Redondo Beach “Shark Tank” kid gets deal
by Garth Meyer He strode into the “Shark Tank” set in September and gave his pitch, his mom and sixth-grade sister assisting. He sought $100,000 for 10 percent equity. Starting the project when he was eight years old, Nathaniel Wellen was now a freshman at Redondo Union High School, his product a “dual-handle umbrella,” which extends for an extra grip further down the stick. For the next four months, Wellen would be prohibited from telling anyone where he was that day or what he was doing. “Everyone deserves their own handle,” he told the Sharks, in the episode which finally aired last Friday night on ABC. The Sharks asked questions. “We are a pre-revenue company but we’re getting ready to go to market,” Wellen said. The product will cost $55 to the consumer, named “The Duo.” He told the potential investors that he already had a deal in place with Shed Rain, a large Portland, Ore. umbrella manufacturer, to which Wellen has sold 49 percent of the company. That agreement began with “a cold call,” he said. While the episode aired, Wellen watched it amidst 60 people at a party at his house, his first time seeing it, as for everyone else. “You’ve diluted the equity too much,” Mark…
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