Mother/son entrepreneurial team Grace and Manuel Rojas hope to celebrate a deal for Foam Party Hats, their fun and festive hat company, in Shark Tank episode 1204. The original idea came around 13 years ago at Manuel’s older sister’s wedding. Grace made a bunch of funky foam hats for the guests to wear on the dance floor. They were a big hit.
In 2010, the family immigrated to the United States (specifically Houston) due to the grim political situation in their native Venezuela. Grace used her life savings to put Manuel through college at the University of Houston where he studied chemical engineering. All the while, Grace made and sold her hats to friends and family and at some select local events. By the time Manuel graduated, Grace had a website up and was selling hats all over the world. In 2017, Manuel decided he wanted to get involved and they formed Foam Party Hats, LLC.
While they have many stock styles, they’ve worked with many big companies and organizations to produce custom hats for specific events. The biggest challenge for Foam Part Hats has been production. They have strict quality standards and find it hard to get good employees. The company has no debt and is completely self funded. Sales doubled from 2018 to 2019. They have hundreds of styles ranging in price from $12 to over $100. They are readily available on Amazon. Grace and Manuel likely want a Shark’s help growing the business and expanding production. Will a Shark want to wear an investor hat?
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Posts about Foam Party Hats on Shark Tank Blog
Foam Party Hats Shark Tank Recap
Manuel and Grace enter the Shark Tank seeking $100,000 for 10% of their business. They tell how the business started and they show off their hats. Each Shark gets a custom hat: Lori has a jewelry box hat, Kevin has a chef Wonderful hat, etc. They have custom hats, too. A $45 hat costs about $10 to make. The company does a big wedding business, but Covid-19 killed 80% of their sales, so he took his store to Amazon. Last month Amazon sales were $6000.
In 2017, sales were $25,000; in 2018, they were at $75,000 and in 2019, they did $145,000. So far this year (as of August 2020), they have $153,000 in sales. Right now, everything is done by hand. Manuel wants the money to scale up. He got a lot of attention for his Covid-19 hat which helped drive sales.
Kevin thinks it’s a great family business but he’s out. Mark says the biggest challenge is figuring out what business they’re in; he’s out. Manuel owns 20% of the company and he still has a full time job. Daniel says he may invest if Manuel goes full time. At this point, Robert goes out. Daniel offers $100,000 for 30% and he says it’s not negotiable. Mark makes comments and Daniel mocks him for being out. Lori asks if Daniel will take her on and he says no. Lori asks Mark if he’ll go in with her at $100,000 for 25%. He says he’ll do it to mess with Daniel. Ultimately, they go with Mark and Lori.
Foam Party Hats Shark Tank Update
The Shark Tank Blog constantly provides updates and follow-ups about entrepreneurs who have appeared on the Shark Tank TV show. As of July, 2021 the company is still in business and is thankful weddings are happening again. In January, 2023, they’re going strong with over $1 million in annual revenue.
The company gets an update segment in Shark Tank episode 1416. In the update segment, Manuel says the whole purpose of this business is to have fun. In the three and a half years before Shark Tank, the business had $385,000 in lifetime sales. In the two years after their appearance, they did $1.35 million in sales. They have their hats in over 750 Party City sores across the USA. With Mark’s investment, they were able to buy equipment that automates their manufacturing and allows them to scale.
The mother/son team amped up their social media presence too. They became Tik Tok influencers with one video garnering over 3 million views. Manuel thinks his mother had a lot of guts to migrate to America and she says no matter what your situation, you can achieve your goals. It’s beyond their wildest dreams to have over $1 million in sales and Manuel says “we’re just getting started.”
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