Florida State University College of Business graduate Joshua Esnard, who invented a haircut and beard-grooming tool and then launched a successful business, will appear on ABC’s hit television show “Shark Tank” at 9 p.m. (EST), Sunday, Nov. 12.
Esnard invented The Cut Buddy when he was 13 years old and it went on to become a No. 1 best-seller on Amazon.com. He graduated from Florida State with a bachelor’s degree in finance in 2008.
“Joshua’s success as an entrepreneur illustrates the flexibility a finance degree from FSU affords graduates,” said Department of Finance chair William Christiansen. “The strong foundational skills and the language of business that students acquire through the finance program translates to myriad disciplines and sets the stage for the kind of innovative thinking Joshua has achieved.”
Esnard is also scheduled to speak at the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship’s annual 7 Under 30 program, which will recognize seven successful FSU alumni who started businesses before the age of 30. The event will be held at the Augustus B. Turnbull III Florida State Conference Center from 3-6 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 14.
Esnard’s fledgling business took off in 2016 after he patented the product and produced a video showing how to use it. The tutorial went viral. The video was viewed on Facebook more than 10 million times and generated 4,000 sales in less than an hour.
The Cut Buddy has since been featured in GQ, Forbes and Black Enterprise magazines, the Huffington Post and on NPR’s podcast, “How I Built This.”
As a contestant on “Shark Tank,” Esnard will pitch his company to a panel of “sharks” to see if one of them is willing to bite and invest in his company. The sharks in this episode are Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec.