, Foot Cardigan is expected to more than double its 7,000-subscriber base by the end of the week.
“It’s a dream scenario,” said Deluca of the deal, which gives the sharks a 20 percent stake in Foot Cardigan. “There is a value to having these sharks behind you as partners — for us, there was a clear connection to the both of them.”
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In fact, though they figured it was probably a long shot, Deluca said he and McClard had selected the Cuban-Carter duo as a “best possible outcome” during a private conversation the morning before the show’s taping.
“Mark is in Dallas, and we’re in Dallas, and he also has a tech background,” explained Deluca. “With Troy, the draw was the culture and entertainment connections he has and his proven ability to build brands.”
In addition to running his own entertainment company, Carter managed Lady Gaga for five years and was an early investor in successful ride-service company Uber.
During the show, Cuban also flexed his social savvy, suggesting a potential collaboration between Foot Cardigan and his Dallas Mavs.
With all of the heightened interest, Deluca said he now plans to grow his in-house team. He already added three new hires to tackle the order influx and will likely do more recruitment around the holiday season and at the start of 2016.
“We’ve been running on fumes all weekend,” Deluca said. “This is the best kind of stress a company could ask for.”
