344 | Building Community Buzz Before Pitching Investors | with John Clark

John Clark is the founder of Modern Shelving and Tandm Surf, two brands born from a simple idea: if he could sell it, his wife, an engineer, could build it. What started as a family-run shelving business evolved into a global Ecommerce company, while a day on the water with his daughter inspired an inflatable tandem surfboard that would later appear on Shark Tank.

John’s journey blends practicality with creativity. From solving everyday pain points with shelving to creating a patented surfboard that makes riding waves accessible to anyone, he’s built businesses that reflect both lifestyle and innovation. Along the way, he’s navigated the challenges of pitching on national TV, scaling niche products in the DTC market, and balancing multiple ventures without losing his entrepreneurial spark.

Whether you’re running a growing ecommerce brand or looking to turn family values into scalable business, John offers an honest look at what it takes to transform passion into products people love and companies that last.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

• [00:37] Intro
• [01:21] Launching new products to fuel business growth
• [03:14] Adopting Google Adwords to drive early sales
• [04:00] Turning family traditions into a business idea
• [05:39] Making surfing accessible to everyone
• [07:07] Sharing prototypes at the beach for feedback
• [08:00] Pitching novelty ideas that capture attention
• [09:28] Episode Sponsors: Electric Eye, Heatmap, Grow
• [12:40] Answering what really happens after the deal
• [14:29] Leveraging the Shark Tank bump for growth
• [17:56] Using events to build brand visibility
• [19:06] Finding the right partner for long-term success
• [19:40] Patenting inflatable boards for portability
• [20:45] Building community beyond physical products
• [23:01] Encouraging entrepreneurs to think globally

Resources:

• Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
• Versatile designs + unique storage solutions for any space modernshelving.com/ 
• Shark Tark approved Tandem bodyboards and pool saddles tandmsurf.com/ 
• Follow John Clark linkedin.com/in/johngclark 
• Schedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connect
• Clear, real-time data built for ecommerce optimization heatmap.com/honest 
• The Premier Conference for Ecommerce Operators joingrow.com 

If you’re enjoying the show, we’d love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

 

Transcript

John Clark

Do not underestimate the importance of finding the right partner in life and in business.  

Chase Clymer

Welcome to Honest Ecommerce, a podcast dedicated to cutting through the BS and finding actionable advice for online store owners. I'm your host, Chase Clymer. And I believe running a direct-to-consumer brand does not have to be complicated or a guessing game. 

On this podcast, we interview founders and experts who are putting in the work and creating  real results. 

I also share my own insights from running our top Shopify consultancy, Electric Eye. We cut the fluff in favor of facts to help you grow your Ecommerce business.

Let's get on with the show.

Chase Clymer

Hey everybody. Welcome to a live episode of Honest Ecommerce here in Dallas, Texas. This is the second time I've actually recorded it here at SubSummit. And these live episodes are way more fun. Because normally, it's me and a computer screen. But today, it's me and John Clark. He is the founder of Modern Shelving and Tandm Surf.

He is a product driven entrepreneur who has turned a family passion into a nationally recognized brand that's been featured on Shark Tank and is sold across the United States of America. John, welcome to the show. 

John Clark

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Last year, I got up on stage and pretended that I was on a podcast. But that has become a reality in 2025. Thanks to you.  

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. And it's funny, it's taken us this long. I've known you now for over two and half years, I believe. Now we're finally doing it and we're doing it live here. Again, shout out to SubSummit. It's amazing. And we'll be doing it again in Kansas City next year. They are not paying me to say that. I just really like this show. 

So anyways, let's get into it. John, I already mentioned that you are the founder of Modern Shelving and Tandm Surf. Let's go back in time. Talk to me about Modern Shelving and that business and then kind of like, where did Tandm Surf come from? 

John Clark

Well, that's a great question. I grew up as an entrepreneur selling ice cream in an ice cream truck and really knew that that was probably my going to be my journey actually I'd and that my wife in nineteen eighty nine on the beach in south of Boston when I sold her brother ice cream and I rollerbladed after her up to the ferry and said if you guys would give me a ride back I'll come with you and she said only if you give us all a free ice cream.

I did that first deal with my wife in 1989. We ended up getting married. She's actually an engineer. We always said, if I can sell it, she can make it. So back to after we got married a few years later, we ended up starting a business called Modern Shelving. Actually, back then it was  ISS Designs for Infinite Storage Solutions.  

And so now we've been  really providing the incredible  solution of  aluminum shelves to people for retail display for their homes. We have the shelvinator that we've launched  this year and we're going global. So Modern Shelving has really enabled our family to live a lifestyle of spending time together with our kids on the water, from stand-up paddling to riding the waves. And really is fortunate to be able to start a new company that we pitched our tank with Tandm Surf. 

Chase Clymer

That's amazing. And now, so just to try to paint a picture for the audience here and at home or wherever they're listening to this later on. Now, modern shelving is more of a traditional business in a sense, whereas Tandm Surf went kind of straight direct consumer? 

John Clark

Good question actually. We did start with modern shelving by going to people's homes and I would measure the space and then we would come up with a solution. But within that first year is when Google Adwords came out, we built a little website and we started shipping across the country. So within that first year of modern shelving, we actually became a D to C Ecommerce company. 

Chase Clymer

That's amazing. 

John Clark

Yeah, over 23 years ago. So we've been doing Ecom for a while.

Chase Clymer

And then where was the idea? What was going on? How did this idea for Tandm Surf pop into your brain? Well, I've got my wife and now three daughters. So we're bringing the three daughters up in Southern California. And my daughters did everything from the junior lifeguards. They became really strong swimmers. They ended up playing water polo.

On my birthday, around 2015 it was the first time that I wanted to share waves with my daughter on the same board. We had an oversized boogie board and that's when it kind of started. So it goes all the way back to 2015. And then in 2018 in a local event in San Clemente, so we're from San Clemente, California, a surf town, you may know of it. Has anybody here ever heard of San Clemente, California?

Okay, great. That's where they're actually going to be hosting the Olympics in 2028 in San Clemente. So we're truly in a surf town. And I'm from Boston. So imagine I'm a Boston guy who didn't grow up surfing, we didn't have waves there. And we're raising our kids in the surf town. I really couldn't catch on to the sport. I was a hockey player. It was really good at inline skating or rollerblading around. But when it came to catching waves and surfing, I just really couldn't fit in in the lineup.

But boogie boarding became my thing with my kids and riding the same wave with my daughters back in 2015 was really the beginning of this. And I saw the joy in sharing the waves with each of my daughters on that day. 

Chase Clymer

I think this would be a great time to kind of introduce the flagship product and talk about what that was. So the flagship product for Tandm Surf is a Tandm bodyboard. So inflatable, and it  actually is patented. Today I don't have that with me. I have some of our new iterations of  our brand. But we started with, if you can imagine, showing up at the beach with an inflatable bodyboard with handles. So one person on the front, one in the back, or side by side. And it allows pretty much anyone to become a surfer. Are there any surfers in the room here? Any surfers? All right, a couple, right?

Imagine if everyone could raise their arms up and say, I'm a surfer. That's what we have done. We have made it possible for anyone to become a surfer. I know technically people may say, well, you're not really a surfer if you're not standing up and catching the waves. You're not gnarly. You're not really hip and cool. Well, that's not true. If you're riding the waves, we believe you are surfing. If you are riding the waves with another person, with your mom, with your sister, with your spouse,  you've now become a surfer.

It’s no longer only available to the pros of the people that were fortunate to grow up in the surf town so that's what Tandm Surf is about we pitch Shark Tank the idea that anyone can catch a wave and it was so well received we ended up getting a deal on Shark Tank and with two sharks Daniel Lubetzky the founder of KIND bars and Robert Herjavec the well-known shark.

That's amazing. We're skipping a few steps here. Let's go back a little bit. You have this idea.  How long did it go from idea, which is I want to do I want to Tandm boogie board with my daughter to your first, you know, either rough version of the board or the prototype version of the board? 

John Clark

That's a good question. In 2015, we picked up an off the shelf oversized boogie board and used that for two people. And it wasn't until 2020  when we actually came out with our first prototype.  

Chase Clymer

Five years? 

John Clark

Five years. Yes. And that first prototype is what we took to take it to the beach. We would share it with other people. And there was so much excitement around that. We thought, well, let's pitch this idea to Shark Tank to see if we can maybe have that opportunity to even expand it beyond our own family and our own community.  

Chase Clymer

Yeah, you have to tell me about getting prepared for Shark Tank without a product. You had a prototype, you didn't have sales, you just had a dream.

John Clark

Yes, the dream, the American dream of inventing a product. So we were actually, because we lived in San Clemente, we were connected  through friendship to Tom Mori, the original inventor of the Boogie Board. He was at the time in his 70s and kind of a mentor. The first thing he said when I said, hey, Tom, I think  we have something here. We are going to bring the Tandm  Boogie Board to market. And Tom Mori said to me, stick with shells.

Yeah, he advised me against it. I see why because it's so obvious in the shelving business people really need it. It's a pain point in their life. They want to get organized and make a product for two people on one board. It's more of a challenge. So obviously I didn't take his advice. We did go on to launch the board. 

So Shark Tank is an enabler for many businesses and because they like the novelty of ideas, they like to give people opportunities like that. And one of the reasons I'm here at the SubSummit is to help other entrepreneurs take that spotlight, whether you go viral on TikTok or you have an opportunity on Shark Tank and how to translate that into a permanent customer so that you can not just sell a product one time on a whim when people buy, but that you have a long time relationship with your customer.

Chase Clymer

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I want to talk about the Shark Tank episodes and the bump and what it can do for your business and how it led to this product here in a minute. But I do want to highlight the community that you've built just within the Shark Tank ecosystem. Talk a bit about that. 

John Clark

Yeah. One of the best things that  people that have appeared on Shark Tank talk about  is the community that they become part of. That's the best part.

People always ask, what happens once you go on Shark Tank? Are they really helping out? Are you and your sharks getting together for your weekly updates on what you're working on, your to-do list and so forth? Well the reality is, even when you get a deal on Shark Tank, you have that opportunity. Your Shark Tank partners are already busy with their existing business.

It's really up to you as a Shark Tanker to figure it out. Figure out how to get more sales, how to leverage that. So I took that as the biggest opportunity of change in my life. As an entrepreneur with my wife and I running our modern shelving business, we kind of didn't have a close community or people that we could relate to  until we got on Shark Tank. And then all of sudden we realized this whole community, literally of thousands of people that have had that chance in the spotlight.

And so I've really taken ownership of that role in my life to be active in that. And actually, even yesterday after our panel about from Spotlight to subscription, another Shark Tanker came up and said, hey, by the way, we have the same partner. I'd love to talk to you about how I can work with Daniel. So it's amazing. All of a sudden, I've gone from being just an independent  entrepreneur living in a surf town to a global phenom. Can you imagine the pressure and the opportunity that I now get to live with? 

Chase Clymer

That's amazing. Now, obviously, everyone that  has been on Shark Tank or is thinking about it, there's this concept or idea of like the Shark Tank bump. So when your episode goes live, you get a bunch of traffic and hopefully a bunch of sales, right? And that happened with Tandm, but also some other fun things happened from it. 

John Clark

Yeah, so we were so excited. We formed a connection with our sharks, especially Daniel Betsky. He loved our family. He's a family guy. We actually closed our deal a couple of days before we actually aired. And so our goal, of course, when we aired is to leverage all that exposure.

But we still just had a limited supply of boards. So we really pretty much sold out. This was back in during 2021 when we aired. So our goal was to then continue to serve those customers that wanted to purchase and be part of our  movement of getting together in the water with their kids.  And then we looked at how we can build a brand  around this? So we did go on to launch additional products that built off that with sharing waves together, paddle boarding together,  and  actually filmed an update that aired on Shark Tank a second time. So that's even what Ari yesterday, who just got a deal with Daniel, was already talking about how he is going to get back on the show. 

So the key is you get on Shark Tank, you get a deal, and ultimately if you can get an update, then that's when you get another push of business. And for us, we did get the update. And I'll tell you what, that update didn't generate the sales that the first one did, but even better, a year after the Shark Tank update for Tandm surf where we told our story about how we got a deal and then we went to market the president of Margaritaville has anyone here heard of the brand Margaritaville Jimmy Buffett

Yeah, all right. Thank you. It's o'clock somewhere for him. Yes, an iconic brand. A multibillion dollar brand actually saw our update. Okay, Scott Cobol and went on our website, filled out a contact form that said, hey, we saw you're on Shark Tank and are really interested in having you guys take over the Margaritaville water sports products. That's kind of his accent. Scott.

And our family, so Margarita Villanueva and our family are now launching a whole line  of co-branded products that  not only include our iconic bodyboard for two people, but also a whole series of floats. So we've really even taken the opportunity for people to get together in the water to an even more basic skill level. So if you can actually just sit and chill, okay, or sit in a float.

Then we even have a water hammock. You can now become part of our community so it's pretty exciting to have an opportunity as a Shark Tank brand to now leverage that community  of  Margaritaville fans, people that are believers in that brand. And we are now selling through not only the 65 Margaritaville license locations, but also on their website throughout their community. 

So it's definitely something when you stick to it because it's been five years since getting on Shark Tank that we've had this huge opportunity. And we're actually talking to Big Box and making plans for 2027 and some well-known Big Box channels. 

Chase Clymer

That's amazing. Now, can you talk to me about obviously, you have this huge push from Shark Tank. But how else were you getting out there  and  getting customers that weren't friends and family? I think that's the hardest thing for most entrepreneurs to do when they're breaking a new business is finding their customers. 

John Clark

Yes, we really believe in the in-person opportunity and events. So we partnered with a lot of nonprofits that had the same philosophy. They reached out to us or we reached out to them. So if you go to website and some of the see some of those featured stories, there a lot of kids in urban environments are young people that are afraid of the water so we're able to utilize things like events and that's what we documented next up at my documentarian here, Jack Terpville to help us with our story telling which has been really key actually for both brands we learned so much from Shark Tank about building a new brand and have applied it to our OG brand modern shelving that together as a family, we're able to continue to live this American dream.  

Chase Clymer

That's a great transition into my next question, which is how do you balance running two businesses?  

John Clark

Well, fortunately, our businesses are very much related. It's surf and shelves. What? You're in the shelving business and in the surf business? I think the key for me was finding the right partner.

That day in 1989, when I sold an ice cream to my wife's brother and I had my skates on because I was an entrepreneur and roller bladed after her, that is what changed my life. Do not underestimate the importance of finding the right partner in life and in business. 

Chase Clymer

That's amazing. Now, the product, especially the flagship product, is pretty bulky. How did you navigate trying to sell this big thing online?

John Clark

Well, good question. Actually our first design of the Tandm bodyboard was made out of foam.  Thanks to our connection with Tom Mori,  we were able to get  the one person in the West Coast that could actually make a board that size because you can't even source the materials. So as we went through the process of pitching Shark Tank and the market viability, we looked at some other options and that's where we came up with the dynamic air design. So that's what we use to describe inflatable technology that we use for our drop stitch bodyboard that we actually pitched on Shark Tank.  

Chase Clymer

And then is that the technology that you then went on to patent? 

John Clark

Yes, we went on to patent both the design and the function of the board. It allows you to roll up the bodyboard and have it in a carry bag or a backpack. When you get to the beach, you just pump it up. And then you have the buoyancy, you have the soft sensation, but also the rigid  board that you need for riding waves together safely.

Chase Clymer

That's amazing. Now, John, is there anything I didn't ask you about that you think would resonate either with today's SubSummit audience or the listeners whenever this comes out in six to eight weeks? 

John Clark

Yes. A good question you could have asked is how do you  translate from that spotlight of Shark Tank into building a subscription business, John? We are here at the SubSummit. 

Chase Clymer

Thank you for telling me the question to ask. Now answer.

John Clark

All right. So last year when I came I kind of crashed the SubSummit. Okay, I did have a ticket, but I didn't have a subscription business. So you know how out of place you might feel just like in the lineup when I show up with my Tandm bodyboard from Tandm Surf and I don't have a surfboard. I've got to see how I fit in in this community. That's when it started last year  because of Shark Tank. I know of  a handful of very successful subscription based Shark Tank brands, but most of us do not have a subscription.

And I look at, just like I looked at the lack of families and  people that are not comfortable in the waves, being out there in the water as an opportunity, that's how I look at the subscription business. So what do I do in a case like that? Come up with a solution, right? That's the opportunity. So I'm here today to let you know that we have announced the first Tandm Surf subscription business model for our brand. And guess what we call it. Do you have any ideas? Can you guys check out this QR code?

Chase Clymer

I'm gonna guess it's called the Vibe Club, because I can read it. I don't know if they can.

John Clark

So we're calling it because we really are about good vibes and it is about a community and experiences, not just about a product. We're excited today to launch the Tandm Vibe Club, a global club that will allow you to become part of our community to have shared experiences, to have travel access, tips, all sorts of  benefits, including if there's something that happens to your board, you need a replacement. 

So we invite everyone here to join the Tandm Vibe Club. We're not just a product, we're about a whole community, a lifestyle, similar to what has happened with Margaritaville. But we hope it doesn't take us another 20 years to get to their level. 

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. Now, if I do want to check out the product, potentially join the Vibe Club, where do I go? What should I do? 

John Clark

Well, right now, obviously,  you can go to our website, Tandm surf, T-A-N-D-M-S-U-R-F.com. Okay, you could also go to Vibeclub.co and reach out to me here. We're actually planning on having a pool party tonight, so if anybody wants to do that, there will be a pool party in Dallas. And that's what's so exciting. No longer do we really need waves  to get started. We  have  about 100 of our new boards that we've brought to market, and we'd love to get you together. And one of the keys that we've done too, as a family, is we've always made content. Jack has literally traveled the world with me.

From meeting with our manufacturers last year in November to fine-tune what the new products would look like to actually taking them to the beaches And guess what guess what country went to after we manufactured our first products in China what country can you think of that's pretty close that would provide the waves and the life Experiences, can you guys think of anywhere that we could have gone? The country is the Philippines

Okay, so Jack and I went to the Philippines. If you look at our sizzle reel from last year,  what a magical place that is. So a shout out to our team in the Philippines that has also  allowed us to leverage that global resources to bring products to market. So I encourage everyone that's listening to this podcast to think global. We've even launched the Global Founder Forum at globalfounderforum.com to provide a resource of people and connections to help other entrepreneurs bring the products to market, both from product development as well as servicing that community. 

Chase Clymer

Awesome. John, I cannot thank you enough for coming on the podcast. Everyone that  is here in person, John is a super connector. He would love to meet each of you. He is a genuine person.  He would absolutely, after this, come talk to him. John, thank you so much for coming on the show.  

John Clark

Thanks for having me. Thanks everybody for being here. Welcome to the Tandm Vibe Club.

Chase Clymer

We can't thank our guests enough for coming on the show and sharing their knowledge and journey with us. We've got a lot to think about and potentially add into our own business. You can find all the links in the show notes. 

You can subscribe to the newsletter at https://honestecommerce.com/ to get each episode delivered right to your inbox. 

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Lastly, if you're a store owner looking for an amazing partner to help get your Shopify store to the next level, reach out to Electric Eye at electriceye.io/connect.

Until next time!