The Sharks seemed impressed by Lockwood’s claim of making $54,000 in net sales within the last 12 months and maintaining 100% ownership of her company. (According to the company website, she got to start her business after raising $14,000 through a crowdfunding campaign.) However, Mark Cuban couldn’t see Lion Latch as a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Lori Greiner believed the company’s manufacturing problem wasn’t impossible to solve, but she didn’t find it investible either. Barbara Corcoran expressed admiration for Lockwood’s tenacity yet ultimately thought her business was “too small.” Kevin O’Leary and guest Shark Emma Grede also weren’t interested, so Lockwood left the show with no investor.
Despite this setback, she was soon inundated with wholesale inquiries from other businesses. A 2020 feature on “Good Morning America” and winning the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Go Texan People’s Choice Award also increased visibility. The biggest boost, however, came from social media, with Lion Latch having nearly 409,000 followers and 25 million likes on TikTok. This has led more people to discover the brand’s practicality for storing jewelry and other small items.
Because of the positive reaction, the social media site asked Lion Latch to be one of its first TikTok shops this year, and it ended up shipping over 20,000 orders within its first three months. This success got Lockwood invited to be a part of the TikTok shops panel at the Cannes Lion Festival in France last June.
