‘Shark Tank’ has done wonders for Patel’s business.
AB Wire
Indian American entrepreneur Shaan Patel, who struck it big on ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’, after he got a quarter-million dollar investment from billionaire Mark Cuban for his SAT prep company Prep Expert (previously 2400 Expert SAT Prep), is enjoying rapid-fire success of that link-up by expanding from one site in Las Vegas to 20 new sites around the country, since the episode was telecast in January of this year.
And the company is raring to do more business with the new SAT to be unveiled to test-taking students Saturday.
“I ended up closing a deal with Mark for $250,000 in exchange for a 20 percent equity stake in my test-prep company,” said Patel, whose episode taped in June and aired in January, in an interview mycentraljersey.com. “Since then, his investment and strategic partnership has helped expand the business into 20 new sites nationwide.”
“With Mark’s investment and advice, we have gone nationwide,” Patel said. “A year ago, we were only in Las Vegas. Now we are in 20 different areas around the country and have expanded our online offerings, both live and on demand courses. We are becoming a national test prep brand. The response has been tremendous. The airing was a huge boost for us in number of students as well as brand recognition.”
Known as the “Shark Tank Effect,” that exposure is equivalent to a $9 million marketing commercial, Patel said.
“You get to have 10 minutes of attention in front of seven million Americans,” Patel said. “I think it is transformative for any company. That is amazing for any small business or product that is trying to get off the ground.”
As the SAT will be revamped for students to score points out of 1600, rather than the 2400 as in last major revamp in 2005, Patel’s company will be rechristening itself from 2400 Expert SAT Prep to Prep Expert on the day of the new SAT debut, said the report.
Before Patel created 2400 Expert SAT Prep, he tried to sell an SAT manuscript to publishers, but was rejected. Out of this rejection and an initial desire to earn a few dollars before medical school, Patel decided to teach a couple SAT prep classes out of his own SAT strategies. The classes became a company very successful in his hometown of Las Vegas. So much so, Patel had to teach others his methods before leaving for medical school.
Also out of this SAT perfection came a No. 1 bestselling book, “2400 SAT In Just 7 Steps,” by McGraw-Hll as well as five recent releases — “Prep Expert New SAT Intro,” “Prep Expert New SAT Reading,” “Prep Expert New SAT Math,” “Prep Expert New SAT Writing” and “Prep Expert New SAT Essay” — that give more strategy and address the changes the new SAT will bring to students in each subject. These are currently climbing the charts on Amazon’s Test Prep bestseller list.
Read the full story: http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/education/2016/03/02/sat-prep-biz-feels-shark-tank-effect/81110760/