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Partie Poche was a unique fashion accessory presented during Season 4 of the hit television show Shark Tank. It was created by two college students, Jillian Jaccard and Connor Pastoor.
They wanted to solve a highly common problem for women: how to carry a cell phone and essential items during a night out without being forced to hold a bulky purse.
Their solution was a fashionable thigh holster. While the core idea solved a real problem, the business pitch quickly became known as one of the most famous disasters in the history of the show.
The young founders faced brutal feedback from the investors regarding their company valuation and their lack of real-world sales.
Even though they left the television stage without a deal, the story of Partie Poche did not end there. The business went through an unexpected secret sale, a massive website failure, and an eventual quiet shutdown.
However, the founders themselves used the experience to go on and build incredibly successful careers in the financial world.
Here is the complete 2026 update on Partie Poche, what really happened behind the scenes, and what the founders are doing today.
What Was Partie Poche?
Partie Poche (pronounced “Party Posh”) was designed as a hands-free carrying solution for women. It was specifically made for women wearing dresses or skirts who did not want to carry a traditional handbag at social events.
The physical product was a lightweight, comfortable leg strap made from a custom neoprene fabric. It functioned very much like a modern garter belt.
The strap sat securely around the thigh and was completely hidden under a dress. It featured three distinct pockets designed to hold the absolute essentials for a night out:
- A main pocket designed to snugly fit a smartphone (specifically sized for the iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones of that era).
- A secure pouch for credit cards, a driver’s license, and cash.
- A small pocket specifically sized for a tube of lipstick or a tampon.
The product was strictly a fabric fashion accessory. It did not contain any digital technology, RFID blocking chips, or physical phone kickstands.
The goal was simple: provide a comfortable, low-profile, and secure way to hold personal items while dancing, walking, or mingling at parties.
Who Founded the Company?
The company was founded by Jillian Jaccard and Connor Pastoor. At the time they created the product, both were highly ambitious students attending Loyola Marymount University.
Jillian Jaccard was pursuing a double major in accounting and finance. She was a dedicated student who maintained a 3.9 GPA, while also competing as a collegiate track athlete. The idea for the product came directly from her own personal experience.
She lived with sorority girls and constantly saw them stuffing their cell phones, cash, and IDs into their bras or tight waistbands before going out. She knew there had to be a more elegant, comfortable, and secure solution.
Connor Pastoor was working toward his advanced MBA degree at the same time. The duo combined their business education to turn Jillian’s core idea into a real, physical product.
They managed to manufacture the belts and sold about 200 units of the leg holster through their personal website before they received the life-changing call to appear on national television.
The Shark Tank Pitch: Season 4, Episode 11
Connor and Jillian stepped onto the television stage seeking an investment of $100,000 in exchange for 20% equity in Partie Poche. This specific offer meant they were valuing their small startup company at $500,000.
The presentation started off smoothly. The founders explained the product, its purpose, and the massive market appeal of solving the “no pockets” problem for women’s fashion.
They explained their profit margins, noting that it cost about $4 to manufacture the product, and they were selling it directly to consumers for $39.
However, the pitch quickly derailed when the investors started digging into the hard numbers.
The founders boldly claimed they projected to sell 200,000 units in the upcoming year. The Sharks immediately viewed this projection as wildly unrealistic, considering the company had only sold 200 total units up to that point.
The massive $500,000 valuation was based entirely on these imaginary future sales, rather than actual cash in the bank.
Things got much worse when the founders revealed their past funding history. They admitted to the panel that they had already sold a massive 40% chunk of their company to a previous investor for only $50,000.
This meant the deal they were currently offering the Sharks on television was significantly worse than the deal they had given their very first investor.
The investors were not happy with the math.
- Kevin O’Leary was highly critical of the inflated valuation. He disliked the numbers so much that he jokingly forbade the other Sharks from even making an offer. He was the first to drop out.
- Robert Herjavec dropped out next. He simply could not invest in a company that had almost zero real-world sales to prove its concept.
- Barbara Corcoran liked the founders and praised their high energy and enthusiasm. However, she felt their enthusiasm was blinding them to reality. She believed it would ultimately sink the business, so she also dropped out.
- Daymond John quickly followed the others and declined to invest.
- Mark Cuban told the duo that he liked them and he liked the product. However, he felt they had no clear direction for how to actually run and scale the business. He dropped out, leaving Connor and Jillian without a deal.
The Secret Sale and the Website Crash
Most viewers assume that what happens on the television screen is the end of the story. However, the real drama for Partie Poche happened entirely behind the scenes.
Shortly before their episode aired on television in late 2012, Connor and Jillian actually sold the entire Partie Poche business.
Jillian had recently attended the Global Venture Labs Investment Competition at the University of Texas, where she won a prestigious elevator pitch contest. A college student named Ryan Linares watched her pitch. Ryan and his business partner Kyle Amicucci ran a company called Audacis.
Audacis operated as a “product headhunter” firm. Their specific business model was to find interesting products created by young talent, buy the companies outright, and use their own resources to scale the products for major big-box retail stores.
Ryan was highly impressed by Jillian. He approached her, and Audacis quickly negotiated a deal to buy Partie Poche. Connor and Jillian were happy to sell.
Jillian stated that she was thrilled to “cash in” on her invention and have a highly successful exit strategy before she even graduated from college.
Unfortunately, Audacis made a massive operational mistake.
When a company appears on a major television show, millions of viewers search for the product online. This massive spike in web traffic is known as the “Shark Tank effect,” and it usually results in huge sales, even if the founders do not get a deal on the show.
Audacis decided they wanted to wait until they had full legal control of the company before they built a new, robust e-commerce website.
Because of this delay, when the episode aired on television, the Partie Poche website was simply not ready. Millions of viewers went to the site and found a broken, poorly designed webpage that simply said “Sold Out.”
Because customers could not buy the product, competing companies scooped up all the sales. A rival company called PortaPocket, which made a similar hands-free storage product, saw a massive boost in their own business because the Partie Poche website was broken.
Audacis promised to fix the website before the television episode aired as a rerun, and they planned to put the product in stores.
Sadly, they failed to gain momentum. Within a year of buying the brand, Audacis went out of business. Partie Poche never successfully reached the mass market and quietly disappeared.
Where Are the Founders Today in 2026?
The story of Partie Poche is often remembered by fans as a business failure. However, the story of its founders is one of massive, undeniable success.
Despite the harsh criticism they faced on television as college students, both Connor and Jillian proved the investors wrong by building highly lucrative careers in the financial sector.
Jillian Murrish (formerly Jaccard)
After selling the business, Jillian graduated and took a job at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), one of the largest and most prestigious accounting networks in the world.
She specifically worked on valuing intangible assets to learn exactly what makes major companies profitable. She then moved on to become the Executive Vice President of Capital Markets at Patch of Land, a real estate lending company.
Today, in 2026, she goes by Jillian Murrish and is a powerhouse in the financial world. Since April 2017, she has been the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Pier Asset Management, based in Manhattan Beach, California.
Her firm provides massive credit facilities to specialty finance companies. Under her leadership, the firm has funded well over $500 million in alternative credit. Her company regularly purchases multi-million dollar portfolios of subprime auto loans and funds litigation finance deals.
In addition to her role as CEO, Jillian continues to expand her influence. In 2025, she co-founded Mooring Music Group, an investment firm that purchases the royalty rights to famous music catalogs (including acquiring minority interest rights in Mariah Carey’s classic holiday music).
She is a frequent guest on Wall Street financial podcasts, proving that her early days pitching a thigh holster were just the beginning of a brilliant business career.
Connor Pastoor
Connor also found immense success after passing the business to Audacis. He finished his MBA and entered the highly competitive wealth management sector. After working for several years as a Wealth Advisor at JAG Capital Management, he leveled up his career once again.
As of late 2024, official financial regulatory records show that he passed his Series 7TO and Series 63 industry exams. In 2026, he is currently working as a fully registered Wealth Advisor and representative for J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, based out of Chicago, Illinois. He is registered to practice in all 50 states.
Company Net Worth and Business Status
Because the company has been out of business for over a decade, the current net worth of the Partie Poche business is exactly $0. During their television pitch in 2012, the founders gave the company an estimated valuation of $500,000, which the investors heavily disputed. You can no longer buy the original product.
While the company itself holds no value today, the founders have built highly successful careers in asset management and wealth advising. As executives managing hundreds of millions of dollars in the financial sector, their personal net worths are substantially higher than the valuation of the college startup they originally pitched on television.
How Women Carry Phones in 2026: Modern Alternatives
The core problem Partie Poche tried to solve—women not having pockets in their formal clothing still exists today. However, the way society solves that problem has changed dramatically.
The global mobile phone accessories market is now marching toward a valuation of $199 billion, and the solutions are much more visible.
If you are looking for a modern alternative to Partie Poche in 2026, the thigh holster is no longer the standard. Modern smartphones, such as the iPhone 16 Pro Max, are simply too large and heavy to comfortably strap to a thigh under a dress. Instead, the market has completely shifted toward two new trends:
1. The Crossbody Phone Case
The absolute biggest trend in 2026 for hands-free carrying is the crossbody phone case. Brands like Keebos have made it highly fashionable to wear your phone exactly like a small purse. These cases feature an adjustable strap that allows the phone to be worn across the body or around the neck like a lanyard.
They often include a small, attached wallet slot on the back to hold an ID and a credit card. Because modern smartphones are heavy, the crossbody case distributes the weight perfectly while keeping the phone instantly accessible for photos, texting, and social media. These brands also focus heavily on sustainability, using eco-friendly materials and planting trees for every case sold.
2. Smart Clothing and Normcore Tech
Fashion brands have also started heavily integrating hidden technology and utility directly into everyday clothing. In 2026, the fashion industry has fully embraced “normcore tech.”
Brands are weaving conductive yarns into fabrics and designing formal dresses with deep, hidden pockets that do not ruin the visual silhouette of the outfit. Some modern denim brands even include tiny vibrating sensors in the waistband to correct your posture.
While the Partie Poche thigh strap was a highly creative and fun idea for its time, today’s consumer prefers to either wear their phone proudly as a crossbody accessory or rely on improved, pocket-heavy clothing designs.
