CARY – Jonathan Hayes, founder and CEO of Cary-based RewardStock, has made a deal with Mark Cuban after completing a pitch on ABC’s Shark Tank.

“The deal with Mark gives us much-needed capital and the support and resources of his network,” said Hayes in an interview.  “I was able to get him to put in more money than I originally asked for, so that worked out well.”

RewardStock

The company has increased their user base to more than 10,000 active users, said Hayes, and recently released a brand new user experience by overhauling their existing user interface and launching a new online booking feature to complement the company’s rewards management platform.

Hayes negotiated a deal for $320,000 in exchange for granting Cuban a 10 percent ownership stake under similar terms as earlier investors like Cofounders Capital, which values the company at $3.2 million.

“Once a company gets a deal on Shark Tank,” said Hayes, “that notoriety really follows the brands.”  Hayes expects that his appearance, and the resulting deal, will help the company find and take advantage of new opportunities in the travel booking and rewards marketplace, ultimately fueling the company’s growth by attracting a larger audience.  “This is at a time when the company is ready to scale, and that’s what we will be doing with this new investment,” said Hayes.

Landing a shark

Growing the company to the point it could make an appearance on Shark Tank was a long process, said Hayes.

“It’s very intense,” he noted.

The company received an email from a member of their rewards management platform, which helps users maximize credit card miles and travel rewards points, in February inviting them to consider applying to participate in the tenth season of Shark Tank.  The application process was rigorous, and the company actually filmed the pitch in front of the sharks in June.

“It was a lot of work,” said Hayes, “and an insane amount of pressure.”  The opportunity to appear on Shark Tank is a big one, said Hayes, and the stakes are really high.  “It’s the most stressful thing I’ve ever done.”

Shark Tank via Twitter

Jonathan Hayes makes his pitch on Shark Tank

Though the sharks are serious investors, famous, and have global influence, said Hayes, they’re also very nice people that are keen on dissecting the key elements of a business quickly.  “There are certain types of businesses that are more business-to-business focused, or have solutions in industries that the general audience may not relate well to,” said Hayes, so for those types of companies, a Shark Tank appearance may not make sense.   For consumer-facing companies that can easily articulate their value proposition to consumers, said Hayes, it may.

“I’m grateful that we had the opportunity to appear on the show,” he added.  “I’m thrilled to now be working with Mark Cuban and I’m very happy with the way it all turned out.”

Checking on Cuban’s other Triangle investment

Cuban is also an investor in Durham-based Validic, and that investment decision was also made quickly.  The company provides a single point of connection to mobile health data, giving healthcare companies one mobile health API connection to access data from mobile health applications and devices.  Ryan Beckland, Validic’s co-founder, sent Cuban an email in 2013, and after a few emails, Cuban had decided to join the company’s $760,000 seed round.

The company has gone on to raise a total of $18.4 million across five total rounds.  Their $5 million Series A investment in 2014 was led by Greycroft and SFJ Ventures, joined by four other investors including the Wilmington Angel Network.  Their $12.5 million Series B in 2015 was led by Kaiser Permanente Ventures.  Dallas-based Green Park & Golf Ventures joined both the Series A and Series B round.

Validic acquired Infometers in July of 2014.  The company’s headquarters on Main Street in Durham and it employs more than 60 people.

It’s showtime: Cary startup RewardStock pitches for cash on Shark Tank