Q-Flex Enters the ‘Shark Tank’: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Q-Flex, a hand-held acupressure device, entered the Shark Tank on December 12.

Heavy interviewed 13-year-old creator, Andrea Cao, who manages to maintain a 4.0 high school GPA while running the company with her mother. Here’s what she told us.

To read all of Heavy’s Shark Tank coverage, click here.

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1. A Mother/Daughter Team Is Behind It

Cao started the company after giving her mother, who is a nurse, massages after she came home sore after working 12-hour shifts.

“I did this for a couple months everyday, but it started interfering with my school and chore work. I searched for something that was inexpensive and effective but I found nothing. I asked my mom if we could make something and she said ‘yes,'” Cao explained of the company’s beginnings.

When asked what it is like to run a business with her mother, Cao answered, ” I love working with my mom. It definitely brings us closer. It can get hard, especially because we both have the same share of equity and sometimes we have different views, but in the end we always come to an agreement.”

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2. It’s Shaped Like a Hook

The shape of the product enables a customer to use it without another’s assistance.

The company’s website explains their unique designs and how it aids in relief:

Q-Flex’s flexible design ensures user to control and regulate the amount of tension applied to muscles or trigger points, also penetrating tip will automatically align perpendicularly to the problem area when handle is pulled forward, which will precisely apply pressure the points. The unique pear-shape tip design is narrow enough to give precise acupressure, and it also has a wide enough top tip which functions as a stopping element to ensure safety and comfort of users.

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3. It Relieves Tension, Aches & Pains

It can be used to relieve shoulder tension, neck aches and back pain. It also decreases stress, releases good endorphins and increases circulation.

Cao explained its functionality, saying, “By applying and releasing pressure on an acupressure point or sore muscle, you are allowing blood and oxygen flow to the area.”

At 20”x10.5” high and weighing 13 ounces, it is portable.

“Our end goal is to eliminate pain and stress from this world. We cant say where we will go, but we do know that we can make a difference,” Cao said of her future plans.

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4. They Were Vacationing in San Diego in Time for the Open Call

After sending in a video, three weeks had passed and they still hadn’t heard back. That’s when Cao decided to take matters into her owns hands and search for open auditions.

As fate would have it, she discovered there was an open call on the same week her and her mother were vacationing in San Diego.

“We arrived the night before and camped in line so we could get our spot out of the 500,” Cao said. “Then we pitched to the casting directors and two weeks later we got a call from them saying we moved on to the next round.”

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5. Andrea Told Her Mom to Imagine the Sharks in Their Underwear

Cao was not nervous to face the sharks. However, she said her mother, who was “shaking from head to toe,” needed some words of advice.

“I told her to imagine the sharks in their underwear,” Cao confessed. “She told me it worked.”

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