Shark Tank’s Kevin Harrington to Host Growth Capital Expo “Lion’s Den” Pitch Contest

Kevin Harrington, one of the original judges on ABC’s “Shark Tank” show, will join a panel of active investors in emerging growth companies at the Growth Capital Expo’s inaugural Lion’s Den pitch contest on the final day of the Expo, at 3 pm on April 14, 2015.

Harrington will join Paul Kessler of Bristol Capital Advisors and Urban Smedeby of Bridgewater Capital Corp. to hear pitches from a selected group of pre-IPO companies which will each be given 15 minutes to pitch their companies as the best opportunity for investment. After the pitches are heard, each company will face the full fury of the Lions as they critique their presentations and business plans.

The event will begin with a lightning round of legal marijuana-related companies seeking angel capital. Each of the three lightning round companies will be given 10 minutes to pitch and receive feedback from the judges, before a winner is voted on by the judges and the audience. The Den’s marijuana business lightning round immediately follows the Expo’s “Investing in Public Marijuana Companies” general session panel, which will feature several of the top investors and advisors in the legal marijuana business sector. The Lion’s Den is sponsored by Midtown Partners, a New York investment bank focused on the nascent legal marijuana business sector.

Following the marijuana-business lightning round, the main pitch of the Lion’s Den will commence, featuring three fast-growing, revenue generating, pre-IPO growth companies from three different, cutting edge business sectors. Each company is actively seeking capital to finance their growth plans:

• Private equity crowdfinance platform InvestX will present its vision for joining the acumen of top-tier private equity fund managers with the power of crowdsourced capital, featuring InvestX’s dynamic founder Marcus New.
• Family entertainment entrepreneur Patrick van den Bossche of Daytona Racing Experience will follow to pitch his company’s plan to reinvent recreational go-cart racing as an immersive, high-quality family destination experience infused which the power of NASCAR’s Daytona brand.
• Rick Perrone, chief executive of Tournament One, will reveal his company’s growing dominance of the lottery gaming market, where states pay multi-million licensing fees to bring the hottest new mobile games to their lottery offerings to appeal to millennials that just aren’t that into Grandpa’s old Pick 6.

Harrington, considered the “father of the infomercial” as the founder of As Seen on TV, Inc., the late night TV extended-length commercial producer responsible for making OxiClean and the auto-recoiling XHose household items, is a life-long entrepreneur that has been involved with over 500 product launches that resulted in sales of over $4 billion dollars worldwide and 20 products that reached individual sales of over $100 million. In 2009, he was selected as one of the original “Shark Tank” Sharks on the ABC hit show. As an innovator and pioneer in the industry, Kevin has been featured on over 150 Shark Tank segments over the last five years on both ABC and CNBC.

There is still time to register to attend the Growth Capital Expo and see the Lion’s Den event, which will be the signature finale of this year’s conference, but you must do so by Saturday, April 4, to take advantage of the discounted hotel rates offered to attendees. All discounted rates will expire at midnight that day, so act now.

Just interested in the Expo’s second-day program of private company and pre-IPO investment panels on mini-IPOs, online private placement markets, and marijuana-related investment? Pick up a single-day pass at the Expo website. Already booked to catch a flight out earlier that day? Change your flight and grab one of the handful of remaining rooms available Tuesday night at the Expo rate at Caesars or The LINQ, before they go away forever. It’s an event you won’t want to miss.

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