Shark Tank is an American reality television show that premiered on August 9, 2009, on the popular broadcasting channel, ABC. With the latest Season released in September 2022, the business show has been a hit and succeeded for over 14 years.
The underlying theme is to show entrepreneurs present their business ideas to a panel of five big investors called “Sharks”, to pique their interest and get funding. The sharks receive a percentage of the ownership as well as a share of profits.
While the contestant is required to pitch a foreseeable valuation, the show turns into a game of deals and negotiations, where the interested shark gives a counteroffer. If multiple Sharks are interested, a bidding war ensues and then the entrepreneur has to make the choice.
Very often, the Sharks find weaknesses in the business models, valuation or products of the entrepreneur and may choose to opt-out. If the contestant is not given a deal from any of the Sharks, they walk away empty-handed.
The show is a franchise of the internationally acclaimed “Dragon’s Den” whose format was inspired by Japan’s Money Tigers (2001).
WHO ARE THE SHARKS?
The panel of hard-to-impress judges consist of 6 core members amongst which 5 appear on any episode of Shark Tank. These members are business experts, investors, self-made millionaires and billionaires.
Periodically, the show invites Guest Sharks to appear as well. Some of the Guest Sharks are prominent faces which include Kevin Hart, Maria Sharapova, Alex Rodriguez, Charles Barkley, Emma Grede, and Anne Wojcickli.
The six core sharks:
MARK CUBAN:
Cuban’s reputation catapulted when he became more popular on the show for his magnetic personality. His success story is as natural as his passion for the craft. He was ranked 177 on the 2020 Forbes 400 list.
Hailing from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Cuban became a billionaire by the age of 37. His most powerful and successful business idea was to start Broadcast.com in 1995 with his longtime friend Todd Wagner. It streamed audio over the internet. Later, they sold it to Yahoo for a record $5.6 billion.
In 2000, he purchased a major stake in the Dallas Mavericks. It’s the fifth most valuable sports franchise in the NBA, worth over $685 million now. The business magnate is the owner of Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures as well.
Some of his investment interests are businesses owned by minorities or women, pharmaceuticals, cryptocurrency, and the environment. Celebrities like Cuban discovered new investment tools with the dawn of NFT taking center stage in 2021.
The tenacious entrepreneur is undisputed as a business mogul and his advice to young entrepreneurs is to value money and invest time in growing.
He has shared his business-savvy experiences in his book titled, “How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It Too.”
BARBARA CORCORAN:
Corcoran is an American business icon and the founder of The Corcoran Report. She carved herself a niche when she co-founded The Corcoran Group, the first female-run real estate company. In the first year itself, the company earned $350,000.
Growing up in Edgewater, New Jersey, she has learnt the value and ethics of hard work by struggling through twenty-two jobs in her life.
In 2001, she sold her company to NRT Inc. for $66 million.
Now, she is an author, and investor and her public appearance on the show has helped her gain a significant position amongst business leaders. Although Co-Shark Daymond names her as the ‘toughest’ judge to sway, she strives to help other entrepreneurs find their path to success and this attitude makes her a fan-favorite.
DAYMOND JOHN:
John is a master strategist and a very resourceful entrepreneur. He believes that a brand’s ultimate success comes from the power of relationships.
The credit for his successful endeavors goes to his dedication to learning. John’s commitment to creativity makes him an undeniable force to be reckoned with.
The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance.
John was born in Brooklyn, New York. He tapped into the neglected potential of fashion with “For Us By Us” a.k.a FUBU. His innovative brand strategies made FUBU popularly identified with the music culture.
He is listed #15 on Detail’s list of “50 Most Influential Men”.
John believes that the only way to fill gaps in one’s knowledge is to partner with someone who already knows the subject in detail.
Daymond John is a recipient of various esteemed business awards such as NAACP Entrepreneurs of the Year (1999), Ernst and Young’s New York Entrepreneur of the Year (2003) and more.
In 2015, Ex-President Barack Obama appointed him as the ambassador to promote underserved entrepreneurs.
The CEO of the Shark Group now uses his expertise to build new companies and is the author of several inspirational publications.
KEVIN O’LEARY:
O’Leary is fondly also known as Mr Wonderful. He is famous for his structured deals on Shark Tank, which are often designed to test the contestant’s confidence in their product and themselves. His audacious personality makes him well-respected and is one of the savviest business tycoons of the 21st century.
O’Leary grew up in Montreal, Quebec Canada and was a cast member of the original Dragons’ Den.
His wide range of ventures included working as an assistant brand manager, and television producer, wanting to be a photographer, educational software, Special Event Television (SET) and so on. He is the co-founder of The Learning Company which sold for an astonishing $4.2 billion to Mattel.
Mr Wonderful has built companies across a multitude of industries. A few include O’Leary Ventures, O’Leary Mortgages, O’Leary Books, and O’Leary Fine Wines.
His numerous television show appearances are hard to miss. He has been a part of SqueezePlay, Discovery Project Earth, Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank. His tenacity is inspiring.
LORI GREINER:
To name Lori Greiner as an international multi-million dollar brand would be an understatement. Greiner is famous for sharing advice generously, which makes her the warm-blooded Shark.
She is one of the most proliferative inventors of retail products. Her vision to create affordable products that change people’s lives by solving problems has given her the title of “QVC Queen.”
Lori is from Chicago where she majored in journalism, television and film. She founded the company, ‘For Your Ease Only Inc” which made over $1 million in sales in the first year itself. It is currently valued at a net worth of $100 million.
Her instinct for problem-solving led her to create a television show named Clever and Unique Creations by Lori Greiner in the year 2000. 90% of her QVC’s success began with the products featured on this show. Her product range caters to a diversity of needs and her passion is what made her a business magnate today.
Greiner’s books have been bestsellers and her products are often presented on various platforms like Town & Country, Family Circle, O The Oprah Magazine and so on.
ROBERT HERJAVEC:
Globally recognized for his fastest-growing security software company, “The Herjavec Group,” Robert Herjavec has built and sold numerous multi-million dollar IT companies.
Reining from Canada, Herjavec emphasizes one motto that is the key to the success of an entrepreneur: “Adaptability is a trait.”
He became Canada’s #1 provider of Internet Security Software with his innovation named BRAK Systems. After selling it to AT&T Canada, Herjavec landed another million-dollar deal with Nokia. He sold a technology company called RAMP Networks for an incredible $225 million.
Before his rise to entrepreneurship, Robert tried his hands at retail, being an assistant director and a collection agent too.
The Herjavec Group earns tens of millions of dollars of revenue, every year. It is an IT integrator that stores information for enterprises and governments, in a secure, encrypted space.
WHAT IS A BAD PITCH?
Persuading another sharp mind to invest in your business poses challenges on every corner. The sharks sometimes miss a good business venture due to non-negotiable circumstances.
Every entrepreneur who is featured on the show must be well prepared and present to impress the Sharks. It gets them their 15 minutes of fame as well because viewers have disclosed that they have purchased a product because it made it on the show, no matter the result.
Despite these situations, some people have missed the target mark of pitching well to investors.
Here’s what could go wrong:
Not Preparing In-depth
Investors need figures for everything to analyze their profitability and growth prospects. If you are unaware of market demands, competition, revenues, profits or any basic business module, it reflects as unpreparedness. It does not look good to an investor if the entrepreneur itself isn’t devoted to the business.
Good Idea; Bad Execution
When an owner does not think all the way through, it may cause problems which an experienced investor can pinpoint. Some ideas may be good, but the execution may have taken the wrong direction.
Overvaluation / Undervaluation
Asking for too much money, or too less can disinterest an investor without them even listening to the figures. A valid reason for why one needs that funding may illuminate the investors.
Trying to be the Nimble-witted One in the Room
While asking for anything, one needs humility. The investor may refuse to fund, for any reason. Nevertheless, never try to confront them or question their abilities. It may cause repercussions and affect an entrepreneur’s budding image and business.
THE WORST PITCHES ON SHARK TANK:
Can you prevent the mistakes?
Have a look at some of the worst pitches of Shark Tank and how it went down so you can learn how to pitch a product successfully:
Sullivan Generator
Season 3, Episode 11 (2012)
Pitch Value: $1,000,000 for 10% equity.
Mark Sullivan is a Biomedical engineering graduate. He claimed to have invented the one-of-its-kind machine, which was a generator that could create electricity from saltwater and industrial wastewater. He alleged that the desalination process could even produce gold.
What went wrong: It was only a conceptual drawing. There was no prototype of the machine that could interest the Sharks. Even without sound proof, Herjavec offered to invest $50000 if O’Leary would invest the rest. Kevin declined.
The guy wanted to build a system in the ocean that blended around sand and created gold. I thought I would get a pinky ring or something.
– Daymond John, Core Shark.
After Shark Tank: Sullivan was not able to interest any investor in his concept.
Tycoon Real Estate
Season 6, Episode 16 (2015)
Pitch Value: $50000 for 5% equity.
Aaron McDaniel thought he cracked a mastermind solution for millions of people who would like to start investing in real estate but don’t possess the required knowledge for the same. The idea of his platform Tycoon Real Estate was a website that allowed any user to log in to invest in commercial and residential properties, which could also be sold later.
Real business tycoon, Cuban announced his decision of staying out within the first two minutes. O’Leary brought REIT to McDaniel’s attention. REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) is a fund that is invested in multiple real estate projects. A user can leave anytime. McDaniel claimed that REITs are not appealing which did not appease Cuban.
Finally, Corcoran, the real estate mogul of the panel, declared that the key point of any good real estate deal was knowing the lead investor’s details and capabilities. Not knowing the lead investor could pose a lot of risks and would be unfair to people who aren’t well-versed in real estate.
Investing without knowing the lead investor is spooky.
-Barbara Corcoran
After Shark Tank: McDaniel was in luck, Tycoon went up for sale albeit it seems like the company is not doing business any longer.
Ionic Ear
Season 1, Episode Pilot (2009)
Pitch Value: $1,000,000 for 15% equity.
This list would seem incomplete without mentioning the most flawed and terrifying pitches of all time, Ionic Ear.
Darrin Johnson claimed that Ionic Ear was a Bluetooth device that would be surgically implanted in the ear, designed to replace the Bluetooth of a person’s phone.
Without any previous sales, the Sharks reacted to the problems. For instance, the user would have to insert a needle device into their ear at night.
And the most shocking fact was that the person would have to repeat the surgical process every time to upgrade the device.
Years later, Sharks still agree that Ionic Ear was the worst pitch they had ever heard on Shark Tank.
A crazy engineer whose device would run out of battery life, and have another surgeon remove it from the ear and recharge it. Nutso!
-Barbara Corcoran
After Shark Tank: Ionic Ear is not available anywhere, so we assume the implanted tech never manifested.
Pavlok
Season 7, Episode 29 (2016)
Pitch Value: $500,000 for 3.14% equity.
This episode kept people on the edge of their seats. Maneesh Sethi came to Shark Tank with a wristband that looked a lot like Fitbit. It was named Pavlok after physiologist Ivan Pavlov who introduced the concept of Classical Conditioning.
The wristband shocks its wearer to break a bad habit. It can be manually prompted by the person itself.
Cuban called him a con artist when he could not provide his technical research or reports of clinical trials. Sethi was backing up his $200 band on other people’s research on Aversion Therapy.
He gave them the watches to try on and gave them a mild shock which they laughed about. As soon as he increased the setting, it evoked curses from the judges.
Sethi wouldn’t listen to the Sharks when they spoke and this infuriated everyone. Sethi even told at one moment, “You all are making me edgy,” to which Greiner asks him again, rhetorically.
Greiner even implied that Sethi did not want any deal; he just wanted the publicity that came with being on Shark Tank.
While all the sharks rejected his product, an altercation happened when O’Leary told him he was intrigued. Since O’Leary knew about Aversion therapy, he was offering a structured deal. This aggravated Cuban.
The deal was that O’Leary would loan out $500,000 for 24 months, with an interest rate of 7.5% and equity as well.
Instead of humbly accepting or rejecting the deal, Sethi said, “I would take an offer from any other shark besides Mr Wonderful.”
All the sharks asked him to leave when things heated after this comment.
After Shark Tank: Just like Lori had implied, Pavlok blew up with leaps. It has already had 3 funding rounds for $200,000 and is running.
Cougar Energy
Season 7, Episode 29 (2016)
Pitch Value: $150,000 for 30% equity.
Ryan Custer thought of capitalizing on the “cougar” craze of the 2010s. A cougar is an older woman interested in younger men.
Cougar Limited manufactured an energy drink which targeted middle-aged women who considered themselves to be affiliated with the label.
None of the sharks had anything nice to say about the product and upon tasting it, Corcoran even said that it tasted like chalk. Herjavec said that would make a good gag gift.
After Shark Tank: Cougar never caught onto being in business.
The Skinny Mirror
Season 7, Episode 05 (2015)
Pitch Value: $200,000 for 20% equity.
The right idea, but the wrong product. Belinda Jasmine pitched a product to the Sharks which could help people ease their insecurities. A ‘skinny mirror’ that made a person look 5-10 pounds slimmer. Although Jasmine had no patent, sharks presented problems to her.
Her primary customers were retail stores. O’Leary called out the product, as “intentionally deceiving people.” All sharks pointed out that when women would try on the clothes in the store and like them, return home and be disappointed, the product would be of no use.
Jasmine countered by saying that Skinny Mirror labeled the mirror with caution notes to let people know that their reflection was not accurate to reality. But the sharks didn’t budge and she left with no deal.
After Shark Tank: Jasmine shut down the business stating it “wasn’t worth the stress” but would love to have seen Skinny Mirror go mainstream.
