A startup that created a brand of handboards, a one-handed surfboard that straps to a surfer’s hand for bodysurfing, started its summer tour over Memorial Day weekend.
San Clemente-based Slyde Handboards is giving potential customers the opportunity to test its boards at various venues in SoCal. The company is the brainchild of surfer Steve Watts, who’s originally from South Africa.
Handboards work by allowing bodysurfers, when they catch a wave, to “lift” out of the water to increase speed and maneuverability. Slyde will demo its handboards at various beaches in SoCal in June and July and at surf competitions in August. It recently teamed up with Costa Mesa-based Orange County Coastkeeper to co-sponsor a beach cleanup, which took place June 11 in Huntington Beach. Slyde said it will donate $1 to the nonprofit group for every pound of trash picked up. It also will co-sponsor a beach cleanup with the San Clemente-based Surfrider Foundation on International Surfing Day on June 18 in Huntington Beach.
Slyde was filmed last year for a “Shark Tank” episode that aired in April. The startup received a funding deal of $200,000 for 22% equity in the company from shark Mark Cuban and guest shark Ashton Kutcher. Sales since the episode aired have grown by almost 300%, and the company has already surpassed the $180,000 in sales it made last year, according to Watts’ wife and Slyde co-founder, Angela Watts.
The funding enabled the couple to move its operations out of their one-bedroom apartment into an office and warehouse in San Clemente, pay back family members who made initial investments, get married (they put off their wedding to invest in their company), and hire employees, according to Angela Watts. The couple connects with Cuban and Kutcher every week by phone or email, she said, adding that the sharks have not yet come to their office.
Slyde typically gets 75% of its annual sales from June through December, Angela Watts said.
Entrepreneur Honored Twice
Entrepreneur Tina Aldatz recently was named a 2016 Small Business/Entrepreneur Women of the Year by the Santa Ana-based National Hispanic Business Women Association. She also was honored by the Tustin-based Mexican American Opportunity Foundation as 2016 Business Woman of the Year.
Aldatz and business partner Margie Floris created the startup Savvy Travelers in 2014 in Laguna Hills. The company sells on-the-go beauty products for female travelers online and in department stores, such as Seattle, Wash.-based Nordstrom. The duo previously co-founded Foot Petals, which makes insole cushions for high heels, then sold it in 2011 for $14 million.
The duo self-funded Savvy Travelers with the sale of Foot Petals and is now doing its first raise for $2.5 million to fund its expansion, Aldatz said. They raised 20% of their goal in the first two weeks, she added.
Innovator Spreads Out
A company that aims to help other companies solve business problems, such as decreasing injuries in the workplace, has moved into a new headquarters in Irvine with a larger footprint for its innovation and ideation labs.
Spellbound Development Group Inc.’s new digs are 15,000 square feet, about 20% more space than at its previous location. The new offices contain space for Spellbound Development Group’s two subsets: Spellbound, a think tank that brainstorms, designs, develops and manufactures products for clients, and CrewSafe, which meets with clients to identify their problems and ultimately sells the products.
The parent company plans to launch four products within the next six months that it couldn’t disclose yet, according to a spokesperson. It has manufacturing/design services and partners in the U.S., Central America and Asia, and its primary focus has been serving the food service and grocery industries, with clients such as Irvine-based Taco Bell and Pittsburgh, Pa.-based The Kraft Heinz Co.
Wealth Management Firm Launched
Huntington Beach-based Trilogy Financial has launched a new wealth management firm.
Trilogy Capital offers investors a high-risk platform and emphasizes stock exchange-traded funds.
All of its initial clients have $100,000-plus to invest, according to Chief Executive Jeff Motske, adding that the amount is not a hard-and-fast requirement.
“The business model is based on offering the average American the expertise [privy] to high-net-worth individuals and prides itself by helping them achieve financial independence,” Motske said via email.
In its first four months, Trilogy Capital has amassed more than $175 million in assets, making it one of the fastest growing new wealth management companies in the country, Motske said.
