Wanted: Inventors For Charlotte Shark Tank

Life in a “Shark Tank” is quite scary. On the popular ABC TV show a variety of entrepreneurs take their chance with the sharks in hopes of receiving some funding to help build or grow their business, reports the Charlotte Observer.

As it turns out, in the Queen City even Shark Tanks are decidedly genteel. Tom Getts, president of the Inventors’ Network of the Carolinas, is in the throes of launching a kinder, gentler version of the show: His brainchild is like the one on TV, minus the cameras, ratings pressure and the big-money meanies.

The not-very-originally titled Charlotte Shark Tank is aimed at giving typically publicity-shy local inventors the showmanship tools they’ll need to commercialize their products.

“I don’t want anybody crying or throwing up or anything,” says Getts. “I really think there’s a concentration of innovation in this city. But while people know how to invent things, they are uncomfortable talking about it to people.”

Getts’ effort to breathe life into the best local ideas, to transform them into products and companies, is the critical first step to evolving into something beyond simply Banktown. He is reaching out to inventors, nurturing them with business and marketing expertise, and trying to connect them to seed capital. It is the kind of hard work that could pay huge dividends down the road – and is all too rare in this market.

For the past few months, Getts says he’s been talking up the Shark Tank idea around town and been thrilled by the response. So on May 13, Shark Tank will hold a kind of dress rehearsal uptown, at 520 Elliot St., to get the 15 selected inventors ready for their main presentations on June 10.

Photo by egarc2

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