Matt Heck holds up a Nutshellz cup.

In a nutshell, Matt Heck of Waterloo doesn’t operate under the status quo.

I’m an edgy type of guy,” Heck said. “I like to live outside the box.”

Then again, so does his business partner, Jeremiah Raber. The two own a company called Nutshellz, which they pitched to CNBC’s “West Texas Investors Club” hosts on July 26.

“This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said. “I was nervous about how I was going to look on TV. I’ve pitched my product to many investors, so I wasn’t nervous about that part.”

Heck, 36, joined Raber — who invented a more durable groin protective device — in 2012 to take care of the marketing and infrastructure of the business.

Being a part of the business is “fantastic,” Heck said. “It’s a dream come true because I love business and leadership.”

The Nutshellz groin cup can endure much harsher treatment than the average cup because of a Kevlar and carbon fiber shell. In 2012, Heck and Raber put the cup to the test, posting a video on the internet of Heck shooting Raber in the groin. Raber said he wanted to show how much he stands by his product.

“I wasn’t going to be the one to shoot him at first,” Heck said. “The marksman backed out at the last minute because of the risk, so I had to do it. I grew up fishing and hunting. I felt pretty confident.”

The video shows that, amazingly enough, the bullet did not go through the cup. YouTube saw more than 570,000 views and sales spiked to 25 cups being sold in one month. Heck also noted that the video was viewed globally by about 3 million people and that most every country had seen the video.

Meanwhile, West Texas Investors Club is a show hosted by Mike “Rooster” McConaughey and Wayne “Butch” Gilliam, both of whom are self-made millionaires. The two bring on motivated entrepreneurs, giving them a chance to pitch their business idea, then Butch and Rooster decide whether they want to make a monetary investment into the company.

“You have to do things their way,” Heck said of getting on the show.

That being said, before Butch and Rooster listened to the Nutshellz investment proposal, the two set out to test the durability of the cup themselves.

The real test came with a marksman shooting a regular cup and the Nutshellz cup, and the results came back with the Nutshellz cup holding up, just as shown in the 2012 video.

Seeing what the cup could do, McConaughey showed a lot of enthusiasm, saying “the daggum thing held up.” Gilliam echoed that enthusiasm, adding the cup did everything the businessmen claimed it could.

Both Gilliam and McConaughey were unimpressed by their sales numbers through the years and didn’t agree with sports being the best market for the product, but their feelings about the cup’s strength ultimately kept them from backing out on the deal.

“Had it not been for today’s experiment that we did with your product, I don’t know if we’d be talking partnership right now,” Gilliam told Heck and Raber during their on-air negotiations.

That also led to a much lower investment number than the two business partners hoped to receive. While Heck and Raber initially wanted $300,000 to sign over 20 percent of the company, Gilliam and McConaughey brought that number down to $100,000.

“We went in pitching the $300,000 knowing they would counter,” Heck said, but added that $100,000 went significantly lower than they expected.

Heck, who also serves as a pastor at LifechurchX in Waterloo, immediately countered with $150,000 after his partner said he couldn’t walk away with so little. Rooster budged slightly, offering $125,000.

“That was hard,” Heck said. “We had to think, ‘Is TV enough?’ The guys wanted to help with law enforcement, though, so that was a real incentive.”

Ultimately, Heck and Raber accepted the offer, and the four continue working out the details of the partnership. What also intrigued Heck is how much Rooster and Butch are willing to do for the company’s success.

“A lot of investors just want quarterly updates,” Heck said. “These guys have shown they really want to get involved.”

That being said, Heck fully believes that anyone looking to grow their business should consider going on the show.

“It’s a no-brainer,” Heck said. “When you think about how much a company has to spend on national advertising, it’s probably hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

He also advised, “You have to present your business different than the competition and know your numbers going in.”

For more information on Nutshellz, visit www.armorednutshellz.com.