Breathometer Proves Market On Indiegogo, Sets ‘Shark Tank’ Record

breathometerThe Breathometer is a smartphone-powered portable breathalyzer that we featured as one of two crowdfunding campaigns for savvy beer drinkers back in March. The device raised over $138,000 in a pretail play on Indiegogo via a flexible funding campaign. The original goal was $25,000.

It turns out that project creator, Breathometer founder and CEO Charles Michael Yim has already found success as a serial entrepreneur and has an acquisition to his name. His company Chatterfly was acquired by Plum District, a deal and coupon site for moms.

He took this experience and his past crowdfunding success onto ABC’s Shark Tank. It would result in the most successful Shark Tank pitch ever, one that had all five sharks pitching in to back Yim to the tune of $1 million.

Yim had originally been seeking $250,000 for a 10% equity stake. He wanted to close a $1 million round from angel investors in 60 days. After some bantering, he secured $1 million from the sharks for 30% of the company, representing a 33% bump over his desired $2.5 million valuation. Mark Cuban expressed the most interest.

It was the first time all five sharks had jumped into the same investment together.

Crowdfunding continues to be a worthy first stop on the path toward venture funding for small companies.

[h/t Business Insider]


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