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glencoeanchor.com life & arts
the glencoe anchor | July 5, 2019 | 17
NSCDS alum’s game captures $100K from ‘Shark Tank’ investors
Christine Adams
Freelance Reporter
A North Shore Country Day
School alum wants to know how
much money it would take you
to get a tattoo on your arm of the
last thing you ate — and he’s not
alone.
The question is part of a new
card game called Pricetitution,
developed by local creator Dan
Killian, of Wilmette. Word is
spreading fast about the game,
helped in large part to an April
appearance on the show “Shark
Tank” that scored Killian
$100,000 from two investors
for a 40 percent stake in the
company.
The whole ordeal began a
couple years ago when Killian,
a 2005 graduate of the Winnetka
school, felt compelled to pursue
a creative project. He had
been working at an advertising
agency for several years but was
looking for a more personal endeavor
and was spitballing ideas
with a friend when the concept
of Pricetitution came to him.
“It was kind of a funny idea I
threw out to my friend,” he said.
That idea is captured in the
game’s tagline: everyone has a
price. Players take turn pulling
cards with different scenarios,
and their friends then have to
guess how much money it would
take for the player to enact the
scenario.
Card themes range from silly
and sophomoric (think Cards
Against Humanity) to more philosophical
situations regarding
aging and death, and according
to Killian, the game is finding
success not just from its humorous
and provocative scenarios,
but from the human connections
and conversations that result from
playing.
“It’s more about the people,”
he said. “After a while, they forget
about the game.”
After the original idea came
to him, Killian quickly wrote
test cards that he then took to
board-game bars, such as Guthrie’s
in Wrigleyville, and asked
patrons to play so he could
observe what worked. He rigorously
tested different cards
and themes, and went through
the arduous design process to
get the softball-sized game box
just as he wanted it. He quit
his 9-to-5 job and moved back
to Wilmette with his parents, a
decision that was played up to
humorous effect in the “Shark
Tank” episode that his parents
also appeared in.
Killian was selected for the
show after an open casting call,
and though he was nervous leading
up to the appearance, the day
of he “felt really comfortable, almost
to the point that it was scary
how comfortable I was.”
His intense preparation, in
which he practiced answering
every conceivable question he
thought the “sharks” might ask
him, earned him offers from four
of the show’s investors, and the
investment he received has allowed
him to focus more on
marketing, which previously had
been neglected while he concentrated
on developing and licensing
the game.
After the show appearance, “It
was night and day in terms of exposure,
in terms of website traffic
and sales. There is a ‘Shark Tank’
effect,” he said about the sales of
the $21.99 game.
Killian credits his local upbringing
and education with giving
him the ability to take the leap
to develop the game.
“North Shore Country Day
made a big difference for me because
I was not only able to, but
encouraged to, try a bunch of different
things in tandem. If what I
wanted wasn’t available, I could
create it,” he said.
While in the short term, Killian
is focused on giving continued
exposure to Pricetitution, Killian
doesn’t seem to content to say
that the game is the only adventure
ahead of him. In fact, he may
just be getting started.
For more information on the
game, visit pricetitution.com.
Dan Killian, a North Shore Country Day alum, created Pricetitution and pitched the game on “Shark
Tank.” Photos by ABC Studios
Killian
appeared on
the show in
April with his
parents from
Wilmette.