Long Island entrepreneurs launch startup on ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’

OLD WESTBURY, NY — The founders of a Long Island startup will get their shot during Friday’s season finale of “Shark Tank.”

The Players Chest, an online marketplace where varsity athletes can sell their gear and merchandise, was founded in 2020 by three former varsity team student leaders and two former athletes. It still operates out of the Old Westbury home of the parents of Hunter, 24, and his co-founder and brother, Austin Pomerantz, 22, according to Newsday.

The Pomerantz brothers will pitch their business idea to investors (otherwise known as “Sharks”) with co-founders Jason Lansing, 23, of Chicago, and Charles Matthews, 25, a former University of Michigan basketball player who makes now part of the NBA. G League.

“We’ve tried to prepare…but nothing prepares you right now,” Hunter told Newsday. “When those double doors opened…it was a surreal experience.”

On ABC’s hit TV show, inventors of new products or services try to convince a panel to invest in their idea. The Sharks are multimillionaire and billionaire tycoons who give budding entrepreneurs the chance to pursue the American Dream and potentially land business deals that could make them rich, according to the show’s biography.