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05/11/2015 09:20 AMWhile Fradiani Fever may be striking the shoreline as Nick Fradiani competes in the finals of American Idol, another Connecticut resident recently just reeled in a big deal on ABC’s Shark Tank.
To succeed on Shark Tank, which gives entrepreneurs a chance to pitch their ideas to venture capitalists, it all came down to inventing a better mousetrap. Greg Myerson has gained notoriety as the world’s greatest striped bass fisherman, catching the world-record 81.8-pound striped bass in 2011. While Myerson has spent years honing his skills, he credits his success to his invention—the Rattlesinker.
“I basically invented the first fish call—it attracts fish because it sounds like food,” said Myerson, whose hobby was listening to the sounds of the sea with a hydrophone. “I’d listen to crabs and puddles, shrimp clicking, lobsters walking, fish eating fish. With a background as natural resource major, I started studying fish harder to figure out the best way to catch them. They hunt through sound and smell before they attack with their eye and I started building fishing gear. I was always a good fisherman, but my product is what put me over the edge.”
Myerson’s big catches, world records, and great pitch earned him $80,000 from Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban, who now has 33 percent ownership of Myerson’s World Record Striper Company, www.worldrecordstripercompany.com. The episode aired on May 1 with a viewing party at Bill’s Seafood.
“It was pretty surreal,” said Myerson, who actually filmed the episode in September and signed a non-disclosure contract. “I was sworn to secrecy and couldn’t tell anyone for eight months.”
The company was founded in 2011, after Myerson’s world-record catch. He took the steps to patent and trademark his product and created a website to begin selling the Rattlesinker, which he produced in his basement.
The product began to gain traction online and would sell out at trade shows. Any money that was made was immediately reinvested into the company.
“We were building really slowly, but we were growing,” said Myerson.
The company built enough of a following that Myerson was approached by Shark Tank about being featured on the show. After a phone interview, he had to submit a video presentation. With no word back from the show, Myerson was in the midst of being signed by a different company to film an eight-episode reality television series.
“Minutes before I signed it [the reality TV show contract], I got the email from Shark Tank and I couldn’t sign the deal for the show,” said Myerson. “I worked with producers for a few months and was flown out to Hollywood.”
Knowing the funds from Shark Tank would soon be announced, World Record Striper Company moved into a building on Old Post Road next to Bill’s Seafood and expanded operations.
Since the episode aired on May 1, Myerson has been working around the clock. He still holds his “day job” with the Connecticut Department of Transportation, but is now being approached by companies like Cabela’s, that would like to feature his products in their stores.
“It’s great to have the team of guys from Cuban Companies behind us because they have the connections and money to do what we have to do,” said Myerson. “It’s like a dream come true. I was never a businessman, but luckily I made all the right moves along the way, sometimes not even knowing I was. I feel very fortunate to be able to be doing what I’m doing and along with a lot of hard work, a lot of luck has to come your way. I don’t know how people start a business without a team like that [Cuban’s] because it’s hard, especially in the fishing industry, to find a niche.”
Myerson has certainly found a niche and he has the orders rolling into his company to prove it—he and his team have produced an order a minute since the show aired. In addition to crediting Cuban’s team for its support, Myerson also thanks his team in Westbrook for its support.
“We’ve well exceeded anyone’s expectations of us and not fallen behind and a big part of that is the great guys I work with—Bill Goldstein and Rick Newburg, who have been building inventory all winter—and our web guy EJ Vongher,” said Myerson. “Right now, just want to keep working hard, do what I love, and make it simpler for me to be more productive.”
While Myerson is excited about the early successes, he doesn’t plan on stopping here. World Class Striper Company recently added charter services with a “beautiful boat” to its services.
“This is just the beginning and I’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Myerson. “I’m just going to keep grounded and grind it out. These orders aren’t going to fill themselves and the next product won’t invent itself. I love seeing people catch fish on things I invented and to see someone break my record with something I invented would be great.”