Amarsir

It seems they caught the Shark Tank disease of "everyone is successful after our show". I preferred older update specials which included more visits with people who were told "no" - some of whom were still grinding and some who stopped. Also there were a lot of updates we'd already seen in regular shows. Overall I'm happy for the ones doing well, but as a show it was pretty disappointing.

I think Mark would agree with the "grind it out", except that his interpretation includes 1) changing to something else if the first idea isn't working 2) seeing setbacks as an opportunity to double down when the competition is weak and 3) knowing the difference. So I think he would say that luck comes around and being in position to take advantage of that luck is what matters. And as for Broadcast.com it was sold for Yahoo stock, not cash. If Mark had decided to ride out that one idea and stay invested in Yahoo instead of diversifying, he wouldn't be a billionaire today. Fortunate timing to be sure, but if it was just luck his story would be over. I get your point. But all he said in this case was "you've achieved what other people want". He didn't add "... and would have if they weren't so lazy". The chili couple referred to themselves as "The American Dream" and every Shark agreed. Mark was just a little more robust at it.

Disregarding the irony here, I have to ask: What's the equivalent of "guy"? Male & Female. Woman and Man. Lady and Gentleman. Guys and ... what? Guys and gals? Guys and Dolls? While I do see your point on that, I'm pretty sure we've seen Barbara refer to presenters as "guys". No need to be more formal than she is. (Although in relation to my above question, I'm pretty sure Barbara does say "gal".)

Did I miss something? He said "You are everything that everyone who watches this show aspires to be." Which certainly is an overstatement, but hardly 'I swear I will never live for another person nor ask them to live their life for me."

It was a very clever deal. I had a finance professor in college who LOVED that kind of insightful financing areangements.Mark's deal is for unsold ad space. If the app does well, ad space gets sold out. He gets nothing for free but owns 10% of a successful app for $1.5 million. If the app falters, Mark gets free ad space up to $1.5 million. That gets him his money's worth on the investment, but only happened because they're not generating ad sales. So the ad space was less a free reward and more of a guarantee. And it's a guarantee that costs the company nothing since unsold ad space just goes wasted anyway. Compare that to the other things Sharks do for security, like royalties, debt structure, or just greater equity. This was a win/win and very smart of him to see.

I'm impressed by their processing time. If she just started 6 weeks before taping, how early must it have been when she got in touch with the show and how quickly did they determine it was an airworthy idea? (I'm actually suspecting they contacted her since she didn't seem to know the show's rules, but that raises further questions about how they knew so early.) I thought Mark was being incredibly rude ... until Lori actually finished and then I felt I owed him an apology. Listening again, the part where Mark interrupts has a camera cut and Lori starting with "I also thought to myself". Which implies that was a much longer speech than what we saw. And when she went "So I'm thinking 8% ... mmm ... 10% ... mmm ...", I can't imagine anyone in the audience sitting there going "What about nine? Did she consider 9%?" And since Mark didn't demand an immediate answer, and didn't object to Robert or Barbara responding, I think his complaint was very specific.

I forget who the judge was, but during the last (non-celebrity) season one of the judges called something a "decomposed cheesecake". That might say something about how this show recruits its panel.

@nobodyyoucare makes a good point, but I'm with you. Marcus' numbers were 100 people twice a week at $20 per head. And he called it "gross profit" meaning that's on top of food sales. Yes it can be useful, but I don't see them renting this room out for $2000 twice a week.

He's won too many times. While it's nice to see The Gang get punished, no one can survive that many encounters unscathed. I loved the hidden reference at the end. The next case up was "Morton Steak Delivery" vs "Paddy's Pub", which I assume is the "chicken & airlines scam" guy from Charlie Work.

That's not how I remember the first episode. I thought the brother was presented as a tortured genius who was unappreciated by his business-running brother who apologized on camera half a dozen times. And I'm glad this time it was more of a "he's a prima donna", you tried.

That store was way too big, even if The Profit turns them into a destination. Fortunately they already owned the land so it's not like rent will be killing them. But I wonder if overbuilding isn't maybe a problem for Marcus sometimes. Which reminds me: wasn't there a line in the episode teaser about the 6000 ft wine store not having enough business for its space? Or was that a problem with the old model which is now fixed? Yeah. Her joke about Marcus clearly had an air of "Kidding! (Not really.)"

Not yet. They taped last month so the episodes are ready to go. (As, I understand, are 4 unaired ones from last year.) But no announcement that I heard. It's probably a summer run again.

A lot of people - myself included - log everything we eat. Fitbit and MyFitnessPal and similar resources will keep the total and let you know how you're doing against daily goals. But I am highly skeptical about that product. First, there are several reasons it would be better as a phone app like they suggested. (Which I think may already exist; not sure.) But second, there's too many things you can't tell. Your app is going to know if I used light salad dressing vs regular? If I baked something with yogurt or applesauce instead of oil? And what of things that don't fit in the plate, like my beverage? So you have to at best say it's a companion tool. But if it's just a piece I already have a kitchen scale and measuring cups. And an eye for portion size with lots of reference lists when I eat out. As someone squarely in their target market, I can't imagine buying that plate. What if the bees are paid a living wage?

I got a strong sense of spin when Marcus was laying that out. To my recollection they spent $300,000 on a slotting fee for shelf space. They then divided that over 6 flavors. Marcus then divided that and concluded that they spent $50,000 on this flavor. (Plus $20k of development.) Well not necessarily. If the fee was set and they have enough space to avoid running out of stock on the other 5, slotting the black sesame was free. There's no indication they could have gotten in for $240k on only 5 flavors. Plus the slot is still theirs if they want to put mango there now or whatever. So if they thought the Black Sesame might be their 6th flavor, it didn't cost them any slotting fee to try it. Don't get me wrong - it's crazy not to have consumer tested it. Although I have no problem with "black" in the name, sesame isn't a flavor I'm anxious to try and the gray looked unappealing. But I also think Marcus was making it seem worse than it really was.

Yes, but that's not inconsistent with what I said. At the end of the first episode they were going to be "Mr. Green Tea by Keyport Creamery" and that latter name has completely disappeared. And now Marcus is hinting at the same issue: "Based on the name, what would you expect all of these flavors to contain?" (Which by the way is a leading question. He's telling them to assume there's a common product.) And he's changing the label again. Which by the way, I think is dumb. He's hiding the company name down in the corner and only leaving a symbol. If you expect to be a nobody brand and get picked off the shelf based purely on the flavor, fine. But how are you going to be memorable or discussion-worthy? "Hey honey, what wast the brand of that ice cream you liked?" "Oh I don't know, the one with the leaf symbol on it." What is this, Prince Ice Cream? I understand his issue, but you need a brand name. But what do I know. As Marcus would say, I'm not a branding expert.

I liked it more than you, but I do understand what you're saying. Frank is an antagonist who throws quirks into other people's stories. He's not a leading man himself. I think that's why I liked seeing Bill Ponderosa more than I usually do, because he broke up a story that was just too much disjointed weirdness. I also think this version of Frank doesn't quite match with the ones we've seen at other times. Yes, he's disgusting and runs on drugs and alcohol. But he's also a schemer. A Frank who has no idea what's going on and lucks into the right spot is very different from one who buys a mountain and then ignites a rivalry to distract from his plan to drill it. p.s. Anyone else bothered that Frank didn't need keys to start Dennis's car?

I get most of my groceries at ShopRite so I'll probably be walking past some Mr. Green Tea pints later today. But 1000 calories / pint is not in my current diet so I don't know. The show makes it sound decent but not compelling IMHO. I'd have liked an actual answer to why they didn't end up going with "Keyport Creamery". It was slightly implied with the discussion of the name's "tradition" but it's weird how unceremoniously it was dropped after being so important in the initial episode. Also I chuckled when Marcus said "Most people would ask you to change the name but I'm not going to do that." Yeah, Marcus, except for when you did.

I always feel like the show is missing an opportunity for that. The first half is always "Wacky Kitchen Goofups" and the last half is My Fair Lady with food. I think it would be nice to have a show where they teach basic skills to people who sorely need them. Especially since so much of the Food Network is either elevated oddities like Chopped or non-cooking shows like Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. I don't know, maybe that would lose the more sophisticated audience. But I doubt any of these contestants are going to go buy meat grinders or ice cream makers after the show, so I prefer lessons they might directly apply.

I'm surprised too. Either he considers this a completely hands-off investment or he has the franchise infrastructure so set up that it's easily delegated. It does sound like a good business, but 5% is so rare for anyone to take. That was a nice followup on Quinta Quinoa. It's nice to see some behind-the-scenes on a Vikram investment. Especially since there aren't that many to choose from!

They had too much insanity to fit in the show. There wasn't even any mention of the room full of trash with air fresheners nailed to the wall. Or the TV having fallen by the last day.

When The Simple Greek aired, everyone on the forums wondered why Marcus needed them. A year later he's finally starting to question it too. I wonder though if he has the same problem he did with Artistic Stitch where he doesn't want to admit to overestimating someone until it's really too late. We did, however, get to see why Marcus wants partners. He wants someone to do the daily work for equity, not salary. That's something he probably can't get building from scratch. (And we've seen him willing to give salary too when they work that hard. But Marcus clearly wants to be a mostly passive owner and that requires someone who isn't.) I really wish we'd seen the answer. It has to have been more than just "I didn't think you'd notice". If it was there's no way Marcus would have resolved it so easily. I'm sure I wouldn't have been on Mike and Kathleen's side with it, but it feels unfair to have been presented the scenario without their answer.

Best number I saw was $20,000 plus what was collected at the potato party he threw. If that's accurate then it's not technically a majority, but still a good chunk.

Blame the potato salad. A guy puts "potato salad" as his kickstarter project as a joke. People pledge $55,000 as a joke. He gets famous and receives a bunch of money. Lots of new people think they can get easy money too. Since there's no real barrier to asking, now anyone's nonsense is a crowdfunding opportunity.

Was there any mention of the ice duration? There's only so much heat it can absorb. I can appreciate the low-tech approach of using an ice-based device rather than trying to run a compressor, but ice easily melts in a few hours without pumping hot air through it. This seems like you'd be 90 minutes away from having warm drinks *and* an overpriced fan.

I enjoyed the tourism guys. We don't get as many goofy pitches anymore. I was actually just looking at round trip from NY to Rome for $400. Oil is cheap right now. If they got a supplier deal for the lodging the cost isn't completely implausible, although I agree they aren't leaving a lot of margin. (I'm also granting that they were doing a "prices start at ..." statement, not quoting the likely price for most situations.) The problem is that the bulk of the work has to take place via sales overseas, and they aren't there. Their vague idea isn't a business. The cookie business was interesting. Frozen Yogurt businesses are very fad dependent and are definitely in decline now. Make your own Cupcake shops have appeared and are having similar problems. I think cookies could work if they have a way of doing a fast bake, but Manjit is right to want her money back quickly.