Michigan State University students Madhav Aggarwal (left) and Tanvi Gadamsetti will soon pitch their shoelace company BRCĒ on ABC's Shark Tank television show. (Courtesy photo)

MSU Entrepreneurs Earn Spot on ABC’s Shark Tank With Shoelace Startup

Michigan State University students Tanvi Gadamsetti and Madhav Aggarwal have developed a new shoelace that they say reduces injuries in athletes. The lace, which they sell through their company BRCĒ, is made of unique material that does not come untied or loosen with use, unlike traditional shoelaces.

On March 4, BRCĒ will be featured on an episode of Shark Tank, an ABC show where entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to investors.

Before the duo came up with BRCĒ, which is prounounced “brace,” Gadamsetti and Aggarwal were athletes who had to end their careers prematurely due to injury, as Gadamsetti ran cross country and Aggarwal played badminton and cricket.

When they started at MSU, they each reflected on their career-ending injuries, realizing they could have been prevented with better equipment.

“When Madhav had the idea initially, I was just helping him out as a friend,” said Gadamsetti. “The more I started working on it, the more I realized ‘Hey, there is a mission behind this, and I know this is something I want to be a part of fully.’”

BRCĒ sells specialized laces made for different sports on its website. For example, the company sells laces that will hold up in rainy and muddy conditions for football and soccer players, and laces that promote ankle stability for basketball players.

Gadamsetti and Aggarwal were both computer science majors when they came to MSU. However, when they developed the start-up, they decided to take more courses that would help them grow BRCĒ. Aggarwal even switched his major.

“I wanted to do something different, so I chose entrepreneurship as a way to sort of get out of my hard-coded STEM background,” said Aggarwal.

BRCĒ is now an internationally-recognized start-up, but it didn’t begin that way.

“We started as a very naive idea, an idea, mind you, that scored zero out of 30 in our entrepreneurial class – it was the lowest graded project ever in the history of that course,” said Aggarwal.

Michigan State University students Madhav Aggarwal (left) and Tanvi Gadamsetti will soon pitch their shoelace company BRCĒ on ABC’s Shark Tank television show. (Courtesy photo)

Undeterred by the negative feedback, BRCĒ became the only company to emerge from the MSU course, and  Aggarwal and Gadamsetti started their unlikely journey to appear on the hit television series Shark Tank.

Although entrepreneurs typically must apply to be on the show, BRCĒ was approached by the show’s producers after they competed in a national competition.

“I think we were part of that generation where we would sit down with our family and watch it every week or weekend, and just learn and absorb and see all these different people and these different founders create something in their homes,” said Gadamsetti.

“The journey from loving the show – which Tanvi and I still are the biggest geeks ever about Shark Tank – to actually being on the show was a full circle moment,” said Aggarwal.

Before filming the episode in June 2025, the pair spent a lot of time creating a presentation for their company. But once they were finally in front of the Sharks, the young entrepreneurs had to rely on their improvisation skills. 

“All the preparations went out the window and for the longest time we were just free-swinging. Every single question that came at us, we just swung at it,” said Aggarwal.

Looking back on the episode recording, Gadamsetti and Aggarwal said they are excited to see their personalities shine through on their segment when it airs.

Beyond Shark Tank, BRCĒ has continued to quickly expand. The company has investors that are former executives at popular athletic companies, and work with investors that own professional sports teams.

“We are all former athletes, so we keep athleticism and that zeal of athletes to survive every injury very close to us,” said Aggarwal.

As the student team is now working to bring their company’s revenue into the millions, Aggarwal feels especially grateful for how far they have come.

“Watching the company grow and seeing the vision come to life, it’s been a very fulfilling journey for us,” he said. “I came to the United States in 2022 as an international student. I’m trying to pursue the American dream.”

BRCĒ will be featured on Shark Tank on March 4 at 10 p.m. For more information, visit brce.shop. A watch party for the airing will be held at the Lansing Brewing Company in Lansing starting at 8 p.m.