by Garth Meyer
He strode into the “Shark Tank” set in September and gave his pitch, his mom and sixth-grade sister assisting. He sought $100,000 for 10 percent equity.
Starting the project when he was eight years old, Nathaniel Wellen was now a freshman at Redondo Union High School, his product a “dual-handle umbrella,” which extends for an extra grip further down the stick.
For the next four months, Wellen would be prohibited from telling anyone where he was that day or what he was doing.
“Everyone deserves their own handle,” he told the Sharks, in the episode which finally aired last Friday night on ABC.
The Sharks asked questions.
“We are a pre-revenue company but we’re getting ready to go to market,” Wellen said.
The product will cost $55 to the consumer, named “The Duo.”
He told the potential investors that he already had a deal in place with Shed Rain, a large Portland, Ore. umbrella manufacturer, to which Wellen has sold 49 percent of the company.
That agreement began with “a cold call,” he said.
While the episode aired, Wellen watched it amidst 60 people at a party at his house, his first time seeing it, as for everyone else.
“You’ve diluted the equity too much,” Mark Cuban said.
Kevin O’Leary told Wellen, ‘you’re in school, how can an investor get a hold of you?’
Barbara Corcoran and Lori Greiner also bowed out, saying they didn’t think Wellen needed a partner. That left one Shark remaining, Robert Herjavec, who surmised that, with 49 percent of the company, if it succeeds, “there’s no way (Shed Rain) is not going to buy you out.”
He made an offer: $100,000 for 20 percent equity.
“Can I counter?” Wellen said. “Will you do it for 15 percent?”
“18,” Herjavec answered, and they had a deal.
Origin
What sparked all of this came about one morning in Atlanta, when eight-year-old Nathaniel was walking to school with his father. Halfway there, it started pouring rain, for which they brought an umbrella.
“We’re struggling to stay dry. It’s this endless, painful (process); two people should be able to walk in the rain comfortably,” Nathaniel said.
Experimentation soon began, with father and son using a selfie-stick to make a mock-up of a two-handle umbrella. The family moved to Redondo Beach in 2018 and the idea took off when Nathaniel placed second at the 2022 national youth “Invention Convention,” and won the Originality Award.
“I always thought business was a cool industry, but I never knew the ins and outs,” he said. “It really took a lot of work.”
Father Alex is the president and general manager of Motor Trend, and a former intellectual property attorney. Nathaniel was 10 when he got his first utility patent for the umbrella.
The family helped prepare him for the “Shark Tank” audition, Alex filmed while wife Kris – a former MTV2 V.J. – stood on a patio above to pour water. Sixth-grader Katherine would get wet every time, so when Nathaniel or someone else messed up, she would go change clothes and dry her hair for the next take.
“It took hours, days, weeks to get that right,” Nathaniel said.
Ever since he was old enough to understand inventions, he and Alex would dabble.
“We were working on pinewood derby cars, the engineering, how to make those things go faster,” Alex said. “My father was an engineer, my mother an artist. It’s very common in our household.”
“Shark Tank” had to be Nathaniel. He could do it.”
Nathaniel plays on the RUHS water polo team, is in his first year on staff at High Tide – the high school’s student newspaper – and gets up at 5 a.m. to surf before school when it’s good.
“I want to go out for the surf team next year,” he said.
When he called Shed-Rain, he hadn’t imagined it could lead to a sale of part of his company.
“I called them just to be in touch with someone in the business,” Nathaniel said. “We needed to make this thing real.”
The CEO, Jeff Blauer, took to the kid, later offered him a job if he wanted it, and bought almost half of the company before it had ever sold anything. Shed Rain will release the Duo to stores later this year. On TV was a prototype, not quite the final design.
“We’re not going to have the massive logo on the brim,” Nathaniel said.
The watch party crowd included Blauer, and Mike SooHoo, a 20-year RUHS instructor who teaches Wellen in his business, entrepreneurship and finance class, in its second year.
Nathaniel and the family were given clearance to tell people about the “Shark Tank” appearance three weeks before airing.
“It was really hard to keep it all in,” Wellen said. “It was one of the best moments of my life, hearing them all cheer (at my house) when I got the deal. It’s time for us to change the world. I’m really excited. As a team, we just want to make life easier.”
“I think this is the next stage for him,” SooHoo said. “… He still has to make sure that it takes off. He still has quite a journey ahead of him.”
“In certain ways, it’s been a really long journey, then really fast,” said Alex.
Future
What does Nathaniel see in his future?
“I’m hoping to be able to keep telling my story, I want to go into business…”
As for The Duo, “the next 12 months looks very marketing-oriented,” he said.
On the date of the “Shark Tank” filming, it was a school day, so Nathaniel had to work with a studio teacher for a few hours first. He was absent for Mr. SooHoo’s class.
“He’s the best. The class is everything I needed,” Wellen said. “… It feels like I’m learning something I’m using in my life. What SooHoo teaches me I use on a daily basis.”
“My biggest takeaways from this experience are, I couldn’t be more grateful… especially Jeff (Blauer) and my dad … just gratitude all around for all of the opportunity to learn.”
Alex, Nathaniel’s father, has been an inventor himself. After law school, he got “two or three dozen patents,” including one for a ping pong paddle that mounted to your hand – no handle.
Mr. SooHoo’s elective has freshmen through seniors. The class is also guided by a group from Redondo Beach Rotary, which comes in once per week.
“Nathaniel is a great contributor, a great thinker,” he said. ER
