Dartmouth College Entrepreneur

Dartmouth College Entrepreneur March 8, 2013 Mike Hartwick of Surfset Fitness is a success story of ABCs hit show Shark Tank. This is Mike on the exercise equipment he created. For many, we imagine its difficult to take note of the exercise equipment in the photo. At Ivy Coach, we always love to bring successful Ivy League startups to your attention. Maybe its because a Princeton professor erroneously claimed that the Ivy League isnt exactly a breeding ground for entrepreneurial spirits and we like to prove her wrong so very much. Or maybe its because we as entrepreneurs ourselves just love to support fellow Americans building their own businesses.  Back in September, we highlighted Surfset Fitness, a startup founded by a very handsome Dartmouth College entrepreneur Mike Hartwick. When Mike brought his company, Surfset Fitness, onto ABCs hit show Shark Tank, he secured a major investment from billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Mikes company is a surfboard that he basically converted into a piece of exercise equipment (its very cool and were not exactly doing it justice with this description). Theyve got classes where folks can jump up on the specially designed board and work their abs (indoors) under the supervision of certified Surfset Fitness trainers. Anyhow, after securing the investment from Mark Cuban, Hartwicks company has taken off, according to a recent update on Shark Tank. Based on the update, Surfset Fitness is on target for about $5 million in sales this year. Before Cubans investment, they were only grossing a couple of hundred thousand a year. So this is a major leap for the company. We congratulate Mike, a former standout hockey player for the Big Green, and Surfset Fitness on their enormous success and we hope that their story inspires many other twenty-somethings to start their own businesses. And should Mike want to offer us some free classes in Venice, California in exchange for all of our publicity for his company, we suppose well accept them as it looks cool!