Newswise — Budding entrepreneurs get the chance to bring their dreams to fruition
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business will host a casting call for the ABC TV Show “Shark Tank” at the school’s Hyde Park campus on Tuesday, June 14. It is the first time the reality show has come to the university in search of contestants.
Teams are allowed one minute to deliver a pitch, followed by a Q&A with the casting producers.
Casting producers from the popular reality show will be at Chicago Booth from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Room 219 at the Charles M. Harper Center, 5807 S. Woodlawn Ave. The casting call is open to the wider University of Chicago network of students, alumni, faculty, staff and community partners. Pitches aren’t filmed and aren’t open to the public. Pre-registration is advised, but not required.
“When we knew were coming to Chicago, I looked for the top business school and that was Booth,” said Scott Salyers, the reality TV program’s supervising casting producer. “We want to find the best and the brightest. We’re looking for people who want to start a business or are already in business and who can dazzle the judges.”
The “Shark Tank” casting day comes fresh on the heels of Booth’s Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge, a “Shark-Tank” style business competition where Booth student-led startups compete for funding.
Booth startup LuminAID appeared on “Shark Tank” last year and received offers from all five investors, a rare achievement. Entrepreneur and billionaire investor Mark Cuban made the winning bid, offering $200,000 for 15 percent in the solar-powered-light startup, plus an option to lead the next round of investing with $300,000.
Booth MBA student Andrew Sreshta said it was the Booth training that allowed her and her business partner Anna Stork to think quickly on their feet, fielding questions and analyzing offers in a matter of minutes.
“I asked Booth classmates and friends to come to the Gleacher Center and pretend to be the five sharks and stress test us, help us prepare for those questions we may not have seen coming,” Sreshta told Chicago Booth Magazine at the time. “They would give us two to three hours in the evening. They asked us a lot tougher questions than the sharks did.”
If selected to appear on the show, teams will receive a call from the producers about two weeks after the pitch.
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