companyThe Profit · Season 3, Episode 16 · Aired December 15, 2015
KOTA Longboards
Denver, Colorado
Its status today is unclear. The last confirmed sighting we found dates to 2015.
What happened after
Official domain kotalongboards.com now serves an SSL certificate for an unrelated domain (talentequitygroup.com), verified by direct fetch -- indicating the domain has likely been repurposed or lapsed. However, multiple business directories (Yellow Pages, MapQuest, RocketReach) still list the company at Denver addresses with no explicit closure note, so signals conflict.
What happened on the show
KOTA Longboards, run by former Navy pilot Mike, took its name from a nod to knights of the air and made high end custom longboards. The build quality was excellent and the workers skilled, enough that Marcus offered $300,000 for 40 percent, on the condition that key staff also received a slice of his shares. The flaw was the market. Mike had priced his boards at $329 based on what they cost to make rather than what buyers would pay, and he deliberately targeted a 30 to 50 year old age group to avoid competition, effectively building for a customer who did not exist. Marcus took him to meet a well known skate entrepreneur, who admired the board but was equally puzzled by the target audience, and urged Mike toward shortboards for a younger market. When Marcus returned to find staff leaving and Mike trying to renegotiate their share, Marcus countered by claiming more for himself, and Mike's arrogance and steady loss of employees finally pushed him to abandon the deal.
After the cameras left
We could not verify the company's status. The official domain now serves a security certificate belonging to an unrelated business, which we confirmed directly, a sign the domain has likely lapsed or been repurposed. At the same time, several directories still show KOTA Longboards at Denver addresses and flag nothing about a closure, so the signals conflict. Because a repurposed domain is suggestive but not conclusive, and the directory listings could be stale, we ship this as unverifiable and recommend a recheck via the company's social accounts.
Sources
Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.