A Shark Tank Pitch For A SAT Prep Startup

Facing down Mark Cuban & company on Shark Tank

CLAIMS AVERAGE SAT STUDENT IMPROVES BY ALMOST 400 POINTS

For the math section, students can save time on algebra questions that involve variables. Rather than actually doing the problems, Patel’s advice is to plug the multiple-choice answers into the equation, and simply see what works.

He first offered his six-week course in Las Vegas. Students would meet with their tutors twice a week, and take a proctored practice test each weekend to track their improvement. Overall, he said the average student improves by almost 400 points.

In the last few years, Patel has slowly expanded his business to new cities, all while attending the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, and Yale SOM. At the moment, he has three full-time employees in Las Vegas, and about 30 instructors and proctors offering classes in 20 cities.

But he wants 2400 Expert to be a national test prep company, similar in scale to the Princeton Review or Kaplan. The potential funding and guaranteed exposure that Shark Tank could give him were too tempting to pass up.

GETTING ON THE SHOW WITH HELP FROM HIS CLASSMATES

“I was a Shark Tank fan,” Patel said, “and one of my friends said that I should go on. He was joking, but then I heard about the open-call audition, so I went.”

With the help of his classmates at Yale SOM, he said he practiced his 60-second pitch for eight or nine hours. Even so, he said the casting director didn’t seem very interested at first. It wasn’t until Patel took out a copy of his book that he thinks he started to stand out.

Two weeks after that initial pitch, Shark Tank called him requesting a video audition. Again, he turned to his classmates for help.

“I have a very serious business and I’m very introverted,” he said. “But one key thing about video auditions is that you’ve got to be entertaining. I really had to turn up my energy. I made jokes. In the end, Shark Tank is entertainment. You can have the best business in the world, but if you’re not entertaining, they’re not going to ask you to come to LA.”

A JITTERY ENTREPRENEUR FACES THE SHARKS

He said he was nervous doing the audition pitches, but that they were nothing compared to pitching to the investors on the show.

“They were very smart. They were able to very quickly figure out my business model with the little information that I gave them,” Patel said. “I realized that these guys are millionaires and billionaires for a reason. It was very cool.”

Now, months after filming, Patel is hoping to get as many views as possible on Friday. Using #breaktherecord on Twitter, Patel has been promoting the episode, hoping to break Shark Tank’s 8.6 million views record. 2400 Expert is also hosting an online viewing party, and to celebrate the occasion, will be giving away $100,000 in SAT prep courses and materials.

“I was in the Shark Tank for an hour and a half, which they edited down to ten minutes,” Patel said. “I haven’t seen the edit, so I’m a little nervous. But I’m excited to see it.”

For now he’s planning his future one step at a time. He’s finishing his MBA, but has one more year of medical school left. After that, he thinks he’ll begin a medical residency, but is unsure.

“In an ideal world, I would love to practice medicine three days a week, and then work on my business three days. But if things really take off after Shark Tank, that could change,” he said.

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