The hit ABC television show 'Shark Tank' features a panel of potential investors known as 'sharks' ready to sink their teeth into new investment opportunities, if the price is right. Budding entrepreneurs pitch their ideas, products and businesses to the sharks in hopes for a profitable deal. With the potential exposure to millions of viewers and business advice from the sharks, thousands enter the applicant pool hoping to be chosen for the unique opportunity. The pressure is on for the select few who do get to enter the tank, and rightfully so. Some of the companies that struck deals with the sharks have gone on to great success, including tripling and even quadrupling their annual sales. From digging out of the negative, to expanding into major retail stores, these companies have accomplished remarkable feats.
Click through to follow up with some of the memorable pitches made on 'Shark Tank,' and find out what they're up to since appearing on the show. GrooveBook, Season 5 Entrepreneurs: Brian Whiteman, Julie Whiteman Sharks That Made an Offer: Mark Cuban, Kevin O'Leary 'Shark Tank' Offer: $150,000 for 80 percent of the rights to license GrooveBook as a service to other companies Brian and Julie Whiteman entered the shark tank in January with their photobook app,.
For $2.99 a month, users can choose up to 100 photos from their smartphones and create a bound photo book that's delivered right to their door. In a matter of days after their deal with Mark Cuban and Kevin O'Leary aired on 'Shark Tank,' GrooveBook received 50,000 paid subscribers, Brian Whiteman said. That post-'Shark Tank' jump in sales was astonishing, he said, because it had taken 13 months to reach their initial 35,000 paid customers. GrooveBook's creators have since bought new high-tech printers to deal with the demand and production has quadrupled. The husband and wife are thrilled with the growth of GrooveBook and are confident their sales will continue. 'It never gets old having your photos in your hand,' Whiteman said.
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'It's timeless.' AVA the Elephant, Season 1 Entrepreneur: Tiffany Krumins Sharks That Made an Offer: Barbara Corcoran 'Shark Tank' Offer: $55,000 for 55 percent of the company On the very first episode of 'Shark Tank,' Tiffany Krumins secured a deal with shark Barbara Corcoran for her invention, a talking medicine dispenser that helps children take their medicine. 'I remember all the guys said, 'That's ridiculous,' Corcoran told ABC News.
'What do they know? They have never been up in the middle of the night giving kids medicine that didn't want to take it.' Corcoran realized the potential of the clay model and helped turn AVA the Elephant into a multimillion-dollar business.
AVA the Elephant is now sold in over 10,000 retail stores, including Toys-R-Us, Safeway, Kroger and CVS stores. Krumins has also launched a new product called AVA the Elephant Thermometer Stickers. PRO-NRG, Season 4 Entrepreneur: Tania Patruno and Brandon Jacobs Sharks That Made an Offer: Daymond John 'Shark Tank' Offer: $250,000 for a 30 percent stake contingent on John's working them into a deal with his company BadASS (which was successfully completed) founder Tania Patruno, and her partner, retired NFL player Brandon Jacobs, entered the tank with their energy drink hoping for some guidance on the beverage industry because they were new to it themselves.
But the sharks were confused about their product and put the pair on the spot. Patruno admitted to ABC News that she was extremely nervous during the taping.
'I can't watch my episode,' Patruno told ABC News. 'My blood pressure rises.' Although their experience in the tank was anything but easy, they did walk away with a deal with Daymond John.
PRO-NRG has since been rebranded as Protein Water by PRO-NRG and is now available nationwide in stores such as Walgreens, Duane Reade and ShopRite. PRO-NRG is expected to bring in a projected $5 million in sales this year, Daymond John told ABC News. Breathometer, Season 5 Entrepreneur: Charles Michael Yim Sharks that bought in: Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Kevin O'Leary, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec 'Shark Tank' Offer: $1 million for 30 percent stake founder Charles Michael Yim walked into the tank hoping for one shark to invest $250,000 for his smartphone breath-analyzer. Yim ended up making a deal with all five sharks for $1 million for 30 percent equity. 'He had sales, he was changing the world, he had a game plan,' Robert Herjavec told ABC News.
'Pretty rare that you get all of those in one person.' Before his episode aired, Breathometer had only $140,000 in sales. Right after the show aired, tens of thousands of orders came flooding in. Breathometer hit almost a million dollars in revenue in a few months after their episode, Yim told ABC News. They also had to scale up production to meet demand, he said. Yim said he also plans to expand his company's mission in improving patient health care and saving lives through halitosis, dehydration, asthma and diabetes technology.
'This product will be huge,' Kevin O'Leary told ABC News. 'It'll be probably one of the biggest successes the 'Shark Tank' has ever had.' Bubbas Boneless Ribs, Season 5 Entrepreneur: Al 'Bubba' Baker Shark that bought in: Daymond John 'Shark Tank' Offer: $300,000 for a 30 percent stake, contingent on securing a licensing deal Al 'Bubba' Baker made a memorable presentation on 'Shark Tank' not only for his, but also because of his big personality. 'I would consider Al 'Bubba' Baker's Boneless Ribs one of the best pitches ever,' Daymond John said.
'First of all we fell in love with this big, giant guy, and then to top it off, he said, 'I have a patent on the product.' ' Baker, a 57-year-old former NFL player-turned restaurateur, came into the tank pitching his patented boneless ribs inspired by his wife's aversion to the messy ribs. John invested $300,000 with Baker, and success came instantly for the company and for Baker. In only 10 days, his business brought in over $200,000 in sales, Baker told ABC News. Baker also launched a new website the night of his episode. Eight weeks later, the website that began with no sales and in debt skyrocketed to about $500,000 worth of sales, he said. 'I think Bubba's Ribs could potentially be not only the biggest deal in 'Shark Tank' history, but maybe the biggest deal I've ever done in my life,' John said.
John and Baker recently teamed up at the star-studded Taste of NFL fundraiser leading up to Super Bowl XLVIII in New York City. More than 3,000 foodies, chefs and current and former NFL players attended the 'party for a purpose.'
The event raised enough money to contribute eight million meals for America's food banks. Voyage-Air Guitar, Season 1 Entrepreneur: Jeff Cohen Sharks That Made an Offer: Kevin O'Leary 'Shark Tank' Offer: Cohen walked away from Kevin O'Leary and Kevin Herrington's $500,000 offer for 51 percent, but he returned in season 3 and sealed an off-camera deal with O'Leary Kevin O'Leary famously told off creator Jeff Cohen when Cohen turned down his offer on the folding guitar technology. 'I am proud of the fact that Kevin said, 'You are dead to me,' before he said it to anybody else,' Cohen told ABC News.
Cohen was invited back in season 3 after his business and product line expanded. A guitar player himself, O'Leary arranged a deal to license the patented hinge to Fender guitars. The waters still remain a bit choppy between the now business partners.
Shark Tank Failures
'It's clear that 'Shark Tank' has been enormously useful in me getting the brand out there and getting the notoriety with Fender, Fender management, and all the other guitar companies,' Cohen said. 'But don't tell Kevin that.' Stella Valle Jewelry, Season 4 Entrepreneurs: Paige Dellavalle and Ashley Jung Sharks That Made an Offer: Lori Greiner and Mark Cuban 'Shark Tank' Offer: $150,000 for a 35 percent stake It was co-founders Paige Dellavalle and Ashley Jung's military background and their jewelry's inspirational messages that convinced Lori Greiner to make a deal with.
Greiner made the deal with Mark Cuban and sales have soared. Before going on 'Shark Tank,' Dellavalle told ABC News they had about $50,000 in sales.
Greiner took Stella Valle on QVC and the complete jewelry line sold out within minutes. Cuban helps the company handle its accounting and back-end operations. 'Since 'Shark Tank,' we have over two and a half million dollars in sales,' Dellavalle said.
Wicked Good Cupcakes, Season 4 Entrepreneurs: Danielle Desroches and Tracey Noonan Sharks That Made an Offer: Kevin O'Leary 'Shark Tank' Offer: $75,000 for $1 per until $75,000 is recouped, then royalty goes down to 45 cents in perpetuity It all started when mother-daughter duo Danielle Desroches and Tracey Noonan enrolled in a local cooking class to spend some quality together. But they discovered they loved baking so much they turned it into a full-time career. Noonan and Desroches brought their pint-sized cupcakes in a jar into the tank in season 4 and shark Kevin O'Leary wanted a big bite. When O'Leary offered a royalty deal, the other sharks warned against it. But the entrepreneurs agreed to give O'Leary $1 for every cupcake sold until his money was recovered and then 45 cents in perpetuity.
O'Leary told ABC News that has fully returned his investment, and he retains the 45 cents per cupcake sold. Before 'Shark Tank,' Wicked Good Cupcakes were doing $15,000 of sales a month. Since appearing on the show, the cupcakes are flying out the door at $265,000 in sales a month, O'Leary said. Wicked Good Cupcakes added two more baking facilities and is now employing more than 50 people.
Simple Sugars, Season 4 Entrepreneur: Lani Lazzari Sharks That Made an Offer: Mark Cuban 'Shark Tank' Offer: $100,000 for 33 percent stake At 19, Lani Lazzari appeared on season 4 of 'Shark Tank' with her company, which sells all-natural sugar body scrubs inspired by her struggle with eczema. 'As a determined 11-year-old, I started doing research and got to work creating the product I was looking for,' Lazzari told ABC News. Shark Mark Cuban invested $100,000 into Lazzari's company. Sales have grown exponentially since Lazzari's appearance on 'Shark Tank.' Simple Sugars went from getting about 1,000 online orders in a few months to 10,000 orders the night their episode aired, Lazzari said. Simple Sugars finished out 2013 with $2.1 million in sales, compared to 2012 when they closed at $88,000 in sales. Simple Sugars ships domestically and internationally and is looking for a retail partner so it can be available in retail stores nationwide.
Lazzari, now 20, was able to provide full-time jobs for her mother and grandmother, she said. Riding on the success of her company, Lazzari is custom designing her own car. 'Simple Sugars is killing it,' Cuban told ABC News.
'You know things are going well when the entrepreneur emails me and says, 'You know, we're past a million dollars in cash in the bank, and I've got to figure out what to do.' Scrub Daddy, Season 4 Entrepreneur: Aaron Krause Sharks That Made an Offer: Lori Greiner 'Shark Tank' Offer: $200,000 for 20 percent of the company creator Aaron Krause came into the tank fully prepared to face the hungry sharks with his multipurpose smiling sponge. He had hard sale numbers, a background in manufacturing and experience with other inventions. His pitch immediately grabbed the sharks' attention because of his sheer enthusiasm and love for his product. That preparation paid off for Krause when shark Lori Greiner saw the mass potential for the Scrub Daddy. She called the sponge a 'hero' product and fought off the sharks to seal the deal with Krause. Scrub Daddy has achieved astronomical success thanks to their appearance on 'Shark Tank.'
Krause and Greiner used QVC as a launching platform for Scrub Daddy. They also closed deals with major retail chains nationwide such as Bed Bath & Beyond and Walmart. 'Before I went on 'Shark Tank,' we had almost zero presence in retail chains, and we couldn't get a single store to return a phone call,' Krause told ABC News. 'The night that 'Shark Tank' airs, our website exploded; within the first hour, we probably had thirty to forty thousand hits.'
The Billionaire Shark Tank Investor, dumped his deal according to HyConn Founder, Jeff Stroope. Stroope’s Facebook page claimed, ’s “ego” got the best of him during negotiations and backed out when he realized what he had done. Stroope said when it was time to come up with the money, Stroope states, “ started changing the deal”. Has not publicly commented on the deal.
Stroope's newness to deal making with investors proves he lacks understanding of the due diligence process. Entrepreneurs learn this lesson through hard knocks. So what happened between, and HyConn founder Jeff Stroope? Stroope hints, concluded licensing the design to another company is the best strategy to bring the to market. It would reduce the cost and increase the profit margin. Apparently, Jeff Stroope disliked Cuban's new strategy, forcing entrepreneur and investor to part ways. Jeff Stroope would no longer be needed with a licensing deal, making the deal less appealing.
The deal does not end with. Another company, 101 Ventures, supposedly took an Equity position after the deal fell apart. This company claimed that they were taking it to manufacturing according to a July 2011 press release from Innovate Arkansas, an economic development organization working with HyConn, but that is not happening, at least yet. Shark Tank would be that better if and other investors would come on and explain why they did not do the deal. It would make for fascinating reality TV, and it would help entrepreneurs have a better understanding of what investors are thinking when they change their mind.
I just saw a rerun of this Hyconn product and couldn’t believe he was getting that type of deal.I;m in the business, as far as the garden hose quick disconnect, a very good quality one has been out for 20 years.You just don’t see it at your local home depot.As far as the Hydrant quick disconnect, good idea but a limited niche market and people that use hydrant adapters are paying less than $40.00 for this product in brass or aluminum.I love the show and was very impressed by.I feel once he looked into it, he quickly realized he didn;t get to where he is on these types of deals. The guy was a complete idiot to begin with to take marks deal, he should have taken kevins deal. 1.25 for 11 years worth of work? 100k pre tax salary, after taxes maybe take home 70k and 7.5%? The guy doesn’t deserve another deal for his stupidity. There have been guys who have been offered 5, 10, even 15 mill for their companies and products and they all walked away like they should have. This guy was an idiot.
1.25 is chump change for a guy who’s a BILLionaire, he would have turned it into 50-60 mill just like he said after he walked out of the tank. The quick connects sold at Home Depot are not the same as this product, you still have screw on adapters to both the hose and spigot. Once they’re screwed on you can pop the hose on and off.
This product allows you to quickly attach it to the threaded spigot without screwing anything on. It is a cool design, no doubt. That said, I don’t know that I would go public trashing while trying to get investors for my product. It’s unprofessional, the deal fell through, both sides couldn’t agree on the direction of the company.
I think licensing the technology is the way to go too. License it to the big manufacturers, take a cut of each one ordered, count your cash.
If If you’re a regular reader of Nibletz, the voice of startups everywhere else, then you should also be a loyal viewer of The Shark Tank on ABC. Despite the story I’m writing right now it’s still my favorite television program of all time. If you’re not familiar with The Shark Tank on ABC, it’s a show that pits real startups and entrepreneurs against self made millionaires; Robert Herjavec, Kevin O’Leary, Barbara Corcoran, Daymond John and Mark Cuban. It must be heart breaking to be like Oregon entrepreneurswho pitched their startup, mywonderfullife.com, on the season premiere of Season 3 of the Shark Tank. While they had a good enough idea to get past an open casting call and other preliminary judges, when they made it to the tank, all five investors balked and they walked away with nothing. One of the rules of the Shark Tank is that you have to convince at least one of the “sharks” to invest exactly what you’re asking for or more, or you walk away with nothing. What has to be even more heartbreaking is cases like Keeley Tillotson and Erika Welsh (coincidentally also from Oregon) whose Wild Squirrel Nut Butter startup was featured on this past Friday’s episode of Shark Tank.
This Friday Shark Tank actually ranked number one out of all of the programs in it’s time slot, so millions and millions of people watched as Tillotson and Welsh, two quirky college students pitched their business. In their episode it got down to the wire. Four of the sharks were out and only self made real estate mogul, turned shark, Barbara Corcoran was left. The girls were looking for $50,000 for 10% equity in their company. Corcoran countered with $50,000 for 40% equity of their company. More after the break That’s not where the story ended though. The girls gave Corcoran the obligatory hug, shook hands and walked out of the tank.
After that great ending we published this story showing how two college students turned entrepreneurs had competed on Shark Tank and come away with an investment. However, we learned on Saturday that things weren’t as they seem. On a blog post published by Tillotson and Welsh on the Wild Squirrel Nut Butter Tumblr page they talked about life after Shark Tank. They had moved their offices, appointed Tillotson’s father Bruce as CEO and never received the investment from Corcoran. Walmart nicotine patch coupons.
Tillotson and Welsh posted this on their blog: “After further evaluation, the investment relationship didn’t end up being the best fit, so the deal with Barbara never materialized.”. They ended up with great exposure and it seems like Corcoran stayed on in some capacity to mentor them however the much needed investment never materialized. The Wild Squirrel Nut Butter story isn’t the only one where a Shark Tank investment didn’t work out. Jeff Stroope, the founder of Hy-Conn LLC to date has gone down in history as the startup with what everyone thought was the best deal of all time. Mark Cuban was rather new to the show and when Stroope made his pitch for a fire hose and garden hose accessory that made it much quicker to mount a hose to the faucet, or fire truck, Cuban got into a fierce bidding war with the other sharks.
The end result was a promised investment by Cuban to Stroope of $1.25 million dollars, a 7.5% royalty and a three year employment contract. A deal that almost seemed to good to be true, but heck it had to be because it was on television in front of an audience of millions. Well that deal also never materialized. Stroope penned several notes on the topic including one on his company’s official Facebook page.
Stroope faulted Cuban’s ego during the show for inflating the original deal. When it came down to it Cuban realized he had no experience in manufacturing and didn’t want any. Stroope walked away empty handed. The exposure from the show was great in theory however Stroope got so many orders that without the up front capital Cuban had promised he wasn’t able to fulfill those orders. Stroope’s episode aired again last month and he was faced with the exact same issue.
Fellow firefighters are rallying behind Stroope and hopefully Stroope will be able to secure some kind of investment to get production on those orders. Now in the infamous words of Season One Shark and CEO of As Seen On TV, Kevin Harrington, but wait there’s more In some cases the shark’s have made contingency deals. The deals say something like, I agree to invest X if we do X as well. There have been a handful of contingency deals in the past three seasons. The case of Qubits and Mark Burginger is one of those contingency cases.
In season one Burginger pitched his unique geometrically shaped building toy Qubits. Four of the sharks bowed out pretty quickly. Burginger had gone in and sought $90,000 for 51% of his business, so he was selling controlling interest. At the time of his episode taping he had only sold $8,000 worth of product. That combined with the competitive nature of the toy business had Herjavec, O’Leary, Corcoran and Kevin Harrington out pretty quickly. Daymond John on the other hand was very impressed with Burginger’s generous offer of 51% of his business.
John made a deal where he would invest $90,000 for 51% of Burginger’s business contingent on the fact that he and Burginger would call the top four toy companies and secure a deal with one of them. By Burginger’s own account they did in fact call all four major toy companies but were unsuccessful in striking a deal. As a result John backed out of the deal. However, Burginger confirmed in an email to nibletz.com and several tweets on Sunday that he and Daymond John have became friends and John has continued to be a mentor of sorts to Burginger. Burginger wrote in to nibletz.com on Monday saying: “Your blog post about Squirrel Nut is interesting.
Excuse me for tweeting you. I have seen it happen many times before and when bloggers go around talking about the millions vested in the small start-ups – it kinda causes me to cringe.” We actually thought that Burginger had been completely reneged on in the way that both the Wild Squirrel Nut butter team and Hy-Conn had been. You would probably also gather that form Burginger’s email to us. That doesn’t seem to be the case. We watched season one episode 14 a number of times in the office on Monday just to make sure we saw it the way the producers intended us to see it. Mark Burnett should add something to this disclaimer saying that even after an offer the shark can still back out So who is to blame here? Some in the investment community feel that Shark Tank is risky as heck for those particular reasons.
Mark Cuban even admits on his blog that the sharks have no idea what is going to be pitched. They have no access to computers in the studio and all they can do is take notes. Cuban also admits that the pitch sessions can last anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. In a recent Google Hangout with high school students studying business John also said pitches can last even up to an hour and a half. Although we haven’t seen the contracts yet, we’ve talked to a few contestants who have appeared on Shark Tank and have gathered that the contestant understands that the offer presented on the show is an option for whatever deal the shark makes, contingent on the outcome of the required due diligence. We of course have to deal with the fact that Shark Tank is a reality tv show and they have to cater to the audience, and the advertisers through ratings. Can we be sympathetic to those startups that have ended up with no deal after America has seen them successfully pitch?
Of: was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions about his experience on the Shark Tank from Last Season. We see that he gets a verbal deal on the set with Mark Cuban, but the million dollar question is if he actually finalized a partnership buyout with Mark Cuban after all was said and done: Q: How long was the time you actually spent on the set with the Sharks discussing your business?
Of: Around an hour. Q: Obviously, a verbal deal was reached with Mark Cuban, but an actual deal in writing was never finalized. Was that by your prerogative? Was it because the terms verbally offered were modified? Was it because Mark Cuban changed his mind after doing his due diligence?
Of: Mark started changing some off the things he offered and we never could come to an agreement after that. Q: Did you hire any professionals to assist you with finalizing a potential contract? Of: I used my local Attorney Q: Did appearing on Shark Tank help open the doors to additional exposure on national media?
Of: Yes Q: Are you happy that you stuck to your creative vision and business model for your business? Of: Yes Q: Was there any helpful advice given to you by the Sharks that you have used since speaking to them? The main thing is not to give up on something you truly believe in as long as you are making good financial decisions during the process. Q: Is your product available for purchase? We plan to begin production in 1 to 2 weeks. Q: When do you anticipate them hitting the market?
Of: We expect parts to be ready my mid June. Q: What have been the roadblocks that have kept the products from reaching the market? Of: The biggest delay is that everyone thought that I got a deal with Cuban when in fact I was still needing an investor. James caruso.
I am actually meeting one of two investors that have offered to fund everything tonight. Good luck to you. You have a fabulous product, we expect it to be a hit when it is released to the market for sale! Thank You to Jeff Stroope of Hyconn LLC for answering these questions and giving us an insight into what happens after the show is taped.
To contact Hyconn LLC, visit their website, or email:, or call 501-606-2181 and follow HyConn on Twitter.
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