When Ron, Taylor and Kobe Johnson took their Tailgate N Go portable kitchens on the road to different trade shows, they would regularly hear that they should try out for the reality show "Shark Tank. At the time, the Grand Junction family was just about to tape an episode of the popular ABC TV show and pitch their product to the five millionaire and billionaire business tycoons, in hopes of securing an investment. They're not allowed to divulge any of the results of their episode, so viewers will have to tune in to see what happened.
The family hasn't even seen their episode and said they are curious to see how their portion is edited.
When heading through the doors to meet the sharks, Taylor and Kobe both said it felt as if they were being pulled into the room. Kobe is the first deaf entrepreneur to ever appear on the program. Kobe uses sign language and the show provided an interpreter on set for when he spoke to the sharks. Taylor and Kobe are the official owners of Tailgate N Go and run most of the business. Ron, their father, also owns Riverbend Machinery in Grand Junction and came up with the idea for the product after a camping trip.
It was just over two years ago when Taylor was supposed to meet Kobe and Ron at a campsite and was responsible for bringing up the food. Ron said he was constantly looking for items such as a spatula and salt.
Meanwhile, their picnic table was overrun with bags. Ron and Taylor said they looked around and saw tables at neighboring campsites were in a similar state. Ron said that when he would camp or go on fishing trips with his father, they would have a "chuck box" that contained all sorts of items they would need for the trip and something they could quickly load and go. Basing his idea on that, he started making a prototype of a box that could hold all condiments, and any non-perishable gear for food on a camping trip or tailgate outing.
