Ronin7

It might seem that I pick on Joe a lot, but that's really only because I quite like him. I've read his book and been to a few of his places so I have respect for his experience and knowledge. What I have a problem with is the way he seems to come off when he speaks to these people. For the most part I honestly feel that the contestants "for lack of a better term" are quite decent folks who true or not are pinning their hopes on getting an investment from either of these guys. I have no problem with Joe being straight forward with these people about what he sees and thinks. Even if he didn't invest, he would be helping them if he could explain in a straight forward manner what the issues are. There really is no need to try to pose as the fake tough guy that doesn't take BS. It's not like these people are here to scam him out of his money or something. If he doesn't like the idea then tell the contestants why and then don't invest. Just don't be a jerk about it. His manner will not win him any fans as I believe that most people end up rooting for most of the contestants at the end*** ***Exceptions being: The Lone Wolf, The Couple with the Blue Tree and the Brother & Sister still living with their parents. Those people really did need to get their balloons popped! ha ha ha

Yeah, I read something similar to that on how some restaurants don't really prefer selling desserts. But I think it had to do more with the amount of time that people linger over their desserts versus the amount of time people take to just eat their starters an entrees. Essentially, restauranteurs just want you to eat and go so that they could turn the table over and seat another party. The logic goes that appetizers, entrees & drinks which are the main portion of the bill will take 45min to an hour to consume whereas dessert/coffee which probably only amounts to another 15 to 20% will take up almost the same amount of time or even longer. I thought The Inventing Room guys should have just walked away from the deal. He really did seem too desperate to get a deal done. I think this was the first time a contestant actually put in more money than the investor. 50K investment from Tim? Woohoo! So what? He's the barbecue guy, what does he know about desserts? I don't really see what benefits they could derive from his participation. In my opinion, not really a satisfying ending. Here's a thought: maybe at the end of each episode they could have either Tim or Joe give a brief explanation to the audience why some ideas might not work. Explain the risk/rewards, market trends and industry practices. This way we might understand a little more. At this point, we only get a little bit of the thinking. Just because they don't invest it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad idea. It might just be that they aren't interested and or it's not the deal for them. Since the show is starting to get a bit repetitive in its fake manufactured drama, my thinking is that if it's not entertaining at least it can be educational.

Why can't Tim and Joe just recognize what are the good things about what some of the contestants already have and then just let them expand on that. Not everything has to be a full scale restaurant to make money. I think the chefs would have been even more successful if they were given a chance to show off even more of the stuff they were already good at instead of wasting a lot of time and effort going in a direction that wasn't right for them. Imagine if they had shown off the floating truffle. This is another example of how the myopic views that both Tim and Joe have are starting to hinder the development of the show. Again, I think they should perhaps either expand the show to include more potential investors at one time or switch investors around. Otherwise all we'll end up with are awkward concepts that only get investment if they can contort themselves into Tim and Joe's view of what is successful. Of course, they must also do it in a way that doesn't seem too obvious, because Joe hates "Yes Men" and for that reason....I'm OUT!

If the producers of this show are reading this, might we suggest some changes to the format? 1. Please stop showing the segment where the participants act like they are walking into the space for the first time and are somehow soooo happy to be there. It's obvious that they are using the same space with two sections. The start of the show is in one section and the restaurant space is RIGHT next to it. For anyone who's watched the show for more than 2 episodes it just gives the show a really cheesy feeling. 2. Maybe they can switch up investors from week to week. At this point, we can pretty much predict what either Joe or Tim will say and do. Since they are not professional actors there are only so many expressions that they can have. Tim either looks clueless or constipated. Joe goes from mildly conceited to extremely self-congratulatory. He always comes across like "You're Stupid! Now let me tell you why." It's really starting to get a little bit repetitive. 3. This show had a great initial premise which is Restaurant Startups which a lot of people are interested in. Shark Tank is interesting because the investors are investing in a combination of the people, product and market size. When they invest you can understand why, when they don't it's also for good obvious reasons. On this show the reasonings seem so petty sometimes. Example 1: Tim & Joe don't like the logo, but the owner doesn't want to change because they are attached to it, there's no back and forth, only "That guy is stubborn. He won't listen. I can't invest" Example 2: I don't care that you've only got 36 hours to prep (generally all by yourself and that it's an all new set-up where they furniture and fixtures just got brought in in the morning) the food was slow coming out and you have no cutlery on the table. OMG! What idiots! 4. Lastly, sometimes instead of focusing on some minute details that the participants are doing maybe they could add a few informative segments such as, statistics on the size of the market for hamburgers or lollipops, maybe have the interior design guy go into a little more detail about what he is doing and why somethings work or not in a restaurant. This program would be much more interesting if it was also more informative/educational. That was what was attractive in the beginning, now it just seems like they are trying to create fake drama like showing a shot of a collapsed souffle and then panning over to the contestant looking nervous and then panning over to Tim looking constipated and Joe shaking his head thinking "What idiots!!!! You collapsed the Souffle! And for that reason....I'm OUT!"