Trina Barkouras of Newport Beach, California is the entrepreneur behind Hoppy Paws, a line of holiday-themed stamping kits. Years ago, when Trina left white reindeer tracks outside her house for her children to discover on Christmas morning (remember, they live in California), her neighbors asked where they could buy such a print set. And a business was born. She went on to make several different stamping sets including Easter Bunny paw prints. Barkouras pitched Hoppy Paws on Shark Tank in 2014. She was looking for $50,000 in exchange for 10 percent equity. Investor Barbara Corcoran (who had a similar Santa boot track tradition in her family) offered Barkouras $200,000 for 50 percent equity and it was accepted.
After Shark Tank, Trina was able to move the production side of Hoppy Paws from her garage to a production facility, and she designed a Santa’s Boot print set. Although on Shark Tank Corcoran said Barkouras should cut down on the number of SKUs, Hoppy Paws has since released a new stamping kit for St. Patrick’s Day — the Leprechaun shoe decal pack goes for $4.99.
[Related: 27 Favorite ‘Shark Tank’ Products at Amazon — New List]
