Amber Leong of Minneapolis won $750,000 on ABC’s Shark Tank Sunday. She was picked among thousands of applicants nationwide to compete against other entrepreneurs for investment from the show’s panel of “sharks.”
She called it a “once in a lifetime, out-of-body experience.” Leong, CEO and co-founder of Circadian Optics, spent months preparing to business pitch her idea to the sharks, and said it was a full-time job for three weeks.
“I have this opportunity to, and this platform to, tell my story and tell my mission of the company. So I did and I laid it all out there, and I did my best,” Leong said. “Last night after the episode aired, it was like the best night of my life.”
Leong grew up in Malaysia in a house without indoor plumbing. Her parents did everything they could to send her to the United States, and she settled in Minnesota 15 years ago.
Her company, Circadian Optics, was born in a dark corporate office in the middle of a long Minnesota winter. Contending with fatigue and difficulty concentrating, Leong bought a light therapy lamp, a huge, boxy device that she didn’t find to be very user-friendly.
She designed her own smaller, better-looking lamp and started Circadian Optics four years ago. Last year, she made $4 million in sales. This year, she’s projected to sell $5.6 million.
She hopes to use the money from the sharks for continued growth and innovation with her company.
“People talk about the importance of nutrition and exercise, special kind of diet, but people don’t talk about circadian rhythm, body clock, and light,” Leong said. “I truly believe that it is the third leg that holds the stool to be 100 percent healthy.”
