UC Davis MBA Alum Set to Appear on ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’
Adam Pettler, a UC Davis Graduate School of Management alum, serves as the chief financial officer of Revolights Inc., a company that makes a wheel-mounted bike light systems.
Pettler developed the business plan for a company is slated to appear on ABC Television’s “Shark Tank” at 9pm this Friday night, March 7, to look for venture capitalists to invest in his compnay.On “Shark Tank” a panel of potential investors, called “sharks,” considers offers from aspiring entrepreneurs seeking investments for their business or product. The entrepreneur can make a deal on the show if a panel member is interested. However, if all of the panel members opt out, the entrepreneur leaves empty-handed. A one-hour pitch by a contestant is edited down to “a dramatic 10-minute segment”.
Pettler MBA and Chief Executive Officer Kent Frankovich launched the company in 2011. While Frankvich will be the only Revolights representative who appears on camera, he does mentions Pettler, who developed the company’s business plan in an independent study course supervised by Marc Lowe, an adjunct professor at the GSM.
Pettler attributes the tools and the network he gained during his MBA education are what allowed him to guide Revolights through the entire process of building a company.
“The [Graduate School of Management community] has been there to answer questions as we’ve had them,” he said.
Other UC Davis graduates have won big on “Shark Tank.” Chris Johnson appeared on the show last October, negotiating a $300,000 investment for his Rapid Ramen Cooker. In May 2011, Jason Lucash of OrigAudio received a $150,000 investment after pitching the company’s Rock-It, a device that turns anything into a speaker.
