Hello everyone. Today, I am about to receive the CEO of Shark Ninja, the company behind all the videos we've seen on the Air Fryer, an iconic product. When he arrived, the company was doing 250 million dollars. Today, it's 5 billion a year. Here he is.
Shark Ninja, the company behind one of the most famous kitchen products in the world, the Air Fryer. Present in 35 international markets with 37 product categories, Shark Ninja reached 5.5 billion dollars in revenue in 2024. At the head of this colossal success, a man, Mark Barrocas. Under his direction and since 2008, Shark Ninja has become a true reference in innovation, valued at over 11 billion dollars in 2024. Today, we spend 20 minutes with their CEO to understand his journey, his management style, his daily work, and the failures that led him to such success. What was your dream when you were a child?
My dream was to play baseball for the New York Yankees.
I can't say it was to create a home appliance company, but I grew up in New York and I was a huge baseball fan.
And at that time, were you already thinking about doing business, working, or was it just sports?
I've always been passionate about business. My father was self-employed. My grandfather was self-employed.
He was the first generation in his family to go to university to get a degree. He had his own business. He always instilled in me this desire to work for oneself and to build something. And that's something that marked me very early on.
And do you remember a piece of advice, a word, or a quote from your grandfather or your father that you heard as a child about achieving success?
You know, for my grandfather, it was really, nothing is easy in life and you have to work hard. So I never believed that success was something that happened overnight. I mean, over the years, I've met people who have achieved a lot of success in a very short time. But I always thought that for him, success was something that was earned year after year. By accumulating that over so many years, after 20, 30, 40 years, you would have something to show for it.
Is that the American dream? A little bit? Yes. Yes.
I mean, I never believed in getting rich quick. I believe you have to build something that lasts over time.
You graduated from the University of Michigan in 1993 and the same year, you started your own company. What exactly was it?
We made clothing for universities like the University of Michigan or other universities in the region. So it was a clothing company, influenced once again by my grandfather who also worked in this sector.
Not really. Not really. I had several entrepreneurial projects in my twenties, and many of them didn't have the success I would have hoped for.
And what does that time represent for you? What memories will stay with you forever?
What marked me was, first of all, the desire to try something, the realization that it is very difficult to succeed. I think that sometimes, especially nowadays, you look at Instagram or TikTok and you think everyone is succeeding.
I have a question about that, actually.
I learned from this experience that it is extremely difficult to succeed, and just because you want it doesn't mean there is necessarily a customer for you. It doesn't mean someone wants to buy our products or wants to buy them again. You have to, in a way, win the customer over. A large part of what I learned back then has influenced me today and influences how I manage my company. It's what you learn the most by running your own company.
You have to earn your place every day and you must never take it for granted. I think that when you are self-employed and you have a small business, you don't think about a financial plan for 5 or 10 years. You wonder how to pay the salaries this week or next week. And I think that when you evolve in that environment, you don't take it for granted that the future will be there. You have to earn the right to be present in the future and to stay in business.
After 6 years of being self-employed, you worked in three other companies before joining Shark Ninja in 2008. And what is the story of your journey and how did you end up at Shark Ninja?
I was 28 years old. My wife was pregnant with our first child. My last project hadn't succeeded. What was it? It was a clothing factory in Mexico. We were living in Mexico.
OK. So you continued in the sector.
