A side hustle born from Covid-era boredom has generated more than $12.5 million in revenue for entrepreneurs David McGranaghan and Julian Miller, the duo said on Wednesday’s episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank.”
McGranaghan and Miller, a married couple based in Los Angeles, are the founders of party and board game business McMiller. They’re both former professional stage and film actors who, in 2020, decided to turn some of the party games they’d invented to liven up family holiday gatherings into a business, they said.
“The entertainment was always on our shoulders” at family Christmas parties, said Miller. The positive response from their respective families convinced them that “we must be onto something,” he noted.
The first game they launched in 2020, and their most popular one to date, is called It’s Bananas. Players pick up cardboard cutouts using long, curved plastic “monkey tails” that participants wear with a velcro strap around their waists. The game’s target audience is “multi-generational,” said McGranaghan, adding that it’s most popular at family holiday gatherings and bachelor and bachelorette parties.
DON’T MISS: The ultimate guide to starting a business—everything you need to know to be your own boss
