Evanston resident Steve Gadlin didn’t pack away his high school hobby when he graduated from Niles North High School in 1994.
The 35-year-old revived his passion for drawing stick-figure cat cartoons over a year ago when he launched www.IWantToDrawACatForYou.com as a pet project. More than 1,400 cats later, Gadlin is slated to appear Jan. 27 on ABC’s Shark Tank, a show during which investors evaluate businesses pitched by entrepreneurs.
“I thought, ‘OK, well this will be a funny story and nothing will come of it,'” Gadlin said, referring to his July application to appear on Shark Tank. “Then I heard from the show’s casting department.”
In early September, ABC flew Gadlin to the reality TV show set in Los Angeles to film his pitch. He said he approached the “sharks” with financial figures, but they asked more about his comedic dance and rap featured in a video on his website.
“I just wanted to have a good time and confuse these ‘sharks,'” Gadlin said.
The judges on Shark Tank referred to a promotional video Gadlin made with colleague Erica Griffiths, co-owner of NVRVR production company in Boulder, Col.
“He told me his silly, crazy idea, and I was like ‘let’s make a video!'” Griffiths said. “It turned out really well.”
Gadlin also connected with Groupon, “pretending to be a very legitimate business,” he said. The next day, a sales representative expressed interest in Gadlin’s work.
He sold his typically-$10 cartoons for $3 on Groupon and charged $5 per drawing in two subsequent deals. One of the special offers generated 1,000 orders in three days, Gadlin said.
Morgan Morgan, a Portland, Oreg., resident, purchased two drawings, discovering the website after a friend ‘liked’ Gadlin’s Facebook page.
“It’s a very clever idea,” Morgan said. “My friends and I started buying them and sending them to each other.”
Though drawing cat cartoons constitutes several hours of Gadlin’s weeknights, he also is a web development manager for Weigel Broadcasting Co. in Chicago, hoping his projects will eventually become his main job.
Gadlin said he draws cats because they require basic illustration skills.
“I’m allergic to cats, and I really don’t like cats at all,” he said.
Most of Gadlin’s orders come from the Chicago area, but he said he also receives commissions from across the U.S., Australia, Japan and Europe.
The future of Gadlin’s cat cartoons depends on the reaction to his Shark Tank appearance, he said.
