S11.E15: KidsLuv; Swimply; Space Traveler; Bertello Pizza Oven

[JTMacc99]

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A mother has spent a huge amount of money on her healthier beverage alternative for kids An entrepreneur from Lakewood, New Jersey, believes he has the next AirBnB, while mothers from San Antonio, Texas, believe they have found the way to maintain peace and calm on car rides with kids. Brothers from Woodbury, Minnesota, present their portable and multi-fueled outdoor design to help you achieve authentic flavor when cooking a traditional Italian dish.

 

[LittleIggy]

I’m glad the pizza oven dudes picked Mr. Wonderful over Barbara. Her questions about the guy’s “energy level” were downright bizarre.

[James Moore]

The guy with the Pool Share has ADT in my opinion and the idea was idiotic his projections were beyond insane, and his verbal presentation was distracting and hard to understand. Why did Shark Tank select him for the show as opposed to others?

[Koalagirl]

If I had a pool, in no way would I want to incur the liability of having a bunch of strangers using it. 

[BusyOctober]

Pool guy was one of the most annoying people on this show.  The rapid fire talking made me FF’d thru the rest of his pitch.  No effing way I would let people borrow my pool or backyard.  I wouldn’t ever let strangers use my primary residence as AirBNB either.And WTF with the buddy in the pool?  So whackadoo!  Why not have him do the “funny” bit at the beginning then get off the set?  Distracting and weird.

The lady with the kids drink was just so out of her league re. her finances.

Pizza thing sounded cool, but I would be hesitant to have a 900 degree table top device around a crowd.  Robert almost set the place on fire on his first attempt to look at it.

Meh on the car divider thing.  I only have one child, so not an issue for me personally.  I was raised in the 70’s and 80’s by a no nonsense single mom, so my sister and I did not ever cause disruptions in the car...physically anyway.  We definitely had yelling matches, but mom pulled the car over and told one of us to get out when that happened.  Ride continued in silence.  Granted, parents were allowed to speak harshly to their kids back in the day without fear of Protective Services showing up. And cars with bench seats were about 15 feet wide, so plenty of room for 2-3 kids to avoid the “he’s on my side! She’s touching me!” arguments.

Edited March 14, 2020 by BusyOctober

[DEL901]

51 minutes ago, Koalagirl said:

If I had a pool, in no way would I want to incur the liability of having a bunch of strangers using it. 

And one of the Sharks brought up rest room.   Fast talker said something about some of the pool owners letting folks use their side door and, I presume, their bathroom.   Nope.   And what about noise, booze... he said the average group size was 12?   I was picturing a drunken frat party.   Yikes.  
 

Income vs liability vs inconvenience.    Not for me, if I had a pool.  

[LittleIggy]

3 hours ago, Koalagirl said:

If I had a pool, in no way would I want to incur the liability of having a bunch of strangers using it. 

Exactly! My first thought was liability. Why did no Shark mention this at least tangentially.

[rhys]

I have never heard anyone talk so fast. That was amazing!

[CrazyInAlabama]

If I had a pool, I would never be renting it out.    My insurance agent would cancel my policy instantly over something like this.   The fast talking by the pool guy made me want to boot him off the stage instantly.

The lady with the kid's drink was a financial disaster.   

The pizza oven looked like a great idea, unless you're Robert, and try to set the stage on fire.   I think the best place for the oven would be a sturdy surface, in an  outdoor kitchen area

The seat divider was interesting.   

Edited March 14, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[basiltherat]

  I, too, was yelling at my screen "What about liability" during the pool bb presentation.  You have a whole phalanx of red flags popping up -- Your insurance rates skyrocketing.   A bunch of kids with no lifeguard = injured or dead children.  A frat kegger = underage drinking and drugs and sex all over the place.  Police being called to your house every damn night.  The neighbors bringing out pitchforks.  The value of your property plummeting.  Poo poo and pee pee in the pool is the least of your worries, Mr. Wonderful, and I expected  you to call them out on this scheme.

[eel21788]

6 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

The lady with the kid's drink was a financial disaster.   

You could easily leave the word "financial" out of that sentence.

I don't get the whole point of it. If you don't want your kids drinking juice, then don't give them juice. What is the point of putting vitamins in juice? Just give them a Flintstone's chewable. If the vitamins taste so bad, you need to cover the taste with stevia which also tastes bad, what is the point in that? She never did say how much she was trying to sell them for. I have a feeling it was priced for the upper echelon, or people who wanted to pretend they were in the upper echelon. That probably isn't the target market for kids' juice. They'd be drinking Perrier. I was expecting to hear, "For every juice I sell, I give one to an under privileged child." Her business sense was that bad. Then everything the sharks told her was irrelevant; they just weren't the right investors for her brand.

I keep saying it over and over: Another mother who thinks she has revolutionized child rearing. This week we got two of them. The car cage was equally dumb. I'm surprised Kevin didn't call it Baby Jail. First they show everyone how they can easily make their own at home with a laundry basket. Then they claim children fight to want to sit in it. If that's true, which I somehow doubt, then how many times do you have to hear, "When is it going to be my turn?" screamed at you while you're trying to drive? How was it going to keep kids from kicking each other? What is she going to do when her kids are too tall to sit under it, but they still haven't learned how to get along with each other in the car? Those kids were past the age of learning object permanence. They know there is someone on the other side of the wall. If they want to find a way to antagonize each other, they will find a way. I hope they're planning to take refunds when the parents discover they have invested their money in something totally useless. An easier solution would be to have fewer children or get a bigger car.

[knitorpurl]

The car divider was wacky. Do you think that the siblings aren't going to push on that nylon and wire structure? Plus it seemed like a potential hazard in an accident. And just a bad overall idea; teach your children to cope with the 'hardship' of sharing space in the vehicle. 

I agree with everyone's comments about pool guy- no way should this ever become a reality.

[StatisticalOutlier]

My satellite receiver glitched and it wasn't passing through the sound, so I had to watch the show in silence, reading the captions.  I was initially angry at yet another technology failure, but from y'all's comments, it sounds like it was a blessing.

Anyway, I read about Swimply a couple of months ago and looked at the website back then.  Some of the pools were really nice, and some were just a rectangular vat of water surrounded by five feet of concrete.  The listing indicates whether the swimmers have access to a bathroom, and the level of privacy--like if neighbors' windows overlook the pool.  It's considered common courtesy for the pool owner to keep the curtains drawn.

What I found amusing in his pitch is that he cited website issues, and I had actually called Mr. Outlier over to show him yet another example of a shitty-to-navigate website at the time.  I think there was a drop-down menu for cities, but it didn't work right, and you had to figure out a sequence of clicks to get the listings for some of the cities to even come up, because it looked like there weren't any.

I'm pretty sure the guy is thinking he's the next AirBnB, which you have to admit sounded a bit insane when it first started--letting some stranger sleep in your house with you.  And we saw what happened with that.

But that makes me wonder--what is the insurance situation for AirBnB?  Sure, pools are dangerous, but so are houses, where even sober people can fall down stairs in the dark, and there's no guarantee that the guests will be sober.  And the number of hours that a guest will use a pool is a lot lower, even cumulatively, that what an Air BnB guess will use.

 

 

[CrazyInAlabama]

Just wait until a community pool gets a giant upswing in use, by out side groups.   Then when the HOA finds out that someone is renting out the community pool for parties, and making a bundle.   Renting the pool out would not be covered by the HOA insurance like my HOA pool has.  

That kid's drink sounded horrible.    The woman's pitch that kids won't notice the Stevia aftertaste is ridiculous.  

Edited March 15, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[TVbitch]

Mostly unnecessary products, but Robert running out of the room after almost setting it on fire was hilarious. 

Barbara can be an ass sometimes: "Why is your energy level lower than when you were doing a crazy Italian accent and getting hit in the face with a pizza! I demand to know!!" ...Um, cuz that was an OTT character he was doing for the entertaining part of the pitch part, Barbara." Jesus God. 

[ljenkins782]

On 3/14/2020 at 12:49 AM, LittleIggy said:

I’m glad the pizza oven dudes picked Mr. Wonderful over Barbara. Her questions about the guy’s “energy level” were downright bizarre.

She does that a lot. She gets really unnecessarily personal about people. Not everyone has an outsized personality, it doesn't mean they're not smart or driven or have nothing to bring to the table. Also, calling someone out for that in front of a group of people is really a no-win situation, what the hell are they supposed to do/say in response?

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The car divider was wacky. Do you think that the siblings aren't going to push on that nylon and wire structure? Plus it seemed like a potential hazard in an accident. And just a bad overall idea; teach your children to cope with the 'hardship' of sharing space in the vehicle. 

I really didn't see the point of this. It's not soundproof, touch-proof, and nothing stopping anyone from reaching around it to mess with somebody.

This whole episode was a wash for me, not a single idea that seemed worthy of investing. The pizza oven thing seemed...fine, but not all that practical. Most people don't eat pizza every day so having an entire contraption just for a once-in-awhile item seems wasteful.

The pool thing is bonkers. I can totally see where the idea came from and thinking it could be a good idea until you think through the logistics. No way in hell would I want a bunch of strangers in my backyard and the bathroom question was extremely valid. I totally get why his arrangement with his neighbor worked, it was based on an existing relationship. Bring strangers into the mix and it's a whole 'nother ballgame. A neighbor who has to see you every day (and wants to keep using your pool) is going to be a hell of a lot more careful than a random group of strangers borrowing it for a day who'll never see you again. 

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I don't get the whole point of it. If you don't want your kids drinking juice, then don't give them juice. What is the point of putting vitamins in juice? Just give them a Flintstone's chewable. If the vitamins taste so bad, you need to cover the taste with stevia which also tastes bad, what is the point in that? She never did say how much she was trying to sell them for. I have a feeling it was priced for the upper echelon, or people who wanted to pretend they were in the upper echelon. That probably isn't the target market for kids' juice. They'd be drinking Perrier. I was expecting to hear, "For every juice I sell, I give one to an under privileged child." Her business sense was that bad. Then everything the sharks told her was irrelevant; they just weren't the right investors for her brand.

Another ridiculous product. First of all, I don't see many kids walking around drinking coconut juice, so for that to be one of only 2 flavors seemed like a poor choice. But the packaging looked terrible for a kid's product (looked like something you'd see the juice bar at a gym) and her pitch was just awful. Food and beverage is such a tough space to break into and I don't see that product ever taking root.

[marny]

I think the pool idea was crazy, but I also think it's crazy that people would be renting out their apartments or rooms in their homes to internet strangers for the weekend (AirBnB) and wouldn't have thought all of us would be so excited to get into cars with random strangers to get rides home from the airport (Uber/Lift).  So, what do I know?

[theatremouse]

That pool guy's goal should've been to be bought out by AirBnB, not to actually grow to whatever ridiculous multiplier he was predicting.

[sasha206]

How many healthy beverages, esp. for kids get featured?  How many are on the market?  Why would any small entrepreneur try to launch a healthy product?  How on earth could this woman raise that kind of money in an already saturated market?

I also thought it was funny that she trademarked "Kids Luv" as if that is some sort of "You're Fired!" phrase or a brand name that companies are going to want to use.  

I will say it was refreshing to see a momtrapreneur not turn on the water works, esp. with the beating she took.

Edited March 18, 2020 by sasha206

[lh25]

On 3/14/2020 at 6:32 AM, Koalagirl said:

If I had a pool, in no way would I want to incur the liability of having a bunch of strangers using it. 

Exactly what I came here to say.  What if someone gets hurt, who pays?  What if they damage the pool.  My mom has one, and is very careful about who she lets use it.

[silverspoons]

On 3/14/2020 at 12:41 AM, James Moore said:

The guy with the Pool Share has ADT in my opinion and the idea was idiotic his projections were beyond insane, and his verbal presentation was distracting and hard to understand. Why did Shark Tank select him for the show as opposed to others?

It seems like timing is what gets some of these people on shark tank. They only tape a few weeks out of the year. That is why we see some people with a possible good idea that has little sales because it is either go on now or wait a year to possibly get another chance to go on. 

The pool idea can't work how this man presented it but I do see a need. I live in a hot climate (Vegas like weather) but zoning and yard size makes it hard to have a pool in many areas. Since the city I live in is young, meaning it started to have massive population growth in the 90's, there is not the old city pools, roller rink, ice rink,  water parks, chuck e cheese and parks that many places have. There is so little for kids to do and far fewer places to have kids birthdays parties at. There is a demand because There are now over 30k kids in the school district(pre 1990 there were not 30k people in the city). It is over 100 almost every day in the summer so pool parties are desired. Sometimes people have a family member or friend that has a pool outside the city to use but that is rare.  Our city did build a rec center with a semi indoor pool with water slides. This is  one pool for over 100k people so it is not enough. 

A few years ago the school cut the budget for the academic teams yet spent over 50k on one football game. The academic teams (science and math) won state yet did not even get a $50 pizza party. So I looked into renting the indoor city pool privately. It is was $225 for 2 hours (which mostly went to lifeguards since you could have up to 500 people) but the wait list was months. I did luck out and there was a cancellation and since it was just 10 kids I was able to get it together last minute. It was the talked about event , getting the whole pool and slides just for them. There is an obvious need for this service, I saw the reservations and it was solid for that year, and they said in the past 3 years they have never had a  party slot go unfilled. The insurance and bathroom issue make it too hard for private homes to rent out pools. There should be some way for cities or schools to get waivers signed and have pools for profit in warmer areas. I know places like FL it seems like every other home has one of those screened in pools but in my hot climate city , there are 2 pools (one was a very small lap pool) for about 1000 homes in my subdivision zone. 

[UsernameFatigue]

I bought a pizza oven for my hubby for Christmas, and it looked exactly like the pitcher's oven. In face I went to look at it to see if it was the same make, but it wasn't. When I bought the one I did there were a couple of options, but they all basically looked identical. Some were propane, some wood pellets and some could convert from one to the other. I bought it for our cabin to use outside as a change from the BBQ, and when we don't want to put the oven on in the cabin. But I was surprised that the sharks didn't seem to know the product already existed. (I am posting this a week late, so maybe they did and I forgot). 

[lh25]

11 hours ago, UsernameFatigue said:

Some were propane, some wood pellets and some could convert from one to the other. I bought it for our cabin to use outside as a change from the BBQ, and when we don't want to put the oven on in the cabin. But I was surprised that the sharks didn't seem to know the product already existed. (I am posting this a week late, so maybe they did and I forgot). 

I think that came up, and the guy said the difference was that theirs could do both propane and pellets at the same time?  I wondered how useful that would be?

[UsernameFatigue]

1 hour ago, lh25 said:

I think that came up, and the guy said the difference was that theirs could do both propane and pellets at the same time?  I wondered how useful that would be?

I am not sure if the one I saw could do both at once, but by converting I mean you just use one or the other, so not a big deal. The size he showed only takes a 12 inch pizza, and at least with ours it only takes 60 seconds to cook a pizza. So not sure what the advantage would be of using both. 

[eel21788]

5 hours ago, UsernameFatigue said:

I am not sure if the one I saw could do both at once, but by converting I mean you just use one or the other, so not a big deal. The size he showed only takes a 12 inch pizza, and at least with ours it only takes 60 seconds to cook a pizza. So not sure what the advantage would be of using both. 

I couldn't believe all the sharks ooing and ahing over how good the pizza was. He was selling the oven not the pizza. What pizza you put in it is going to have a bigger impact on the taste than the oven it was cooked in.

[DEL901]

Still can’t believe she thought KidsLuv or however she spelled it was a good name.   What kid over the age of six would want to drink something with that name in front of their friends.