Susan Vandergriff discovered a love for birdwatching almost by accident when she was sitting on her porch practicing an anxiety-reducing exercise she heard about on a podcast.
“You name five things you can see and four things you can hear and three things you can touch just to kind of center yourself and ground yourself,” she said in a phone interview.
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That day, bird songs rang out in the morning air, and Vandergriff was entranced. She ultimately ditched the exercise and pulled up an app on her phone. The app enabled her to identify birds based on their chirps.
“The first one that popped up was a white-eyed vireo,” Vandergriff said. “I had never heard of such a bird. I didn’t know if I was pronouncing it correctly. I was just totally blown away.”
Vandergriff was hooked. She received a bird feeder for Christmas and went to the store to buy seed. Feeling like a kid in a cereal aisle, Vandergriff said she was immediately overwhelmed by a wall of seemingly infinite choices. She bought a bag, brought it home, filled her feeder and nothing much happened.
“I wasn’t seeing a lot of birds, but I was seeing a lot of weeds growing up in my yard,” she said.
Frustrated by the buying experience, Vandergriff did her research and started purchasing single-ingredient and premium seeds she knew birds in the area loved to eat. She mixed her own blend, placed it in the feeder and bird activity in her backyard skyrocketed. That’s how the idea for Vandergriff’s business, the Happy Birdwatcher Co., took flight.
Founded in 2021, the Happy Birdwatcher Co. offers curated seeds to avian enthusiasts based on the kinds of birds they want to see in their yard, the type of feeders they have and where they live.
The business was featured in The Washington Post’s 2022 holiday gift guide, which further amplified business, Vandergriff said. That helped her to move the company out of her house, where she had been mixing feed on her kitchen table, and into a commercial space in her hometown of Dunlap, Tennessee. The Happy Birdwatcher Co. has since shipped seeds to 49 states.
Now, about four years after starting the business, Vandergriff will achieve something many entrepreneurs only dream of accomplishing: Seeing themselves on an episode of “Shark Tank.” Currently in its 16th season, the television show features aspiring business owners who pitch their ideas to a series of wealthy tycoons, known as the “sharks,” in the hopes of winning their investment. Vandergriff’s episode will air 8 p.m. March 7 on ABC.
Vandergriff had her eyes on the show for a while and frequently checked the website for audition dates. In April 2024, she traveled to an open call in Norfolk, Virginia, and she stood in line for hours with a thousand other people, waiting her turn to deliver her pitch to the production team.
Susan Vandergriff, the founder of the Happy Birdwatcher Co., will appear on an episode of “Shark Tank” at 8 p.m. March 7 on ABC. (Disney/Christopher Willard)“I left the audition feeling really good,” she said. “It just felt really like a positive audition. My hopes were kind of high, but again, you don’t know. You just are told to go home and wait, and a few weeks later, I did get a phone call that I had moved to the next step.”
A viewer since season 1, Vandergriff said being on the “Shark Tank” set was surreal.
“It’s a really cool experience, but it’s also very intense,” she said. “I’m very comfortable speaking in front of people and had my pitch nailed down and practiced, but when you’re actually there and you’re under the lights and the cameras are rolling and you’re in front of the sharks, it’s pretty intense.”
Vandergriff is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and she spent 17 years in banking before working for a local nonprofit for several years, ultimately serving as its executive director. At that time, Vandergriff felt like she had hit a ceiling, and she decided to quit her job and fully commit to her fledgling business. She launched Happy Birdwatcher Co. with the intent of helping people feel happier.
“Research shows that the greater the diversity of wild birds that we have in our home surroundings, the happier you are,” Vandergriff said.
Vandergriff also credits the local entrepreneur ecosystem with helping her get going. A few months after starting her company, Vandergriff enrolled in an accelerator program for businesses focused on consumer products. The Company Lab, a nonprofit in Chattanooga, has been supportive since the beginning of her journey, helping her get an interest-free loan designed for small businesses, she said.
Tasia Malakasis, CEO of the Company Lab, recalls sitting down with Vandergriff about a half a dozen times to offer guidance as the Happy Birdwatcher Co. was getting off the ground.
“Entrepreneurs are my favorite people on the planet because they have the audacity to believe that their grand idea can change the world,” Malakasis said in a phone call. “Without that audacity, you don’t, right? I love people who are willing to risk everything and do that. Susan absolutely fits that build.”
Malakasis said there’s a vast difference in the product Vandergriff offers through the Happy Birdwatcher Co. and seeds customers can get at other stores.
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“As opposed to something super generic that squirrels might like instead of the bird you want to see, she’s got a highly curated product that she ships,” Malakasis said. “It’s tailored, and it’s for an enthusiast.”
At the very least, Vandergriff’s appearance March 7 will bring a tremendous amount of exposure for her company, Malakasis said. It will also be a boon for the local entrepreneurs, validating aspiring business owners who hope to start their own venture.
“There’s a lot of local pride that will come out of this — for her and the business and Chattanooga,” Malakasis said.
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.
Susan Vandergriff, the founder of the Happy Birdwatcher Co., will appear on an episode of “Shark Tank” at 8 p.m. March 7 on ABC. (Disney/Christopher Willard)