A young Utah entrepreneur, Tate Stock, appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank program Friday night and immediately engaged three of the millionaire “sharks” in a animated bidding process to see who would join him as a partner in selling his already-popular back pain relief wheel, called CHIRP.
Stock said he’s already sold over a million of the wheels and he admitted he didn’t appear on the national program to raise money.
“It was about the partnership,” Stock said about his appearance on the television show. “Because the business was making money from the beginning, and I was patient because I didn’t bring on a bunch of investors. Now we’re growing like crazy but I don’t have a partner.
“So my real intent was to get a partner that could help us grow internationally in retail as we expand the brand.”
How did he come up with the name CHIRP?
“If you look at our marketing, it’s kind of quirky and fun,” he explained. “Back pain in itself is boring, going to the doctor’s office is boring and we wanted the whole experience to be a positive, fun experience.
“So we landed on CHIRP. It reminds me of a bird, obviously. But birds chirp when they’re happy.”
After a couple of minutes of intense haggling he made a deal with Lori Greiner, known as the “Queen of QVC”.
Stock said he developed his CHIRP Wheel in 2015 as a BYU undergraduate.