Author: Keith Anthony

When life gets too stressful, simply rubbing on a textured surface can calm you down. Michael Malkin and Luce Fuller co-founded Calm Strips, a tactile calming tool you can carry anywhere. After pitching it on Shark Tank, the founders got a deal with Robert Herjavec. Calm Strips is now worth $3 million based on the latest sales data. Michael Malkin & Luce Fuller Michael Malkin is from Newport News, Virginia, and studied English at Old Dominion University. Before launching Calm Strips, he worked in education and retail management, including time at Apple. It was through Apple that he met Luce…

A solo developer in Saskatchewan spent two and a half years building a game that treats poker hands like puzzle pieces. Balatro arrived in early 2024 and sold over 1 million copies in its first month. By January 2025, that number had climbed to 5 million. The mobile version alone has generated more than $9 million in revenue. LocalThunk, the anonymous creator behind the project, took the familiar language of flushes and straights and fed it through a roguelike grinder. The result is a game that asks players to forget most of what they know about winning at cards. There…

Ryan Diew was 21 years old when he walked onto the Shark Tank set in 2017. He was a recent Colgate University graduate, a former college basketball player, and the founder of Trippie – an app designed to help travellers navigate large airports. He left without a deal, visibly heartbroken. Trippie is now valued at $3.5 million, generating $3 million a year, and operating in 120 airports worldwide. The Pitch Diew asked for $100,000 for 10% equity, valuing the business at $1 million. Trippie had 179 users and worked in just four airports. Mark Cuban said it felt more like…

John and Chelsea Pinto walked off the Shark Tank set in 2018 with nothing. Robert Herjavec was the only Shark to make an offer – $300,000 for 36% equity. The Pintos wouldn’t go above 20%. They walked. It turned out to be the right call as Boom Boom is now valued at $15 million based on a crowdfunding campaign in 2024. The Shark Tank Bump BoomBoom was doing $754,000 in sales when they filmed. The exposure shifted the needle – web traffic spiked, Amazon rankings climbed, and wholesale enquiries started coming in from retailers who’d seen the episode. John had…

There’s a moment that happens in almost every Mr. Hand Pay video. The slot machine freezes, a casino attendant appears, and Jason Boehlke absolutely loses his mind with joy. It looks like a lucky guy with a camera. What it actually is, is a carefully built media business and one that’s made Boehlke worth an estimated $10 to $15 million. The YouTube Foundation With monthly views regularly exceeding 25 million and gambling content commanding some of the highest ad rates on the platform, Boehlke’s estimated AdSense earnings run between $80,000 and $150,000 per month. Casino and finance advertisers pay a…

Vegas Matt (real name Stephen Matt Morrow) is one of the few gambling creators whose business model is easy to understand once you stop treating him like a “professional gambler.” He’s closer to a media operator who happens to film very expensive casino sessions. The most commonly net worth range for Vegas Matt is $30 million to $45 million. That range is plausible mainly because: His channel is huge (now 1.39M subscribers, 1.07B views, 1.8K videos) and can generate meaningful ad revenue over time. He has real sponsorship money (FanDuel) plus live events and promotions. His background suggests he had substantial…

Texas already has 405 existing data centers and another 442 planned or underway as of late 2025 according to Axios.com. That is not a “boom.” That is a land grab, at state scale. And the headline number hides what’s really coming: this buildout is projected to drive roughly 746,096 temporary construction jobs, 110,500 permanent jobs, and about $1.654 billion in new tax revenue over 10 years in Texas alone (per the same dataset). So yes, it’s jobs and investment. It is also the kind of growth that shows up in your power and water bills. Why Texas keeps winning these…

When entrepreneurs secure an investment on Shark Tank, the on-air handshake is just the beginning of the process. After filming, Sharks and founders enter due diligence, a period of legal review and financial verification that can take months. During this stage, many agreements change or dissolve entirely. Companies where the on-air deal did not close HyConn When Jeff Stroope pitched his quick-connect fire hose fitting on Shark Tank, Mark Cuban offered $1.25 million plus a 7.5% royalty in exchange for full ownership of the business. That on-air deal sounded like a clear win, and Stroope accepted it in the Tank,…

For every Shark Tank brand that stays independent, a smaller set ends up selling to a larger operator, a public company, or private equity. Sometimes it’s a clean buyout. Sometimes it’s “we bought the assets” or “we bought 60% now, the rest later.” Either way, the founder stops driving the bus. Here are 14 Shark Tank-connected companies with verified acquisitions or control deals, with extra context on the product, the pitch, and the deal. Ring (formerly DoorBot) – acquired by Amazon (April 2018) Jamie Siminoff brought a video doorbell concept to TV early, originally under the name DoorBot. It didn’t…

Not long ago, “teen romance” meant awkward meetups, secret DMs, and the classic sneaking-out routine. Now there’s a new option that doesn’t involve leaving the bedroom, getting rejected, or even dealing with another person’s moods: an AI bot that’s always available, and always “on your side.” This isn’t sci-fi anymore. It’s already normal enough that major safety orgs are measuring it, and big platforms are scrambling to keep under-18s out. AI “companions” are basically always-on relationships A lot of the apps in this category aren’t positioned as “chat tools.” They’re positioned as companions: someone to talk to, vent to, roleplay…