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In the past decade or so, the ugly Christmas sweater, in all its gaudy charm, has gone from a bad gift from Grandma to a hip, self-referential focus of holiday parties everywhere.

A few years ago, Evan Mendelsohn, a lawyer at the time, felt there was a huge opportunity for owning the market. He decided to develop a company around the idea with his old college buddy Nick Morton, who was working as a specialized dental surgeon. It didn’t take long for this side project, Tipsy Elves, to become a serious company that inspired both Mendelsohn and Morton to quit their jobs and dedicate themselves full-time to making tacky holiday sweaters.

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The two made it onto ABC’s hit show “Shark Tank” in 2013 and persuaded Robert Herjavec to invest US$100,000 for 10% of the San Diego-based company. In an interview with Business Insider in October, Herjavec said that Tipsy Elves has definitely been his favourite investment over six seasons of “Shark Tank,” not only because the business keeps growing — its owners expect it to bring in US$7 million to US$8 million in revenue this year — but also because he finds Mendelsohn and Morton to be competent and knowledgeable about their customer base.