S11.E23: mcSquares; Rescue Ready; Slate Milk; Salted

[JTMacc99]

Quote

An ingenious line of office products that makes working or learning more functional and eco-friendly; a safety product for saving lives; a healthy take on a favorite childhood drink; the future of restaurants; Rohan Oza guest judges.

 

[CrazyInAlabama]

McSquares are fine for offices, but I would never buy them for home use.     If they're the same erase technology as white boards, they are a pain to keep clean.   

Rescue Ready's escape ladder looks terrific and a real life saver.    The simulated fire was hysterical.   I'm glad they mentioned that Barbara's skirt and heels would be an issue to grabbing items from under the bed.     I agree with the sellers, this would be a great upgrade to new homes.   Too bad they didn't get a deal, and I really think Kevin would have been a good partner.  

Chocolate milk, did this need to be reinvented?  However, coming to the tank with only prototypes, and pre-sales and with a $4 million valuation was ridiculous.   I don't care about the calories, and sugar, but if it tastes as bad as the sharks indicated, they can forget it.    I suspect they came on for the publicity, and not getting a deal shouldn't have surprised the sellers.  

Salted-with a $10 million valuation 5% stake for $500k (if my math is right).   Healthy food for home delivery only, but no restaurant confused me.    An entirely online delivery or pick up food service sounds OK, but is this going to be limited to only large cities, because of the huge kitchen facilities they'll need.    I guess it's like a cloud kitchen, with delivery only.   After five years, but not profitable yet, would worry me.          I think the $10 million valuation is ridiculous.      I think he really came on the show for search engine results, and publicity.    I'm not surprised he didn't get a deal.   I agree with Kevin, the seller would be terrible to work with.  (This is the second time this season that Lori refused to make an offer because the seller refused to answer her questions, but would answer other shark's questions) 

Edited May 15, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[mjc570]

The escape ladder: Barbara was absolutely right, they should think about adapting it for existing home use, rather than only pursue new construction.  I think it would take years to get to the point where builders were in a position to offer it as an option. 

Loved the mc guy and his products.  I think his timing is unfortunate, with so many people working from home.  On the other hand, maybe they need organizational help. 

Chocolate milk - still a lot of sugar.   There are a lot of chocolate flavored protein shakes and drinks.   I'm offended that the show offers a slot to such a premature product, rather than introducing a product I might actually  be able to buy.

I liked the kitchen idea, I would order from them all the time if they were in my area.  I kind of lost track - was he talking about franchising?  Unless there was a lot of editing going on, I thought it was pretty funny that Lori wouldn't make an offer because of insufficient eye contact.  He did seem like a pain to work with, though.

[roctavia]

I think the sharks were absolutely right in that the safety ladder would be better as a under window mounted thing instead of needing the window company to change their window designs/molds, especially with all of the variation in window sizes etc.    plus, a lot of builders have just one window company they use, so even if they found a company to take the idea, they might still have a limited clientele. 
 

Windows are already really expensive, at least in my area, while I want my family to be safe I don’t know is we would spend extra money at that point in the build process. 
 

 

[KHenry14]

Chocolate milk guys would have at least a year of formulating their drink before they could go to market. Can't see any shark willing to wait that long. Also, $2.99 per can prices them out of the protein drink market. IMO, its way too soon for these guys to have been allowed on the show.

 

[EtheltoTillie]

The ladder idea was great, and they really need to sell it to be put in existing homes.  I think lots of people would buy it.  They were scared of having their patent stolen.  They should have agreed to partner with a shark who would help them with that adaptation.

The meal delivery idea was so ironically good in these times--it would be a perfect business.  Since we would typically use Seamless or Grubhub to order lunch or dinner in our urban area (NYC) from local restaurants, you can just skip the restaurant and have a central kitchen.  But apparently there was a competitor already doing that.  We still need local restaurants, though.  The deli in our office building offers grocery choices as well as just a bagel and even a salad bar (which we'll never get to use again!). 

 

8 hours ago, roctavia said:

I think the sharks were absolutely right in that the safety ladder would be better as a under window mounted thing instead of needing the window company to change their window designs/molds, especially with all of the variation in window sizes etc.    plus, a lot of builders have just one window company they use, so even if they found a company to take the idea, they might still have a limited clientele. 
 

Windows are already really expensive, at least in my area, while I want my family to be safe I don’t know is we would spend extra money at that point in the build process. 
 

 

If it was a total of $400 (say, four ladders at $100), I bet you would buy it.  One for each second floor bedroom.  That seems very reasonable for what it is.

[EtheltoTillie]

I thought the reusable Post-Its seemed like a good idea but ultimately not that useful.  Many Post-Its must remain with the item we mark, so they can't be reused.  For example, I use them on documents I send to a client.  I tab a note on top of the document with a greeting or instructions.  Or I attach reminder tabs on the sides of important pages in a large document or book.  Not every Post-It is a note on a refrigerator that gets discarded after someone remembers to "pick up milk."

Believe it or not, I still have to send hard copies of things in many circumstances.

[EtheltoTillie]

I checked out what happened to Plated, since Kevin mentioned that they had gotten one of the largest "exits" ever on Shark Tank.  This is a really fascinating tale and says a lot about capitalism.

Plated was a meal kit service.  They apparently sold for $200 million to the Albertsons grocery chain.  After a year or so, Albertsons was going to sell kits in supermarkets and canceled the subscription service.  Then they canceled the whole thing.  They may be reconsidering selling kits in supermarkets, but it's not clear.  So they paid $200 million for something they discontinue a year or so later?  Is it to buy out the competition?  An awful lot of money for that.  Or is it just an investment gone wrong?  But the original owner and the Shark (Kevin) walk away with a bundle. 

[khyber]

Agree the play for the escape ladder device is to find a way to retrofit for current houses/condos.  About 35 yrs ago I knew a woman who moved into a condo (2nd or 3rd floor) and bought an escape rope ladder.  I had never heard of that but she didn't want to take any chances with being trapped during a fire. Fortunately she never had to use it.

Hard to tell with the editing but it wasn't just eye contact the food guy messed up with Lori, he ignored her questions while focusing on the men who were still available. 

 

[lh25]

9 minutes ago, khyber said:

Hard to tell with the editing but it wasn't just eye contact the food guy messed up with Lori, he ignored her questions while focusing on the men who were still available. 

I agree.  She tried several times to ask a question, he just kept talking over her.  I wouldn't have given him a deal either if I were her.

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, khyber said:

Agree the play for the escape ladder device is to find a way to retrofit for current houses/condos.  About 35 yrs ago I knew a woman who moved into a condo (2nd or 3rd floor) and bought an escape rope ladder.  I had never heard of that but she didn't want to take any chances with being trapped during a fire. Fortunately she never had to use it.

Hard to tell with the editing but it wasn't just eye contact the food guy messed up with Lori, he ignored her questions while focusing on the men who were still available. 

 

That was a real wakeup call to see the inefficiency of trying to set up an escape ladder that was stored under the bed in a box!  So surprised to hear that was the recommended procedure. 

[rasalas]

On 5/14/2020 at 11:12 AM, CrazyInAlabama said:

Chocolate milk, did this need to be reinvented?  However, coming to the tank with only prototypes, and pre-sales and with a $4 million valuation was ridiculous.   I don't care about the calories, and sugar, but if it tastes as bad as the sharks indicated, they can forget it.    I suspect they came on for the publicity, and not getting a deal shouldn't have surprised the sellers. 

Exactly. Every episode, there seems to be at least one pitch for a product that seems to exist just to find investors, not to sell to consumers. They're usually the ones with a big ask for a tiny stake, and they always have previous investors. But they don't really have a viable product or profits.

This was that pitch for this episode. The skin product Proven was the one a few episodes ago.

I think the producers include these segments just for the potential drama and Shark outrage. 

[theatremouse]

The ladder thing puzzled me because I could've sworn I'd seen a previous pitch for a "so simple a 5 year old can do it himself" escape ladder on this show a million years ago. So for a moment, I thought it was a rerun or a "Kevin's about to say this isn't unique"....but then it became all about bundling new construction/with the window manufacturer and they lost me. But no one mentioned the theoretical existing competitor so I wonder if either it doesn't actually exist or it does but it wasn't on this show when I heard about it.

[Moose135]

The ladder guys have a Kickstarter campaign to launch a model you can add to existing houses.

Rescue Ready RetroFit - Fire Escape Ladders that make sense

Since our appearance on SHARK TANK, we designed the RetroFit Fire Escape Ladder. It's WHERE you want it, WHEN you need it most.

[TVbitch]

That food sounded amazing. I have never eaten cauliflower crust or fake meat that tasted good, but all the sharks were loving it. Too bad he was so hopped up the sharks were put off. He seemed super caffeinated or something. Even after Laurie called him out, he didn't even apologize! I think he could have saved it if he had just said, "I'm sorry, I'm nervous and didn't realize how fast I was talking, please allow me to answer your questions Laurie." 

[KaveDweller]

On 5/14/2020 at 12:12 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

Salted-with a $10 million valuation 5% stake for $500k (if my math is right).   Healthy food for home delivery only, but no restaurant confused me.    An entirely online delivery or pick up food service sounds OK, but is this going to be limited to only large cities, because of the huge kitchen facilities they'll need.    I guess it's like a cloud kitchen, with delivery only.   After five years, but not profitable yet, would worry me. 

I don't get the delivery only idea either. There are so many restaurants in my area that delivery, I can't imagine them really competing. 

On 5/15/2020 at 10:41 AM, khyber said:

Hard to tell with the editing but it wasn't just eye contact the food guy messed up with Lori, he ignored her questions while focusing on the men who were still available. 

It was hard to tell, sometimes the Sharks get sensitive about not being someone's first choice. When others were asking what Mark was doing, the food guy made a point of saying Lori was still in too. He seemed to want her to invest, but I guess it came off differently to Lori.