UC Davis Alum’s Start-Up Gets $300K on “Shark Tank”
As we covered in an earlier article, UC Davis Graduate School of Business alumn Adam Pettler, MBA 11, and his company Revolights rode into the national spotlight this month on ABC Television’s “Shark Tank,” and won big, landing an $300,000 investment
President and Chief Executive Officer Kent Frankovich represented the Emeryville-based start-up on the March 7 show. Revolights was launched in 2011 from an idea that Frankovich had. Since then, Pettler, who is co-founder and chief financial officer, and the Revolights team have been making wheel-mounted bike light systems.
Pettler said the investment and business expertise from “Shark” Robert Herjavec will help grow Revolights, which already has seven employees.
He also believes the network that he developed at UC Davis were key to Revolights’ development, especially in the early stages. The company’s business plan was developed in an independent study course supervised by Marc Lowe, an adjunct professor at the School. Revolights’ business manager Danny Wong is a 2011 graduate of the School’s part-time MBA program in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Pettler has been giving back by sharing his experiences at the School, including speaking to students in Lowe’s new and small business ventures course. He tells students that the same tools they’re learning were used to start Revolights. He also fields questions such as balancing work-life issues and the challenges of getting a start-up rolling.
Providing the real-life perspective from a recent graduate is important, he said.
“I feel like I’m able to create a bond,” Pettler said. “Not too long ago, I was sitting literally in that seat.”
Other UC Davis graduates have successfully landed Shark Tank deals. Chris Johnson 02 negotiated a $300,000 investment for his Rapid Ramen Cooker from his appearance last October. In May 2011, Jason Lucash 06 of OrigAudio received a $150,000 investment after pitching Rock-It, a device that turns anything into a speaker.
