Q&A: Behind the scenes of ‘Shark Tank’ with Jason Li

On March 14, senior Jason Li presented his business, iReTron, on the ABC reality TV show “Shark Tank,” which gives entrepreneurs the chance to pitch their ideas against five “sharks.” iReTron recycles and sells used electronics. Li received $100,000 in grant money from investors Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran, on the condition that they would own 20% of any business he made in the next five years. Li was on stage for 55 minutes, though they only used roughly 10 minutes of it. You can watch the segment here.

The show is known for being extremely critical. How did you prepare?

I knew how vicious they would be. I watched literally every episode to prepare, wrote down every question they would ask, formulated answers to all of them. Negotiation wise I was well prepared for the pitch; however, after I flew to LA I was still practicing in the hotel and rewriting it.

That late?

It was one of the most frustrating processes of my life, it was like actually emotional. Like I made it this far and I’m going to lose because I couldn’t memorize a speech.

To get on stage on TV it shows you walking through this huge hallway thing. What were your initial thoughts as you got onto the show?

So I was next, they mic me up and I say, ‘OK I have an hour,’ drink some water and stuff. Three minutes later the guy tells me, ‘Hey you’re up’ and I literally, I wanted to piss myself. It’s like one of those things where you think you did well on a test and you failed and you don’t know what to say to your parents when you get home. Super scary. I was sweating like no other.

When did you, uh, stop sweating.

Once I started talking, it got a lot easier. There was a bit of a mistake though. There was supposed to be a remote so I could change the visual to my website, if you look closely you see I look to my side to see if I can see it. I just thought ‘Oh that’s cool, there goes one part of my presentation.’

Speech and debate helped tremendously. Without S and D, there’s no way I could have memorized it in one night. I owe this to years of S and D.

The brightest minds in business were watching you. How did you come off so coherently?

It was nerve wracking, but I think the scariest part of being up there was not being able to connect with them. While I was up there I kept thinking ‘Smile Jason smile Jason.’ I think I was grinning so hard Lori [Grenier, one of the sharks] whispered to Robert [Herjavec, another shark,] ‘He seems so happy. Why is he so happy?’ And we [Li and Grenier] smiled at each other and that relaxed me a lot. Like, they're not here to kill you.

Yes, she was attractive.

Kevin O’ Leary, who’s quite intimidating, was pretty critical of your business.

I knew his character, and so going in I wasn’t looking to do a deal with him. I knew that his personality would not want my business in his portfolio, so I took criticism from him, but I didn’t pay it much attention. I was going after Mark Cuban. I kept my eye on Mark and made sure he was happy, analyzed his facial expression, and he kept nodding, so it boosted my confidence.

You basically said ‘We’re in this for the social and environmental good, money is not the primary concern.’ O’ Leary didn’t like this.

That was one of the biggest problems I had with my business; it was fundamentally unattractive to investors because it was socially oriented and not purely after money. Being on the show you have to understand that it's a TV show — they like idealism. In addition, there are millions of Americans judging you as well.

I looked at it from a utilitarian aspect. It was 7 million viewers versus these five people. I wagered that because this is on TV in order to keep their good reputations they'd be more likely to support me. I was banking on a huge risk but it was the only differentiation that I could find between my company and my competitors. The business model is identical. Only our drive is different. There was a lot of analyzing and mind games involved.

O’Leary said ‘There’s so much competition, if you Google this, there’s so many pages you’ll die of old age getting to the last.’ Then you contradicted him, saying that iReTron was on the front page for ‘Sell my Kindle’ searches.

Before coming onto the show, I realized that my competitors were not targeting tablets. It was a niche market, so I went for it poured all my efforts into it, and got it onto the first page of google. Since then, I went back to spreading myself out to increase my sales and thus this was filmed six months ago and since our standings have dropped for Kindles.

I felt you were losing momentum after the way the Sharks reacted to the $40,000 in sales. But then, Herjavec asked you if you did this part time, and…

I pulled the 16 [years old] card. I didn’t include it in the pitch… but I knew that it was my get out of jail card. I’m 16-years-old though my appearance does not portray that necessarily, so to me it was a huge factor, and I saved it. After that it got easy, after that it was just a conversation

Herjavec asked you what drove you, and you brought up your past. Why this specific moment?

I knew Robert [Herjavec] was also an immigrant. In order to appeal to him I directed the answer to him, about how I always wanted to contribute rather than take for myself. I truly believe it, I just saved it for Robert because I knew it would have the biggest effect on him.

And judo?

It was hard to talk about. I kept going… I almost cried. I knew that it was pathos section of the presentation but didn’t expect it to touch me as much as it did. Tears welled up in my eyes because I was thinking about it, how I came from the mat to national television. I meant every word I said, which really helped when I related it to the investors.

What went through your head when Barbara Corcoran said she’d give you $100,000, but on the condition that she’d own 20 percent of your businesses for the next five years?

Going in I wasn't putting my eye too much on Barbara, but once Barbara said she'd invest I knew I was safe. Having her on my side was incredible, incredible. All these people were incredible, to be honest.

But on the 20 percent for five years condition?

My initial reaction at first was I wish I had more time to consult.

I mean I’d like to have lunch and a night to sleep on it.

I had five seconds. Going in I wanted to be different. No minor has ever gone on the show alone, my goal was to be the first to demonstrate true independence, to prove to myself and anyone watching that a teenager is able to do this by himself, no handholding, no nothing.

I thought that if I take away these contingencies she might pull out, but I also thought that if she's going to hold a stake of my business I’d have her on deck with me for the next 5 years. It was a positive thing, I decided.

Yet you were still after Mark, even though he had said he was out.

I knew from watching all the seasons that Barbara and Mark were very good friends and often worked together. I idolize Mark, and knew that this could be the last time I would get to speak with these people.

I don’t think Mark was expecting it.

Definitely a yolo moment, or maybe a cautious daredevil. I figured I’m 16-years-old and I don’t deserve any of this so I might as well go all out. And it worked out, even though it was all spontaneous.

Mark said yes, and then you were like ‘Let’s do work.’ Reaction?

It was crazy, exhilarating to test my boundaries and challenge myself to something like this. I had hard time not moving.

Producers tell you to stay on the mat, [but] my initial reaction was to walk up to them and give them a handshake and you can see I take a step forward and then I remember I’m not supposed to move and take a step back. Crazy experience.

What happened as you walked back through the halls, after your successful deal?

Robert yelled to me ‘You're living the American dream.’ I was just like ‘I’m trying my best.’ It was so great to have the support of these incredibly successful people.

Alone, I was like ‘Oh God this is real.’ Said ‘Oh my God’ to myself 15 times, ‘What did I just do?’ Not because it was successful but because I represented my business and I was treated as a businessman, I performed well, even if I didn't get a deal, based solely off my performance, I would have been proud of myself.

How did you tell your dad?

We’d agreed to do a handshake if I won, which was a bit of stretch for my very conservative Asian father.

I told him I didn’t get a deal. I always do that with him. He kinda smiled and came in for a hug and said ‘You know what you did your best.’ That was great, since it was the first time my dad has ever said that to me … since, maybe, judo. And that was just an awesome moment for me.

And I was like just kidding and he started laughing.

The handshake.

Yeah, we did it, it was super cool.

The show came out on Friday, March 14. You got into the University of Chicago on the same day. How did you celebrate?

It was probably one of the best days of my life that I can recall. I found out about U Chicago during a power nap. And to me U Chicago was on the same pedestal as Stanford and Harvard, it was very high reach for me. I jumped out of the sofa and was like ‘GUYS I’M GOING TO CHICAGO’ and then I became reinvigorated without the nap and was just like ‘Let’s finish this [Yearbook] deadline.’

I watched the show with my parents because they're my biggest supporters. I live in a small apartment home, so I invited just a few friends and then we watched the episode together. It was an incredibly natural high — stress on natural — and truly one of the happiest moments of my life.

So how have things changed for iReTron?

Even though I performed stress tests, servers crashed, but that was a good problem to have. Business has boomed. I have no idea how I’m going to care for 3000 products a day on my own. I was up to 4:30 last night replying to emails. Before the TV show I went to [Math teacher P.J.] Yim, I told him about ‘Shark Tank’ and he said, ‘Be careful what you wish for, maybe you'll just get it.’

Last night I was just like “[expletive], he was right." Once again, another good problem to have

I’m going to take iReTron with me to college, use it as tool to inspire other high school students to do the same. A lot of colleges including U Chicago allow you to raise your business as you study, even encourage it. So I’m looking forward to that.