ABC
Caroline Creidenberg is an entrepreneur who took her company Wedfuly to the sharks on “Shark Tank” to see if she could get one of the sharks to invest in her company during the November 5, 2021 episode of the hit ABC show.
The episode synopsis revealed, “First into the tank is an entrepreneur from Denver, Colorado, who presents her online planning service dedicated to creating an inclusive wedding experience while also helping guests save money, travel and stress.”
The entrepreneur pitched her company to OG sharks Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec and Daymond John.
Here’s what you need to know about Wedfuly on “Shark Tank:”
1. Caroline Creidenberg Was Inspired to Create Wedfuly After ‘Bro-Culture’ Work Environment
Caroline Creidenberg has a degree in Computer Science from the University of Denver. She was working at a company as a software engineer after graduating from college in 2017. In an interview with Heavy, she said, “I’m a bubbly person and I just didn’t vibe with the very bro culture of the company.”
She added that she started exploring industries that were not just more female-dominated, but we ripe for disruption. The wedding industry is one of the most female-dominated industries that Creidenberg could see was overdue for some technological updates.
She looked for a job at wedding tech companies but didn’t find anything disruptive or tech-forward. For her senior year capstone in college, she created an app for wedding planners – and realized they were expensive, antiquated and made the planning process stressful.
2. Wedfuly 1.0 Was a Wedding Planning App
Creidenberg launched Wedfuly 1.0 in 2017 as a wedding planning app based on her senior project in college. Having the resources to book a photographer, flowers, video and more from your phone was just the update the wedding industry needed.
Imagine not having to track down your wedding planner (or pay her for her time) for each and every detail surrounding your wedding. Wedfuly streamlined and simplified wedding planning.
All was going along well. She built a team. She booked weddings. And then the coronavirus pandemic shut public gatherings (and private gatherings as well) completely down.
3. The Pandemic Nearly Put Her Out of Business
Creidenburg’s company is completely bootstrapped. They ran the company with the money they made from the weddings planned through the app. And then COVID-19 nearly drove Wedfuly out of business. She needed to pivot quickly to save her business, she told Heavy.
She did one virtual wedding as a test and as a way to get a little press for her company. She collaborated with Zoom, which gave her enough to start to place pieces in Vogue, the New York Times and Brides, which wrote, “On Saturday, March 28, 2020, Wedfuly and Zoom pulled off their first virtual wedding—the bride walked down the aisle with a cardboard cut-out of her father before the bride’s father officiated the ceremony!—and plan on hosting many more in the weeks to come.”
She set up interactive activities for the wedding guests on Zoom, which gave her company a lot of positive word of mouth, Creidenberg revealed to Heavy. Demand took off nearly right away and she had to hire a lot of people. “It was rapid fire and intense. Because of the pandemic, lots of people had been laid off, so I was able to snap up the best people,” she said.
4. She Practiced Her Pitch Endlessly
In the weeks and days leading up her appearance on “Shark Tank,” Creidenberg became completely and understandably obsessive about practicing her pitch so many times each day so that it would be completely committed to memory, she told Heavy.
Creidenberg is a fan of “Shark Tank,” so she was aware of how the pitches are delivered. She didn’t want to mess up so she “literally recited my pitch 20 times a day before bed,” so that no matter how nervous she was, she would be able to say what she needed to say.
“As a viewer of ‘Shark Tank’ the thought of going on that carpet and pitching my company gives me hives,” she told Heavy.
5. No One at Wedfuly Remembers Applying for ‘Shark Tank’
Caroline Creidenberg said that her Wedfuly team has an inside joke about the “Shark Tank” application process. “No one at Wedfuly remembers applying for ‘Shark Tank.’ No one can find an email confirmation of it,” she shared with Heavy. “It’s a complete mystery.”
Nonetheless, it happened. She said, “Filming was the most exhausting and exhilarating experience of my life.” She went on to add that it was a whirlwind and she barely remembers the day except that she was eerily calm and just let the chaos unfold around her.
Overall though, Creidenberg said that the whole process was fun, the producers were super supportive, and in general, she and her Wedfuly team are fairly light-hearted and goofy. “I played up the whole wedding aspect,” she told Heavy. “I wore a white dress and a veil and made sure to put a lot of personality into my pitch.”
