by JAMES S. KIM | @james_s_kim
editor@charactermedia.com
Not many people would reject $30 million, but the Kang sisters aren’t your average individuals. Soo, Arum and Dawoon (left to right, above), co-founders of the up-and-coming online dating service Coffee Meets Bagel, were on the latest Shark Tank episode to raise $500,000 investment for 5 percent equity in their company.
The sisters, who boast degrees from Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School and Parsons School of Design, fielded an impressive presentation. However, things got rough once the Sharks began asking questions about the rapid spending the sisters had planned in order to accelerate the company’s growth.
Coffee Meets Bagels made $87,000 in 2013, but after a strong first half of 2014, the company’s new goal is to make $10 million this year. But even after the company earns $10 million, the sisters plan to only break even as they spend more money to expand their number of users to 4 million.
The Sharks dropped out one by one, expressing their concerns about the vast spending and $100,000 individual salaries. Billionaire Mark Cuban, who had initially dropped his support, later offered to buy the company for $30 million—the largest offer in the show’s history—which the sisters refused.
“We would not have accepted any buyout offers at this point, even from Mark Cuban,” CEO Dawoon Kang told ABC News. “The reason is we know we can grow Coffee Meets Bagel to be a much bigger company—this generation’s Match.com—and to sell our company right now, we would have sold ourselves short. We would have loved to have him as an investor though, because he is a very sharp tech investor and really knowledgeable in this field.”
Match.com has an estimated worth of $800 million, according to Arum, so if Coffee Meets Bagels takes off, the sisters’ lack of investment might be all for the better.
Keep your eyes peeled for our feature story on Soo, Arum and Dawoon Kang in the upcoming February/March 2015 issue of KoreAm Journal!
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Photos courtesy of 8Asians
