Here's What Went Down With Frill Clothing After Shark Tank
Frill Clothing was born thanks to Kate Steadman and Sharon Bui's love for creating and designing clothes. The two were only in high school when they started to toy with the idea of one day starting their own business together, and that became a reality when both were in their junior year of college. The two started Frill Clothing as a side hustle alongside their studies, after finding a gap in the market for a business that designs sorority attire for other college students.
"Frill is the one-stop sorority shop. Sorority girls can come to us and buy anything they need for any day of sorority recruitment," Bui told Taming the High Cost of College. "We design each of these pieces specifically for each chapter to make sure they are the only chapter at that school wearing that outfit in that exact color," Steadman added. The two were inspired to create attire specifically for college rush weeks, so they decided their business would visit sororities and create custom items that fit everyone wearing it for bulk order. "We basically bootstrapped until year three. I couldn't ask my parents for money — they paid for half my education," Bui told Shark Tank Blog. But the two managed to make it work. Within three years, Frill had amassed a revenue of $400,000. But they knew they needed extra help to take the business to the next level and expand into bridal wear.
Frill Clothing got two Sharks on board
During a Season 6 episode of "Shark Tank," which aired in March 2015, Kate Steadman and Sharon Bui put Frill Clothing in front of Sharks Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner, and Robert Herjavec. The entrepreneurs explained how much success they'd seen with their sorority business so far, and shared how they were looking for $100,000 in exchange for 20% equity. They shared that they only have one direct competitor in the market, which piqued the Sharks' interest.
But despite impressive numbers and a lack of competition, the investment opportunity wasn't for everyone. Cuban made it clear early on that he wasn't going to invest — but Corcoran was certainly more intrigued. She made an offer for the entire amount of money they were looking for. But she wanted 33% of the company. O'Leary also went in with an offer, sharing he too was willing to give $100,000 for 33%. Herjavec also made an offer, which came after Grenier made it clear she wouldn't because she knew how interested Herjavec was. He then offered the duo the $100,000 they were looking for but only wanted 20% of the business.
But while Herjavec may have made the best offer financially, he didn't land a deal. Instead, Corcoran and O'Leary teamed up. Steadman and Bui made a counteroffer to the two, asking if they'd be happy to take 15% each, and the foursome shook hands on $100,000 for 30% of the company.
Shark Tank opened a number of doors for Frill Clothing
Kate Steadman opened up to Taming The High Cost of College about the success Frill saw after "Shark Tank," admitting the business had made big moves since appearing on the show. "The greatest way this impacted us is it opened a lot of doors to production opportunities," she explained. And a lot of those doors opened not only from their TV exposure but also from their work with Corcoran and O'Leary. "Working with both of them has been great. Kevin is so much nicer in person than he appears to be on TV. I think he's very kind and has a good heart, but don't get me wrong — he doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to business," Steadman told Shark Tang Blog. "Barbara is very real. She says what's on her mind and doesn't hold back. I enjoy working with her," Bui added. Bui also told Biz Journals she and Steadman spoke with the Sharks every other week. "The sharks are very involved in our long-term growth strategy," she said. "They are always there for us whenever we need them and ready to answer all of our questions."
The two also opened up about how handling their business has changed since the show. "Before we went on the show we had a PR firm. Now we have Sharks. The difficulties we had sourcing production in the early days are gone, now people come to us," Bui shared.
Frill Clothing is still in business today... without its founders
As of December 2023, Frill Clothing is still in business — but not with Kate Steadman and Sharon Bui at the helm. In a somewhat surprising move, in 2016, the two sold the company they founded together decades earlier. They sold the business to Suresh Iyer and Sudh Iyer, a husband and wife team. The two moved the headquarters when they acquired the business and had big ideas for what they wanted to achieve. "We had a vision, but ran into the pandemic so we put that on hold. We wanted to expand to other business areas across the globe," Suresh told Northwest Asian Weekly. He added, "The supply chain slowed down, which caused the slowdown of moving all raw materials as well."
But the company made it through that dark time, and even got more funding in 2022. The company received the Comcast RISE grant, which Suresh explained will help the business continue to move forward in the sorority wear field. "Things slowed down in the latter part of 2020 into 2021 because of COVID. We used to get a lot of orders, and this grant helps us to stock inventory and get back to the level we need to be at, and also refocus our energies with more marketing," he said.
Kate Steadman and Sharon Bui have moved on from Frill Clothing to new careers
After leaving Frill Clothing behind in 2016, Kate Steadman had quite the career change. Immediately after leaving the brand, according to her LinkedIn page, Steadman became a broker and buyer specialist for the Rachel Kendall Team for two years. After that, she had a big career change and became a real estate broker for Choice Residential Real Estate in 2019, a role she still holds today. She's also amassed a few thousand followers on Instagram, where she often shows off her outfits.
As for her former business partner, Sharon Bui (who now goes by Sharon Bui Crawford after marrying her husband, Turner Crawford) also appears to have undergone a career move. Though Bui doesn't appear to have been quite so public about her career now, she describes herself in her Instagram bio as a "woman in tech." She's also clearly still proud of her time with Frill and "Shark Tank," adding in her bio, "Shark Tank Season 6."