mountainFLOW Eco-Wax continues to grow support with “Shark Tank” appearance
Peter Arlein, founder and owner of Colorado-based mountainFLOW eco-wax, was incredulous at the email he was reading. A scout for the hit television show, “Shark Tank”, had seen him at the 2020 Outdoor Retailer at the Colorado Convention Center and wanted to know if he was interested in possibly being on the show.
Arlein almost deleted the email, but decided to take a chance. That decision proved fruitful, as Arlein was selected to appear on the show and secured $300,000 for a 20 percent interest in the company from investors Kevin O’Leary and Barbara Corcoran.
mountainFLOW, founded in 2016, makes one of the world's only plant-based ski and snowboard waxes. Nearly all other wax is made from petroleum, which is terrible for the environment and seeps into our water supply through the snowmelt.
This isn’t the first time mountainFLOW has garnered support. CoVenture, a business incubator located in Carbondale, Colorado and funded in part by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), was one of the first groups to invest in the success of mountainFLOW.
mountainFLOW works with CoVenture on many fronts -- they have their office and storage space at CoVenture’s downtown location. CoVenture also helped mountainFLOW to raise their first round of funding.
That funding came from 4 Points Funding, an investment firm focused on Opportunity Zones in Colorado's emerging communities and an angel syndicate, West Slope Angels, based out of Steamboat Springs.
Shawn Bertini, partner at 4 Points Funding, noted that mountainFLOW could not have launched at a better time. The International Ski Federation recently banned the use of fluorocarbons in ski racing and U.S. Ski & Snowboard has banned the use of fluorinated ski wax from all non-FIS sanctioned events in the United States.
“One of the things that really captured everyone’s attention was that mountainFLOW raised awareness to a problem that many of us didn’t know existed,” said Bertini. “It's a little known thing -- people don’t realize that the majority of wax is made using petroleum and the harm it causes to the environment and our water supply.”
mountainFLOW is now looking to expand its market through exporting. They are participating with the Global Business Development team and the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office at OEDIT in a virtual outdoor recreation trade mission to Germany taking place throughout the month of March.
“Europe is going to be a big push for us - it just makes sense because of their skiing heritage and focus on sustainability,” said Peter Arlein, founder of mountainFLOW Eco-Wax. “We have distributors in Scandinavia and France and are now looking to expand in Germany.”
Some big names have already gotten behind the mountainFLOW brand, including Colorado local alpine skier Chris Davenport and Norweigian Aleksander Kilde, the 2020 Alpine Ski World Cup champion.
In addition to ski and snowboard wax, mountainFLOW introduced in November 2020 a new line of plant-based plant-based bike products. Arlein states that they have already been as popular as their ski wax products.
As Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office Director Nathan Fey stated, “mountainFLOW's story is exactly the story of what it means to be part of the Colorado outdoor industry - we push ourselves in the outdoors and are inspired by ideas and solutions, which leads to innovation and amazing products to enjoy all that Colorado has to offer."
To learn more about how OEDIT can assist your business idea, visit our programs and funding directory.