In the golden age of content creation, influencers are everywhere. Influencers in the Wild is a satirical platform that shares a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the live of influencers creating content. George Resch pitched his board game on Shark Tank and today Influencers in the Wild is worth an estimated $5 million.
Who is George Resch?
George “Tank” Resch is a social media personality in his own right. Previously, he was a humble fence salesman from Smithtown, New York. He graduated with a degree in Communication from Farmingdale State University in New York.
George worked as a Lead Estimator at Victorian Fence Company for over a decade. His first online venture was a social experiment website called I Found Money Today. Later, George became known online as “Tank Sinatra.”
Founding Influencers in the Wild
Tank Sinatra started making waves on Instagram in 2017, posting original memes. The social media wizard, manages three Instagram accounts with millions of followers @influencersinthewild, @tanksgoodnews and @tank.sinatra.
He noticed how fame-hungry “influencers” would do anything to get views. George got the idea to start a new page and a website where he could show how silly people get for clout.
Starting in 2016, he accepted funny video clips on his website and posted them daily on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. The comedic value of his posts earned him a strong following and quit his construction job in 2018 to become a full-time content creator.
Featuring on Shark Tank
As his online presence exploded, George turned his brand into a legitimate business. He began selling merch and planned to release a podcast.
The founder succeeded in releasing IITW The Game. It’s a board game where players roll a dice, collect clout points, and complete challenges. Everything is themed around the lives of influencers.
Out of all his business ideas, George Resch chose the board game to raise funding from outside investors. The muscular dude delivered a confident pitch and had the Sharks laughing from the start. The novelty aspect of his business played a key role in getting onto the show.
Shark Tank Update
Despite leaving empty-handed, the Shark Tank effect was immediate. The game sold out on Amazon the night the episode aired in May 2023, fueled by George’s massive social media following. Based on the valuation, it appeared Resch was mainly looking for publicity and didn’t want to make a deal.
However, the post-show momentum was short-lived. Tank stopped promoting the game actively after the episode aired, and there has been a noticeable decline in engagement on its Instagram page. The Sharks’ concerns about the business proved to have some merit. He had only sold 1,500 games despite being stocked in 1,900 stores. Kevin O’Leary warned that those low sales figures could get him dropped by retailers.
On the production side, the game costs between $4.97 and $5.47 per unit to produce depending on volume, and retails for $30. It wholesales for $13.31 per unit. That’s a solid margin if sales volumes pick up, but the limited consumer demand has kept the business from scaling as George had hoped.
The game remains available on Amazon, Target, and InfluencersInTheWild.com at $29.99. The brand also sells shirts and hoodies. Customer reviews on Amazon are positive, praising it as easy to play and entertaining, though it skews toward younger, socially-engaged audiences.
George continues to be active across his social platforms, where his combined following now exceeds 10 million, and the Instagram account alone has more than 4.8 million followers. His reach remains the brand’s biggest asset, and any renewed push to promote the game could quickly translate into a sales spike.
