Founders Of Snow Scholars Appear Before The Judges On Shark Tank Season 16
Highlights
- Aspiring entrepreneurs Jake Piekarski and Philip Loveland approach the Shark investors with Snow Scholars.
- The entrepreneur duo seek $75K for 10% equity.
- Jake and Philip receive offers from three prominent faces on the Shark Tank panel.
Overview
| Category | Details |
| Name | Snow Scholars |
| Founder | Jake Piekarski and Philip Loveland |
| Industry | Snow Removal |
| Product | Snow Shoveling, Sanding, Salting |
| Funding | Self-funded |
| Investment Ask | $75K |
| Equity Offered | 10% |
| Valuation | $750K |
Jake Piekarski from Huntington Beach, California and Philip Loveland from Libertyville, Illinois, present ‘Snow Scholars’ on Shark Tank Season 16. The entrepreneurs start their pitch by discussing how frustrating and time-consuming it gets when snow fills up a driveway.
Snow Scholars present a solution by hiring college students to remove the snow after their classes. According to the entrepreneur duo, in their snow removal business, homeowners can sign up for a full-season plan or a vacation plan on their website. They can then select the area to be shoveled, salted, or sanded.
Jake adds that their plans include hand shoveling, free salting or sanding. Philip says that college students receive a text from Snow Scholars on a snow day. Following it, they perform their task and take ‘before and after photos.’ Their snow reviewing team reviews the photos to maintain their five-star standards.
Snow Scholars: What Happened On Shark Tank Season 16
Jake and Philip try their luck on Shark Tank by seeking $75K for 10% equity in Snow Scholars. Currently, they are working with two campuses. The first is their alma mater – the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The other one is the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. They plan to expand to four more campuses by this year.
Jake claims Snow Scholars can go to more than 140 campuses in the US and Canada. Robert Herjavec wants to know how entrepreneurs find clients for their snow shoveling business. Philip replies, saying it is done mostly through social media marketing.
Next year, they will partner with campuses to get on their student job boards. When asked about getting the homeowners, Jake states that college students send out physical flyers door-to-door.
Kevin O’Leary wants to know about Snow Scholars’ pricing structure. The average cost per snowfall is $74.56. Customers can charge for any amount of snow. The price for the same can reach up to $300 for a single driveway.
On further questioning, Jake and Philip say that they provide free salting and sanding. Kevin is not happy about hearing the ‘free’ aspect of Snow Scholar. Reacting to this, Jake states that they have a 73.3% profit margin.
Philip adds that they have their team, and their design software helps them make all the routes within three hours before the snowfall. Each shoveler gets roughly 5 to 6 homes. Mark Cuban wants to know about their software for optimizing this aspect of the business.
Jake says they have custom-built the software as they wanted very few people to be in the Snow Scholars business.
When Kevin asks about the sales, they reveal that the snow season stays from December 1 to April 1. Last year, Snow Scholars made almost $117K in sales. Lori is impressed on hearing this. The profit made was $85K by paying students $25 an hour.
Jake owns a 100% share of Snow Scholars. Philip has a ‘sweat equity deal.’ Once the business makes $270K, he will get 30% of it.
Lori wants to know about their backgrounds and asks Kevin to ‘not speak.’ Both entrepreneurs are University of Wisconsin graduates with management and entrepreneurship degrees. Philip also holds a Psychology degree.
Philip then talks about his internship with Storage Scholars, a previous Shark Tank business in which Mark Cuban invested.
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Did Shark Tank Invest In Snow Scholars?
Kevin O’Leary makes the first offer of $75K for 20% equity. Jake responds, saying he would ‘love to defend’ the valuation. All the Sharks burst out laughing at his statement. Jake continues and reveals Snow Scholars started in November 2022. Sales during that first snow season were $18K with $13K in profit.
The next year, Jake and Philip were able to manage the profit margin. Jake further says that while it is hard to value a business at its early stages, he has facts to support himself. Kevin reacts and says, ‘What, are we in class here?’
The entrepreneur goes on by claiming that Snow Scholars went from 34 to 343 customers. They are now about to reach about 700 customers. Their customer acquisition cost is $7.08. The customers spend $814 a year on their business. Kevin says he likes the numbers.
Daymond John interrupts and recalls his personal experience of clearing snow and earning during his youth. He further says that he ‘knows this business’ and makes an offer similar to Kevin’s, i.e., $75K for 20% equity.
Daymond also adds that he wanted 25%, but if Kevin asks for 20% equity, he would do the same. Kevin says 20% equity is ‘reasonable.’
Lori feels they do not need her help as they are doing well on their own. So, she steps out of the deal. On the other hand, Robert walks out of the deal as he does not feel that Snow Scholars is a scalable business.
Mark Cuban proposes $150K for 20% equity. The entrepreneurs take up his deal without wasting a second.
More products from this episode! Check out other businesses that participated alongside Snow Scholars.
