SAN DIEGO.- Jayla Siciliano, a local entrepreneur, pitched her startup "Bon Affair" to a panel of successful businessmen, including Mark Cuban, on the popular television program "Shark Tank", where entrepreneurs pitch their products or services with the hope that investors will support their ventures via venture capital and mentoring. But, what is Bon Affair, and how did it win over Mark Cuban?
Bon Affair is an alcoholic beverage that solves the timeless day-after affects of wine. Nobody likes to wake up hungover or with some sort of malaise the next day, and this is what inspired Bon Affair. Bon Affair is a wine spritzer, a sugarless wine infused with electrolytes that offers the same great taste of wine, without the after affects, while still boasting 6.5% alcohol. Each bottle has half the calories of a traditional bottle of wine (300 calories per Bon Affair Bottle), and is offered in both white and red wine varieties.
The road hasn't been easy for Saciliano, and in order to get to this point she quit her job, invested all of her money, almost lost it all, and took up a job as a bartender at night in order to be able to work on the start-up during the day.
In an exclusive interview with SanDiegoRed.com, Siciliano said, "at first I think half of them [friends and family] thought I was crazy to quit my job, and half of them thought 'good for you', then as time went on and I kept sticking with it despite all of the obstacles I hit I felt at some point that people were like, 'you're still working on that thing?'. Now a lot of my friends and family are some of our biggest fans and consumers which is so fun and exciting to see".
Jayla has invested close to 30,000 dollars and pitched her idea to many potential venture capitalists in the past. She suffered from production issues when the bottling company lost ninety percent of her production output. Regarding that the founder states that "it took a lot for me to stay positive when I'd worked so hard to get us to launch and then had nothing to sell and had lost a ton of money." After more than a year of hard work, Bon Affair has now been on the market for six months and can be obtained directly from the company, or at select retail locations such as Whole Foods in California.
This is where the support that will be provided by the Shark Tank team is so valuable, as Bon Affair has heavy production expenses, including permit requirements, and within a couple of weeks she would have likely been unable to keep up with demand and failed.
These were hurdles that she had to overcome in her Shark Tank pitch, since it was apparent that money had been invested and that there had not been much support for the venture. Many had even tried to convince Siciliano to sell the small company. Her last shot was with Mark Cuban, who not only agreed to finance the venture (in exchange for 35% share of the company) but will also mentor the venture with networking support, product exposure, and distribution.
Siciliano is looking forward to receiving help, and continuing to expand her company. She currently runs the venture on her own with the help of interns and independent contractors, which makes for long days, and says "as much as I love it, I'm looking forward to hiring some help."
When asked what she thought about representing San Diego's entrepreneurs in Shark Tank she says "I didn't think of it that way...but I'm honored to be one of them. I think San Diego has a great start-up community but it's definitely heavily dominated by tech and bio-tech so it's fun to be one of the amazing food and beverage companies that are growing in San Diego." She concludes by saying that "this has been such an amazing journey so far, and I have a feeling it's probably just the beginning."
To learn more about "Bon Affair" visit their official website,Facebook and Twitter.
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