Investors Barbara Corcorran and Robert Herjavec
HOT STUFF: Ryan Kelly, a fifth-grader, tries to convince investors to buy into his dog-treat business. (
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Big business isn’t just for grown-ups.
Producers of ABC’s “Shark Tank” are aggressively courting younger viewers — and clearing the way for more junior entrepreneurs to secure funding for their after-school businesses.
“I am hearing that there are going to be a lot more kids coming on the show next season,” investor Barbara Corcoran tells The Post.
“Shark Tank”— where inventors and small business owners pitch their products to millionaire investors — has become an unexpected hit among schoolkids, some too young to hold a paper route.
Each week, about 6 percent of its viewers are under 18, the networks says. That may not seem like much but in the Internet age, that’s more underage viewers than any other 9 p.m. show program on ABC except “Modern Family.”
“Even though the show deals in the business world, the sharks keep it pretty simple,” executive producer Clay Newbill says.
“The idea of running your own business and the freedom it may bring is not lost on children today.”
On tonight’s season finale, Connecticut fifth-grader Ryan Kelly attempts to find an investor for his home-based dog biscuit company.
“I’ve always had a thing for business,” Kelly tells The Post.
The 11-year-old founded Ryan’s Barkery in March 2012 and has already generated $900 in profit selling his all- natural confections door-to- door, at school and at monthly pet-adoption fairs.
Kelly says he is saving some of the money to pay for college and reinvesting the rest in his business.
“We need your partnership because I can’t do this and keep up with my homework,” he tells the panel of billionaire investors.
Kelly already employs his two brothers — Nick, 13, and Eric, 9 — to help with the packaging process.
“I always wanted to be a lawyer, but for right now, I want to stick to the barkery,” he says “That is what I do best. Bake dog treats.”