Sandusky takes successful dip in the ‘Shark Tank’

MAPLETON, Maine —Mapleton native Donnie Sandusky and his California cousins survived a recent dip in the shark tank and walked away with national television exposure and — perhaps — financial backing from a multi-millionaire.
Sandusky, son of Susanne and Terry Sandusky of Mapleton, along with his cousin, Hamboards’ inventor and developer Peter Hamborg and his son, Gus, of Huntington Beach, Calif., appeared on the Oct. 11 episode of ABC-TV’s “Shark Tank” where they pitched the company’s unique street surfing skateboards to the “Shark Tank” panel. The “sharks,” self-made business tycoons, offer ambitious entrepreneurs the chance to secure deals that could make them millionaires.
Sandusky, who serves as the business manager of Hamboards, said the “Shark Tank” segment was actually taped in July.
“We got a call with about a week’s notice to be at the Sony/ABC studio in Culver City, Calif. and for us to get all of our props and skateboards ready, and figure out what we were going to wear,” he said in a telephone interview last Friday.
Sandusky, 47, also used that time to do a little homework on the respective sharks.
“I actually found a blog that had every deal that’s been done on ‘Shark Tank’ so I did some quick statistics — prior to going in — to see what the most likely deal was with each different shark, and I had it thought out before we went in,” he said.
“We were told that we were going in to shoot a practice run for our pitch, and we were there with 10 or 20 other candidates. We got our turn and gave our pitch. It was funny; the director of the show, and about 25 other people — administrators, the lawyer, the grips, the costume, hair and makeup people — everybody you could think of was sitting there in four rows of fold-out tables with their laptops up pecking away at their e-mail while we’re standing up there giving our pitch,” said Sandusky. “What was amazing was — after we were done our practice pitch — everyone had these deadpan faces. Nobody gave us a wink or a smile … just deadpan. That was probably the most nerve-racking part of the whole thing … ‘Do they like us or not?’”
As it turns out, what Sandusky and his cousins thought was a “practice run” was actually an audition.
“Even though they bring you in — ostensibly — under the concept that you’re going to pitch to the sharks, you’re never actually pitching to the sharks until you actually do it. They can cut you at any time. It’s like any Hollywood production or any school play; you can get cut at the last minute,” said Sandusky. “We did very well; the director had some very positive comments for us, and then we left the studio fairly quickly not knowing if we were going to be invited back later to actually make our pitch.”
However, later that evening, the Hamboards representatives received a phone call from one of the producers.
“What he didn’t tell us before was that most everybody was very skeptical about our pitch … a skateboard … it seemed a little silly, but we did such a good job in the audition that not only did we get invited back to actually make our pitch, but we got bumped into what you could argue is one of the very best slots,” said Sandusky. “It was early enough in the day that the sharks were still sharp and you’re certain to get on. We kind of went from worst to first based on our audition which was a surprise to us.”
Two days later, Sandusky and his cousins came back to the studio where they received “VIP treatment.”
“‘Right this way,’ ‘Here’s your trailer,’ ‘Can we iron your shirt for you?’ ‘Can we trim your hair?’ ‘Is there anything you need?’ It was quite something,” Sandusky said.
Waiting, however, was the worst part of the entire process.
“Unlike the first time we did our audition, we were waiting in this dark room with one fluorescent light. Your eyes can’t focus; there were no chairs in there. It was sound deafened because you’re approximate to the actual recording studio and they were recording another pitch while we were standing there in the wings. We couldn’t see or hear anything, but we knew what was going on. Before they open the doors and you come out, that’s about the peak of your stress level. You work so hard to get to this point, you just want it to go well,” Sandusky said, noting that filming of the actual episode took about 45 minutes and was shot in one take. “Once those doors opened and we went down the hall, all the stress fell away, and we went into our rehearsed opening pitch, and the split second that was over, it was just a conversation. That was when it got fun for me.”
In doing his research, Sandusky figured that sharks Mark Cuban, Daymond John or Robert Herjavec would most likely be interested in the Hamboards product.
The Hamboards execs were initially asking for $100,000 for a 15 percent stake in the company. John was the first shark to make an offer — $100,000 for a 30 percent stake in the business. Then Herjavec, who heads The Herjavec Group, a leading IT security and infrastructure integration firm, countered with an offer of $300,000 for a 33 percent stake.
“You’re not selling water paddle boards on land. You’re selling the California dream, baby,” said Herjavec. “There is going to be a percentage of your customers that is the hardcore surfer, but the much bigger percentage is going to be old, chubby guys like me that want to be kids like Gus. That’s the big market.”
Having done the statistics on all the deals, Sandusky knew what kind of deal was going to work and what wouldn’t.
“I also knew that I didn’t want to be negotiating down from my opening proposition,” he said. “I went in there with the intention of getting two sharks to bid up my deal. I knew we had a great product and a great brand, so I assumed we were going to connect with at least one or two sharks.
“Robert [Herjavec] has never done a deal for more than $300,000, so I knew that was his maximum deal. I also knew that 59 percent of all deals — for all sharks — are 30 percent or less,” said Sandusky. “I didn’t think he was going to go to 25 percent with his richest deal. When he came in for a third (33 percent), I knew I wasn’t going to get the 25 percent. People out West are calling me ‘Mr. 3 percent’ like it’s arbitrary, but I can assure you that the 3 percent was not arbitrary; it was about maintaining control, and I think Robert knew that. He was a real gentleman to let me win that one.”
Sandusky said he has regular dialogue with Herjavec’s staff, but explained that the deal isn’t closed yet.
“I’m in regular dialogue with his organization; he has a professional staff that handles these matters,” he said, “but the deal is not closed. It’s a handshake deal on TV, but like any handshake deal a businessman makes, both parties have to agree to some sort of terms later. With the limited amount of dialogue we had in person in California with TV cameras rolling, you don’t get a chance to go through all the nitty gritty details and that’s where a lot of deals go south.
“We’re in exclusive negotiations — we’re through the due diligence part — and we have a little bit of time left to decide whether or not to close a deal,” said Sandusky, noting that he has also been in touch with John’s professional staff. “I would think by the end of the year we’ll know where we’re going to be.”
Since the “Shark Tank” episode aired almost two weeks ago, Sandusky said business has picked up significantly.
“We’ve had about 150,000 unique hits to our website, and when we did the analytics on that, it’s absolutely worldwide … coasts, mid-flyover states, mountain, Canada, Mexico, a lot from Australia, a ton from Europe, Japan and Asia,” he said. “We were already kind of a globally known company, but our website got pounded and we did a good job and our website never went down.
“Our sales spiked. We sold more in the last week than we sold for the entire year two years ago. We’re getting close to almost twice as much as our biggest month ever in one week,” said Sandusky. “We’ve received lots of inquiries from people who want to represent or distribute our product, and that’s actually worldwide. It looks like lots of parents watched the show with their kids and the kids freaked out about the product and the parents called us and bought them for their kids. I think they’re buying a lot of early Christmas presents.”
Sandusky said his Mapleton roots helped shape him as an adult.
“A fifth-grade boy that grows up in Mapleton, Maine is way better than average at dealing with long periods of boredom. That can turn into creative and hard work, or it can turn into sitting in front of a TV a lot. For me, TV wasn’t that great back then, so I ended up being very creative,” he said. “We heated our house with wood, so I had a lot of work to help keep the house warm as a kid, which led to a work ethic. I also worked in the potato harvest, which as a kid I hated, but it taught me about hard work and perseverance and that it’s OK to do the crummy jobs because it builds a lot of character.
“I wasn’t that smart of a kid and wasn’t particularly good at anything except for working hard. As I matured as a young adult in college and graduate school, when my brain developed and caught up to the rest of my body and I developed my intellect, I already had this hard working character built in,” said Sandusky. “That really did come from growing up in the outskirts of a little town in northern Maine.”
Sandusky attended Mapleton Elementary School, Skyway Middle School, and graduated from Presque Isle High School in 1985. After a year at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, he transferred to the University of Maine, where he earned a mechanical engineering degree in 1990. The next year he was selected by NASA to work on components of the International Space Station.
Sponsored by NASA, he received his Ph. D. in applied polymer science from the College of William and Mary in 1995. Sandusky decided on a more entrepreneurial track after 10 years working his way up through the management ranks at DuPont in Wilmington, Del., and then became the business manager for Hamboards.
Sandusky works out of the company’s business office in Pennsylvania, but flies to California “every month and a half or so” for a week at a time. He and his wife, Jennifer, have two children: Lily, 11, and Luke, 9. They live near West Chester, Pa.
For more information, visit www.Hamboards.com. There are also a number of videos of Hamboards in action on YouTube.