Jewish Shark Tank

Hebrew Free Loan panel 'bites' on some good business pitches.

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By Harry Kirsbaum

t was the easiest business pitch
they ever made.
Seeking no-interest business
loans from the Hebrew Free
Loan "Pitch, Hit and Run"
event at Lawrence Tech in
Southfield on April 13, three
local Jewish businesses "vied"
for cash to a panel of judges, based
on the reality show Shark Tank.
But unlike the show, all the com-
petitors received their loans, and
none of the "Sharks" bought into the
businesses.
Judges sat on one side of the room,
contestants spoke from a podium
on the other side, and a crowd of
125 enjoyed breakfast in the middle
while each contestant made their
winning pitch.
The judges were Michael Banks,
Charter One Bank; Marla Drutz,
WDIV-TV; David Farbman,
Outdoorhub.com; Robert Jacobs,
Buddy's Pizza; and Marla Tapper
Young, Marlee's.

BUSINESS PITCHES

Kim Lifton and Susan Knoppow of
WOW Writing Workshop
(wowwritingworkshop.com) received
$75,000. WOW, which began in
2009, "teaches students how to write
college entrance essays using an
online system and a patented 10-step
process," said Lifton of Huntington
Woods. "We are creating a member-
ship-based website that students can
use."
The loan will help expand the sys-
tem and hire more writing coaches,
she said. The website has four pay
scales from $129 to $2,500, and
several "a la carte" services.
"Did you ever consider a perfor-
m, mane-based model?" Farbman
asked. "Something to the extent that
it's $3,000 or $4,000, if you get into
three schools, four schools. Where
you take some risk and go after the
premium market, target and retarget
and hammer for that customer?"
Knoppow said, "We'll think about
that."
Lifton is married with two chil-
dren, and is a member of Adat Sha-

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38 May 2014

I RED TIMID

The crowd watches as the
members of WOW Writing
Workshop pitch their business.

lom Synagogue in Farmington Hills.
She was a freelance writer before
starting WOW.
Knoppow of Huntington Woods
is married with three children and is
a member of B'nai Israel Synagogue
in West Bloomfield. She was previ-
ously a writing teacher and executive
speechwriter.
Another applicant, Josh Charlip
of Eskimo Jack's (eskimojacks.com ),
received a $50,000 loan.
"We make homemade cookies and
soon-to-be homemade ice cream,"
said Charlip, 48, of Farmington Hills.
"You can pick your flavor of each, and
we make a sandwich right there on
the spot:'
With six employees and on track
to make $100,000 this year, Eskimo
Jack's has been providing ice cream
sandwiches from a cart for weddings,
graduation parties, bar and bat mitz-
vahs, local art fairs and corporate
events since 2011. He was looking for
a loan to increase marketing, prepare
to license his business, and buy an ice
cream machine and truck.
Drutz asked about marketing and
what happens during the winter.
"Does that make it a tougher

proposition when it's seasonal?" she
asked.
"Not for me," Charlip said. "I'm
usually in Mexico for six months.
It is a slow time, and that's where
the licensing to warmer climates is
something that could sustain me
during winter months."
Charlip is married to Jill, and they
have four kids in a blended family.
They go to Puerto Vallarta and stay
in Old Town every winter. They are
unaffiliated Jews.
Entrepreneur Jon Koller of Beard
Balm (beardbalm.us) received
$30,000 for his leave-in beard
conditioner, which costs $16 a tin
and can be shipped anywhere in the
world.
"I've been using it for about
four years, and we've been in busi-
ness about one year," said Koller of
Detroit's Corktown neighborhood.
"We've doubled our sales every
month, and are on track to do about
$30,000 in business this month."
He said he will use the loan to
build out the operation.
"We have a production facility to
make all of our Beard Balm, but we
don't have the space to manage our

inventory," he said. "We take most
of our orders through our website,
and it's kind of scary to scale that up
when we don't actually have space to
do the packing and shipping."
"Did you ever think of market-
ing it to women and manicurists for
cuticles?" asked Tapper Young.
"Since the beard trend is on the
rise now, I was focusing on beards,"
Koller said. "It's a growing market,
and there's really no products in the
space. We'll eventually move into
things like cuticle sales and more
hair treatment.
'We've been going to tattoo con-
ventions, and everyone's got these
massive beards," Koller added. "And
there's no competition there. My ten-
dency has been to avoid places with
competition:'
Koller belongs to the Isaac Agree
Downtown Synagogue. He is a struc-
tural engineer by training.

WHAT THE JUDGES WANTED

All along, judges like Farbman were
looking for one thing.
"I am looking for clarity of near-
term targets, clarity of what's the
one thing you can do better than

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