Shark Tank’s Cousins Maine Lobster, Lollacup give same pitch advice

Convince the “Shark Tank”
investors why you’re the perfect person to sell this product. The
Cousins Maine Lobster founders pictured with Barbara
Corcoran.
Cousins Maine
Lobster

• Successful “Shark
  Tank” alumni — the founders of Lollacup and
  
  Cousins Maine Lobster — say it’s important to tell your
  story when you’re pitching investors.
• That way, you can show them why you’re the perfect
  people to sell this product.
• The founders say too many entrepreneurs overlook this
  element of their pitch, both to investors and to
  customers.
• But customers today want more information than ever
  about the companies they support.

When Hanna and Mark Lim appeared on “Shark Tank” in 2012, they
knew that the product they were pitching could seem pretty
generic.

The Lims’ company, Lollacup, produced safer sippy cups for kids,
made in the US to ensure safety. And while they understood why
that concept was revolutionary, they also understood that other
people might not see it that way at first.

“We were launching a sippy cup, which is sort of ubiquitous for
parents,” Hanna said.

So to gain an edge in front of the investors, the Lims made it a
priority to tell their story.

When one of the sharks, Lori Greiner, asked to hear about the
Lims’ background, Hanna explained that she and Mark were
middle-school sweethearts, and that they’d been dating since
1992. Since then, they’d married and had two daughters.

The Lims also shared the inspiration behind Lollacup: their
frustration finding a safe and hassle-free sippy cup for their
daughter. In other words: why the two of them were perfectly
positioned to sell the best sippy cup out there.

Ultimately, the Lims landed
a deal with Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec: $100,000 for 40%
of their company. Lollacup is now called Lollaland, and has since
expanded into more products for infants and toddlers.

Today, the Lims make it a priority to share the same
story they told on the “Shark Tank” stage with a wider
audience. “Our customers want to know that it’s two parents that
were the brainchild behind this and that we put everything we
have into it,” Hanna said.

Customers today want more information about the companies they
support

Jim Tselikis and Sabin Lomac have a similar philosophy. The
founders of Cousins Maine Lobster
also appeared on “Shark Tank” in 2012, and they made sure to
paint a picture for the sharks of what it was like growing up
eating lobster with their family in Maine. (“You’re standing
alongside the Atlantic Ocean, smelling that salty air,” Tselikis
said during their pitch.)

Tselikis and Lomac wound up winning $55,000 from Barbara
Corcoran, in exchange for 15% of their company.

They’ve continued to make it a priority to tell their company’s
origin story. The Cousins Maine Lobster website features
a photo of the founders as kids, in Maine with their
grandfather, holding a lobster.

For Tselikis and Lomac, their story is a way to not only win over
investors, but also to make sure their franchisees run the
business just like they would. All their franchisees are sent to
Maine, where they spend time on lobster boats and hold live
lobsters in their hands.

“With our lobster, it’s not just having the best product in the
world,” Tselikis said. “It’s telling them our story, because our
customers, just like our franchisees, want to get on board with
something they have an emotional connection to; they want to get
behind a movement.”

The founders of Lollaland and Cousins Maine Lobster agree that
sharing your company’s story is more important than ever these
days — and that too many entrepreneurs overlook that piece of
running a business.

“Now more than ever,” Mark Lim said, “especially with information
on the Internet being so accessible, down to the point where you
can actually look up the founder and CEO of every product that
you buy, I think it’s a huge part of being able to connect with
consumers to just be yourself and be authentic.”

Tselikis agreed: “People care about what’s going into their body,
where it comes from and why, the story behind the business,” he
said. “That stuff matters more and more.”

Still, he said, “Young entrepreneurs sometimes miss their story,
who they are and they don’t develop it well enough.”

Whether it’s a lobster shack or a local coffee shop, “it’s nice
when you go into a business and you do get a really clean
snapshot of who the person is and what they stand
for,” Tselikis added. “It makes it a lot easier and more fun
to support.”