Alexiou Gibson is the founder of The Transformation Factory, a company that sells edible sea moss gel, which helped Gibson lose 300 pounds of weight, according to CNBC Make It.
His company offers nine sea moss gel flavors – elderberry, strawberry, strawberry/banana, mango, dragon fruit, goji berry, pineapple, soursop (guanbana) and raw. Other products include sea moss capsules and wild-crafted Irish sea moss (raw).
In 2021, Gibson launched a website for his business, and within 11 months, he brought in $3.5 million in revenue, including $1.4 million in profit. Gibson also grew his company’s 200,000 customers as well as his team from three people to 45.
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The profitability of sea moss was not surprising because it has a wide appeal among Black Americans. Gibson took his thriving business to Shark Tank in 2022 in order to raise funds to expand his business. He said he wanted his sea moss to get on shelves at major retailers. He asked for $500,000 in exchange for 5% of The Transformation Factory.
However, Kevin Hart disagreed with Gibson’s valuation and made a counter-offer of $500,000 for 20% of the start-up. Another Shark Tank investor, Barbara Corcoran, also offered to join Hart’s proposal to split the money and equity evenly.
Kevin O’Leary, another Shark Tank investor, made a competing offer of $500,000 for 30% of the company. But Gibson was not impressed with his offer and decided to consider the offer from Hart and Corcoran. Gibson offered them 20% of The Transformation Factory’s equity for $800,000.
After back-and-forth negotiations, Hart said he would be willing to compromise at $600,000 but Corcoran dropped out on the excuse that getting the product into retail stores would require too much work, according to CNBC Make It.
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, also a Shark Tank investor, decided to partner with Hart after weighing his options. Cuban is a vegetarian and has invested in several vegan food companies.
Despite not signing off on the deal from the show, Gibson’s company has continued to grow. Within the first hour of appearing on the show, The Transformation Factory made $500,000, he told “Earn Your Leisure” podcast.
“When we were at ‘Shark Tank’ we were in a 1,500 square-foot facility so you can imagine we have like almost no space. We were 40,000 orders behind after ‘Shark Tank,’” he said, as per AfroTech. “I mean we’re watching it live and we made half a million that night within an hour after we aired, and it’s like you know they call it ‘The Oprah Effect.’”
In 2023, the company brought in $16.5 million in revenue and it hopes to make around $20 million this year because of its latest product, sea moss gummies.
