S14.E12: Nopalera; Nutr Nut; Brass Roots; Frescos Naturales

[JTMacc99]

Quote

Guest shark Daniel Lubetzky, founder of KIND and co-founder of SOMOS Foods, returns to the Tank. First into the Tank is an entrepreneur from Brooklyn, New York, who's on a mission with her beauty line using a versatile and ancient symbol of her Mexican culture. A husband and wife from Columbus, Ohio, hope the Sharks go nuts for their product designed to make a healthy drink trend at home; while an entrepreneur from New Orleans, Louisiana, introduces his allergen-free alternative to a healthy snack. Last into the Tank is an entrepreneur from Boulder, Colorado, who introduces his refreshing line of beverages inspired by the vibrant flavors of his Latin American culture.

  

Quote

The Sharks in this episode are Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner and guest Shark Daniel Lubetzky.

 

[CrazyInAlabama]

 

Sharks-Guest-Daniel Lubetzky, Daymond, Mark, Lori, Kevin.

1-Nopalera-Nopal cactus Bath and body products that uses ancient symbol of Mexican culture. The skin lotion is actually a bar, saving a ton of plastic and water.  Her six million valuation is way high.

No deal.   

2- Nutr- Nut Milk Machine to make plant based milks at home. Good margins, 90% online sales, they sell flavor packs, monthly or bimonthly subscription for the flavorings. The sellers keep changing what they want, how they’re financed.  

No deal. No flexibility, and valuation is ridiculous.

3-Brass Roots- Allergen-free snack, sacha inchi seeds, called the Incan peanut, not trigger allergies like peanuts.  They have several flavors.  Seller had a previous business, that grew too fast to be sustainable. His financing is awful, and they barely have enough in the bank to survive more than three months.

No deal.

4- Frescos Naturales-Beverages inspired by Latin America.   How many beverage companies have been on this season?  A very crowded part of the market.   No sugar (I think he said they add a little sugar), no high fructose corn syrup, only three ingredients. The Sharks love the taste. This is the seller’s second company, he has a hot sauce company. They have a deal with Krogers, King Soopers, Ralph’s. Daniel wants another Shark with him, and Kevin wants 30%, 15 for him, and 15 for Daniel.

25% and deal with Daniel.

 

Update- Guardian Bikes, they brought manufacturing back from China, and build the bikes in the U.S.   That was Mark’s idea.  $33 million in sales.

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by CrazyInAlabama

[tired and hungry]

Another flavored sparkling water? How many of these have seen already? The flavors seem to be mostly similar as well. Passion Fruit, Guava or other tropical fruits....

Uptil the last 2 mins, it seemed like it would have been a full episode of "No Deals".

They sure shut down the Nutr milk people hard... Seemed like one of the fastest pitches to get turned down so quickly without even giving them a chance to explain, which they deserved tbh for that crazy valuation.

Also, I think someone pointed this out in the last episode but what was up with that white fountain like sculpture in the background? Why was it all so stained looking? What a weird design choice...

[nlkm9]

Why do people even bother coming in with such absurd valuations? Too many of them lately for it just to be exposure. I roll my eyes as soon as i hear for 5% of my company. Love when daniel is there, he seems like such an amazing person.

[DrSpaceman73]

Not interested in any of these. 

$75 a month milk subscription?  Plus you have to buy your own nuts. And I dont really want milk tasting nutty.  

[DEL901]

9 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Not interested in any of these. 

$75 a month milk subscription?  Plus you have to buy your own nuts. And I dont really want milk tasting nutty.  

And nuts can be pretty pricey too. I bet they used $8-10 worth of cashews in that demo.  

[eel21788]

23 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Nopalera-Nopal cactus Bath and body products that uses ancient symbol of Mexican culture. The skin lotion is actually a bar, saving a ton of plastic and water.  Her six million valuation is way high.

She is either horrible at business or has delusions of grandeur (most likely both).

Every time they asked her a financial question, she would dodge it without giving them an answer and start talking about her heritage again.

The one thing she did admit is her sales are averaging $600K per year with no profit which comes nowhere near her $6million valuation that she refused to let go of. She said when she lost her job in consumer products, she was already over leveraged with student loans, credit card debt and a child. So, where did the money come from to start this business?

How many SKUs does she have? She only mentioned 3 but then gave them each 6 to sample. So, what were the others?

As for the lotion being in a bar instead of a bottle with added water, isn't there water in the product to help it absorb into your skin? Does rubbing a bar across you skin really moisturize it?

What do they sell for? If her products are $50 each, she is only selling 12,000 units per year. If the prices are $25 each, that only brings her to 24,000 units sold per year which is still pretty underwhelming. We already know that none of the $600K is profit, so what are her margins and where is she getting the money to keep the business afloat?

There were way, way too many unanswered questions. I don't know why anyone would have made her an offer. However, since they did based on what she projected her sales would be this year (which could also be due to delusions of grandeur) and her claim that she would be making a profit this year (then she admitted she didn't know what her projected profit would be), she should have leapt for either deal instead of still insisting her business was worth $6million.

Instead of taking "formulation classes," she would probably be better off if she took some "personal finance classes."

[eel21788]

14 hours ago, tired and hungry said:

They sure shut down the Nutr milk people hard... Seemed like one of the fastest pitches to get turned down so quickly without even giving them a chance to explain, which they deserved tbh for that crazy valuation..

I feel as though I could pretty much cut and paste everything I said in my last post about how bad she was at business, correct the pronouns from singular to plural and then be done with it instead of repeating myself about these people.

Was their measly revenue (which they tried to make sound impressive) from selling the machines or from selling the flavor packets? 

Also, it was barely mentioned that we saw the exact same product in season 12 episode 18. The only real difference was the former could be used commercially or at home.

[eel21788]

On 1/20/2023 at 7:01 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

Brass Roots- Allergen-free snack, sacha inchi seeds, called the Incan peanut, not trigger allergies like peanuts. . .  His financing is awful, and they barely have enough in the bank to survive more than three months.

I thought we cured nut allergies with Ready, Set, Food! in season 11, episode 12. Why would we need his product?

Yet another presenter with zero business sense: you can't claim to have $1.5million in projected revenue when your business will be insolvent in 90 days!

[eel21788]

4 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

$75 a month milk subscription?

How about $18 for a jar of peanut butter substitute? 

We say it every week: who do these people think they're selling to? 

[DrSpaceman73]

11 minutes ago, eel21788 said:

How about $18 for a jar of peanut butter substitute? 

We say it every week: who do these people think they're selling to? 

Goes with the $200 charcuterie boards I guess

[eel21788]

15 hours ago, tired and hungry said:

Another flavored sparkling water? How many of these have seen already? The flavors seem to be mostly similar as well. Passion Fruit, Guava or other tropical fruits....

Only the guest snarks are interested in beverage deals. After hearing all the reasons the other snarks are out, the guest always decides he has to learn his lesson the hard way anyway.

[eel21788]

16 hours ago, tired and hungry said:

I think someone pointed this out in the last episode but what was up with that white fountain like sculpture in the background? Why was it all so stained looking? What a weird design choice...

There were actually two of them. One in brown, and the other in white. The stain on the white one looked as though it had actually been used as a fountain and was left with a hard water stain. 

[eel21788]

On 1/20/2023 at 7:01 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

Brass Roots- Allergen-free snack, sacha inchi seeds, called the Incan peanut, not trigger allergies like peanuts.

I'm not buying the part about there being no cross-sensitivity for people with true peanut allergies.

It is still a legume, and people with true peanut allergies (<2% of the population) are also allergic to other legumes such as beans (soy, kidney, cannellini, black eyed peas, garbanzos, etc), alfalfa, peas, lentils.

Why would this legume be any different?

[SG429]

20 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

$75 a month milk subscription?

 

15 hours ago, eel21788 said:

How about $18 for a jar of peanut butter substitute?

 

15 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Goes with the $200 charcuterie boards I guess

And some of the most successful ST launches were Scrub Daddy, Squatty Potty, and the thing that goes between car seats, all simple, moderately priced items whose value was easily understood and demonstrated. No matter how successful $200 cheese board is it can never achieve true mass appeal, and that high end market is very crowded anyway.

[Welshman in Ca]

1 minute ago, SG429 said:

 

 

And some of the most successful ST launches were Scrub Daddy, Squatty Potty, and the thing that goes between car seats, all simple, moderately priced items whose value was easily understood and demonstrated. No matter how successful $200 cheese board is it can never achieve true mass appeal, and that high end market is very crowded anyway.

And I use at least 2 of them, the thing that goes between the car seats is called the drop stop.

[bilgistic]

Every time I see "Nutr," I read it as "neuter."

[Lurk]

I just don't get the concept of Nutr other than it would allow people to make their own milk alternative without sugar and added ingredients. I got curious a while back and consulted the Googles about how they make almond milk - pulverize almonds, mix with water and strain off the solids.  I don't drink a lot of milk and have never really used soy, almond or oat milk. I don't see how someone can enjoy drinking pulverized almond water or oats and calling it milk. I like eating almonds and oats, not drinking them.

[aemom]

1 hour ago, Lurk said:

I just don't get the concept of Nutr other than it would allow people to make their own milk alternative without sugar and added ingredients. I got curious a while back and consulted the Googles about how they make almond milk - pulverize almonds, mix with water and strain off the solids.  I don't drink a lot of milk and have never really used soy, almond or oat milk. I don't see how someone can enjoy drinking pulverized almond water or oats and calling it milk. I like eating almonds and oats, not drinking them.

I like cereal, but I needed to reduce dairy in my diet. So, I switched to unsweetened, plain almond milk. That's the only thing I use it for is my cereal. 

I think the idea is that because pulverizing nuts gives you a white liquid, they call it milk instead of juice.

[DrSpaceman73]

The dairy industry had tried to fight the labeling of these other drinks as 'milk' but to no avail. 

They have a point but it's a losing pr battle

[seacliffsal]

My frustration level with this episode was quite high.  All of the products seemed over valued.  I remember when Mark Cuban demanded that the producers no longer take 2% of the companies just for appearing on the show.  He made it seem like a huge victory for the presenters, but instead it feels like a loss for the show and for the actual viewers as more and more presenters seem like they are only there for the exposure.  If presenters wanted a deal they would make a fair valuation for their product/business.  It totally fed into this "my idea alone is worth a million or more" without anything to really back it up.  I really wish they would reinstate some kind of policy-even if it were 1% of any product that failed to get a deal as an appearance fee.  Of course, there is also a high percentage of deals that fail during due diligence (again, because presenters hide something or the numbers are actually wrong, etc.).  I was glad that Daymond told off the cosmetics woman that her "negotiation" wasn't a negotiation.  

[DrSpaceman73]

I've been pretty disappointed this year in the products. Not just this episode but the last several. Nothing that exciting.  

[aemom]

2 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

My frustration level with this episode was quite high.  All of the products seemed over valued.  I remember when Mark Cuban demanded that the producers no longer take 2% of the companies just for appearing on the show.  He made it seem like a huge victory for the presenters, but instead it feels like a loss for the show and for the actual viewers as more and more presenters seem like they are only there for the exposure.  If presenters wanted a deal they would make a fair valuation for their product/business.  It totally fed into this "my idea alone is worth a million or more" without anything to really back it up.  I really wish they would reinstate some kind of policy-even if it were 1% of any product that failed to get a deal as an appearance fee.  Of course, there is also a high percentage of deals that fail during due diligence (again, because presenters hide something or the numbers are actually wrong, etc.).  I was glad that Daymond told off the cosmetics woman that her "negotiation" wasn't a negotiation.  

I was very frustrated as well.  The valuations - and the asks - were all very high.  So even if the Sharks wanted to ask for a higher percentage of the company, the high asks were just compounding the problem.

I also felt that many of them were just there for the exposure, not to make an actual deal.

Edited January 23, 2023 by aemom
Typo, clarification

[seacliffsal]

Just got back from grocery shopping at Food Lion and in the refrigerated produce section there were beverages just like the ones featured in the last segment.  Mexican style carbonated water with tropical fruit juices.  So, again, after being told they were like nothing else on the market, not so much.