Yes, Tipsy Elves got a deal on Shark Tank, and Robert Herjavec has called it his best one. Evan Mendelsohn, then a lawyer, and Nick Morton, then an endodontist, pitched their “ugly Christmas sweater” company in Season 5, in an episode that aired on December 13, 2013, and took $100,000 for 10% from Herjavec. The deal closed: Herjavec was still naming Tipsy Elves his favorite investment in 2021, and the founders have credited him with pushing them beyond Christmas. Thirteen years later Tipsy Elves is still in business, still based in San Diego and still privately held. It now sells Halloween costumes, ski suits and golf shirts alongside the sweaters, and its founders put lifetime sales somewhere above $100 million.
The Tipsy Elves Shark Tank deal at a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Episode | Season 5 (aired Dec. 13, 2013) |
| Pitched by | Evan Mendelsohn and Nick Morton |
| Sales before the show | $862,000 in 2012, per the founders on CNBC |
| Deal | $100,000 for 10% from Robert Herjavec (a $1 million valuation) |
| Did it close? | Yes |
| Week after the episode | $750,000 in sales, per the founders |
| Status, Oct. 2026 | Active, selling year-round holiday apparel |
$100,000 for 10% values a company at $1 million, a little more than one year’s sales at the time. Our post-money valuation calculator runs that sum for any ask. By any of the later sales figures, it was one of the cheapest stakes a Shark ever bought.
A lawyer and a dentist with a side business
Mendelsohn and Morton, two friends from San Diego, started the business on the side. Entrepreneur reported in 2015 that they noticed in 2010 how popular tacky-sweater parties had become, especially with millennials, and built a website selling sweaters with “purposely tacky — and sometime obscene — designs.” Mendelsohn was working as a lawyer and Morton as an endodontist. By the end of 2011 they had sold and shipped 6,000 sweaters, the magazine reported. The Hustle adds that the first run of 5,000 sold out in about a week and a half.
What happened in the Tank
The Tipsy Elves Shark Tank segment aired in December, in the middle of the only season the product sold in. Reality Blurred, summarizing the founders’ later CNBC interview, records 2012 sales of $862,000, a cost of $11.40 to make a sweater that sold for $65, and the deal: $100,000 for 10% from Herjavec. “When we first came on, we had just done a little under a million in sales,” Mendelsohn later told TV Insider, as quoted by Looper.
Did the Tipsy Elves deal close?
Yes. It is one of the best-documented Shark relationships. Herjavec told CNBC it was “his best deal on the show,” according to Reality Blurred, and in 2021 he named Tipsy Elves his favorite investment from the show in an interview with The Motley Fool, as Looper reports. Morton described him to Authority Magazine as “an awesome human being and a very shrewd businessman.” The Hustle reports that the founders described the $100,000 as the first and last outside funding they would take.
What happened to Tipsy Elves after Shark Tank
The sales jump was immediate. The founders said they sold $750,000 in the week after the episode, according to Reality Blurred. Here is how the reported numbers stack up over time:
| Year | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 6,000 sweaters shipped | Entrepreneur |
| 2012 | $862,000 in sales | Founders on CNBC, via Reality Blurred |
| 2013 | About $3 million in sales | The Hustle; Business Insider via Entrepreneur |
| 2014 | $8 million projected | Founders on a Shark Tank update, via Reality Blurred |
| 2015 | About $10 million expected; 20 full-time staff | Entrepreneur |
| 2019 | “Over $100 million in retail sales” since the show | Mendelsohn to TV Insider, via Looper |
| By 2024 | $125 million in lifetime sales | The Hustle |
The 2019 and 2024 figures are cumulative, and both come from the company. The first is explicitly retail sales. Neither is audited.
The bigger story in that table is the product mix. A sweater company that sells for one month a year has one shot at its revenue, and one bad December can sink it. Entrepreneur reported by 2015 that Tipsy Elves had added T-shirts, accessories, licensed college designs and themes for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and Independence Day. Morton credited Herjavec with that push: “He was instrumental in giving us the confidence to expand beyond Christmas apparel,” he told Authority Magazine. By 2024, Mendelsohn told The Hustle, sweaters were “about a 1/3 of our total Christmas sales.”
Is Tipsy Elves still in business?
Yes. In October 2026 the company’s website is selling Halloween costumes at markdown, ski and snow suits, golf polos, Hawaiian shirts, Hanukkah and Americana designs and, of course, ugly Christmas sweaters, with “New 2026 Arrivals” and a claim of “over 3 million happy customers.” Tipsy Elves is privately held by its founders, with Herjavec as an investor; the size of his stake today is not public. We could not verify an official Amazon storefront, so there is no Amazon link here.
What founders can take from it
First, a seasonal product needs a second season. The company that sold sweaters in December became a holiday-apparel company that sells all year, and that is why the later numbers are possible. Second, the cheapest growth capital is the kind that brings attention. $100,000 was a small check, but the episode itself delivered $750,000 in a week. Third, keep the day job until the numbers say otherwise. Both founders worked full time while the side business grew, and only quit once it could pay them. For another Shark-backed brand that broadened its range after the show, see Squatty Potty.
