Shark Tank Deal: $200,000 for 20% of The Chair Blanket

Shark Robert Herjavec agreed to invest $200,000 for a 20% stake in The Chair Blanket, the waterproof, fleece-lined chair covering company run by founder and CEO Tiffany McCasland and her husband Chris McCasland. The ABC Shark Tank appearance paid off fast: sales rose roughly 300 percent versus the same period a year earlier, and the company struggled to keep inventory in stock.

McCasland, BC '02, never planned to be a founder. "I definitely wasn't that person, like creating my product or company in my dorm room," she told The Heights. As a communications major at Boston College, she pursued internships, studied abroad in Florence, and volunteered with 4Boston at an organization supporting people living with HIV.

Her route into business ran through employment first. After graduating, she worked in communications and marketing for a nonprofit in Virginia Beach, then moved on to the American Red Cross and a hospital system, building skills in public relations, website development, and social media. She later entered government consulting and launched her own consulting firm — a decision driven partly by a hard professional boundary: after the birth of her son, an employer told her she could not work remotely.

"I created an LLC, I started my own consultancy, I just and it grew," McCasland said.

What changed in 2020?

The pivot to products came when her husband lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with a neighbor, the couple launched City Bonfires, a portable bonfire company, with McCasland running branding, marketing, website content, and social media. As City Bonfires grew, an inventor approached them with product ideas — including what became The Chair Blanket.

"We took that idea, we came up with a prototype, we found a manufacturer, we manufactured it, we marketed it, we sold out in like three weeks," McCasland said.

What does this change for the company's operations? A lot. Unlike City Bonfires, which manufactures domestically, The Chair Blanket requires overseas production and months of planning. McCasland said forecasting inventory and managing manufacturing timelines rank among the company's hardest tasks. "There's always going to be copycats," she said. "And then the other is just staying ahead of demand."

How the Shark Tank deal happened

The Shark Tank opportunity grew out of an earlier connection: a casting director had expressed interest in City Bonfires. After The Chair Blanket launched, the couple reached back out and entered the show's extensive selection process.

"Being on Shark Tank is the entrepreneur dream, right? I mean, it's sort of like the Super Bowl for entrepreneurship," McCasland said. The televised pitch ran only a few minutes, but she and her husband spent nearly an hour with the investors — with no chance to restart or correct mistakes, unlike a standard business presentation.

Sarah Fox, BC '04, founder of Rip Tie Hair and a fellow entrepreneur on the same season, credited McCasland's execution. "An idea is kind of just an idea," Fox said. "So you have to both have an idea and also execute because execution is absolutely everything in business."

The demand surge and what's next

After the episode aired, McCasland described the deal as one of the most rewarding moments of her career — and the market responded immediately. "There's not much more that that's better to say than 'As Seen on Shark Tank,'" she said.

Carrie Bowman, content manager for The Chair Blanket and City Bonfires, pointed to McCasland's work style: "She really has like a go-after-it type of mindset, and she's just always trying to improve things." Bowman recalled McCasland spending evenings with her family before returning to work from roughly 9 p.m. until midnight.

The season also reunited McCasland with Fox, who first met her in 2000 through mutual friends at BC and reconnected roughly 25 years later during a virtual meeting for show participants. The two now trade business advice, contacts, and resources. "I think what makes Tiffany stand out is her kindness," Fox said. "She's just really helpful."

Looking ahead, McCasland plans to expand The Chair Blanket with new designs, seasonal products, and collegiate licensing. The company has already launched Louisiana State University and Penn State lines, and McCasland said she hopes to add Boston College — where she and her mother, a 1977 Connell School of Nursing graduate, will celebrate their 25th and 50th reunions in 2027. Her companies have also supported disaster relief organizations and breast cancer research.

"You can create the role that you want, the job that you want, the work that you want, the company that you want," McCasland said. For a founder holding 80 percent of a post-Shark Tank brand, that's no longer a slogan — it's a working business model.