Imagine going from wearing a potato suit in front of America's top investors on Shark Tank to marketing some of the biggest projects in Hollywood. For UNT alum and entrepreneur Alex Craig ('13), that offbeat idea is what led him to his success today.

Craig founded Potato Parcel -- a company that sends messages to people written on a potato -- and now heads the marketing company TriplePlay Studios, which helps films and brands create viral content and interactive experiences.

"I wouldn't have gotten to where I'm at if I hadn't started building websites and apps at UNT," he says.

 A Realized Potential

Like many students, Craig was unsure of the career he wanted to pursue, which led him to follow in the footsteps of his father, an executive for a third-party logistics company, and earn his degree in logistics and supply chain management.

It didn't take long for Craig to realize his passion and the shifting landscape of technology and digital media.

"One night I watched The Social Network and thought, 'Tech is really where it's at right now and where everything is going.' So, I started learning how to build websites."

In collaboration with other UNT students, the goal was to create social apps, which led to the creation of the now-defunct Thirstify -- an app that allowed local bars on Fry Street and the Denton Square to have their daily specials featured for $100 a month plus a one-time $1,000 set-up fee.

Straight out of UNT, Craig decided to play it safe and put his entrepreneurial drive aside to use his degree and secure a stable paycheck. He stayed on the logistics job for about 90 days before realizing he wanted to take a different path.

He worked toward the dream of building mobile apps and games while working to make rent with odd jobs.

He created a game called Electric Boogie, which gathered a half million views online and 30,000 downloads after a staged fake ending was added into the game as a viral stunt.

The game only made $600 in ad revenue, but led to Craig being hired as a tester for Bottle Rocket, a mobile app agency in Addison, and the plan for his next venture, knowing if he could drive a large sum of traffic to a source as he did for Electric Boogie, next time, he would have a product to sell them.

Potato Virality

In 2015, Craig came across a Reddit thread about a potato riddled with stamps that had anonymously been sent to the recipient. The post had two million views within four hours, which lit up a light bulb in Craig's mind. Seeing that this preposterous idea was loved by many of the Reddit users, he decided to turn this joke into a business.

"I only had a limited time window for people to recognize that the post they saw inspired this business, so I stayed up all night making the website and by 7 a.m. I posted it in as many communities I could on Reddit."

The business was an immediate success, accruing about $2,500 in sales the first day it launched.

"I was like, 'Oh yeah, I've got something here.'"

After reaching out to the local news, Craig staged a media stunt dressed in overalls, sunglasses and a bad haircut for the interview about his wacky business. The company gained traction from media coverage that gave the company a huge boost in overall sales, going from roughly $10,000 a month to over $25,000 per month. With such huge praise from the online community, the company went on to appear on The Steve Harvey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, CNBC's Fast Money and most notably, the appearance on Shark Tank, which struck a deal with Kevin O'Leary.

Craig was in charge of Potato Parcel for six months until he sold it to Riad Bekhit, who had experience in e-commerce. Selling the company to Bekhit allowed Craig to stick to his original goal -- make it go viral and flip it as quickly as possible.

A New Endeavor

After his tenure with Potato Parcel and after being laid off from his full-time employment, Craig created his own viral marketing agency, TriplePlay Studios. His agency and staff, based in Los Angeles, create viral content and interactive experiences for brands and have done promotional work for movies and shows such as Smile, in which the group sent creepy actors to smile behind home plate during baseball games, reaching hundreds of millions of people online, the John Wick franchise and Marvel's Secret Invasion.

TriplePlay has created content and ads for Sephora, Skechers, the NBA and has worked with music artists such as Eminem, The Weeknd and more. His company has won a variety of Clio Awards for their campaigns, even being named the Small Agency of the Year at the 2023 Shorty Awards.

On top of their marketing efforts, his next goal is to release a full-length movie made by artificial intelligence through self-publishing on streaming platforms produced by his company. 

"It's been a journey since UNT. That community in Denton, Texas allowed me to meet great people that do great work and that kind of gave me the confidence to venture out into the world and explore the path of following a dream."