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 Sawyer Sparks (Greene County Daily World File Photo) [Click to enlarge] |
Sparks, a senior in the Purdue University School of Agriculture at West Lafayette, settled for a $300,000 deal -- $100,000 each from three of the show's five "sharks investors" for a 51 percent interest in his product -- Soy-Yer-Dough.
Earlier, he had turned down an offer of $125,000 for 51 percent of his company and later balked at a deal of $125,000 for 40 percent interest.
He came to the show seeking a $125,000 investment for 25 percent interest in his company.
Sparks revealed on the show that a major competitor in the modeling dough business had offered him $500,000 for his product, but he declined because he wanted to retain some ownership.
After taking the TV deal, Sparks, a 2005 Bloomfield Junior-Senior High School graduate, said, "We're going to make a lot of dough with this product."
Sparks watched Tuesday night's show with his fiancee -- Sammie Lewis -- at her house in Portsmith, Ohio.
Sparks, the 22-year-old son of Ron and Sue Sparks and a 2005 graduate of Bloomfield Junior-Senior High School, was selected in a nationwide search by Shark Tank show producers.
He went to California in early August to film the episode.
Sparks' message to the investor sharks on Tuesday's show was a simple one -- he wants to open a manufacturing facility in Greene County for his soy-dough product.
Sparks pointed out that his start-up business model has the company creating about 15 jobs initially to meet the market demand, but he needs investment capital to do that.
The Purdue student said the negotiation part of the show was intense.
After he got his first shark offer he went out and called his fiancee to talk it over.
"She talked to me about the 15 employees that we used to fill a large order. They were without jobs at the time and she reminded me how much they were looking forward to me creating jobs in the community. It really brought a tear in my eye about that and made me want to go back in the shark tank and just really get a deal. They had no idea where I come from. I come from small town USA," Sparks told the Greene County Daily World in an exclusive telephone interview Tuesday night.
Sparks said he remains confident that with the help of his trio of investors, a manufacturing facility will be built for his product near Bloomfield.
"That's definitely what I want." he said.
Sparks revealed on the show that a major competitor in the modeling dough business had offered him $500,000 for his product, but he declined because he wanted to retain some ownership.
Sparks' mother, Sue Spark, was elated with how the show turned out for her son.
Sue, who is a secretary at Bloomfield Elementary School, told the Greene County Daily World that about 30 friends and family members gathered at her home on Tulip Road near Bloomfield to watch the show together.
"We all enjoyed watching it (the show)," she said. "I'm excited. He sure has a love for Greene County."
Sue Sparks noted it was remarkable to see her son on the national television show pitching a product that he regularly makes on the stove in her kitchen.
During the course of the negotiations part of the show, Sparks was insistent about retaining ownership of this patented product and being able to create jobs back in his hometown area of Greene County.
In each Shark Tank episode, budding entrepreneurs are given the chance to make their business ideas come true.
The entrepreneurs are asked to pitch their breakthrough business concepts, products, properties and services to moguls in hopes of landing investment funds. If selected, five real-life, tough investors could be willing to part with their own hard-earned cash and provide the funding needed to jump start their business idea. The Sharks aren't just out to invest. They want to own a piece of the big ideas.
Soy-Yer-Dough, the first and only patented wheat-free modeling dough, was inspired by one of Sparks' favorite Purdue professors and her daughter, who both suffer from Celiac disease, a wheat allergy.
Sparks revealed that his new modeling dough compound was actually the result of a beer making project that surfaced when one of his professors at Purdue told him that she couldn't drink beer because of an intolerance to wheat gluten. It was also the result of an effort to find a modeling compound that the professor's daughter could enjoy.
As a result Sparks and two college buddies began to experiment to see if they could make a gluten-free beer for their lager deprived professor.
The result was Soy-Yer-Dough -- a gluten-free product.
Soy-Yer-Dough is already available to the public and has been successfully sold over the Internet for nearly a year. It is being used in many schools and also is available for organizations to use as a fundraiser.
The product can be purchased for $2 a can at http://www.soy-yer.com.
UPCOMING IN THURSDAY'S ONLINE EDITION: More details from the interview with Sawyer Sparks following Tuesday night's episode of Shark Tank.
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Job well done, Sawyer! You should be proud. :)
It was very exciting to watch.
Congratulations Sawyer!!!! You've made Bloomfield Proud! We look for more great things from you in the future.
Nice job, Sawyer! Your community is proud of you!
I got the impression from the show that the sharks only want the product license so they can negotiate and sell it to Play-Doh/Hasbro for big bucks. How will that create jobs in Greene County? Even Sawyer said he was worried that Hasbro would just bury the patent (buy the competition and shut 'em down) and soy-dough would never be made at all. I just hope the sharks didn't take advantage of the kid, because it sure sounded like Sawyer was looking long-term and the sharks are planning a quick sale to Hasbro.
That's the impression I got too, eld8420. I hope that's not the case.
eld, and gracie --
Your concerns are exactly what Sawyer was trying to address. I'm sure all that will be negotiated with Sawyer's lawyers in the legal process. There will have to be something about the manufacturing of the product being done in Bloomfield written in the legal documents.
I think that it may actually be in Greene County's best interest if Sawyer does license the patent to Play-Doh. If it works out like the sharks seem to hope, Sawyer would walk away with quite a large sum of money. From what I can tell, Sawyer is a pretty bright kid and has a few other ideas he is also working on (like the sunflowers). If he cashed out now, he would have additional financial resources (and some great experience and contacts) to make these other ideas work. He obviously is committed to Greene County and Bloomfield -- so it will all ultimately benefit the community.
What a great role model you are for the future of Greene County.
I think Sawyer's ambitions of creating jobs is most likely not going to happen after his deal last night. It wasn't a smart decision to sell 51% and give up control for only $300K when he told the investors the current purchase price from Hasbro. At minimum the investors know they can do a quick deal to Hasbro for $600K and get their investment back. Sawyer should have been better prepared by knowing the value of his product and therefore he would have been in a better position to make a deal that will benefit him. They took advantage of the small town guy with no business experience, and he did make a nice profit from the deal, but he will hate himself when it all plays out and he sees the potential that was lost by giving up 51% for half of the current purchase price from Hasbro. On the flip side, after increasing the exposure for the need of a substitute product for the wheat based product, someone could easily find another product to substitute the wheat & soybeans, therefore making his product worthless and he made $600K from the from the deal.
"the first and only patented wheat-free modeling dough"
I'm not sure when it was patented, but Colorations has been making wheat/gluten free dough since at least 2005, while Sawyer was still in High School.
http://tr.im/Adg5
Sawyer- Thanks for representing Greene County in a great light. If it works out that you can produce it here, great. If not, good for you anyway. If you can make good money off of this deal (as you already have, $300,000.00, WOW!)plus what the investors can get you in negotiations, you have achieved a great deal.
These investors are thinking that if hasbro is willing to give a self confessed smalltown boy 500,000. We can get 5 times that. That would make him a millionaire. And if thats the case, Good for you Sawyer!!
Whats Next?
I believe the colorations is a modleling clay - the hard stuff. Sawyer would not have been able to get a patent on his recipe if it were fairly similar to the Colorations product.
Naysayers will always exist. No matter how it turns out, bravo!, Mr Sparks.
Doesn't 51% also mean you just lost control of your company's product?