Skateboarding, surfing, and snowboarding are ideal extreme sports for thrill seekers, but they are dangerous to do at night. Garrett and Dakota Porter invented an LED lighting system to make nighttime riding safer. Founders Garrett and Dakota once swam with the Sharks and reached an agreement with Robert Herjavec. As of 2024, Action Glow is estimated to be worth $600,000.
Founder
Garrett and Dakota Porter are adventurous brothers from Grand Traverse County, Michigan. Dakota is the oldest, three years older than Garrett. They both hold business-related degrees from Northwestern Michigan College.
Dakota grew up loving extreme sports, longboarding, surfing, and snowboarding. He passed this love on to his younger brothers, who were so passionate about these hobbies that Dakota wanted to start his own business when he was a teenager.
Founding Action Glory
As a student, Dakota invented an LED lighting system that could be installed on most extreme sports equipment. At the time, he was 16 and Garrett was only 13. Due to their young age, the Porter brothers were entrepreneurs with little entrepreneurial experience, but their parents supported them.
In 2012, they founded Action Glow as 45th Parallel Lighting, LLC. Dakota serves as CEO and Garret as COO. Initially, they hoped to expand into sporting goods stores, but later adopted a direct-to-consumer approach.
Initially, Dakota managed the site while Garrett handled sales and strategy. The brothers launched an IndieGoGo campaign, hoping to raise $8,800, but only raised $2,690.
Appeared on Shark Tank
Action Glow has been around for more than a decade, and the founders had always wanted to be on the show. The aspiring entrepreneurs believed it could help them reach a wider audience and reduce their customer acquisition costs.
They applied to Shark Tank several times but were rejected by producers three times. Fortunately, they didn’t give up and the brothers were eventually approved with $130,000 in lifetime sales.
After Shark Tank
Their episode aired on November 18, 2022, and Dakota and Garrett saw a huge increase in orders. In just one night, they made over $60,000. That’s double what they made in 2021! Action Glow is a relatively simple product that people buy to look cool. Action Glow is not listed on Robert’s website, so the $200,000 deal was likely never completed.
Shark Tank fans can purchase the patented LED lights through its website and Amazon. On its website, the LED surfboard retails for $169. Over time, the company has expanded its product range to include kayaks, longboards and wakeboards. In the future, the company plans to launch a clothing line and enter the retail industry.
The LED Snowboard Lighting Kit is one of their best-selling products worldwide. It has 32 customer reviews on Amazon and a 4.1-star rating. Negative reviews highlight that the tape does not last long. The company is using viral marketing to attract customers and is currently valued at $600,000.
Categories: Shark Tank
Source: svlsf.edu.vn