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While Grace Rojas was preparing for her daughter’s wedding in Venezuela fifteen years ago, she came up with an idea to add some elements of fun to the wedding celebration. Grace designed various foam party hats for guests to wear at the event and they were a huge hit. As she began to get more and more requests for hats, Grace decided to partner with her son, Manuel Rojas, to create their own company, Foam Party Hats. The mother and son duo create custom foam party hats in over 600 designs with new styles being added regularly. They can also add lights to their hats for an additional element of fun. Grace and Manuel have come to the Shark Tank looking for a strategic business partner that is willing to invest $100,000 in exchange for 15% equity in Foam Party Hats.

The Sharks loved the fun and festive designs but were unsure of the financial potential for the business. In 2019 Foam Party Hats generated $145,000 in sales. Although you would expect the pandemic to inhibit their sales because weddings and large parties have been greatly reduced this year, they have actually exceeded their 2020 sales already and their sales continue on an upward trajectory. Because of their growth, Grace and Manuel are seeking the help of a Shark that can help them to scale their business to accommodate demand. Since Grace is custom designing every hat herself, there are some bottlenecks in their process that they need to address.

The Sharks love the product and can see Foam Party Hats as moving forward as a company that sells fun. Their hats are whimsical and spread joy which is a big selling feature for their company right now. Daniel Lubetzky offered $100,000 in exchange for 30% of the company, however, he adds a contingency that he wants Manuel to quit his job as a chemical engineer and focus on Foam Party Hats full time. Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner partner to extend Grace and Manuel an offer for $100,000 in exchange for 25% equity. They would take less equity, get two Sharks and they would not require Manuel to quit his job. Because of the pandemic and the current economic instability, Manuel does not want to quit his full-time job and they decide to accept Lori and Mark’s offer.

Would you invest in Foam Party Hats? If you were Manuel, which offer would you have accepted? As a consumer, would you purchase custom made foam party hats for your next occasion? Sound off in the comments below!

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