Chill Systems Before Shark Tank
Chill Systems is a company that manufactures a lightweight cooler that keeps drinks cool without the use of ice. This cooler is made up of recycled materials, as well as an insulated, freezing gel that’s inside of the cooler. Before this cooler can be used, it will need to be placed inside a freezer for 24 hours so that the freezing gel can have a chance to solidify. After that, place any beverages inside the cooler. This will keep anything from coffee, sports drinks, and water to wines, sodas, and spirits cold for up to six hours. The Chill Systems cooler, as well as the company’s new chilling bags, are priced at $49.95 on their website.
Chill Systems was founded in December of 2016 by Chase Mitchell, and his co-founder Brian Bloch. Chase had quite the work background before he started Chill Systems. He studied at the University of Southern California from 2010 to 2014, where he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. Throughout his college years, he worked as a sales representative for Vector Marketing. He also did an internship with bigMETHOD for three months. For the remainder of him college days, he started working for Google; he worked in many positions during this time, with his last position being as the account manager for Apple Inc. After starting Chill Systems in 2016, Chase left Google in 2018 and, two years later, became an apprentice in app development.
Brian Bloch is the co-founder and chief financial officer of Chill Systems. He also attended the University of Southern California from 2010 to 2014; however, he graduated with his Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. Brian also worked in a plethora of different jobs throughout his college years. For instance, he worked with an array of companies like Revolution Prep and Semester at Sea/ISE. He also had a few jobs with the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity and the University of Southern California for a few years. Brian also spent his time traveling the world from 2000 to 2018 before he joined the Chill Systems business in 2018. In 2021, Brian founded his own company called Elbay Endeavors, which, according to his LinkedIn, is still in business today.
Chase was the one who initially came up with the idea for the Chill Systems cooler. He got the idea for this cooler while he was still in college; while he was attending the Bluegrass Festival located in San Francisco, he noticed how many people were struggling to move their standard coolers around. Standard coolers tend to be bulky or too heavy once they’re loaded, making it difficult to lug them around. Chase understood this problem and became determined to create a more lightweight solution. Hence, the Chill Systems cooler.
When the founders launched Chill Systems in 2016, they came across many problems. One of the biggest problems being their need for funding. This led them to launch a Kickstarter campaign for the product. With this campaign, they raised $53,172 from 473 backers, and by 2018 they were ready to start selling and shipping the coolers. Now, Chase and Brian have started selling their coolers on Amazon, and they now donate about 3% of all their sales to water.org, a website that helps raise money in support of avoiding a global water crisis. Nonetheless, they still want sharks help in further expanding the Chill Systems business, as well as getting these coolers into retail.
Chill Systems on Shark Tank
Chase Mitchell and Brian Bloch enter the shark tank stage during episode 7 of season 12. They’re seeking funding of $150,000 in exchange for a 15% stake in their lightweight cooler business, Chill Systems. The founders begin their pitch by explaining the struggles of a standard cooler and how heavy they become when ice is added inside. They then tell the sharks about the Chill Systems cooler, and they give the investors a chance to check the cooler out.
The founders then start talking about their sales data thus far. They reveal that they did $111,000 in sales within the first two years of the business being launched. Nonetheless, a little over $53,000 of that amount came from their Kickstarter campaign in 2016. Furthermore, each cooler costs $37 to manufacture and they were being sold for $30 until the founders decreased the price to $18. At this point, the sharks are less impressed by the coolers, given that Chase and Brian are losing money rather than making money. Unfortunately for the founders, this led all the sharks to back out of this deal, and with that, Chase and Brian left the tank with no deal.
Chill Systems Now in 2024 – The After Shark Tank Update
Despite leaving the shark tank without a deal, Chill Systems did well for itself for some time after the show. In fact, Chase Mitchell and Brian Bloch, appearing on Shark Tank, did get their business a small increase in their sales; however, there were no specifics released regarding the number of sales completed. In addition to that, the business was noticed by multiple publications, and they were featured on NBC, Yahoo Sports, BuzzFeed, and many more online platforms. Now, while these updates seem pretty good for businesses growth, unfortunately, things did begin to go downhill for Chill Systems shortly after. As of February 2024, Chill Systems has officially gone out of business.
As of September of 2022, it appeared that Chill Systems had gone out of business entirely. The website is shutdown, and all their social media accounts have not been active since the middle of 2021. In addition to that, Chase and Brian’s personal LinkedIn accounts now show that the business has ended, and the founders have moved on to new business ventures. According to LinkedIn, Chase now works full-time for Coinbase as a partner success senior associate as of January 2022. Meanwhile, Brian has moved on to work with Apple as the manager of content operations & intelligence & finance as of September of 2022. He also continues to run his own business, Elbay Endeavors.