In May 2015, Christopher Sakezles, 50, appeared on the hit ABC business pitch show Shark Tank and walked away with one of the richest deals in the show’s history, a $3 million investment from shark Robert Herjavec for a 25% stake in Sakezles’s company, SynDaver. The Tampa, Fla.-based firm makes synthetic human cadavers, including a $105,000 model that breathes, moves its arms and legs, blinks, changes body temperature and has a beating heart that pumps synthetic blood. The U.S. Army uses it to train paramedics. A $65,000 surgical model sells to hospitals and universities and has appeared on television shows like Gray’s Anatomy.
