When Linda Clark and her daughter Gloria Hoffman walked onto Shark Tank in November 2015, Simply Fit Board was still a small Colorado business. The company had generated about $575,000 in sales before the appearance, and the founders were asking the Sharks for $125,000 in exchange for 15% of the company. (looper.com)
The product itself was deliberately simple: a curved plastic balance board that users stood on and twisted from side to side. Clark and Hoffman believed that the motion could turn ordinary home exercise into something easier to stick with.
The pitch produced two serious offers. Kevin O'Leary offered $250,000 for 30%. Lori Greiner offered $125,000 for 20%, with additional support for purchase orders. The founders ultimately chose Greiner, whose QVC experience was a particularly strong fit for a product that could be demonstrated in seconds on television. (inc.com)
There is some inconsistency in secondary accounts about the final equity percentage: several later sources report that the deal was negotiated down to 18%, while other sources, including Greiner's own materials and contemporary reporting, describe it as 20%. The widely reported deal is therefore best stated as $125,000 for roughly 18–20%, with 20% being the most consistently documented figure. (lorigreiner.com)
What happened afterward was far more significant than the investment itself.
Simply Fit Board was already selling before Shark Tank, but the business was still small
Clark and Hoffman had launched Simply Fit Board around 2013. Their early operation was based in Lamar, Colorado, where the boards were produced and distributed. Before Shark Tank, the founders sold primarily through their own website and consumer or trade shows.
The numbers presented to the Sharks showed why the product was interesting. Contemporary reporting says the board sold for about $45 while costing a little more than $9 to manufacture. The founders told the Sharks they had generated roughly $575,000 in sales and about $260,000 in profit. (gazettereview.com)
That was a strong margin for a very young company, but there was an obvious problem: scale.
The board was easy to demonstrate, but the company needed manufacturing capacity, distribution and a way to reach consumers far beyond Colorado. The Sharks also pointed out a second weakness. The underlying concept was not difficult to imitate.
That made branding and speed particularly important.
Lori Greiner was the Shark who could turn Simply Fit Board into a television product
The pitch was unusually well suited to Greiner's business model.
Simply Fit Board did not require a complicated explanation. Someone could stand on it, twist, and immediately understand what the product was supposed to do. Greiner had built her reputation around products that could be demonstrated clearly to a mass television audience, particularly through QVC.
During the pitch, O'Leary also saw the opportunity and offered twice the amount of cash the founders had requested, but he wanted 30% of the company. Greiner instead offered the requested $125,000 for 20%. She also emphasized her ability to help with purchase orders as the business expanded. (inc.com)
The founders briefly tried to get Greiner and O'Leary to invest together. Greiner refused. She believed the business fit her expertise and wanted to handle the opportunity herself.
Clark and Hoffman accepted Greiner's offer.
That decision proved consequential almost immediately.
The Shark Tank effect took Simply Fit Board from $575,000 to $9 million
The most striking part of the story is what happened after the episode aired.
According to figures subsequently reported by Greiner and Shark Tank updates, Simply Fit Board's sales increased from roughly $575,000 before the show to about $9 million within seven months. More than one million boards had been sold or shipped into retail by the fourth quarter of 2016. (looper.com)
The immediate response was even more dramatic. Gloria Hoffman later said the company generated approximately $1.25 million in sales within the first 24 hours after the episode aired. (cbinsights.com)
That is the part of the Simply Fit Board story that is easy to reduce to the phrase "Shark Tank bump." But the numbers suggest something more specific.
The television appearance did not merely give the company publicity. It solved the company's distribution problem.
A product that had previously been sold by a small operation suddenly had national exposure, retail interest and Greiner's television-shopping expertise behind it. Simply Fit Board expanded into major retail channels, including Walmart, and the company also moved beyond the United States. (sharktankblog.com)
Simply Fit Board eventually became one of Shark Tank's biggest sales stories
The growth did not stop at the initial $9 million milestone.
Greiner's website later reported that Simply Fit Board had reached $160 million in retail sales and was available in approximately 50,000 retail stores nationwide. That figure was cited in updates around 2020–2021. (lorigreiner.com)
Later figures went higher.
Sony Pictures Television data cited by financial and entertainment publications put Simply Fit Board's cumulative sales at approximately $174 million by 2023. Greiner's current website also lists $174 million in retail sales since the company's Shark Tank appearance. (lorigreiner.com)
Because these figures are retail-sales figures rather than audited financial statements publicly released by the company, they should not be confused with $174 million in profit or even necessarily $174 million in company revenue. They represent the scale of consumer sales attributed to the product.
Even with that qualification, the trajectory is remarkable: roughly $575,000 in sales before Shark Tank, about $9 million within seven months, then more than $160 million in cumulative retail sales several years later.
The founders' biggest problem on Shark Tank turned out to be less important than the brand
The Sharks were right about one thing: Simply Fit Board was not a product that could rely entirely on technical exclusivity.
The company had intellectual-property protection around its system, but the physical concept of a balance board was not something the founders could completely lock away. Contemporary reporting noted the Sharks' concern that competitors could copy the basic idea. (inc.com)
That made the company's early push into retail especially valuable.
If consumers saw several similar-looking products later, Simply Fit Board already had a recognizable name, television exposure and mass-market distribution. In other words, the business competed partly through brand recognition and distribution rather than through an impossible-to-copy invention.
That is also why Greiner's involvement mattered beyond the $125,000.
The capital itself was modest compared with what the company eventually sold. The real asset was access to a distribution and marketing machine capable of turning a simple physical demonstration into a mass-market product.
Simply Fit Board is still around, although the company is much less visible
The post-boom story is quieter.
The original company website was reported as inactive in the early 2020s, while the products continued to appear through Amazon and other retailers. Some reporting also described the business as operating under the name Simply Fit Systems, with Gloria Hoffman continuing to be involved while Linda Clark appeared to have stepped back. (sharktankblog.com)
There is now a Simply Fit Board website presenting the board, workout products and related fitness equipment, and it continues to describe the product as an active offering. (simply-fit-board.com)
That makes the company's current status somewhat different from its peak years. Simply Fit Board is not as visible in popular culture as it was immediately after Shark Tank, but the product itself has not simply disappeared.
The brand has moved from being a rapidly expanding Shark Tank sensation to a much quieter established product.
What happened to Simply Fit Board after Shark Tank?
Simply Fit Board became a genuine Shark Tank success.
Linda Clark and Gloria Hoffman entered the show with a small but profitable fitness-product company and accepted Lori Greiner's investment of $125,000 for a reported 18–20% stake. Within months, sales had jumped to roughly $9 million. The company eventually reached more than $160 million in reported retail sales, with later figures putting cumulative sales at approximately $174 million. (lorigreiner.com)
The interesting part is not that Greiner invested in a good product. It is that the product matched the exact machinery she already knew how to operate.
Simply Fit Board was cheap enough to manufacture, easy to demonstrate, visually distinctive and simple enough for a television audience to understand immediately. Before Shark Tank, those qualities produced a promising small business. After Shark Tank, they produced a mass-market brand.
The board itself was never especially complicated. The business strategy around it was.
