Nov 8, 2016 4 min read

Hilary Hahn did not get devoured on “Shark Tank.” In fact, she did swimmingly.

The former McMurray resident attracted a top-dollar investment from a high-profile investor on the popular ABC-TV show Friday night. Mark Cuban, owner of the National Basketball Association’s Dallas Mavericks, offered a deal for her business, The Style Club, that appealed to her.

“He was my target, the one I wanted to make a deal with,” Hahn, 30, said of an agreement that was, essentially, The Style Club meets the South Hills Club. Cuban is a Mt. Lebanon High School graduate.

Hahn was among the entrepreneurs who pitched a retail plan to a panel of business giants – the “sharks” – during the hourlong show Friday, which actually was filmed during the summer. Business owners strive to entice financial backing from a shark to help grow their endeavors.

She described The Style Club as a fashion brand that “caters to Gen X females – basically junior teens. We’re a young QVC for our generation.”

Her enterprise strives to produce items that are outside the mainstream, including suede baseball caps and bomber jackets with empowering messages. The collections are sold in Urban Outfitters and Nordstrom and at TheStyleClub.com.

Hahn launched the brand two years ago while living in Los Angeles, but moved the operation – and herself – to the Shadyside section of Pittsburgh this summer. “My mission is to grow this company here. And I’d like to launch musical acts from this.”

She has a payroll of seven, including brother Keith, co-founder and chief financial officer.

In an unusual twist, the tank featured all six sharks Friday. The panel normally is composed of five, with one not participating.

Hahn was the second entrepreneur to face the sharks, and requested $500,000 for a 20 percent interest in her business. She told them she had $400,000 in total sales over three or four months, three-fourths of that coming from the “Babe Hat,” and was on track to make $1.2 million for the year.

Four sharks – Kevin O’Leary, Robert Herjavec, Lori Greiner and Barbara Corcoran – opted out, although the two women liked the merchandise and said they would be customers. Daymond John made an offer: $500,000 for 33.3 percent ownership. Cuban offered the same amount, at 8 percent interest for 22 percent ownership.

Hahn opted for the latter.

“I was thinking parallel brand before network, with goals for network,” Hahn said. “I think Mark understands that better.”

So she chose Cuban. Moments later, she was whisked to the adjacent studio where she called her mother, Nancy, in Peters Township.

“I was in shock afterward,” Hilary said. “My mom told me to call if I had good news, so I called … and I started crying.”

Getting onto the air was a lengthy, laborious process for Hahn. She said it began in March or April when The Style Club was selected for filming. “But there was no guarantee we would go on the air.”

She and two of her models went to Los Angeles for filming during the summer. Again, no guarantees.

“They said we would find out if we were chosen two weeks before the air date,” Hahn said. Sure enough, months after her successful pitch, she got a call just recently.

Producers did not allow Hahn an advance screening, so Friday she was a first-time viewer along with the rest of America. “It was nerve-wracking, but I was pleased with the editing,” she said. “It went well.”

Appearing on a show of that magnitude may have been a somewhat unsettling experience, but Hahn is more camera-savvy than most “Shark” participants. She was a singer-dancer while growing up, managed by her mother for more than a decade. At different points, Hilary opened for Christina Aguilera and Destiny’s Child. She also appeared on Nancy’s UHF broadcast station, WNEU-TV, which served Washington County and the Pittsburgh area for 25 years.

Big cities don’t daunt Hilary, either. Home-schooled in McMurray, Hahn attended Columbia University, an Ivy League school in midtown Manhattan where she received a bachelor’s degree in film studies. Then she lived in Los Angeles for four years. Her father, Richard, is a physician in Washington.

Hahn said she and Cuban are already working together, and are off to a much better start than his NBA team.

“We have mandatory weekly updates,” she said. “We discuss where we are, and he is always available to give his expertise. He always emails back within five minutes. That’s probably why all his companies turn out to be pretty successful.”

Now she may be on that road as well.