Who is Brandi Dugal?
Brandi Dugal is a career educator who turned a classroom problem into a fast-growing games company. She holds a master's degree in education with certifications as a reading specialist and ESL specialist, and she taught in Canada, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bahrain and the United States. Over those years she saw that many parents struggled to teach reading at home. She designed The Fidget Game, which pairs fidget toys with phonics and sight-word practice aligned with the science of reading, and sold it mainly on Amazon. Within 13 months she reported about $3.2 million in sales, with roughly 85% coming from Amazon.
On Shark Tank in Season 15 she asked for $500,000 for 10%. Barbara Corcoran offered $500,000 for 20%, and they settled at 15%. Since then the company has added math and time-telling games, reports use in more than 50,000 schools, and started a donation program for underserved schools. Dugal has described learning business terms from scratch as a teacher with no prior business experience, and she has developed products aimed at children with dyslexia.
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