Founder's Story
Want to Be on Shark Tank? This is How You Win Even Without a Deal | Ep 220 with Dr. Arjen de Jong Founder of AirTulip
Mon, 12 May 2025
Dr. Arjen de Jong, an aerospace engineer and founder of AirTulip, joins Founder’s Story to share how clean-room tech, fluid mechanics, and a little smoke visualization led to a Shark Tank pitch—and a consumer sleep product unlike anything else on the market.From clean air in dentist offices to hydrogen water-style traction for your bedroom, Arjen walks us through how laminar airflow can drastically improve health, reduce allergies, and even reinvent how we think about air.Key Discussion PointsClean Room to Clean Sleep: How a cigarette in a laminar flow booth sparked the product ideaPivoting Post-COVID: Why dentistry was the real product-market fit before sleepShark Tank Secrets: The casting line, the 30-minute pitch, and walking away from an offerVisualizing Air: How lasers and wind tunnels helped explain an invisible productConsumer Trust vs. Engineering Genius: Why educating the market is the hardest partScaling a Physical Product: The difference between B2B machinery and consumer DTCLong-Term Vision: From side hustle to orbiting planet—Arjen’s exponential success roadmapKey TakeawaysThink Laterally: The best innovations come from cross-industry application of existing techEducate First, Sell Second: Customers need to believe the invisible before buyingPersonal Experience Sells: Real stories of health improvement drive conversionCommunity = Credibility: DTC success hinges on trust, repetition, and consistencyDon’t Just Launch—Prepare for the Surge: Shark Tank is a spotlight, not the finish lineClosing ThoughtsAirTulip isn’t just another sleep gadget—it’s a physics-first approach to rethinking how we breathe. Dr. Arjen de Jong’s journey proves that the smartest solutions aren’t always the loudest. Tune in to learn how engineering curiosity, strategic pivots, and real-world validation turned laminar airflow into a movement.Our Sponsors:* Check out Indeed: https://indeed.com/FOUNDERSSTORY* Check out Northwest Registered Agent and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: https://northwestregisteredagent.com* Check out Plus500: https://plus500.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com
Chapter 1: Who is Dr. Arjen de Jong and what inspired his entrepreneurial journey?
uh aryan is the founder of air tulip a company reinventing sleep by using laminar and airflow technology to create a purified breathing zone at night which was just on shark tank yep which is like every entrepreneur's dream go on shark tank and then maybe one day exit your company but aryan what was the spark for entrepreneurship for you and why this industry Great.
Yeah, thanks. I actually grew up in an entrepreneurial family. My dad had his own factories making cane rooms. So I grew up already like being like three, four, five year old being around the factory. My tree house was actually blocks of styrofoam that I could like stack up in the corner in the storage space. So it was really fun.
But with that came like this feeling like, hey, you can always do something in a different industry. And sometimes people think you need a large team to do something. The smallest team can make the largest impact as long as you come with something unique from a different angle. So I started with that. I've studied aerospace engineering and specialized in fluid mechanics and all that.
But what that does is you can be agnostic to industry. You can... improve something by taking something from another industry. And I've done that many times. I was like having some wind tunnel devices with lasers and I used that to improve a semiconductor machine for like a big manufacturer. So I was like, everybody was like, oh, you can't measure this thing. I was like, sure you can.
Here, back off the envelope. One, two. Yeah, that works. You know, just need a big laser. Like this one. And that way, crossbreeding is, I think, where you can get a lot of entrepreneurship. So that sparked for me, like, I love to unstick things when they're like, when somebody says, oh, you can't do this or it's so difficult. Anybody is always able to say something like how it can't be done.
Many people can say, like, it doesn't work because of X, Y, Z, and et cetera. But it's like asking the question, like, well, how can it be done? Or what is the alternate? And then there's less people that are like, well, that can't be done. But if we, let's think. So try to get to that corner because it's, you know, you see that with professors and with academia. I love academia.
I got my PhD as well. But it's too easy to just, you know, burn down an idea instead of giving an opposite. So think of that. How do you flip this around? And that's for me this part. That creates stuff.
I love that story. I am also a creative person who wants to invent something, but I have six failed inventions. When you look at the massive amount of problems that we could be solving in life... How do you hone in and say, this is the problem that I want to solve?
Right. Well, for me, it came back to like what I can do to help others. So with the semiconductors, like unsticking something to enabling a lot for the people that I was already working with. But this thing, it was something else. It was... And this comes back to COVID. We couldn't be indoors just around the pandemic because you'd spread COVID much stronger indoors.
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Chapter 2: How did the COVID-19 pandemic influence AirTulip's product development?
They look like extra large tulips. So hence the name. And yeah, we started placing them in bars and restaurants in New York City. I was just hauling them around. I lived in the West. I'm still living in the West Village. And, you know, just try and see where we can be. And that was like the spark, like, hey, can we help, you know, solve the pandemic? Like I know about flow.
Let's do something and not, you know, only think about it, but do it. So we build it and we started doing it.
Timing is everything, right? It's you combined all of your experiences, your educational knowledge, the experience you had working for within a certain company, doing a certain task. And now you've created this thing. You said that you went from bar to bar. You were just going there. How did you get your first 20, 30 clients?
So that was actually, and this is the whole product market fit thing, right? You start learning a lot about the non-technical stuff. So a lot of the restaurants, it would help them, but how do I explain to them that this would help versus, you know, an air purifier or, you know, just closing or wearing masks? So that was the biggest challenge. Like, wait, how do I, in a short time, right?
Because the pandemic was running and running, we went to like restaurants and bars and some people were like, okay, cool, I'll try it and then do it and we'll measure it. But it was hard to get like real traction. And so the Eureka moment came when we started switching clients. We started thinking about, oh, and not only bars and restaurants, where do people need to be?
Dentistries, dentist office. You had to go to the dentist. And the dentists are actually technical people. They work with their hands. They are very educated. And they also work with their mouth open. They already have the problem that all this kind of, you know, saliva is always spitting up. So they are very aware of all the problems there were.
So started to talk to dentists and they're like, yeah, for sure. I get that. Let's place it here and here and here. And so that's where you got like a fit. Like the product started fitting the market, even though I knew it would help the restaurants and the bars at that point, I could do one and two and three. but dentistry was a niche that started to come in.
And I was like, okay, let me just do that and then come back to the rest, you know, and then, you know, gain your traction there and then work to the other niches. So that was really finding your, and again, it's the classic thing that you read in the book, but it's more about the people thing.
I'm, you know, I can be as smart as I can do with the smartest equipment and the best thing, but you need to convince people. And how do you talk the talk for the people and what's in it for them? So dentist at that point.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Arjen face in finding the right market for AirTulip?
And that really helps. Of course, for TV, you have a certain pitch. And one thing that people might not know about is, first of all, there's no redos. So you come in, you do your thing, you do your pitch, and then there's a Q&A. It's about 20, 30 minutes. No redos. And also, they don't know about you beforehand, which is by design. They're like, I don't know what this is. Let's see it.
So it is genuinely this clean, new pitch. Nothing is set up like, oh, they already know. Nope. But that means it's a pressure cooker. And so you go through a couple of cycles with the directors, submit another video, make sure that everything's good. You then go to the next round. So just like a couple of rounds before you get actually to the shooting and the show.
And then in the show, they say like they overshoot. So it's not guaranteed you get to air. It really depends. But yeah, you do your best and you work with it. And the directors love the whole airflow visualization. Again, that's the lasers from the wind tunnel with the smoke stuff. But now I'm using it to show people how this works. That's my biggest challenge as well.
Like, how do I show what air does if air is transparent? Nobody knows that. Like, unless you're, you know, aerodynamic scientist. So yeah, super exciting. And then a couple of weeks before...
How was the experience like the doors open up and then now you have to go out? Yep. How was that experience for you? Because I would think I would be very, very nervous whether you're, you know, obviously you can't see everyone watching you at home and it's recorded. But knowing that you only get one shot. They're right there. You see how they are on TV.
Obviously, you're getting some insights internally of what some help from people within the organization. But what's going through your mind? And then how was the exact experience when you walked out there and you started?
Yeah, of course you're like super, you know, what do you say? Like it's like, it's super exciting, but it's also like, you can be a little anxious. I was like having this like dry mouth and stuff like, all right, let's do it. At a certain point, you need to just like, all right, that's it. It's not going to be perfect, but never is.
You've prepped your speech to that level and then you just need to go. So you walk through that corridor. There's a spot on the floor where you need to stand for the cameras and stuff to make sure. And then it's just one, two, three, and go. What I noticed is, and this really depends on the persona to the persona. Some people have more difficult with it. I love to improvise.
I'm like, okay, let's go. And I'm actually more anxious beforehand. But the moment I'm on the stage, I'm like, all right, let's do it. I did a lot of like, you know, theater and improv and stuff before. And I kind of, I get my energy from it. Like, okay, I'm here. I'm making the most out of what I have energy-wise.
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Chapter 4: What was the process for getting on Shark Tank and pitching AirTulip?
But after a couple of episodes, like eight, nine, 10, you're like, okay, that's cool. But when are we going to be airing? Like what's going on? So it was a huge sigh of relief. And I actually saw that, oh, we're going to be airing an episode 16 and, you know, season 16, episode 16. It was super. And then from there on, it was also scrambling together with the team we have.
Like, how do you prepare for that? How would you prepare for, you know, traffic on the website? What are we saying? Marketing? Like, it's all hands on deck. So it's not only you go Shark Tank and that's it and you make the money and yay. No, it's about... It's also about showcasing to the world what you're doing and why you're doing it. And that's also a big part of it.
Like for me, it was showcasing that we can actually manipulate air and create a local bubble in the open. People might not think that's possible. So that was also a big part for me to do it. And then I want to piggyback on that to kind of, you know, to help people. Because, you know, we had a lot of people with asthma, with allergies that had a huge benefit.
But how do I reach the people and convince them like this actually is working? How do I work with that? And that's something different from engineering. And that's, I think, the biggest challenge for especially a technical founder. I can make the most beautiful device in the world.
Nobody would, you know, give a damn about it because you need to convince somebody that it would help them or what it is. So that's the biggest mismatch. And that's, yeah, that's the challenge. And that's post Shark Tank really what, you know, I personally focused on.
I feel like when there's any educational sale, it just adds to a little bit more complexities. This product sounds incredible. I've never seen or heard of a similar product out there in the marketplace, but most of us will probably need something. My wife and I always suffer from allergies and other things. Being in the city, there's smog and pollutants, all the things that you already know about.
Yep. How did you or how are you finding now people are responding to the education that you're putting out there and just the product in general?
You know, what also helps me, even if people don't go for the project, for the product that I have, I already notice that people are grateful. Hey, I didn't know that this was the case. And now I look at the air quality or I close the windows or whatever. wash the curtains and it's really helping me. And that's already something that that's for me a win.
You know, like I'm helping people with transferring some knowledge about what is there in the air. So yeah, that's the first. And the second thing is it's a continuous journey. And as we're growing and as we're showcasing more, there's also a buildup of trust. And this is also how it goes for any entrepreneur.
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Chapter 5: How did Dr. Arjen de Jong prepare for and experience the Shark Tank pitch?
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that is actually helping the business therefore helping more people so it feels very double by being a little bit more reserved or think a different way about who you're going to work with but it will help in the end the calls you're you're really focusing on it's a continuing journey i must say and and i think that's my biggest challenge there we go
You're able to say that this is an ongoing thing. Some people are like, oh, I saw this problem. I moved on. But what you're saying is this is an ongoing thing. And I think most of us, that's what we're really dealing with in business is it's something ongoing. And it's not probably already solved. But I think not a lot of people are willing to admit to that. But I appreciate that.
I am totally with you on board. And I've gone through the same thing. I've had to relook at how I trust people or how I get excited to work with people. It's not just because of their personality, because of who they are, how much fun we have. I am very interested about success, though. So you mentioned success just now. What will success look like?
Or at what point are you like, okay, I am satisfied with the success that I've had. I'm going to move on to something else.
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Chapter 6: What happened after the Shark Tank appearance and did Arjen accept the offer?
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