The Shark Tank Effect
The suspenseful crescendo of the stringed instruments reminiscent of “Jaws” plays as the camera stares down the dimly lit walkway straight toward “the Tank.” Violins strum in discord and the frame settles on a confident, slightly perspiring face. This is their chance to make a deal—to sell their million-dollar-idea. The “sharks” of ABC’s Shark Tank are prepared to open their wallets, and give no mercy.
But that’s just prime time television. In reality, entrepreneurs must think outside the high definition box.
“It’s very alluring,” says Emily Soccorsy, spokeswoman for Target Training International, referring to the image of an entrepreneur Shark Tank depicts. The fish-bowled program entertains by capitalizing on repeated over-optimism and under-preparedness of its many participants. They get eaten alive.
Ultimately, an entrepreneur is more than a persona with a product. Shark Tank, however—alluring as it may be—is a highly recognized beacon for aspiring Millennials, creating an excitement that could well be dubbed “the Shark Tank Effect.” Enter the age of the “serial entrepreneur”, according to Bill Bonnstetter, TTI’s Chairman, who has conducted studies on the phenomenon.
Entrepreneurial fever has spread to other platforms, too: Kickstarter and Quirky enable more people to take their ideas to market than ever before, for example.
“It’s a desire for gen-now; they want to be their own boss, they want to balance their life,” says Susan Yashinsky, an innovations predictor at Sphere Trending. “You have these tech tools, so anybody can be a manufacturer, a retailer, a marketer. The world has flattened, which is allowing a lot of opportunities for entrepreneurs.” Yashinsky studies and understands market insights. “This generation was raised like Harry Potter, like a wizard. You can do anything. This generation will succeed more than we ever have before because they’re raised with that mentality.”
There is no clear-cut way to define the serial entrepreneur, yet a 2011 study Bonnstetter conducted shows 42 percent of these futuristic thinkers started thinking about owning their own business before age 12. Another striking find was the importance of an education.
Soccorsy, who interpreted the study, explained that, “universities aren’t speaking to” serial entrepreneurs. Traditional education suppresses ingenuity through hoop jumping.
“The value of an education at that point becomes secondary to the ability to self realize their goal,” Bonnstetter says.
Yashinsky mentions a technological disparity created by the frequently evolving technology of modern day between the Millennials and the Baby Boomers in their entrepreneurial pursuits. Yet for the first time in society, we see the young, technologically savvy generation influencing all generations. The revolutionary approach to entrepreneurship which encourages that anyone can be millennial in their thinking, no matter their age, allows for innovators to come from every quadrant, with immediate access to more resources.
“They know what there own strengths and weaknesses are, and their competencies, and they can build upon those,” Soccorsy says, “But all of those resources now in the digital age are at their fingertips, so we’re seeing entrepreneurs come from all backgrounds. They’re obviously very young, to people who are re-launching later in their career instead of retiring.”
Lamira Fondren, CDO of Worth New York and also an entrepreneur, attests, “Entrepreneurship is loved by anybody that experiences it…. but we watch people come into this business all the time and just tank because it’s so multi-faceted.”
Not every mind has an entrepreneurial capacity, yet this modern era now encourages people of any background to pursue their million-dollar-ideas. From the glitz of Shark Tank, to the reality of the real world, there is no formula; there are no directions driving more and more minds into the entrepreneurial market. The mystique is the driving factor.
“It’s a science and an art form,” say Fondren, “That’s really the essence of it.”
Isabel Seidel / MEDILL