INTRODUCTION
In November 2015 I was selected to pitch on Shark Tank Australia, a TV show millions of Australians watch. On the show, business owners pitch to five multimillionaires (the ‘sharks’), hoping to impress them enough that they will invest their own money into the person’s business.
Janine Allis (founder of the $400 million company Boost Juice) was mentoring me at the time, and recommended I apply. When they called to say they wanted me to audition I was thrilled, but unsure. How much time would this take? I was in the middle of a crushing workload closing our first investors into the company and travelling to China to see our suppliers, while still doing all my other tasks as CEO. But I knew I had to give it a shot.
I arrived at the audition feeling nervous. I wasn’t used to the awkward, ‘remember your pitch, word for word, in two minutes’–style presentations. I dug deep and made it happen, nailing my memorised pitch. Two weeks later they called to say they wanted me to come and pitch to the sharks on the show!
I worked long hours refining my pitch so it would have the desired impact. The morning of filming I had to arrive in Sydney at 4.30 to prepare the set. I was lucky to have Kris, one of my original teammates at ONTHEGO®, help me set up before the sharks arrived. Then I had to get makeup done and iron my clothes while reviewing my pitch again and again. It was nerve-racking.
‘Mick Spencer — OTG — you have five minutes.’
My heart was beating at 150 beats per minute! ‘Dig deep, Mick. Let’s do this!’ I thought to myself. The five minutes ticked by and then I was walking down the tunnel, greeted by the big timber doors and oriental carpet at the end. I walked through, and there were the five lurking sharks.
This is the pitch I gave to the sharks on 6 May 2016.
Hi sharks. My name is Mick Spencer and I’m the founder and managing director of ONTHEGO sports.
Four years ago a sports event came to me with a big problem. They had presold 400 cycling jerseys and needed them in under four weeks. The problem was that a staff member had left without ordering the jerseys, so they were stuck. No-one in the world could manufacture them in less than 10 weeks. I promised them I’d do it, and I found a way. And when I did, I uncovered an even bigger problem: thousands of retailers, teams and schools all had the same problem. There’s a growing need for custom-made sportswear delivered fast, but it was always a challenging process.
So with $150 to my name, in 2012 I backed myself and founded ONTHEGO to combine the things I was passionate about: building a global sports brand and giving back to those in need through our one4one initiative.
Today we allow customers globally to design their own sportswear beyond what they ever thought was possible. Clients such as Ironman, David Jones, GoPro and over 3500 organisations use ONTHEGO. Just in the last year, we shipped over 25 000 products across 10 countries. We have the likes of Richard Branson, Ironman athletes, professional sports teams and clubs use ONTHEGO. We’re also now extremely proud to have a line exclusively stocked in David Jones retailers in collaboration with TV celebrity Jason Dundas.
Further to our online customisation and e-commerce, we’ve now developed the revolutionary OTG customised station: an innovative kiosk that will allow customers to go into a store, design their own product, while still maintaining a physical experience. A multichannel retailer that doesn’t hold stock.
We created unique technology and a vertical supply chain that encompasses everything from start to finish. So customers can have a seamless design experience —anywhere and from any device.
With growth of over 80 per cent this year we expect to exceed sales of $1.5 million.
With these growth rates and reorders, contracts and a big pipeline, we expect to be doing over $20 million in sales in 2020.
To demonstrate how the brand works, just two weeks ago, when I discovered I’d be on your show, I jumped on our website and designed each and every one of you a custom product based on your product. So I’ll let you come up and have a look …
There was silence, making my heart lurch. Then the sharks launched into questions, followed by negotiations. I walked out with a $600 000 investment! I’d done it! I’d negotiated the biggest deal of the season on Shark Tank! But would it be what I thought?