Custom wrapping paper startup Digiwrap gets 'Shark Tank' investment

A pair of DuPage County printing professionals picked up a big public investment with a recent appearance on ABC's "Shark Tank."

Charlie Williams of Downers Grove and Brad Boskovic of Elmhurst appeared on the Dec. 9 episode of the entrepreneurial investment program, showing off their process allowing customers to design and order custom gift tissue paper.

The two met when Williams began working in Boskovic's family printing shop, himself coming from a print background.

"A client came to me and said she needed tissue paper for an event," Boskovic said. "She only needed 100 sheets and was looking online, but everyone was going to make her order 5,000 sheets and pay for expensive plates, and she was going to have to wait four to six weeks."

An all-nighter and large-scale mess later, Boskovic came up with what the pair eventually refined into the Digiwrap system.

The product allows customers to upload their own images and logo onto custom tissue paper and gift bags, with different pricing for paper type and quantity.

The product proved popular with businesses, including big-name clients like Google and Yahoo for corporate events and meetings. But the two wanted to ensure their patented product got into the public consciousness for those throwing parties or in need of special wrapping for a gift.

Both avid fans of "Shark Tank," they joked about the idea of trying to appear on the program before Williams' mother-in-law told them it would be stopping in Chicago for an open audition.

"We thought, 'That would be cool, they're coming here to Chicago – that's close enough. It might be fate,'" Williams remembered. "But we got busy with other things, and we didn't pick it back up until the night before the audition."

Williams' father, Russ, offered to stand in line for the pair as they got their affairs in order. To prove the effectiveness of their product, Williams took a picture of himself in front of the studio in line for the audition, sent it to Boskovic, who in turn printed it out and brought it to the audition within hours.

The two called the process "grueling," with auditions and interviews for months before even stepping into the room with the cast of the show.

The actual taping was "almost dream-like," Boskovic said.

"It was almost a fugue state," Williams said. "We were in there, doing stuff, then the next thing we know it was like 45 minutes to an hour of filming and it was all such a blur."

Whatever they did clearly worked, getting a deal worth $150,000 from shark Kevin O'Leary, with 20-percent equity and a per-unit royalty until O'Leary got $450,000 back.

They said it was a nerve-wracking experience, but they were prepared.

"For entrepreneurs like us who have been living and dying by the success of the company, you know it all, but it's hard to get it out in a way that makes sense," Williams said.

In the months since, it was hard to keep the secret of their success, and both said they were glad they could finally share in the moment with friends and family – made sweeter in a viewing party at Off-Track Betting in Oakbrook Terrace.

Boskovic said the pair were already seeing more new orders since the airing of the show.

"We're definitely at a new level thanks to this," he said. "When we created the company, we had a sort of five-year plan for things, and if anything, it's going to push us past what we originally planned. It's nice the holidays are coming, so hopefully we'll get a little downtime to look at it again and reassess and plan."

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Know more

To learn about the product, visit digiwrapit.com. To watch the episode, visit abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/episode-guide.