Les Cookson is resilience personified, as he managed to get a $300k investment from investor and Shark Tank personality Daymond John for his California-based art company called LucidArt.
Cookson had previously appeared in the same TV show back in 2011 where he pitched for bibs aimed at carsick children, although didn’t quite manage to secure a deal with any of the sharks back then.
Cookson revealed to the Sharks that in the eleven years since his first appearance, he studied successful pitches on Shark Tank, broke them down into bits of learning and applied them to himself and his business to successfully secure a deal on the ABC show.
He went on to say that every time a successful entrepreneur mentioned social media as a driving force behind a large number of sales and thus, he spent hours learning the ins and outs of social media to leverage it for his business. Apart from working on his digital marketing skills and effective pitching techniques, he built a winning product which is the star of his art bu3.
The Lucy Drawing Tool is Cookson’s brain child and it took him four years to build it. Modeled after an ancient camera from 1806 called Lucida, the Lucy Drawing Tool can turn any amateur into an expert artist, according to its creator.
The Lucy Drawing Tool works by clipping onto a side of the table and reflects the image of what’s on the table onto a surface that is in front of the artist. The person can then trace over the image and create anything effortlessly.
Cookson then proceeded to report staggering sales figures to the seemingly salivating sharks–he had brought in some $2.3 million in revenue from the drawing tool in the previous year, which meant that the company then had almost $10 million in sales since its inception in 2009.
The Sharks were confused at first on Cookson’s request: $300k in exchange for 10% of LucidArt? They questioned why a company raking in millions would ask for such a ridiculously low amount. To this he responded that LucidArt is spending $70k on ads per month in customer acquisition alone. And despite his net revenue of 3.7 million in sales, the business was only making $2.3 million in profits. As one Shark pointed out, the company is giving away half of its profits to gain new customers.
As three of the sharks dropped out of the deal due to his product being ‘too niche,’ Daymond John was blown away by the numbers. He asked Cookson how a shark could help him, and Cookson’s smart response instantly made him give him an offer. Cookson is now looking to expand to selling drawing courses and this way, he can turn his previous customers into repeat buyers, cutting down on costs in customer acquisition. Looking at Cookson’s story from 2011 to 2022, the entrepreneur’s story is an inspiration for others who are looking to realize their financial dreams and aspirations by taking a leap of faith into the world of entrepreneurship–and never giving up.
