Amarsir

Women's shoes with changeable features is another one of those ideas that's been invented numerous times. The method varies which is why they each get patents, but the fact that there's no well-known version out there proves to me that they just don't go far.

This episode didn't do that much for me. Their Magic accuracy was maybe 50%. They used real card names and reasonable mockups of cardbacks, but the gameplay was pretty off. Not nearly as good as the WoW episode. (Although miles better than that Magic-like card game they pretend to play on Big Bang Theory.) I understand why. They took a 20-minute game about bluffing and making odds calls and turned it into a 20-second action sequence. I don't blame them for doing that given the plot they wanted - and sometimes I think the Magic's developers would rather the game played that way as well. But it made the whole think seem more like a cheap reference than theme-inspired episode. (Again, unlike when they did WoW.) Randy was very much in character. But since they already had a ridiculous Randy theme this season with Lorde, I kept wondering why they'd dropped that. Either Lorde should have been a 1-episode thing or they should have run it throughout the season and not made him Amazingly Randy Overall I could only give the episode a C. One of the weaker episodes for me this season along with The Cissy.

Yeah, the product placement was a little too obvious. But cost-tracking was also something they needed, so I don't think it was out of line. Not like Daymond John saying "Barbara you're enjoying that cheese dip so much I'm going to take a picture on my new T-Mobile phone and share it with the world via T-Mobile's 4G coverage." The bar for integrated product placement has been set pretty low. I do think the casting goes out of their way to find people with personal issues, and "control freak" is an easy one to find among small business owners. I don't know if it's Marcus seeing himself as part-counselor, or CNBC just thinking that personal growth makes good TV. But that kind of focus makes me think they're deliberately showing us the "People" part of "People, Process, Product". You make excellent points. However, with Marcus' cash infusion they're safe enough to do some exploration. Right now they'll attempt 50 new SKUs. Two years from now 45 will have been killed off, 5 will have done well, and a couple more will have sprung up as offshoots of those 5. When they need to find new sales, that's not a bad way to go.

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten how dense she was being about that. It was weird, like she was only using 20% of her brain on the pitch. Gloves that work with touchscreens have been around for a while now. I don't know if that's better or worse than his make-your-own liquid, but certainly there's room for the product. (Incidentally, there are also gloves with a speaker in the thumb and a microphone in the pinky. You can answer your phone by miming yourself talking on the phone.) It must be that last bit. Dragons Den always tries to be encouraging unless the product is a ridiculous dead end. But I also thought it was over-fawning which they only did since it's free.

It's kind of unfair of me to respond then if you're vowing to silence yourself. But I will anyway. What you say about their motivation may be true, and we could debate if it even matters whether they're trying to make money by helping people, or trying to help people and get paid for it. But the motives don't suddenly change whether the shark puts in $350k or $700k. 5% is not a lot to offer and does sound like they wanted free advertising. But he very quickly agreed to 10% so they'd have a bigger chunk. He just didn't drop his valuation and they didn't give him a reason to. We'll never know how much discussion was cut, but from what we saw he immediately offered what they asked for and Lori refused to play ball back, saying nothing on the subject other than "I don't want to give you more money." That bothered me. I understand what you're saying: that if helping people was really more important than money they'd act like it's more important than money. I just don't think that giving in to Lori or Kevin makes them any more or less virtuous.

Film Dub again and no Helping Hands? Whose Line, you spoil me! (Keep it up.) Jonathan was underused, but I guess that can't be helped when you have a guest that needs time. I agree Wendy probably could have handled something more challenging but it's probably better to risk putting her on the spot. To me the best part was that it was a save. Colin didn't have a laugh good enough to exit on so he was floundering a bit. And in typical improv style, Wayne delivered to get him out. Very funny and great teamwork.

If the Squatty Potty folks can prove it helps, I have no issue with them going after insurance / Medicaid coverage. Someone not too long ago invented a device to help people put on socks without bending over. Medicaid started covering and they made millions. And in doing so enabled a lot of elderly/injured people to be more self-sufficient and less pained. It's a good thing. I do agree there are concerns about the price when payment shifts to a third party, but that's a whole other issue.

So the "Rent a Christmas Tree" business has been post-Shark for 2 years, and they're getting ready to do a test run at 5 stores? I'm glad it was pitched as a pseudo-charity because Mark won't be getting his money out of that in this lifetime. Proof that not every business blows up after appearing. I've said before that "inventors love toilets", and it's still true. I don't know what it is, but every inventor show that I've ever seen has had toilet products at one time or another. But this was the only one with actual sales. Although I do think their valuation was reasonable. The Sharks wanted more than 5%, he was willing to raise the equity for more cash, and they outright said no. I wouldn't have blamed them for walking out, although I do think Lori will be a good partner. Something about the Pipcorn offers confused me. (And I usually try to be the one who explains this stuff, even when no one asks. :) ) Barbara said she wanted a proportional withdrawal any time they did a disbursement. To me that seems like standard behavior that wouldn't even merit a mention. Why wouldn't she get $10 for their $90? That's what partnership means. Unless it's agreed upon as a salary, and disbursement would either be matched or dilute their ownership share. If that's not default, what is?

Yeah, they were a huge flop. Everyone thinks they have the next great fitness idea, despite being indistinguishable from the last 5000 great fitness ideas. The rest of the show was surprisingly good though. I don't know if the whole apple sticker progress board thing is an effective way to get kids to eat their lunch, but even my cold heart was impressed that the 6yo did the entire pitch herself. None of these really felt like the "parents have a weak idea and pretend its the kid's business" stuff we see way too much.

At the time they set it up, Becky and John were getting along great. So I'm sure that one "firing" the other never crossed their minds. In order to put 401k money into a business you have to do some paperwork. It's not like a simple savings withdrawal. What they (probably) did was transfer his external 401k into a "West End Coffee Company Employee Retirement Plan 401k". Where he just happened to be the only employee with cash under management. And then because they were setting up a company 401k there's a line on the paperwork saying "who will be the director of the employee fund?". Since they were doing it together, John said "well why don't I put your name here so we're both in?" Only later when things turned sour did it become apparent how they'd structured the power. As director, her job was to ensure his 401k got paid back. So she could technically fire him "in the best interests" of his own retirement plan. Of course then if it didn't get paid back he would have an excellent case to sue for mismanagement or fraud. It all could get very ugly and I think everyone's best interests would be for Marcus to remove that clause as he did. But I do believe it was, as he said, just an accident it got set up this way.

The guy with Beardbrand did an update on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/2lzisq/the_ultimately_shark_tank_guide/ Nothing that will particularly surprise you, but he shares a few details about leading up to the show. And he said his web traffic tripled the weekend of the show, and stabilized closer to double after that. (Which is actually less than I would guess.)

David lives very modestly and has two grown kids (whom he home-schooled for several years). I think he just embodies the "Wealthy Barber" lifestyle and isn't showy about what he wants, whatever it is. Though it's nice to hear he has a girlfriend, as one could get the impression he's a little lonely if you saw that behind-the-scenes stuff last season.

It's pretty clear to me what happens. The two avoid each other in the office until they get a call that Marcus is coming in. Then they both have to show up and that leads to drama when the crew is there. I agree time lapses can be questionable but this seems straightforward enough. I actually thought they did OK on the sales call without having had notice. It doesn't seem like they've made a lot of new sales so I was expecting a complete lack of term sheets, etc. Marcus could have let them know before he showed up that they'd be having a meeting, but I think he wanted to see them under pressure. Both Becky and John were better than the Worldwide Trailers people. But I also didn't get the impression that either wanted to run the business so much as just say they had a business. Something probably could have been worked out for Marcus to buy out John, but since Becky (by her own admission - Hi Rebecca) doesn't do sales that's a problem. I don't think they had the money to hire a sales manager. And there's no way Marcus wanted to swing down to North Carolina just for daily operations.

Most of them end pretty abruptly. I guess that's because unless he walks out, there legitimately isn't any closure. Most of these places will need time to see what happens. To that end, I understand the last episode of the season will be nothing but followups. So maybe we'll get some closure then.

I'm never a fan of these, but the % of investable businesses seems lower lately anyway so how bad could it be?

I reluctantly have to agree. There's way too much relationship drama this season. At least they didn't have Jake/Amy drama, although if he sticks with Sophia I'm sure that will come. Amy debating whether she wanted the role and Holt trying to mentor without crossing any lines - that's good stuff. But it was intercut with Boyle/Gina and I'm just five kinds of sick of that already. That is what made it good casting though. I had to give them points for that.

Aisha was getting into it a lot, which was fun to see. She does has to be careful she doesn't go too far and upstage the cast, though. Not that she did, but it's a risk everyone takes. And if a guest or audience member oversteps, we grumble and then forget about it. Aisha's there every week so she has to be careful. But playing along with Wayne during News Casters and then also joining for the song? That was great.

I think the point is that they don't smile when they do it. Kevin will say "Your idea is terrible, you're going to zero, I think you should take your remaining stock and burn it." Mark sometimes looks like he wants to throw his chair at the guy. Lori puts on a fake smile and says "Maybe being poor for the rest of your life is something you're happy with, but for me? I'm out." It's not about being mean vs kind. It's about being real vs fake. And despite the "mean girls" moniker, I don't think it's a gender thing. Barbara is very straightforward. Robert, on the other hand, comes close to doing the same thing at times.

Lori does like pink; it's her thing. Even when Barbara's there, Lori still gets the pink whatever on handouts.

Lori was getting at that. But I think it's a different animal. Bullets from a Glock handgun are pedestrian and have negative connotations. Casings from an Apache-mounted machinegun are so completely out of the ordinary that they seem unrelated. It's like how a lot of people who never owned a gun still enjoy touring battleships and seeing the armaments. I saw this a little differently. To me it was Robert desperate to get himself an identity. He always has to outbid the other Sharks or miss out, because he doesn't have their (perceived) expertise or connections. Him saying "I'm the Sporty Shark! Me!" was trying to make himself first-pick the next time a sports deal comes in.

And the floor manager from Stein Meats. I'm seeing two repeatable tricks that Marcus uses in retail spots: 1) Show 'em how it's made. I think this is a good trend that has certainly helped out Chipotle Mexican Grill (to name one chain). Eventually tastes will probably move away from it but not soon. 2) Create your own brand. This is something that must be easier to do now than it was 20 years ago, thanks to copackers and easy-to-shift digital assembly lines. But it probably works best for things where there aren't already dominant brands, otherwise it will backfire. For example, if I go into a local convenience store to buy a Pepsi and they say "No we don't carry that, why don't you try a Caitlyn Cody Cola instead?" I'm probably not going back there.

I think that rupture sealer pitch indicates something about the current Dragon dynamic. Both new Dragons said they didn't get the valuation and went out. All 3 experienced Dragons found ways to make varying orders. Vikram might have been out anyway because it's not a food product, but Dragons who want to participate find a way to at least make an offer. Kevin always did. Kevin also would have chased the Gift Card guy out of there with a lot more energy than this group showed. That said, the end of the show had a bit of personality. Michael and Arlene were playing around on that car wall short, and Vikram was front and center on the oil pitch.

By the way, now that I think about it - the whole "look, every seat is full even the ones we added!" moment we saw? That could purely be because they had to stop serving people during renovations. Of course you'll be full the day you reopen - you have to make up for missed appointments! I'm actually not convinced that matters yet. As good (and obvious) an idea as it is, we don't know if everyone's going to use it when the salon is busy and customers are waiting. Previously they'd see what got emptied and order that. Now they need every bit to be marked down. If someone forgets, or marks the wrong quantity, or throws out a bottle thinking it's empty when there's still half a dose left - they'll be under ordering. That's worse than before. Good point. That alone might be a decent reason to change the name. (Although it doesn't justify "Erika Cole by Raquel".)

I disagree in that I don't think it affects his offers. Yes, Jim's very much on the surface about liking eye candy. And it's both honest and potentially off-putting. But because he's up-front about it, I think he's able to put attractiveness aside when it comes to an offer. I would much more distrust someone who pretends they don't care but wants to subtly send a message. I agree with you on the rest, especially regarding chemistry. I'm trying to give the new guys a pass until they get warmed up, but so far it's definitely not the interactive group I'm used to.

Yeah, I thought the new bottles were far more generic than the old ones. To me, the whole thing suggested a marketing approach of "stupid customers assume it's good if the price is high and the name is esoteric, so let's get some of that." And via a web search, they are not selling at Ulta right now. I want to see a follow up on this one with some math. They need to prove that the new system is less wasteful and that the product actually sells. Right now the only clear improvement was adding more chairs.