NIU grads hook investor on 'Shark Tank'

CHICAGO – Did you see that? If you missed it, Northern Illinois University graduates Joe Parisi and Adam Havey just landed a new partner on ABC's “Shark Tank.”

Barbara Corcoran trumped fellow Shark Kevin O'Leary with an offer of $100,000 for 20 percent of the guys' brainchild, Guard Llama.

Parisi, the personal security start-up’s CEO, appeared on the show with the company’s third co-founder, Nick Nevarez, while Havey was back home. Despite pitching decision-makers just about every day, Havey, the company’s head of sales, knew three would have been a crowd one too many.

Besides, he knew Parisi had an offer in the bag before he left Chicago, where the 29-year-olds live.

“They had so much training up until then, I had no doubt they’d get a deal,” Havey said. “Joe must have done the pitch 100 times a day, so I’ve even had it in my head. I probably could have been his body double.”

On the ABC reality show, in its eighth season, hopeful entrepreneurs pitch their products to five wealthy investors, who decide whether to invest.

What helped Parisi go in relaxed – or as relaxed as someone can be on national television – was knowing Guard Llama had already received about $1.1 million from investors, even before entering the “Shark Tank.”

He, like Havey, is used to standing in front of big money and trying to pry some out.

“It would have been a really interesting thing if they asked me a question nobody has asked me; I don't know if there's a question about our product I haven't been asked,” Parisi said. “A lot about entrepreneurship is putting yourself in uncomfortable situations. Entrepreneurs seek uncomfortable things, because it makes them better for it.”

Cutthroat as that all sounds, Guard Llama is a passion project at its core. Parisi is a 2011 NIU accounting grad, and Adam Havey got his communications studies degree there in 2012.

Whenever the guys pitch Guard Llama, they tell the story of the murder of Antinette "Toni" Keller, their NIU classmate who disappeared Oct. 14, 2010. They talk about the Feb. 14, 2008, shooting on campus that claimed five students’ lives and injured another 17 people before the gunman turned a firearm on himself.

With Guard Llama, two presses of a remote alerts the company's emergency dispatch center. Guard Llama will then send the user's GPS location within nine feet, photo and medical information to the center and alert any emergency contacts.

“What drives you? What wakes you up? Why do you do this?” Parisi said. “If it’s for a product that you know the world needs, even if you fail, at least you built something you knew needed to exist.”

No worries on the failure front for the Guard Llama founders. Longtime entrepreneurs who come from families of self-starting businessmen, they’ve come a long way. Havey laughs as he rattles off Parisi’s myriad undertakings: among them vending machine, T-shirt, and snow-shoveling companies. Don’t forget the demolition company – for which Havey worked.

“He’s always pushed the envelope, in terms of entrepreneurship,” Havey said.

Perhaps the hardest part of all of this? Keeping the episode’s outcome under their hats.

“This might be the most entertaining 'Shark Tank' episode ever,” Havey said. “This is an episode that could go viral.”

Had to be hard to honor that non-disclosure agreement.

“There’s a fine line of how you do it,” Parisi said. “Certain engineers need to be prepared for something in ‘x’ amount of months, and investors need to know.

“But it’s like any other secret. Just a really big one, is all.”