During a recent day of filming on the Shark Aquarium soundstage in Culver City, Calif., the competition for a deal has been particularly heated. Yet when the crew started hitting the set for the next pitch, the Sharks were cold.
As the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" played, Daymond John and Lori Greiner, guest Shark Bethany Frankel and Robert Herjavec bumped their hips as they danced around the set. Mark Cuban did an impressive job of lip-synching the lyrics:“I said a hip hop the hippie the hippie / For the hip hop and you don't stop / Rock it for the bang bang boogie / Say up jumping the boogie for the beat. Even Kevin O'Leary patted his feet and bumped a bit while texting his phone. And, when the song ended, John shared a joke:"What do you call a pirate who has two arms, two legs and two eyes? (Punch line, revealed to groans from fellow Sharks:"a rookie.")
"We're very zen in the den," Herjavec laughs. “If I lost a deal with another Shark and it became a successful business, it was because it was meant to be. Success is a combination of the right time, the right opportunity, the right shark and the right go-to-market strategy. ”
Yet this assurance, which all Sharks share, aside, there have been deals that the Sharks admit they regret missing out on or missed.
Deal the Sharks Regret
At the start of season five, there was a rarity:the show's five sharks that day struck a deal together, offering a total of $1 million for 30 percent of Breathometer.
The portable breathalyzer plugged into the audio jack of a smartphone. Blow into the device and an app on your phone provided what was described as a law enforcement-level assessment of your blood alcohol content, feedback that could help you determine if it was safe. to drive or you should leave your car behind and call an Uber.
But this unusual consensus among sharks was followed by trouble rather than profit. First, the company struggled to fulfill its orders. Then, in an even bigger setback, the respirometer turned out to be much less accurate than promised, sometimes reporting low blood alcohol readings when it was, in fact, dangerous to drive. The Federal Trade Commission ordered the company to disable the app and offer its customers a full refund.
“They had all kinds of challenges, to put it bluntly,” Herjavec says. “It was this deal that made me decide that I was only going to invest in entrepreneurs who actually had some experience in running a business.”
The deal that came about runaway
Greiner has a strong instinct when it comes to assessing a product's potential, and she's landed some of the most successful deals in Shark Aquarium history by building on those instincts.
Never mind that John derided the SimplyFit board as "plastic potato chips", Greiner became an enthusiastic supporter and the device of fitness crossed the $170 million threshold in retail sales. Likewise, Scrub Daddy was mobbed by O'Leary as a "little piece of shit." Undeterred, Greiner invested in the innovative kitchen sponge; the company, with an expanded product line, recently hit $150 million in sales. "I don't look back," says Greiner. "I got all the offers I really wanted. She admits, however, that she missed out on a winner, not because she was outbid, but because she ignored her gut. The year was 2013, the product of a Wi-Fi enabled doorbell called Doorbot that streams live video and audio to your smartphone or computer. Greiner's fellow Sharks dismissed him, she recalled, as "already out there and not that special." Despite a strong feeling that Doorbot might be what Greiner calls "a product of heroes," she was swayed by the passage. Rebranded as “The Ring,” this video doorbell is now a $1 billion-valued business, according to a Shark Tank update released in November, making it a contender for success. Shark Aquarium ever treat. "I should have trusted my instincts, gone for it, and then looked at the due diligence," Greiner says now.
Still, the Sharks aren't losing sleep over these admitted missteps. "Why cry over spilled milk," O'Leary likes to say, "when you know there's always going to be another killer coming through the door and into the tank." »
Related: What sharks have learned after a decade in the tank
