SHARK TANK Appearance Finds Famous Investors For Beebo Inventor Martin Hill Story by Deborah Welky • Photos by Abner Pedraza
When Wellington dad Martin Hill had a problem, he came up with a solution so unique that he found himself featured on the ABC television show Shark Tank in September with an invention that captured the interest — and investment capital — of not one, but two of the “sharks.” Like most good ideas, his product was born of frustration. While bottlefeeding his son, now 6, Hill enjoyed seeing him drift peacefully off to sleep in his arms, but rued the fact that he had to choose between possibly waking him up or being restricted to moving only one arm. He tried the under-the-chin bottle hold, but the jostling movement of that maneuver was ineffective. When his son became distracted during feeding, fussy and fidgety, Hill knew that there had to be a better way. Enter the Beebo. An electrical engineer by trade, Hill took to his garage to come up with a solution, and the Beebo was born. The prototype was created by finding a Blackberry belt clip case to provide the rotation needed to fit a carved
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foam form. The prototype shown on Shark Tank was a bottle holder flexible enough to fit the majority of bottles on the market and to work for both lefthanded and right-handed users. It even has the ability to rotate up to allow for burping mid-session. “When I initially came up with the idea, it was just for me — to enhance feeding time,” Hill explained. “My little boy was struggling with a bottle and was most relaxed when I was reading to him. I thought if maybe I could have a free hand to hold a book, I could combine feeding time and reading time. It might help him relax, and he’d take his bottle better. It worked perfectly. He’d look at the pictures, listen to my voice and suck his bottle dry.” Although Hill created the Beebo for his own use, “every time anyone saw the product that I made in my garage, they said, ‘That’s amazing; people will buy that.’” Nonetheless, developing the product for commercial sale was not at the top of Hill’s to-do list and, soon, years had elapsed. “I was working full-time and being a full-time dad, but I had this product idea. It wasn’t at the top of my priority list — being a good dad was first, then
being good at my job. But the Beebo started getting more and more traction, so we started the research needed for the patent process,” Hill said. “I am a huge fan of Shark Tank, and I’d always had this dream of being on the show. I thought it would be fun to try out, if nothing else, for the life experience.” Then Hill heard about a Shark Tank casting call in Miami. He decided to apply, with the full support of his wife, Sarah. “I memorized a one-minute pitch, pitched it to the casting agent, and they called me back just a few days later saying that I was going to move on to the next bit of casting,” Hill said. “Then followed a lot of paperwork; phone interviews; making videos of myself, my product and my pitch; the amount of funds I was going to request; and the justification for the request. When I made the final cut, they flew me out to L.A. in June for filming.” Sarah was in the hotel, waiting, as Hill was the first “bait” tossed into the tank for the premier episode of Season 7. His five-investor shark panel featured Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Kevin O’Leary and “guest shark” actor Ashton Kutcher, whom Hill did not know was participating until the night before the taping. Was Hill a nervous wreck? Not really. “I walked into Shark Tank and into negotiations knowing that I had a great opportunity for them — that’s what I truly believed,” Hill said. “A lot of peo-
(Left) Wellington inventor Martin Hill demonstrates the use of the Beebo. (Right) Hill with some of the Beebo variations available. He is now stocking up to meet rising demand after the Shark Tank appearance. december 2015 | wellington the magazine