EAST LAKEVIEW — If Andrea Sreshta could do it again, she would have tried a little harder to pit the sharks against one another.
After all, Sreshta and her business partner clearly had the upper hand while filming an episode of "Shark Tank" in June. In a rare feat for the reality television show, she and Anna Stork received offers from all five business investors for their creation: a solar-powered, inflatable lantern called LuminAID.
"In general, when you have people coming at you with offers, [it's good] to actually make them more competitive between each other, but we were totally overwhelmed by the situation at the time," Sreshta said of her "Shark Tank" experience. "I think the result might have been the same, to be honest, but you never know unless you try."
That piece of advice was one of many Sreshta shared Monday with middle school students at The Nettelhorst School. Sreshta lent her insight as an inventor to a group of eighth-grade students, who are themselves in the middle of creating a product through a collaboration with college students and professionals.
Sreshta said she was excited when her episode aired in February and stressed that the show faithfully stuck to the truth.
"As much Hollywood that goes on behind the show — the editing and the delay since filming and whatnot — at the end of the day, the negotiation and the offers, what happens after the show, it's all very real," Sreshta said.
She also gave the students suggestions on their pitch for their Jewel Tree, an easy-to-assemble jewelry stand. The students will raise money through a Kickstarter campaign launching next week so they can manufacture and market the invention.
"I was blown away. The product itself looks like something you would buy in a store, and their presentation was really on point," said Sreshta, who is also an MBA student at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
For several years, Nettelhorst students have worked with Science and Entrepreneurship Exchange, or SEE Chicago, to create a product and market it. Past eighth-grade classes have successfully campaigned on Kickstarter to raise more than $10,000 to produce Elephant Hooks and Smart Mail, a tabletop organizer.
"There's so many resources, even now online with e-commerce and crowd funding, where if you have a small project and you think it might be a good idea, you can really test it out," Sreshta said.
Both Chicagoans, Sreshta and Stork first developed their idea for LuminAID after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. They saw a need for rechargeable light sources for nongovernmental organizations helping victims with secondary needs after food and shelter.
After highly successful crowd-sourced fundraising, the pair sealed the deal on "Shark Tank" and partnered with Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who offered them $200,000 for a 15 percent stake in their company.
Since then, Sreshta and Stork have developed a brighter LuminAID light and a cube-shaped version, which is rolling out in April. Customers can also buy an original LuminAID for a slightly higher price and sponsor a light distributed to someone in need with the Give Light, Get Light package.
"It's been really exciting. I think the one thing we've been lucky with is the people who work with us are all awesome. Honestly, it's been more exciting and fun than anything," Sreshta said. "Challenging, but it a good way."
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