Akeem Shannon is not the typical ‘Shark Tank’ contestant. Uncanny communications and people skills have enabled him to connect and succeed both as an inventor and entrepreneur, and made his life more purposeful. They are part of his still active journey.
Akeem made the final round in a competition off 200 to appear on ‘Shark Tank’ but was cut. He was devastated. It was an unexpected endorsement on a live rap show in Atlanta from the O.G., Snoop Dogg, that got him a shot on the show in November 2020. It led to dramatically increased sales for his company.
Unfortunately, he could secure a deal but the exposure helped him to succeed in securing attracting investors, including AT&T, and eventually generate $10 million in sales for Flipstik, his go-anywhere cell phone discovery that features a NASA-developed adhesive.
In 2022, the University of Missouri in St. Louis honored Akeem with the Entrepreneur of the Year Award before he went on to raise $1.15 million from a number of investors. Shortly after, the Flipstik founder secured $1.2 million to expand the product line.
Dropout to Survivalist
Akeem was an early dropout from Howard University, where he had planned to study chemical engineering. He was a bullied as a child for being different and diagnosed as clinically depressed. It wasn’t until after a string of sales success that he realized he was profoundly unhappy. He entered a mental health program and was prescribed medication that he was able to re-center and move on with his life.
“Taking one first step, then taking the next one, is critical”
“All these different ups and downs and terminals that I faced building Flipstik. If it hadn’t have been for me going through all of that and really feeling very low and recovering from it, I probably would have given up,” says Akeem.
“Because I had come out of that deep depression and anxiety state, I knew that I have the tools within me to do it again. I don’t have to let that stop me or paralyze me from moving forward for the rest of my life.”
What are Akeem’s most important life-lessons?
“Taking one first step, then taking the next one, is critical,” he explains on “From Psych Ward to ‘Shark Tank’ – How this Entrepreneur Overcame Obstacles,” Ep2 of Season 4 of the popular Understanding IP Matters podcast. “Ask yourself each day, what’s something that I can start and finish today to get me closer to the end goal?”
“Don’t underestimate the value of protecting your intellectual property – and not just for patents either, for trademarks, because your name is one of the most powerful things that you own.”
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Image source: CIPU; IPBasics.org/IdeasMatter