This past Spring, we got to see Castle Rock moms, Danielle Stangler and Julia Rossi, pitch their idea and make a deal with Barbara Corcoran, a shark investor on the hit television show, Shark Tank. Well, our small town is once again about to be pushed into the national spotlight with the new television show, “West Texas Investors Club”. Similar in style to Shark Tank, the Investors Club’s motto is “ Invest in the person, not the business,” Tonight on CNBC, we will be able to watch if they make an investment in Castle Rock’s very own Desiree Shank.
Desiree’s pitch will be her very own business, Future College Fund. Inspired by Kickstarter’s success on crowd funding businesses and being overwhelmed by the amount of toys her daughter received for her 4th birthday, Desiree came up with the idea that allows people to crowd fund for their child’s college savings account.
“So I thought, what if people donated to my daughter’s college savings account instead of giving all of these gifts, or maybe even cut back on half of the gifts and maybe someone else would donate,” Strank said.
Having experience in web designed, Desiree designed a website for the next party she threw for her daughter explaining the crowd funding idea. The response was overwhelming and soon the requests for college savings crowd funding websites started rushing in. Knowing that creating free websites wouldn’t be sustainable, Desiree decided to start Future College Fund.
Tonight, the world will get to watch Desiree pitch her idea to the West Texas Investors, Mike “Rooster” McConaughey, Wayne “Butch Gilliam, and Gil Prather. These self-made multimillionaires will decide whether or not to invest in Shank’s idea. Although it was previously filmed, Shank said it was a great experience, but couldn’t go as far as to say whether or not she got a deal. Tune in tonight at 8PM on CNBC and support one of many local entrepreneurs, Desiree Shank and Future College Fund.
