SassaB and The Shark Tank Effect

You’ll never see SassaB being pitched on the Shark Tank. Entrepreneur Tracy Sanders loves the show and she’s a huge fan, but she’ll never apply. She doesn’t have to, her linkable hair charms business is already successful. While she’ll never be on air, Tracy attributes the success of SassaB to the Shark Tank! It’s a “six degrees of separation” kind of tale, so I caught up with Tracy to get the story.

SassaB Origins

Tracy was always an entrepreneur, from the time she was a little kid. As an adult, she worked at HSN; she even worked with the late, great, master pitchman, Billy Mays. She clued me in to the origins of SassaB.

“One day, my daughter, Brooke (age 9) wanted something different to put in her hair. I put a charm on a bobby pin and she LOVED IT. She said ‘I’m gonna wear it to school and start a trend!’ I added a link to the charms and patented linkable charms. You can add charms to necklaces or bracelets and you can accessorize just about any jewelry.”

“Each SassaB comes with a bobby pin and a hair tie. It’s aimed at the tween market, but we’re looking to expand. Brooke is involved with designs, after all, I would never have done this without her. We found manufacturing and figured out how to get the product into Walgreens in 11 months!”

Brooke also had a hand in naming the business. “My mom’s nickname is ‘Sassy,’ and Brooke always said she wanted to open a restaurant with her called ‘Sassy and the B.’ That’s where we got SassaB. Brooke is the brains in both work and name, it’s been wonderful to do this with her and it’s a great feeling when we see the product in a store and she says ‘mommy, I’m so proud of you!'”

The Shark Tank Effect

The SassB story sounds like many Shark Tank success stories, but it was one Shark, Daymond John, who was indirectly responsible for SassaB taking their business to the next level. While Tracy and Brooke were figuring out how to get on the shelf at Walgreens, Tracy got introduced to Jennifer Cannon when she auditioned for Homemade Millionaire on TLC and they became friends.

“Jennifer introduced me to Angel who does Your15Minutes Radio (an entrepreneurial podcast) and I started doing some co-hosting. I interviewed young entrepreneurs nominated for the TIDY awards, one of them was the Johnson kids from FlipOutz Coins (funded by Daymond in season 2). I asked them how was it going with Daymond and they had nothing but good things to say. They mentioned Daymond hooked them up with Wild Creations.  They’re a company out of Myrtle Beach that was voted one of the fastest growing companies in South Carolina. They started with eco-quariums and they’ve grown by licensing other products”

“One day I called Wild Creations- now I’m partnered with them! It’s a long ‘connect the dots,’ but the deal wouldn’t have happened without the initial connection with Flipoutz, and indirectly, Daymond.”

Licensing SassaB

“SassaB licenses to Wild Creations now. The deal puts us into ToysRus and Justice Stores and we are on the shelves in 14 countries! This increased business; sales have QUADRUPLED! It’s so exciting –  it’s an inventor’s dream to partner with a large company that can take you places .  Wild Creations is doing packaging , manufacturing, and distribution. Mr Wonderful is always saying ‘let’s license this,’ and after experiencing licensing first-hand, I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t do it.”

“SaasaB is an original, there’s nothing else like it – that makes a difference. As for Shark Tank, Daymond’s my favorite Shark.  I read his book and said to myself, ‘I want to deal with Daymond.’ I kind of got my wish; fate- chain of events- sometimes it’s just crazy how it all works. I would, humbly speaking, say SaasaB is a ‘hero!'”

“People ask me how I got all this accomplished in such a short time. The answer is hard work and tenacity. I definitely had my ‘forget this’ moments, but in the end, this is proof you can do anything you want.”

We may never see SassaB or Tracy Sanders on Shark Tank, but she can certainly be counted as a Shark Tank Success!