One hasn’t seen the boards that have soft grip-able handles and are covered in soft foam for safety and comfort and vibrant colors. Any boat with a 100 HP engine can tow them – even high-powered jet skis (where allowed by law).
Have come up with 7 Zup boards with various types and Zup boards are quite an easy ride and for safety, purposes kept as brightly colored. ZUP (also known as Zup Boards) design of Glen and Tim were not happy of kids forced to use large wakeboards hence wanted to introduce the idea of smaller boards for kids especially.
Zup at a glance:
| EPISODE NO | Season 9 Episode 17 |
| BUSINESS IDEA | Sit, Stand, Or Kneel All-In-One Wake Board for children, teens, and adults. |
| FOUNDER | Glen Duff, Scott Parks, And Nick Kierpiec |
| ASKED FOR | $300,000 For 10% |
| ACCEPTED OFFER | No/None |
| SHARK | No Shark |
| BUSINESS STATUS | In Business |
| WEBSITE | ZUP |
| Buy on Amazon | Buy Now! |
Index:
Founder Story
Glen Duff and Tim Zeckser had a humble beginning of their business in their garage in 2008. The reason behind their idea was to create a comfortable but safe and easy-to-use product. The idea of boards was structured in a linear fashion to match with the user’s skills.
The initial 3 options were available with both single and double rider options. Models named: You Got This, Do More & You Go were primarily aligned with the rider’s skill level to discover the towable water sport boards.
The prime reason was to allow the enthusiasts to lay, kneel or stand based on their skill levels on the board to replace the standard tow toys on boats like tubes, wakeboards, and water skis. Zup’s cool idea gave a clean solution to combine all these into one product without compromising the fun.
The sports boards are available online at large retail stores like Amazon, Overton’s Sporting Goods stores across the US. The next step was to further penetrate into sporting goods retailers with sharks investment.
SHARK TANK PITCH:
The trio – Nick, Glen, and Scott began their Shark Tank pitch seeking an investment of $300,000 for 10% of their business stake. The demonstration of the product and its various features were good and clear, the sharks were interested in the sales figures. The sales were very good at $2.5 million already achieved and aiming another $1 million this year. Mostly from Online mediums like Amazon retailers and across 180 retailers in the USA.
The preparation of the trio was not up to the mark as they kept going to tangents on their discussions and could not give targeted responses.
With almost $500,000 in debt and $200,000 in receivables and just $100,000 left in the bank account was a scary start. This discouraged the sharks as Mark, Kevin and Lori were out. Mark was not convinced of their full story. Finally, Sara states that you guys need to do more work on your messaging. The trio had to walk out without a deal from the Shark Tank.
What Happned to Zup after Shark Tank?
Interestingly the Shark Tank episode created the much-awaited ZUP marketing exposure. After the immediate completion of the show, their website traffic zoomed by 4000% and did a lot of sales. Many investors did line up for new inquiries. Unfortunately, within 7 months of zooming business, the company was dragged into a patent lawsuit.
ZUP had collaborated with a company called NASH to deliver boards. NASH agreed on a non-disclosure agreement but the deal never worked out and NASH began producing their own wakeboards. Judgment was a rule against ZUP. Not to worry, ZUP has revived and learned from its mistakes. In 2021, the company is rocking in business with almost $3 million annual revenue in spite of no shark deal.
With their products ranging between $219 to $350+, the margins in them were almost 54% which was significant margins to retain leading to good business growth. With its great range of excellent ZUP products of 7 types, the business is thriving in multiple retailer marketers now.
Zup net worth:
At the time of the shark tank appearance, Zup was valued at around $3 million by the founders. In 2021, ZUP revenues are estimated at more than $3 Million.
PRODUCT ANALYSIS:
Great water sport boards for family and friends to ride with confidence.
- 1. Graded from beginners to intermediate riders.
- 2. Non-Skid EVA Foam with Multifunctional Foot Straps, Elbow Pads, and Kneepads.
- 3. Durable boards with stable hydrodynamics and robust side handles.
- 4. Boards shipped with informative how to ride, Warranty and Safety instructions.
- 5.Weight:16.5lbs and Dimensions: 58″Length x 27″Width x 5″Height
- 6. Awesome Lime-Yellow combination for Safety ie. (spotted in water easily)
VARIANTS:
- YouGotThis
- DoMore
- YouGo
- Rize
YouGotThis:
For beginners with all options to stand, kneel, sit or lay on it does it all.
DoMore 2.0 Board:
For bigger challenges like your turns quicker, your jumps higher and faster spins.
YouGo Board:
All in One Wakeboard that can do it all and is good for beginners too.
Rize Zup & Surf Board:
You can inflate them to have fun in water being strong and flexible. Deflate to store them back.
Rize Zup & Boogie:
Smallest board but still wide and stable with a lot of fun for kids, teens, and adults.
Zup Coast Board:
Total newbie’s only point is Coast comes with a weight limit of 150lbs only unlike 0thers. Typical for under 10-year-olds.
INTERESTING ASPECTS:
- 1) ZUP had graded its product for usage based on skill levels which is a great idea to allow users to choose them easily.
- 2) In spite of No Deal in Shark Tank their post-show national exposure for the brand increased their popularity and uptick in their sales.
- 3) ZUP Boards are a craze on Instagram (6000 followers), Facebook (3000 likes), and YouTube (23000 views).
- 4) “Lay. Kneel. Stand. With this new board, everybody gets ZUP [gets up].” Anyone can ride on the waves is the motto.
Is ZUP from shark tank still in business?
Yes, and also they are profitable in spite of no-deal from sharks. Zup’s website is working and has wonderful pictures and great content to lure you for additional purchases for both kids, teens, and adults too.
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What is Zup?
Zup is a Sit, Stand, Or Kneel All-In-One Wake Board for children, teens, and adults.
Who founded Zup?
Glen Duff and Tim Zeckser had a humble beginning of their business in their garage in 2008. The reason behind their idea was to create a comfortable but safe and easy-to-use product. The idea of boards was structured in a linear fashion to match with the user’s skills.
