The Post and Courier:
Leslie Haywood’s rise from stay-at-home mom entrepreneur to reality TV business sensation started with simple dinner party glitch.
Her husband, Jason, unable to tell the difference, had served her spicy jerk chicken instead of a milder flavor at their West Ashley home one evening in 2006. Then he had mentioned that someone should come up with a way for him to tell the difference.
A frequent wine-charm user, 37-year-old Haywood dreamed up dime-sized stainless steel labels that, when placed on food before grilling, would indicate temperature or spice. She developed a business plan, found a factory in Taiwan to produce the charms for her $19.95 price point and, on national television last week, convinced a venture capitalist to buy into her concept.
“I think everyone’s still in shock,” she said by phone Monday as she pulled through the car loop to ferry one of her daughters from school to ballet. “It’s been a whirlwind of attention and support.”
Haywood speaks exuberantly about her company, even though she launched Grill Charms and then appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” while suffering from personal heartbreak.
Just two months after the dinner party, Haywood learned that she had breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. She remembers spending her recovery time carefully building strength walking on a gym treadmill and reading everything she could about launching a business.
Following two reconstructive surgeries and clean health report, she pitched herself to the CNBC cable show “The Big Idea” and watched Grill Charms take off. Then, while in Los Angeles to tape “Shark Tank” in July, her 62-year-old father had an aneurysm and died.
Haywood flew home but agreed to a second try at taping month later, resolved that she would not let the “sharks” in on her pain.
“I wanted to be able to stand on my own two feet,” she said. “It was very important to me that they didn’t feel sorry for me.”
Image from Grill Charms