Hinsdale Man Jumps in 'Shark Tank' to Pitch Rental Business

A Hinsdale man has thrown his company to the sharks, and all that’s left to do is wait and see if it’ll sink or swim.

Drew Mitchell pitched his business, Rent Like a Champion, in June for ABC “Shark Tank” season seven, episode six, but the results remain a mystery until the episode airs Friday.

• Watch Drew Mitchell of Hinsdale and Rent Like a Champion on Shark Tank at 8 p.m. Oct. 30 on ABC.

Rent Like a Champion is a vacation rental service, similar to Airbnb but centered around events instead of destinations. Mitchell said it works best in places where throngs of people converge on a town that doesn’t have enough hotel infrastructure, such as a college town during a football game. Rent Like a Champion has a presence at 21 schools around the country.

Mitchell, one of the founders, and Mike Doyle, CEO, ask the sharks for $200,000 for 10 percent of the business, which would value the company at $2 million. But Mitchell is keeping a tight lid on the result until after his TV debut.

He said the ask was carefully calculated to help the business enter 20 more schools quickly, getting more home rentals up and running in the markets where the company would make sense.

With $2.5 million in rentals in 2014, they’re on track to do $4 million in rental proceeds in 2015.

“Worst case scenario, you go out there and you make a fool of yourself and embarrass your company, which could be a failure for the business,” Mitchell said. “Best case is you get exactly what you ask for or better with the shark you’re looking for. Each shark has pros and cons. Certain ones were more attractive to us in how they could help our business.”

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Rent Like a Champion incubated in 2006 near the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana — a place where 120,000 people can descend around a football stadium that holds fewer than 90,000 people.

Mitchell and his friends bought houses in South Bend and listed them for rent on Craigslist and eBay during sporting events. A professor who heard what they were doing asked for help renting his home during football games. A website was made and the business had a new model.

Rent Like a Champion is now located in Catapult Chicago, a tech incubator. Mitchell has a full time job in real estate development, and he owns about 20 percent of Rent Like a Champion.

The company is focusing almost entirely on college football destinations, but Mitchell said their expansion opportunities lie beyond, possibly with Nascar, PGA, political conventions, Burning Man, South by Southwest and the like.

Mitchell hopes “Shark Tank” will help them get there. He said he was an avid viewer of the show until he knew there was a good chance Rent Like a Champion would be on it.

“We human beings are sensitive, and we can be fragile, and I didn’t want to fill my head with people going on the show and not getting a deal, or having a panic attack,” he said. “I felt it was more useful to use my time trying to get as inside our business as I could, so I could tell our story as best as I could.”

He said he and Doyle went into the pitch meeting with tons of energy, positivity and information for the probing sharks.

“I was pumped up and really excited to be there,” he said. “I got energized, I went in and I was able to have fun with this and not take it too seriously. This was one of the most memorable and one of the most fun things I’ve ever done in my life.”

Photo courtesy of ABC/Adam Rose