Kobe Harris is the founder of Kobee’s, a Las Vegas-based company that sells lip balms, lotion, lip scrub, cuticle butter, and hand salve. He makes his products with four ingredients: beeswax, coconut oil, sunflower oil, and mango butter, as per CNBC Make It.
Harris started his lip balm company on his bedroom floor in 2019 when he was conducting research on sustainability and bees for one of his professors at Loyola University Chicago.
With the support of $200 from his mother, he bought some ingredients on Amazon and used them to fashion out his lip balm formulas. According to CNBC Make It, he did this on his bedroom floor at home while working a summer lifeguarding job.
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When school resumed, he had made successful sales and decided to drop out and pursue his business full-time. “Since classes were online, I just told my dad, ‘I’m still in school,’ but really I was just in the basement making lip balms,” he said.
The startup is now profitable, and according to Harris, the business is on track to end 2024 with nearly $4 million in sales. What is more, it is also on track to make roughly $750,000 profit.
He recently appeared on Shark Tank, where he asked the investors for a $300,000 investment in exchange for 6% of his company, saying he wanted mentorship and help with product distribution.
However, several of the investors dropped out. For instance, guest panelist Kendra Scott said she couldn’t help the company. Lori Grenier was skeptical about the lip balm market, while Daymond John and Mark Cuban did not feel comfortable investing in his company.
Nonetheless, Kevin O’Leary offered $300,000 for a 20% equity stake in Kobee’s, but Harris immediately countered by 10%, and O’Leary proposed 15%. However, the deal fell through because Harris was not comfortable with O’Leary’s offer.
Harris said he needed to trust his gut, which is why he did not accept the proposed 15%. According to him, he made the decision out of the advice his mom, who runs multiple businesses, gave him when he wanted to drop out of college to make lip balm.
“I know my business better than anybody,” he said.
