Yes, Red Dress Boutique got a deal on Shark Tank, but the deal that closed was much smaller than the one on screen. Diana Harbour, now Diana Best, founder of an Athens, Georgia clothing boutique that had become mostly an online store, pitched in Season 6 in an episode that aired in October 2014. She asked for $600,000 for 5% and shook hands with Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec at $1.2 million for 20%. After taping, the terms changed: Cuban invested alone, paying $600,000 for 15%, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. In January 2019, according to the company’s own Instagram announcement as recorded by Wikipedia, Best bought Cuban’s equity back. Red Dress is still in business in October 2026, still based in Athens, and owned by its founder.
The Red Dress Boutique Shark Tank deal at a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Aired | October 2014 (Season 6, Episode 5) |
| Pitched by | Diana Harbour (now Diana Best) |
| Ask | $600,000 for 5% (a $12 million valuation) |
| Deal on air | $1.2 million for 20% from Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec (a $6 million valuation) |
| Deal that closed | $600,000 for 15% from Cuban alone (a $4 million valuation), per AJC |
| Later | Founder bought back Cuban’s stake, January 2019; price not disclosed |
| Status, Oct. 2026 | Active, founder-owned |
The valuation fell twice: from the $12 million in the ask, to $6 million on air, to $4 million in the deal that closed. Our post-money valuation calculator shows each step.
From a college-town boutique to an online store
Wikipedia’s history, drawn largely from Georgia press, says Harbour founded the boutique in 2005 on Baxter Street in Athens after working in small clothing shops in college, and launched its e-commerce site on December 6, 2009. By the time of the episode, the AJC reported, online sales made up more than 90% of the business. Looper’s account puts revenue at $83,000 in 2010 and $7 million in 2013.
What happened in the Tank
Looper records the ask as $600,000 for 5%, and the offer Harbour accepted as $1.2 million for 20%, split evenly between Cuban and Herjavec. The AJC’s Matt Kempner reported on October 20, 2014 that the terms changed after the episode was taped the previous year: Cuban “ended up buying in alone, paying $600,000 for 15% of the company.” Looper says Herjavec did not follow through.
Did the Red Dress Boutique deal close?
Yes, but in a different form. The closed deal was half the money for three-quarters of the equity on screen. It is one of several deals in our sample that changed between the handshake and the money; see Shark Tank deals by the numbers.
What happened to Red Dress after Shark Tank
The episode moved product. Looper reports $1 million in sales in the six days after it aired, which it says normally took a month, and that traffic crashed the site. The AJC reported the company was on pace for at least $12 million in sales in 2014. Wikipedia’s sources put the year’s online sales at $14 million to $15 million; the article lists both numbers. Looper also describes a disagreement with Cuban over a planned $250,000 site redesign, which he thought would change the brand too much; the founders dropped it and Cuban’s team updated the existing site instead. Looper reports annual revenue later approached $30 million, a figure we could not trace to a primary source.
The buyback
On January 17, 2019, Best announced on the company’s Instagram account that she had bought back her equity from Cuban, according to Wikipedia, which cites an archived copy of the post. The price was not disclosed. A founder buying out a Shark is rare in the public record, and it means Red Dress is one of the few companies from the show whose founder owns it outright again.
Is Red Dress Boutique still in business?
Yes. The company’s website, which now lives at reddress.com, carries a 2026 copyright and new seasonal collections, and describes itself as “a women’s online boutique since 2005” run by “a small team in Athens, Georgia.” It does not mention Shark Tank. It sells its own clothing online, so there is no Amazon link.
What founders can take from it
First, the handshake on air is a starting point. Red Dress agreed to $1.2 million and received $600,000, and the investor list went from two Sharks to one. Second, a strong online business has options other Shark Tank companies don’t. With sales already in the millions, the founder could take less money, and later afford to buy the investor out. Third, if you can, negotiate the exit with the entry. Few founders think about how they would buy a Shark’s stake back; Best did it within five years. For another founder who kept control after the show, see Spikeball.
