Quick answer: Zip String’s last known valuation is $500,000, based on the $100,000 investment Kevin O’Leary and Robert Herjavec put in for 20% equity on Shark Tank in 2022. There’s no confirmed public number since then.
Key takeaways
- Zip String was invented by Stephen Fazio, a Georgia Tech student, as a class project in late 2020.
- Austin Hillam joined as a business partner after they met through their church community in Atlanta.
- A single TikTok video posted in August 2021 got 20 million views in hours and put the product on the front page of Reddit.
- Kevin O’Leary and Robert Herjavec invested $100,000 for 20% equity on Shark Tank, valuing the company at $500,000.
- Zip String’s real income comes from direct toy sales through its own site, Amazon, and specialty stores, not from the Shark Tank deal itself.
Intro
So you saw that flying string toy on TikTok or on Shark Tank and now you’re wondering what the company behind it is actually worth. Fair question, and the answer isn’t as simple as one number.
Here’s the short version. Zip String got a $500,000 valuation when Kevin O’Leary and Robert Herjavec invested $100,000 for a 20% stake on Shark Tank. That’s the last publicly known figure. The company hasn’t released a fresh valuation since, and there’s some debate online about whether that Shark Tank deal even fully closed.
But the story behind the number is honestly more interesting than the number itself. Two college students, a physics trick borrowed from a YouTube video, and a TikTok post that blew up overnight turned into an actual toy company selling through Amazon and Hobby Lobby.
Keep reading and you’ll get the full picture: who built it, how it went viral, what happened on Shark Tank, and where the money actually comes from today.
Early Life
Zip String has two founders, and neither one grew up planning to build a toy company.
Stephen Fazio grew up in Geneva, New York. He graduated from Geneva High School in 2017, where he was part of the robotics team. He’s said he wanted to build high powered lasers since he was around 12 years old, and by his mid teens he had shifted his focus to electronics instead. That interest led him to Georgia Tech, where he studied electrical engineering.
Austin Hillam went a different route. He attended Brigham Young University and leaned into mechanical engineering and design work. Both Stephen and Austin also completed two year Mormon missions in Brazil before college, though they served in different regions and didn’t know each other yet at that point.
Their paths didn’t cross until later, through a shared church community, and that connection ended up mattering a lot more than either of them expected.
Beginning of Career
Zip String started as a school assignment, not a business plan.
In late 2020, Stephen was given a class project at Georgia Tech with a strange requirement: build a circuit board smaller than a credit card that actually does something. He’d seen a YouTube video from a teacher named Bruce Yeany showing a benchtop machine that shoots a loop of string into the air. Stephen figured he could shrink that idea down into something handheld. He used his own train card as a size guide, built the first prototype, and ended up winning the competition with it. The original plan was even smaller than a business: he just wanted to give it to his dad as a Christmas gift.
People who saw it loved it, but Stephen knew he needed a partner to actually turn it into a company. That’s where Austin came in. The two met through their church community in Atlanta, and their bishop is the one who suggested they connect after both had finished their missions. Over dinner in the summer of 2021, they realized they had a shared interest in engineering and ended up talking about the prototype for hours.
From there, things moved fast. Austin’s father, Mark, helped the pair build an improved version of the device. Both Stephen and Austin paused their college educations to work on it full time, and they started hand building units out of the Hillam family’s basement in Johns Creek, Georgia.
Shot to Fame
Zip String’s big break came from a single TikTok video, and it happened almost by accident.
Stephen and Austin had actually been told to hold off on going public with the product while they figured out logistics. Stephen didn’t wait. On August 12, 2021, he posted a video of the toy in action. Within hours it had racked up 20 million views. That same night, it hit the front page of Reddit.
That kind of overnight attention created a real problem: other people could easily copy the idea before Stephen and Austin had any legal protection. So the first move after going viral wasn’t scaling production, it was filing patents. Once that was underway, they launched a Kickstarter campaign and later partnered with the YouTube group Dude Perfect for more exposure, which pushed their combined video views past 200 million.
All that attention led to a spot on Shark Tank’s Season 14 in 2022. Stephen and Austin walked in asking for $100,000 for 10% equity. They walked out with a deal from Kevin O’Leary and Robert Herjavec, who teamed up to offer $100,000 for 20% equity instead, putting the company’s valuation at $500,000.
Major Source of Income and Net Worth
For a company, “net worth” usually just means valuation, and Zip String’s most reliable number still comes from its Shark Tank deal.
| What we know | Figure |
|---|---|
| Original ask on Shark Tank | $100,000 for 10% equity |
| Actual deal accepted | $100,000 for 20% equity |
| Resulting valuation | $500,000 |
| Pre Shark Tank units sold | About 10,000 |
| Pre Shark Tank revenue | About $277,000 |
| Some trackers’ current growth estimate | Around $665,500 (unverified) |
That last figure is important to flag. It’s a rough estimate from a celebrity and business net worth tracker that assumes roughly 10% annual growth since the deal closed. It’s not a number Zip String, O’Leary, or Herjavec has confirmed. Some reporting has even pointed out that it’s unclear if the Shark Tank deal fully closed after the show aired, which is common with Shark Tank deals in general.
Here’s where the real, confirmed income comes from:
- Direct toy sales. The core product sells for $29.99, up from its original $25 price point, through Zip String’s own website and Amazon.
- Product line expansion. The company has added new versions like ZipString Luma, a glow in the dark model priced at $36.99, along with themed string packs like the Chameleon Pack and Psycho Pack.
- Specialty retail. Zip String is sold through children’s museum gift shops, science stores, and Hobby Lobby. It hasn’t landed a deal with a major retailer like Walmart or Target as of the most recent reporting.
- Manufacturing efficiency. Production cost per unit dropped from about $6.35 to $5.87, which helps margins even without a huge jump in sales volume.
So the honest answer is this: Zip String’s official net worth, based on real numbers, is the $500,000 valuation from its Shark Tank deal. Anything higher you see floating around online is an estimate, not a confirmed figure.
FAQs
What is Zip String’s net worth?
Zip String’s confirmed valuation is $500,000, set during its Shark Tank deal in 2022. Higher estimates you might see elsewhere are unverified projections, not official numbers.
Who invented Zip String?
Stephen Fazio invented the original prototype as a Georgia Tech class project in late 2020. Austin Hillam joined shortly after as his business partner.
Did Zip String get a deal on Shark Tank?
Yes. Kevin O’Leary and Robert Herjavec jointly invested $100,000 for 20% equity, giving the company a $500,000 valuation.
How much has Zip String sold?
Before its Shark Tank appearance, Zip String had sold around 10,000 units for about $277,000 in revenue, despite going viral with 20 million-plus views.
Where can you buy Zip String?
Zip String is sold through its own website, Amazon, and specialty stores like Hobby Lobby and children’s museum gift shops.
Are Austin Hillam and Stephen Fazio still running the company?
Based on available reporting, both founders remain involved with the company they built, though neither has released updated public financials since the Shark Tank deal.