TactiBite entered the Shark Tank with its device that sends out sounds and vibrations to attract fish. Jeff and Jack Danos make up the father-son team behind the invention. We spoke to Jeff right before his Tank episode aired.
Here’s what he told us about…
How the Idea Came About
(Amazon)
We had one too many fishing trips when we didn’t do very well. We knew that fish were attracted to sound and decided to test the crazy idea that we could build an electronic device that would attract them.
Pros & Cons to Working With His Son
There are way more pros than cons. It’s been awesome working together in every aspect of the project. Even more rewarding is the fact that it’s a true family business with everyone in our family of five having a role. The cons are that Jack is 17 and already knows everything-according to him- as do most 17 year olds.
Their 1st Prototype
(Amazon)
Our first prototype was very crude and was hacked together very quickly. It was basically a rigged-up Igloo cooler with batteries, transducers and dumbbells for ballast. The real work started after that when Jack began to produce prototypes on his 3D printer. We spent about a year and made hundreds of changes revising our design before finally settling on the production version, which is mass produced via injection molding.
Experience With Kickstarter
Kickstarter was great. We attribute most of our success to Jack’s planning of our launch party. We had local news coverage and met our $10,000 goal in less than two hours. That and the fact that a 16-year-old kid invented it and modeled it with his 3D printer got us lots of press, which snowballed into a very successful campaign, raising over $112,000.
Facing the ‘Sharks’
(ABC/Michael Desmond)
We’ve been fans of the show for years and have watched most of the episodes. The producers liked both our product and our story and we made it through the many steps involved in pitching, then ultimately airing. We weren’t nervous when we finally got to pitch. We basically took our nervous energy and turned it into excitement. We were so hyped up for the pitch that we felt invincible. We knew our numbers and of course have great enthusiasm for the product. We also knew that it was our one shot, so we just went for it and left it all out there.