Nestled in the shadows of conventional attractions lies a chilling alternative: paranormal tours. American Ghost Walks tells the paranormal tales of America’s past and made a spine-tingling appearance on Shark Tank. Unfortunately, the founders scared the Sharks away from making a deal and American Ghost Walks is worth an estimated $1.5 million.
Meet the Founders
Allison Jornlin and Mike Huberty are a brother-and-sister duo. Their business isn’t just about scaring people, they give customers an insight into the paranormal history behind haunted locations in the US.
Growing up, the siblings were fascinated with everything supernatural because of the shows they watched. This inspired Allison to become a paranormal investigator, and became renowned in the Milwaukee area.
Mike’s channel for his paranormal passion was music. He joined a band called Sunspot, which attempted to popularize weird Wisconsin rock. In 2008, Allison was inspired by Richard Crowe, to start a ghost tour in Milwaukee. Not long after, her brother had money problems, so she helped him kickstart a similar venture.
The Birth of American Ghost Walks
Founded in 2010, initially the company was called Madison Ghost Walks but rebranded as they went national. Allison joined her brother, and went all in on the startup. They rummaged through archives and interviewed locals to get more historically accurate information for their tours.
They also share real stories of public executions, gang activities, and voodoo culture. Slowly they’ve expanded the team, launching tours outside of Wisconsin and now host live events. Considering it’s a niche business, they were thrilled to grab a spot on Shark Tank’s first Halloween-themed episode.
After Shark Tank
Although American Ghost Walks is already an established business, it benefited massively from the exposure on Shark Tank. Fans of the show were already enquiring on Twitter about if ghost tours were available near their area.
You can check out their website, AmericanGhostWalks.com, where prices start from $25 per person. Currently, they have 25 destinations, by next year this should grow to at least 30.
The destinations are spread across seven states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, California, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Maine. They’re even in Puerto Rico, where their tour has an average rating of 4.5 stars from 23 reviews on TripAdvisor.
Dark tourism is a now $30 billion industry, which underscores the potential of American Ghost Walks. A surprising 82% of travelers, as reported by Explore.com, have gone to at least one dark tourism site. In an interview with jsonline.com, the owners said the whole experience was fun and that Kevin O’Leary was friendly but how the show is edited made him look like the bad guy.
