Alexiou Gibson weighed 500 kilos at just 21. After countless attempts at weight reduction, he discovered sea moss and transformed his entire life.

“Like most teens, I believed that I used to be invincible,” Gibson shares. “I assumed I could be nice and had time to get healthy later. It wasn’t until my doctor told me that I wouldn’t live to see my thirtieth birthday that I actually understood how serious I needed to be about living.”

He went on to lose 100 kilos and founded The Transformation Factory, a sea moss complement company.

This yr, he and his team appeared on Shark Tank, and in an unprecedented move, the corporate was awarded $600,000 in investment funding from guest judge Kevin Hart and series regular Mark Cuban. That is the primary time this has happened on a season finale episode. The brand is now specializing in expanding its distribution footprint.

Melissa Butler actually has one of the vital triumphant stories in spite of her Shark Tank appearance.

The founding father of Lip Bar, a cosmetics brand that touted fun lipstick pigments, received harsh criticism from the Shark Tank judges, particularly Kevin O’Leary (Mr. Wonderful). While delivering feedback after her pitch, O’Leary called the vegan brand “clown makeup” and ultimately rejected The Lip Bar.

Now, years later, the brand is flourishing and celebrated their 10-year anniversary. In a billboard celebrating the milestone, it read:

“Shark Tank’ told me to quit. 10 years and a couple of million units sold,” read a billboard in Butler’s hometown of Detroit, MI to commemorate a decade within the business. “Thanks, Mr. Wonderful.”

When CurlMix founders Kim and Tim Lewis appeared on Shark Tank in 2019, they rejected a proposal that didn’t feel like a fit for them. Lower than 60 days later, they raised over $5 million in equity crowdfunding.

“We’re democratizing the flexibility to speculate by allowing our community to own a chunk of the pie and provide you with us,” says Kim Lewis, CEO of CurlMix, on LinkedIn as reported by Black Enterprise. “That is revolutionary in that no other black-owned beauty brand has ever done this. None. This will not be a donation. It’s an investment.”
She continues, “By the yr 2024, we expect to have $40M in annual revenue. We plan to create 100 jobs and procure a producing facility in an underserved minority community, right here in Chicago. We plan to construct the primary, publicly trade black-owned beauty conglomerate and hopefully be traded on the stock NYSE at some point, like Procter & Gamble.”

Cora and Stef Miller founded their haircare company Young King after noticing an absence of products targeting Black boys. After completing an accelerator with Goal, they secured a distribution cope with the massive box retailer and aimed to secure more funding with an appearance on Shark Tank earlier this yr.

Because the couple’s appearance, the brand has continued to grow.

In line with Frias’s bio, she has led a team to scale the wonder brand into 2,500+ Walmart, Goal and CVS stores nationwide. Her cosmetic brand, LUNA MAGIC was featured on Shark Tank in January of last yr, and was offered $250,000 as a line of credit for 30% equity from Barbara Corcoran.

Up to now, the brand is sold in Walmart, Goal, and CVS worldwide.

Josh Aviv and Christopher, founders of SparkCharge, the mobile EV charging system, appeared on Shark Tank in 2020 and walked away with a million-dollar investment.