{"id":558,"date":"2023-04-03T18:25:36","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T18:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/?p=558"},"modified":"2024-03-05T15:48:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T15:48:59","slug":"sandcastle-kit-creates-a-kingdom-for-wcsu-alumnus-kevin-lane-after-shark-tank-appearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/2023\/04\/03\/sandcastle-kit-creates-a-kingdom-for-wcsu-alumnus-kevin-lane-after-shark-tank-appearance\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandcastle kit creates a kingdom for WCSU alumnus Kevin Lane after \u2018Shark Tank\u2019 appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"WCSU

WCSU alumnus Kevin Lane, founder of Create a Castle and \u201cShark Tank\u201d winner, shows off his WCSU Wolves pride while displaying some of his products.<\/p><\/div>\n

DANBURY, CONN. \u2014 Imagine that your desire to build sandcastles with your children leads to an appearance on ABC\u2019s \u201cShark Tank\u201d and results in a significant buy-in from Guest Shark Kendra Scott. That\u2019s exactly what happened to Kevin Lane, a 1998 Bachelor of Arts in\u00a0Graphic Design<\/a>\u00a0graduate of\u00a0Western Connecticut State University<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lane, who grew up in Danbury, was an avid skier and initially enrolled at Green Mountain College in Vermont. Too much time on the slopes was costly in terms of both tuition money and loss of focus on his studies, so after a year Lane transferred to WCSU. \u201cI started off studying Fine Arts in Vermont,\u201d Lane explained. \u201cFine arts is a tough journey, and when I transferred to WCSU, I majored in Graphic Arts, which provides more opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even before he graduated, opportunities presented themselves. As an art major, Lane\u2019s work was revealed to the community at the Senior Portfolio Exhibition, an annual event that showcases the creativity of graduating seniors. Matthew Kornhaas, who had graduated from WCSU in 1990 with a Graphic Arts degree, saw Lane\u2019s work and offered him a job doing magazine spreads at a print publication. It\u2019s a story often told by WCSU graduates who got their career start from a fellow alumnus.<\/p>\n

Lane said he \u201csaw the writing on the wall\u201d about the future of print as digital media started to take off, and with a friend began a startup as a web developer\/designer. \u201cIt was a pretty easy read that print was falling off the cliff as 1999 turned into 2000,\u201d he said. Lane later met and married his wife Laurie, began a family, and was offered an opportunity in Darien doing larger-scale web design. For about a decade he managed a team of four web designers and developers before reinventing himself again as an information architect for a Shelton company that provides insurance solutions.<\/p>\n

\n

\"An

An 18-ft. tall sandcastle built by Kevin Lane at Lynn Deming Park in New Milford. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Lane.)<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2016, Lane, his wife and pre-teen children were visiting family in Laguna Beach, California. Because they had flown there, he hadn\u2019t brought any of the tools he used at home to build sandcastles with the kids. He watched another father and young son struggle to successfully create a castle with the implements they had on hand. A trip to a local hardware store in search of shovels and building materials turned out to be equally frustrating. Since he had his laptop with him on vacation, later that night Lane searched the web for the tools he was envisioning without success \u2014 so the graphic designer drew up what he had in mind and ran it by a project engineer he knew through his freelance web development work.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Lane formed an LLC and\u00a0Create a Castle<\/a>\u00a0was launched the following year. It wasn\u2019t long before the business exploded. In 2018, Lane\u2019s product was featured as a \u201cHot Summer Toy\u201d on \u201cLive with Kelly and Ryan.\u201d Lane was named Connecticut Entrepreneur of the Year in the Community Favorite Venture category in 2018 and 2019. Also in 2019, his product was featured on three live QVC airings. 2020 saw Create a Castle win the Toy Association\u2019s International Toy of the Year, and at a toy fair the following day, Lane was bombarded with orders from big box retailers like Walmart. \u201cWe weren\u2019t ready for it,\u201d Lane said. \u201cWe do our own fulfillment from our warehouse in New Milford. The number of orders coming in was unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lane said sales valued at $600,000 in 2021 jumped to nearly $3 million in 2022 after Costco Canada and Sam\u2019s Club USA began to carry the product.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Laurie

Laurie and Kevin Lane after accepting an offer on \u201cShark Tank.\u201d (Photo courtesy of Kevin Lane.)<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the business continued to grow, the Lanes were presented with the opportunity to appear on episode\u00a01403<\/a>\u00a0of ABC\u2019s hit series \u201cShark Tank.\u201d The episode aired in October 2022, and resulted in an offer of $350,000 from Guest Shark Kendra Scott for a 20% share in the business. Since the show aired, Create a Castle is carried at Target, Barnes and Noble, Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods and more.<\/p>\n

The product is still distributed from Lane\u2019s 1,000 sq. ft. facility in New Milford, with his wife, Laurie, and children Danny, 21, and Julia, 18, actively involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy children and wife are my huge inspiration for doing all of this, and are instrumental in our success,\u201d he said. \u201cJulia has picked the colors for the product and Danny has developed apps, among other contributions. Laurie is the majority shareholder in Create a Castle, making the company a woman-owned business. She does all the logistics, EDI work, portal work, bookkeeping, taxes and order fulfillment. Laurie does everything you can imagine to help me hold the business together, and is the heart and soul equally with me in Create a Castle. I couldn\u2019t have done any of this without her by my side through all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the company\u2019s meteoric success, Lane acknowledged that in addition to having an amazing partner in Laurie, he has a trusted collaborator in Matt Kornhaas. \u201cMy friendship with fellow alum Matt Kornhaas also continues to this day in his role working with us on future product development ideas, as well as in the role of creative director at Create a Castle.\u201d<\/p>\n

His graphic design studies played a part, too. \u201cThe design skills that my WCSU art instructors taught me are the foundation that translated into Create a Castle. Anyone considering college should absolutely save your money and go to WCSU. It\u2019s just as good as any college or rival school in this realm. You don\u2019t have to go to Harvard or Yale \u2014 you can accomplish it at WCSU.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Western Connecticut State University changes lives by providing all students with a high-quality education that fosters their growth as individuals, scholars, professionals and leaders in a global society. Our vision: To be widely recognized as a premier public university with outstanding teachers and scholars who prepare students to contribute to the world in a meaningful way.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DANBURY, CONN. \u2014 Imagine that your desire to build sandcastles with your children leads to an appearance on ABC\u2019s \u201cShark Tank\u201d and results in a significant buy-in from Guest Shark Kendra Scott. That\u2019s exactly what happened to Kevin Lane, a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}