They realized how such illustration remains to be one thing with which the leisure business struggles. While there are just a few examples — similar to “Black Panther” — Black characters, administrators and content material creators stay the minority within the leisure world and face extra struggles whereas attempting to make it there.

So the Godoys began their enterprise as a technique to diversify the sector, by introducing Black characters and storylines of their comedian books.

“We saw a need just to do stories on African history before slavery. We wanted to connect with that aspect because it’s never really been told before. So we focus on all the different countries around Africa and other Indigenous groups, too,” stated Mrs. Godoy, whose firm’s books additionally prolong to the Incan and Malaysian cultures.

They began Black Sands to inform tales of robust Black characters set in these early days of historical past earlier than colonization. Established in 2016, their empire has grown to 25 titles. The hottest collection is “Black Sands,” about necessary Black pharaohs and their households in historic Egypt and surrounding areas.

To additional their journey into getting these tales advised in a full-length, animated means, the couple, each Army veterans, scored $500,000 on the ABC present “Shark Tank” by way of actor/comic Kevin Hart and Mark Cuban, throughout a present that aired in January.

Mr. Hart’s international media firm Hartbeat formally closed the deal not too long ago with Black Sands Entertainment.

As a part of the partnership, Hartbeat will provide advisory providers to speed up Black Sands’ efforts, particularly within the space of movie and TV. Hartbeat and Black Sands are already in growth on an animated characteristic and a collection across the “Black Sands” flagship franchise.

“The moment that Manuel, Geiszel and the Black Sands Entertainment team walked into the ‘Tank,’ I knew that this was a company that I wanted to bring into my eco-system,” stated Mr. Hart in a press release.

“The Black Sands team was looking for a partner that has resources to grow their distribution, expand on their production, find new creative talent, and promote their current and future portfolio of content — these are all areas of Hartbeat’s core business. I’m very excited that our team will be able to help Black Sands grow and continue to share their unique stories with audiences all over the world.”

The deal follows Mr. and Mrs. Godoy’s profitable Kickstarter marketing campaign, which reached its aim of $10,000 in a single minute and garnered $100,000 in someday. Black Sands has bought 200,000 print copies of its comedian books, leading to $2 million in gross sales since its inception.

Aside from their navy backgrounds — Mr. Godoy was a radar technician, and Mrs. Godoy labored in human assets — each have an curiosity in artwork.

“I went to fashion design school in California and have a bachelor’s in fashion design. I worked with Calvin Klein designing for them. … And my husband went to college for video game design. So he’s an artist, as well,” Mrs. Godoy stated.

In addition, each have had fingers in writing most of the books.

Mrs. Godoy, who serves as the corporate’s chief monetary officer, stated she may be very stunned by the corporate’s success.

“I thought I was going to continue to do fashion forever,” she stated.

But, considering again to Black Sands’ early days, she stated going the impartial route was the precise transfer.

“Usually, when you write novels and stuff, you have to go to the big dogs, and they want to change everything,” stated Mr. Godoy, Black Sands’ CEO.

“I remember trying to pitch this really beautiful book, and they wanted to change the character’s name from Godoy to Jefferson just because of their market research. And I’m like, ‘That’s kind of stupid stuff.’”

“My last name is Godoy. It’s about my son and my daughter. I wrote about them in the book, and they wanted me to change the names. My kids love me incorporating them in our stories,” she stated.

The determination to go on “Shark Tank” was made for just a few causes.

“We wanted exposure, and we wanted to grow and scale the company, to take our company to the next level because there is so much red tape involved,” Mrs. Godoy stated.

However, showing on the present was a tricky activity.

“They don’t play games. They want to know your entire history. They do their due diligence. They want to know your credit report of your company, the health of your company. They want to see all your documents relating to your company. It’s a very, very, very hard process. And they were telling us during that process, a lot of people get cut, and they don’t make it,” Mrs. Godoy stated.

They appeared on “Shark Tank,” which was taped in summer season 2021 and aired Jan. 7, with their head of studio, Teunis De Raat.

They got here in asking for $500,000 for a 5% stake of their firm however settled for a suggestion from Mr. Hart and Mr. Cuban of $500,000 for 30%. The actor would deal with the leisure portion, and Mr. Cuban the technical aspect of issues.

Mr. Godoy shared his pleasure about Black Sands’ future with its new buyers.

“They are putting their name out there with us. And now that that’s happened, we can actually start making some real business plays on the animation production side. We have it out there. It’s all public. It’s all ready to go. And that alone allows us to go after key voice actors, go after animation studios and stuff like that, when we couldn’t do that prior,” he stated.

Along with trying to develop into animation, Black Sands has launched an app to assist Black creators attain bigger audiences and a podcast to share secrets and techniques of indie publishing success.

The Godoys stated they’d like to convey their books into extra colleges, too. They have some Southern states onboard however are aiming to increase farther, with Delaware chief amongst these areas.

“That’s one of the big things that we’re currently focusing on. We’re currently trying to get into New York and the D.C. area (schools), as far as getting very wide distribution in those places. We really did a lot of work to make sure that we have the books available for those areas,” Mr. Godoy stated.