Seventh-grade entrepreneur, TED talker and Richard Branson protégé Carson Kropfl insists he “wasn’t an overnight success.”
“Took four years to get on ‘Shark Tank,’” the San Clemente 12-year-old said. Kropfl was 8 and snowboarding in Mammoth Lakes when he saw a man with “Shark Tank” emblazoned on his jacket get onto an elevator. Kropfl pounced and “literally gave him an elevator pitch.”
Kropfl didn’t close that day—perhaps because he didn’t have a product, or a refined pitch. He kept in contact with the producer and returned four years later with a refined pitch for Locker Board—which makes reshaped skateboards that fit into a backpack and locker.
“‘Say what’s special about your product in one sentence,’” Kropfl paraphrased Branson.
The Emmy-winning reality show gets more than 200,000 applications from entrepreneurs every year. Kropfl was not only chosen, he batted leadoff for season nine—a coveted slot.
He took Branson’s top offer of $65,000 for a 20% equity stake.
“I think [‘Shark Tank’s’ producers] picked me because I just did the best … I picked Branson because he’s Richard Branson,” Kropfl told the Business Journal.
Shark Bounce
“BB”—before Branson—Kropfl had a nice little business of crafting skateboards from recycled decks, selling through farmers markets and social media with about $15,000 in sales when he went on the show in October. Make that $60,000 today, and a looming deal with Amazon, “hoping by April,” according to CMO—Chief Mom Officer—Carrie Kropfl.
Branson’s capital allowed Carson Kropfl to outsource manufacturing—wheels crafted in Surf City, boards assembled in Tijuana—and to fully deploy the company’s best asset, the founder.
“He’s good at networking and staying in touch with people,” Carrie said of CFO—Chief Fun Officer—Carson.
“And he’s a really good kid.”
He listens—to Branson and Virgin Group executives.
“Delegating. How to run a business, P&L, I’m learning a lot,” Kropfl said.
In Demand
Delegating will be key.
He’ll give pitching tips to students at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business this month, deliver a TED talk in San Diego in April, and visit Virgin Group headquarters in London this summer with his Independent Youth Group, a select national club of teenage entrepreneurs. Kropfl’s the youngest.
In the spring he plans to launch Gold Line skateboards—as in 24-carat gold. Locker Board plans to increase board sizes from 17 to 24 inches as it expands to the Midwest and East Coast. “They got bigger lockers on the East Coast,” Kropfl noted.
His boards are in a few small skate shops, like Jack’s Surfboards, but sales are primarily online, with more than 55% of lockerboard.net traffic coming from mobile devices.
Kropfl’s parents—dad, Keith, heads the Orange County office of global commercial brokerage Avison Young, mom was in advertising—switched Kropfl into San Clemente Christian School this year. There’s all of seven kids in the seventh-grade class.
And down the road for Kropfl, “My parents say, ‘You kinda wanna go to college.’”
