DU alumna Caroline Creidenberg breaks down the preparation, teamwork and thrill of securing funding and mentorship from Robert Herjavec on Shark Tank for her wedding live stream company, Wedfuly. Creidenberg secured $200,000 from Herjavec in exchange for a 10% stake in her company. 

Loor: Beyond funding, how else do you see Herjavec impacting the future of Wedfuly as a team?

Creidenberg: He will be amazing for me as an advisor and mentor specifically. This journey of starting a company and having kind of the mental grit to really continue to push it forward is definitely not for the faint of hearts, and so I think having someone like Robert who has been at it and seen so many companies is going to be super powerful for mentorship and advising me on kind of those big decisions on the company and my life as an entrepreneur and businesswoman. We actually did hire one male. So yeah, we have enjoyed having a male on the team. It’s been super great, but we are excited to welcome Robert as our first male partner. 

Loor: It was obvious that your energy, confidence and enthusiasm were present on stage even though that was your first debut on screen. How much time would you say that you spent working on your pitch?

Creidenberg: After kind of nailing down what exactly the pitch was going to be, I would say it was on repeat in my head at all times. I would go to sleep kind of like saying it in my head. I take my dog on a lot of walks and on those walks I would be saying it in my head. But going into filming itself, every morning with my team, we would get on stand up, and I would do the pitch five times for them. [It] was super helpful to make sure I had that down pat. Because probably the hardest part of the entire thing is actually the Q&A because you do your pitch for 2-3 minutes. 

I was actually in the tank for an hour and a half, and they were just firing questions at me left and right, and so really being prepared for the Q&A was a huge thing that I did.

Luckily I had resources here in Denver and I did a couple of practice pitches where I was like, “there are no guardrails, you can be as mean to me as you want.” That really helped because I think if I hadn’t had those pitch practices where people did really dig into me, I would have been maybe a little bit quicker to be defensive or get a little thrown off my game. But honestly, people are going to rip into me, they’re going to rip into my idea and I just need to keep pushing it forward. That was super helpful, and I spent a long time preparing for it.

Loor: When you first applied and they told you they were accepted to Shark Tank, did they give you an outline of what to expect in the Q&A, a little bit of preparation or not at all?

Creidenberg: No, I think that’s what makes Shark Tank so sharky is they don’t really let you know anything, because they don’t know.  None of it’s scripted. I pitch, and then they come at me with questions about my business. No one could have told me that they were going to ask about my data because that’s not something we focus on as a company, nor is it something that I find ethical as a business person. The fact that they went down a data rabbit hole, I could have never told you that was going to happen, and I don’t think anyone on their team could have predicted that that’s where it would go. That’s what makes it good TV, it’s hard to fully prepare for what’s going to happen. 

 

Q&A ready | Courtesy of Caroline Creidenberg (Wedfuly)

Loor: You mentioned that you had resources in Denver and nationwide, would any of those resources include your former professors at DU or any mentors that you were able to establish during your time as a student?

Creidenberg: I had quite a few DU [alums] on the call. We have a group of kids that I studied computer science with, and we’re all still pretty close, and we have a group chat, and so they definitely helped me with my pitch practice as well as just some website stuff to make sure our website didn’t crash. 

Loor: What has the response for Wedfuly been like since airing on Shark Tank?

Creidenberg: We had our live analytics up for our site visits on the air date. We had a little watch party and a virtual element as well since that’s kind of our MO. It was fun to see the numbers tick up as the sharks went in or out, the numbers went up or down. 

The minute that Kevin was like “I’m gonna make you an offer,” the numbers shot up and then the minute that Robert made us our offer and I accepted the numbers went to the highest they’d been, which was so funny to watch because I never really thought about what the sharks say impacting the site visits, but I think people wait for them to weigh in and decide it’s a good business. 

Loor: In a previous interview with Voyage Denver, you shared that Wedfuly is also really proud to support small businesses including wedding vendors of all sizes in Colorado, which I think is amazing. Tell me more about that.

Creidenberg: With what we call Wedfuly 1.0 pre-pandemic, we actually partnered with small vendors, like small businesses and wedding vendors around Denver, as well as Kansas City, and we would also provide them leads and business through our software.

With the new Wedfuly 2.0, just because of the sheer amount of inbound that we’ve had in the last year and a half we’ve since put our vendor program on pause, but we are looking to grow that back again especially after Shark Tank we got a ton of partnership inbound request, so we are always pro supporting the small businesses that make up the wedding industry.

Loor: What would you say to any critics, I know that this was voiced by one of the sharks, who would argue that clients want to return to in-person events, especially after the pandemic?

Creidenberg: We are pro people having those in-person events if that makes sense for them. And we partner really well with those in-person events and make it really easy for guest convenience. You could have 200 people at your wedding, 100 maybe could not come, so being able to give those 100 an option to still attend is super important, and we could still make that happen. 

There is an industry that works really well for people that want huge in person weddings, and we are so happy that that industry caters to those people, but we don’t want to forget the group of people who the industry doesn’t cater to and those small intimate weddings that people do crave nowadays and have become so popular even post-pandemic, do need to have resources available to them. 

Loor: For any entrepreneurs that have never pitched before, what advice would you give them?

Creidenberg: I would say stick to your guns because you know your business better than anyone and don’t get defensive because people are just trying to understand what your business does, and it’s their money that they’re investing, so they’re allowed to poke holes in it. 

I think that was the best advice I got going in, don’t get defensive about things, just accurately describe and explain kind of where you’re coming from with your business. The minute you get defensive, I think it just gets a little bit hairy, especially in the tank, but with any pitch.

I would just say go in super confident, knowing that you know your business better than everyone and steering them back onto the course that you want your business to go. Because any investor will try to rewrite your business plan if you’re early enough.