SiliDog Silent Pet Tag Update | Shark Tank Season 8
SiliDog CEO Mikey Lickstein, who hails from Milwaukee, Oregon, headed to the
Shark Tank SiliDog Silent Pet Tag Update
- Entrepreneur: Mikey Lickstein
- Business: Customizable 100% silicone silent pet identification tags
- Ask: $100,000 for 15% equity
- Result: $100,000 for 30% + $0.50 royalty per unit
- Shark: Lori Greiner
Now, before proceeding with our SiliDog update, let’s take a trip back to where it all started and how it went for Mikey in the
Mikey founded SiliDog back in 2014. He first got the idea after his rescue dog’s metal tags kept clinking all night due it his excessive scratching, keeping Mikey from getting any sleep. This problem led him to create a silent alternative that wouldn’t make any noise at all while the dog was scratching, walking, or eating out of a dog bowl. Thus, SiliDog was born.
To secure funding, Mikey went to Kickstarter, where he was able to raise $11,000 from almost 250 backers. Of course, Mikey knew that a silent pet tag wasn’t enough to sell the product, it had to be durable and attractive as well. At the same time, Mikey made the first batch of SiliDog tags to glow-in-the-dark and resist fading. From there, Mikey managed to get SiliDog tags in 200 family-owned pet stores while he was pursuing his master’s degree in business.
Entering the
At the time, Mikey had built SiliDog from the ground up and reached sales of $142,000 in 14 months, with the majority of his customers coming from trade shows. Mikey also revealed that while he was in a lot of brick and mortar stores already, his pre-sale costs were effectively zero. This is because he only sent a “starter pack” to stores where customers could sample the product and pay in advance to secure the order.
After seeing how well Mikey was doing by himself already, the sharks questioned why he was in the
Yet, despite all the sharks being technically out at that point, an unexpected bidding war took off among the sharks. Barbara was the first to step back inside the proverbial ring offering the $100,000 as debt. In exchange, Barbara would get 30% equity and receive a $2 royalty per tag sold until the debt was fully repaid. This prompted
Not to be outdone, Kevin dropped his royalty ask to 75 cents per tag, followed by Lori returning to make the same offer for 50 cents before Robert undercut everyone else by lowering his equity ask to match that of the other shark’s and dropping the royalty amount to only 25 cents per tag.
After taking a few moments to make a decision, Mikey ultimately went with Lori’s offer of $100,000 for 30% + $0.50 royalty per unit.
Unfortunately, in doing our research for the SiliDog update, we found out that Mikey’s appearance on
Thankfully, this period didn’t last long for SiliDog and it managed to rebound magnificently. From its initial offering of four classic tags, SiliDog has now grown to offer more than 100 styles and colors. Additionally, the company also has a new product, SiliCat Tags.
Further, in our SiliDog update research, we found that Mikey now has 53 employees with an estimated revenue of $8.4 million a year. This is a far cry from his initial annual sales of less than $142,000.
In the meantime, be sure to check out some of our other Season 8 Episode 5 company updates:
For more on
