S14.E09: ReadyFestive; Zipstring; ChessUp; Garage Celebrations

[JTMacc99]

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First into the Tank are entrepreneurs from San Francisco, California, who want you to get festive with their convenient and customizable home decor delivery service. Entrepreneurs from Johns Creek, Georgia, introduce their hand-held product made for today's generation of children; while entrepreneurs from Overland Park, Kansas, present a better way to learn how to play a classic game. Last into the Tank is a father and son from Plano, Texas, who provide an easier way to show holiday spirit with their reusable and high-quality home decor design.

  
 

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In a "Shark Tank" update, Daniel Zakowski, Dr. Katie Marks and Dr. Andy Leitner from Los Angeles, California, and their investor Mark Cuban update us on Ready Set Foods, their allergen introduction system that makes it easy to prevent food allergies in children.

The Sharks in this episode are Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec.

[CrazyInAlabama]

Sharks-Barbara, Robert, Mark, Kevin, Lori

1---ReadyFestive-Home décor delivery service, go to their website, select box size, and holidays you want to celebrate, and it’s delivered to your house.   They have Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s, Halloween, Easter, and others.  They have different holidays, you pick the size of the box, and you either prepay, or pay as you go.  Three cost levels of boxes.  Three year total sales are great. 40% margin to customer.   People average 6.5 boxes a year. 

Deal with Robert.

2---Zipstring-Hand-held product for children, my opinion is that this is just wacky enough to be a hit.  You hold a handle, and make shapes and it follows you. The Sharks are having fun.  The first video of this, a year ago, had 20 million views.   But sales aren’t that great. They’re having supply chain issues, and solved them.   Kevin makes the usual royalty deal. Robert offers what they asked for at 10%, and Kevin undercuts that at 9%.  Or Kevin and Robert for 20% together.

Deal with Robert and Kevin.

3---ChessUp-Smart Chessboard and Lessons. Player sets the level of assistance to learn chess.  $399 is full retail. You can set the difficulty, teaching level. Speed of play, and you can play either other humans, or the AI computer.  Sales through Kickstarter, and online. 

Lori makes the deal with part royalty, and then equity. 

4---Garage Celebrations-Lets you put celebration covers on your garage door.   Father and son duo.  They sell you a garage door cover in one-car or two-car garage door covers.  It won’t interfere with operation of the door.   Can be machine washed, and have various holidays, Christmas/Santa, Halloween, 4th of July, and others.   Fabric is 6% spandex.   They just started selling, and have a ton of sales (they have a contract with Walmart I guess, largest retailer in the country?).   The competitors have different closures, and are vinyl.  Barbara hates their designs. 

The Sharks say they need an ecommerce, marketing person.    I agree with Mark, they can branch out from holidays, to sports teams (guess which one?)

They make a deal with Mark.

Update: Ready, Set, Foods-allergy prevention program for children, Mark invested in them.  They’re doing great.

Edited December 10, 2022 by CrazyInAlabama

[KaveDweller]

The decoration box business seems weird.  Most people I know either hate decorating and don't buy decorating, or love decorating for holidays, including shopping for them. Plus, once you buy a box for each holiday you won't really have a need to do it again next year. I don't know who would be their target customer. What would make more sense might be a decoration rental business. So if you don't have room to store decorations you can get them shipped to you, then send them back when the holiday is over and replace with the next one.

Zip String seemed cool. I've never seen a product where the Sharks couldn't wait until the end of a pitch to start looking at their samples for themselves. Not sure if the inventors know what they are doing from a business sense.

Don't care about chess thing. It doesn't seem different than all the other computerized chess things out there.

I like the idea of garage covers. It is a way to decorate that is less annoying than those big inflatables people put in their yard. I don't have a garage though.

Does it seems like people are getting more deals than they did in past seasons?

[Kleav]

ZipString’s Amazon reviews are pretty dismal.  

[Vermicious Knid]

20 millions views and only 10,000 sales seems pretty dismal as well.

Renting a whole, coordinated set of decoration that can then be send back does sound a lot better, but I think they'd have to add a security deposit or somesuch to ensure they get everything back in good shape. But there is also the problem of people keeping them so I supposed they would also have to hit the card on file with a supplemental charge, like when hotel bathrobes are stolen. The chessboard does not seem to offer any advantage over learning with an online system or free videos. There may be millions more people using a physical board but I doubt many will go for this. Thought we might get an update on the giant ornament people.

When someone says "I don't mean to offend" they are absolutely about to say something offensive.

[EtheltoTillie]

I think people would play with the electronic silly string once and that’s it. No lasting enjoyment. Nothing wrong with that. It’s the arc of all fad toys. So they should hope to sell a lot at a low price and that fad would be over.  I don’t understand where they thought they had created a category. 

I don’t really understand the market for the decorations business. 
I don’t have a garage so I don’t get the urge to decorate a garage. 

[DrSpaceman73]

Yeah  I don't see the appeal of the holiday decorations set. As stated if you like those things most love shopping for them. Plus the decorations seemed very plain. 

That zip string you know must suck with that many views snd so few sales. 

Garage decorations kind of neat if you can create your own design. My hoa would probably bitch about it though. 

Chess thing too expensive. As mentioned tons where you can play online and learn the game much cheaper. If I'm spending $400 for a chess set, and they can be nice to have at home not disputing that, I'd buy a designer fancy you not a plain one like that. 

Also there t shirts one should have been black and one white, like the chess pieces. 

[Welshman in Ca]

6 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Yeah  I don't see the appeal of the holiday decorations set. As stated if you like those things most love shopping for them. Plus the decorations seemed very plain. 

That zip string you know must suck with that many views snd so few sales. 

Garage decorations kind of neat if you can create your own design. My hoa would probably bitch about it though. 

Chess thing too expensive. As mentioned tons where you can play online and learn the game much cheaper. If I'm spending $400 for a chess set, and they can be nice to have at home not disputing that, I'd buy a designer fancy you not a plain one like that. 

Also there t shirts one should have been black and one white, like the chess pieces. 

I still have an onyx chess set I bought in Paris 30 years ago. hated Paris but still love the chess set.

[bilgistic]

All I could think about the holiday gift box subscription was that you'd be getting a bunch of mass-made garbage. I strongly dislike holidays and clutter, so I'm out.

[eel21788]

12 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I think people would play with the electronic silly string once and that’s it. No lasting enjoyment.

I think they should sell it on Chewy as a cat toy. That is really the only use I could see for it.

[eel21788]

8 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Garage decorations kind of neat if you can create your own design. My hoa would probably bitch about it though. 

The best usage I can think of for it is during elections. Instead of pounding a political sign onto your front lawn, plaster VOTE YES ON PROPOSITION A across your garage.

How long do you think it would take the HOA to slap you with a fine if they weren't on the same side as you are?

Edited December 11, 2022 by eel21788

[eel21788]

22 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Update: Ready, Set, Foods-allergy prevention program for children, Mark invested in them.  They’re doing great.

We weren't given any statistics to prove that childhood allergies have decreased among their customers. We only heard Mark whining that his daughter has "multiple peanut allergies" (I think he meant multiple nut allergies, not more than one kind of peanut) because she didn't get this product. 

[eel21788]

20 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

The decoration box business seems weird.  Most people I know either hate decorating and don't buy decorating, or love decorating for holidays, including shopping for them.

They kept trying to say that you could customize, but they only seemed to mean that you can customize what size box you want and for which occasion, not what actually goes into your box. I also thought their stuff looked cheap, ugly and tacky, not to mention the presenters were annoying as hell.  (By the way, since when is Mark Jewish)?

With lifetime sales at $1.5million, they've sold well fewer than 15,000 units. When you add to that the minimum order is 3 boxes, that is fewer than 5000 customers. They also admitted that their average customer only stays for 2 years and orders 6.5 boxes. That sounds to me as though people get tired of their products pretty quickly. They will have to constantly be acquiring replacement customers to keep the business afloat.

9 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Yeah  I don't see the appeal of the holiday decorations set. As stated if you like those things most love shopping for them. Plus the decorations seemed very plain. 

Maybe if you were required to bring some gifts to an office party, you might just buy one of their boxes, hand out whatever is in the box and be done with it. 

[eel21788]

20 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

Don't care about chess thing. It doesn't seem different than all the other computerized chess things out there.

Their claim is that being able to actually touch the pieces is somehow superior to online versions. I can't see a beginner being willing to spend $400 to try it out and decide if he likes the game, and as Kevin said, I also don't see an advanced player wanting a computer to tell him where to move his pieces. So, who is the target audience? I was also pretty offended by their comment about how hard and intimidating it is to learn chess. My father taught me when I was 8.

There is also a problem with learning how to play chess with a computer telling you what to move without explaining the rationale behind it. You'd never be able to get to the stage where you could play a game without the computer input. How many competitive chess players are going to let you make all your plays based on computer advice? It reminds me of all the kids who never learned to do their math homework without using a calculator, so they have no idea what 2 x 3 = 6 actually means.

[eel21788]

On 12/9/2022 at 7:01 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

Garage Celebrations- They just started selling, and have a ton of sales (they have a contract with Walmart I guess, largest retailer in the country?).  

They were pretty deceptive about the sales. They said they made $175K by selling out their Halloween inventory at the largest Halloween store in the US. I'm not sure if that would be Walmart.

Whatever store they made the deal with cut their profit down to $8 per unit, and they didn't tell us how much the store charged the customer. If all their sales came through that retailer, then they would have sold just short of 22,000 units. If they had sold some of them on their own, their profit would have been $85 per unit but a lot fewer units sold.

Also, if they're trying to buy their own press and make more money on customized units, selling through a retailer has absolutely no use to them.

So, they sold out for Halloween, but we don't know how many they sold or at what price, and it provides no indication that they would have better sales if they customized. We also don't know anything about how many were returned when people got home and were told "NO WAY!" by their HOAs.

There are just too many missing pieces to the story. 

[eel21788]

On 12/9/2022 at 7:01 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

The Sharks say they need an ecommerce, marketing person.  

When Robert told them they needed a third Bill, I was expecting Bill Jr to say, "You mean my son, Bill III? He's great at social media."

[eel21788]

22 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

Does it seems like people are getting more deals than they did in past seasons?

There's been a pattern of 3 or 4 going out then the remaining 1 or 2 decide not to listen to the others' comments about how flawed the idea/business is.

That's why I wish we got more follow up about which deals never came to fruition or the snarks deciding afterwards that the investment had been a waste of their money.

[KaveDweller]

52 minutes ago, eel21788 said:

They were pretty deceptive about the sales. They said they made $175K by selling out their Halloween inventory at the largest Halloween store in the US. I'm not sure if that would be Walmart.

Whatever store they made the deal with cut their profit down to $8 per unit, and they didn't tell us how much the store charged the customer. If all their sales came through that retailer, then they would have sold just short of 22,000 units. If they had sold some of them on their own, their profit would have been $85 per unit but a lot fewer units sold.

Also, it wasn't clear if the retailer actually sold all their products or they were just counting the sale to the retailer as X many sales. Some of them could be sitting in a stockroom somewhere.

2 hours ago, eel21788 said:

With lifetime sales at $1.5million, they've sold well fewer than 15,000 units. When you add to that the minimum order is 3 boxes, that is fewer than 5000 customers. They also admitted that their average customer only stays for 2 years and orders 6.5 boxes. That sounds to me as though people get tired of their products pretty quickly. They will have to constantly be acquiring replacement customers to keep the business afloat.

I would imagine you have to stop after a couple of years because how many Halloween and July 4th Decorations can a person have? After about 2 boxes you will be pretty full up. I think most people have more Christmas decorations, but again, they can only display so much in their home. It's not like food subscription boxes where you eat the food and will always need more.

2 hours ago, eel21788 said:

The best usage I can think of for it is during elections. Instead of pounding a political sign onto your front lawn, plaster VOTE YES ON PROPOSITION A across your garage.

That actually sounds like it could get super annoying. Back in October there were so many lawn signs around it was obnoxious. I'm picturing a huge sign on everyone's garage and it would be even worse.

[eel21788]

2 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

Also, it wasn't clear if the retailer actually sold all their products or they were just counting the sale to the retailer as X many sales. Some of them could be sitting in a stockroom somewhere.

When they said their inventory sold out, I just assumed that they were talking about the retailer selling out. However, you could be right. They may have sold their entire inventory to the store who are storing some for sales in the future years.

[seacliffsal]

I agree about the holiday decorations business.  All of the items they gave to the Sharks looked like things I could find in a lot of stores from Walmart to Home Goods, etc.  Also, people decorate using different colors to go with their decor.  One would be better off going to an online site, filling a cart, and having everything delivered.  There are also a lot of us who want our decorations to have a specific theme, color palette, or to have sentimental value.

The string thing-while it may be fun it looked like it's hit or miss if it will actually work.  Lori couldn't seem to get hers to work.  

The garage celebration looked totally like a licensing deal to me (Disney, sports teams, etc.).  Mark seemed to be the only Shark to realize the value outside of seasonal decor.

Also, even though ABC promoted it as a Christmas/Holiday episode only two products had any kind of holiday connection.

[eel21788]

2 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

people decorate using different colors to go with their decor.  One would be better off going to an online site, filling a cart, and having everything delivered.  There are also a lot of us who want our decorations to have a specific theme, color palette, or to have sentimental value.

You're also not very likely to recommend their company to your friends; otherwise, no matter whose house you go to, all the decorations will be the same as yours.

[eel21788]

On 12/10/2022 at 8:34 PM, KaveDweller said:

I would imagine you have to stop after a couple of years because how many Halloween and July 4th Decorations can a person have? After about 2 boxes you will be pretty full up. I think most people have more Christmas decorations, but again, they can only display so much in their home.

They seem to be gearing toward the "disposable" mentality. After the holiday, you gather everything up and send it to Goodwill instead of storing it for next year. 

[Kiss my mutt]

The only thing I could really see the decorations for would be sending a box to your kids at college to decorate their dorm rooms. 

[eel21788]

1 hour ago, Kiss my mutt said:

The only thing I could really see the decorations for would be sending a box to your kids at college to decorate their dorm rooms. 

Again, disposable. Would the kid keep them in storage in his dorm room for the rest of the school year, then bring them back home? Probably not even if he hired the Storage Scholars from episode #4 this season.

[Kiss my mutt]

32 minutes ago, eel21788 said:

Again, disposable. Would the kid keep them in storage in his dorm room for the rest of the school year, then bring them back home? Probably not even if he hired the Storage Scholars from episode #4 this season.

I don’t have a problem with that. They’re  not meant to be heirlooms. 

[eel21788]

43 minutes ago, Kiss my mutt said:

I don’t have a problem with that. They’re  not meant to be heirlooms. 

How many can Goodwill resell, and how many go to landfills?

That's what I have a problem with.

[marny]

On 12/10/2022 at 8:29 PM, eel21788 said:

(By the way, since when is Mark Jewish?)

Since birth? He’s mentioned it before. 

[aemom]

On 12/9/2022 at 11:56 PM, Kleav said:

ZipString’s Amazon reviews are pretty dismal.  

Apparently that's not the real Zipstring. Their website mentions that you can only get it there and beware of knockoffs, etc.

On 12/10/2022 at 8:29 PM, eel21788 said:

They kept trying to say that you could customize, but they only seemed to mean that you can customize what size box you want and for which occasion, not what actually goes into your box. I also thought their stuff looked cheap, ugly and tacky, not to mention the presenters were annoying as hell.  (By the way, since when is Mark Jewish)?

With lifetime sales at $1.5million, they've sold well fewer than 15,000 units. When you add to that the minimum order is 3 boxes, that is fewer than 5000 customers. They also admitted that their average customer only stays for 2 years and orders 6.5 boxes. That sounds to me as though people get tired of their products pretty quickly. They will have to constantly be acquiring replacement customers to keep the business afloat.

Maybe if you were required to bring some gifts to an office party, you might just buy one of their boxes, hand out whatever is in the box and be done with it. 

I think that after 2 years, you would have all the decorations that you would need and cancel. The prices also seemed high to me - especially for the size of the boxes.