S15.E02: StormBags; Return Home; Matador Meggings; TOAST-IT

[JTMacc99]

Quote

Entrepreneurs present the Sharks with a lightweight, reusable sandbag; an earth-friendly alternative to human composting; leggings for men; and toasty, ready-to-eat Latin American foods. Recurring guest Shark Daniel Lubetzky returns to the Tank.

Wow, "an earth-friendly alternative to human composting". This should be interesting.

[CrazyInAlabama]

Season 15, episode 2, 6 October

Sharks-Daniel Lubetzky, guest Shark with Mark, Lori, Kevin, Daymond

StormBags-by Storm Tec-sandless storm flood protection bags-reusable sandbag, except no sand involved.  A father and son duo.  ust dunk the bag, and then it goes to 30 lbs in a few minutes.    $200k for 10%, $2 million valuation.   There is a material inside the bags, a polymer that absorbs many times it's weight.  To deflate it put it in the sun, no water around, and it deflates and is portable again.  They're from Paradise, CA, where the town burned.    They went to rebuild, but instead they went in business together.   Zero marketing, so with some publicity and demonstrating the bags will build business.  $5.50 for the smallest bag, $2.00 going down to $1.75 so decent margins.   I think they'll get a lot of business from being on the show.  Kevin is out. Mark and Lori pitch a combined deal. Mark says different sizes for different applications, and wants to raise the prices.   Daniel and Daymond want a deal too.   Each duo offers 30%. 

Deal made with Lori and Mark.

Return Home Human Composting - an eco-friendly alternative to human composting. $2 million  for 5%, $40 million valuation.  They claim cremation and burial are ecologically awful. Terranation.   Turns a body into soil in 60 to 90 days.  People are placed in a vessel with straw, alfalfa and sawdust, you turn into compost. 3.4 million die each year in the U.S., 2 million cremated.  average burial is many times the cost of Return Home. He's the CEO, and she's a funeral director.  He ran the Chinese edition of the Knot.   Sales are $350k last year, by the end of May $350k already.  They are money losing so far. 

Mark is out because of the sales and valuation. Margins are good.  Kevin is out, he hates the business model. Daniel hates the valuation too, and he's out. Daymond is out. Lori invested in the cremains stones last year, so she's out. 

No deal. 

Matador Meggings –(athletic leggings for men) leggings designed for men, supports the junk.  Valentine is the seller.   It's a sports bra for your man parts, with a lightly padded crotch.   $250k for 10% equity. The leggings are compression pants, and shorts.    sweat wicking, phone pocket, zipper pocket for valuables, and a towel holding loop.   They launched three years ago, with $800k in sales, and are profitable. Margins are great.   They anticipate $1 million this year in sales, all direct to consumer. 

Kevin is out.  Mark is out.   Lori is out.  Daymond is out. Daniel likes the product, but seller needs more focus on target consumers, so he's out. 

No deal. 

Toast It -Arepas-ready-to-eat Latin American foods.  Made from $100 for 5%.  Toast Its are corn meal, different flavors, gluten free, no sugar. Original flavor is corn meal with plantains, Chia Flax seed, and  yucca.  Margins are 30%, and 20% after expenses.   All products are frozen.  They're in some Whole Foods, and Publix supermarkets. No competition in the frozen aisle, just the refrigerated aisle.  The sisters are going to reduce packaging, and increase margins.

Mark is out, Daymond is out, Lori is out, Daniel doesn't like the margins or frozen space competition, but matches Kevin's offer.  Kevin makes an offer $100k for 20%.

Daniel offers $150k for 20% and makes the deal.

Update:  Best earning products #12 Cordaroy's, #11 PRX Performance, #10 Squatty Potty.

Bombas update: very successful, and donate a lot of socks, t shirts, and other items too. They also make t shirts, underwear. They're up to $225 million in sales, with cumulative sales of $1 Billion. 

Edited October 7, 2023 by CrazyInAlabama

[30 Helens]

Storm Bags: Seems like a great idea, but who is really buying this? Municipalities don’t have that kind of budget or foresight. For homeowners to have any degree of protection, I’m guessing they’d need at least 20 bags. At $20 apiece, the price Mark was proposing, that’s a $400 investment. Or they can get some free when needed. This time, Kevin actually made the most sense.

Meggings: Do that many men really want to wear leggings? And as for protection, isn’t that what a jock strap is for? Maybe I’m just the wrong gender, but I didn’t get this one at all.

Environmental burials:  I’ve long held that big glossy caskets are both an environmental detriment and a waste of money, and and most funeral homes manipulate the guilt of the survivors to pay more than they should. Anyone who wants to spend money on me, do it while I’m alive. I’ve told my husband numerous times that when I go, he just needs to grab the nearest cardboard box, stuff me inside, and dig a hole. So I liked the idea of this company, even though they didn’t make the best case for themselves. I’d still let them turn me into a vegetable patch, though.

 

[Madding crowd]

I think the Return Home people had a good idea but it needs some finesse. People aren’t going to go to a warehouse to sit in front of box #62 and wouldn’t know what to with a box of soil delivered that contained their loved ones. There has to be a way of doing this in a more dignified manner. 
 

I thought the storm bags were a good idea for people who get water in their basement but I wouldn’t buy it to water plants since it can only be used 3 times and I don’t know if the watering would be consistent. 

[seacliffsal]

The storm bags were a great idea.  I know Kevin said that their competition is "free" but that's not quite so.  For the last hurricane/tropical storm that came through the county government was giving out 'free' bags, but kept running out and the distribution centers were remote (and people would have to go from one regional center to another as the supply kept running out/changing).  Additionally there is the aspect of filling them with sand which people have to do for themselves and then transporting them back home.  These will stay at the house, are light-weight to 'transport.' I'm very interested in getting some but not at the price Mark stated.  And I do remember the Paradise Fire and had family members who lost their homes.

[EXEAL]

While I listened to the StormBag pitch I was thinking the same thing seacliffsal was. Just because something is free doesn't necessarily make it a better deal. Besides, using the free regular sandbags is labor intensive and some people aren't physically able to fill bags and carry them. It would be worth paying for StormBags just for the peace of mind they would bring. 

Our washer started leaking right after we bought it and continued to leak every time a repairperson came out. It was finally fixed but we were lucky it was only a small leak. Having a StormBag or two would bring that peace of mind in case the washer started flooding. I looked at their website and they are selling packages of 10 for $79.99 and packages of 25 for $159.99.  

Edited October 8, 2023 by EXEAL

[seacliffsal]

47 minutes ago, EXEAL said:

 

Our washer started leaking right after we bought it and continued to leak every time a repairperson came out. It was finally fixed but we were lucky it was only a small leak. Having a StormBag or two would bring that peace of mind in case the washer started flooding. I looked at their website and they are selling packages of 10 for $79.99 and packages of 25 for $159.99.  

I probably need to buy some before their prices go up (Mark doesn't get that we can't all afford $20/bag...).  And, I appreciate your example about your washing machine-there is flooding may be due to things beyond weather crises.  And, if they're never used, then they're never used but it could be a "peace of mind" purchase.

[Shrek]

53 minutes ago, seacliffsal said:

I probably need to buy some before their prices go up (Mark doesn't get that we can't all afford $20/bag...).  And, I appreciate your example about your washing machine-there is flooding may be due to things beyond weather crises.  And, if they're never used, then they're never used but it could be a "peace of mind" purchase.

It's no surprise Mark doesn't get that most people couldn't afford $20 a bag & many more who could afford it would rather gamble that they didn't need them than pay that amount. 

[eel2178]

21 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

Storm Bags: Seems like a great idea, but who is really buying this? Municipalities don’t have that kind of budget or foresight. For homeowners to have any degree of protection, I’m guessing they’d need at least 20 bags. At $20 apiece, the price Mark was proposing, that’s a $400 investment. Or they can get some free when needed. This time, Kevin actually made the most sense.

I still didn't really get how this works. We have rains that cause street flooding all the time where I live, so I'm trying to envision how you would use these to keep the water in the street heading for the storm drain instead of towards the basement. 

Do you stack the empty bags in the area being flooded and wait for it to absorb the water? How long would that take to have a whole wall inflated? It is also going to take a really long time for them to dry out and deflate themselves, and I don't know what would prevent the burlap bag from getting moldy during the process.

Do you douse it with water yourself to get it to inflate then take it to the spot where you're trying to prevent flooding? This would mean carrying 30lb bags to the flood site over and over again, and they'd be redirecting the water flow without being able to absorb any more of it.

Do you bring your own water source to the flood site, soak them until they inflate, then stack them up? That seems pretty inconvenient, too.

Why not stack 10lb bags of kitty litter to make your defensive wall for $2-$3 per bag? They would absorb 1 gallon of water each and direct the water flow before, during and after they were absorbing the water. That's generally how we've been handling flooding here, and it works pretty well.

[eel2178]

15 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I think the Return Home people had a good idea but it needs some finesse. People aren’t going to go to a warehouse to sit in front of box #62 and wouldn’t know what to with a box of soil delivered that contained their loved ones. There has to be a way of doing this in a more dignified manner. 
 

They've made a total of $700K in sales at $5500 per person. That comes to a total of 127 customers.

Maybe the reason they're losing so much money is because they built their facility to do 70 people a month when they have fewer customers than that per year.

I'm also not buying that the entire person is being composted. I don't think it is possible for bones to fully decompose in 30 to 40 days without some sort of accelerant. How are skeletal remains found decades or centuries or longer after being buried? How is just adding sawdust and alfalfa going to change that?

They didn't deserve the deal solely based on their idea that the company was worth $40million when they have negligible sales and zero profit and already have competitors doing the same thing. What were they going to do with the $2million? Pay down their debt from building a bigger facilitate than the demand calls for?

Yet, another entrepreneur with delusions of grandeur.

Edited October 8, 2023 by eel2178

[Vermicious Knid]

Years ago there was a competitive invention show, and the winner was a firefighter, I think, who had come up with a new tool to fill sandbags easier and faster. I don't remember the name of the show or the invention but I don't recall ever seeing it in stores. Which is too bad because it did seem to work better than a shovel. Lori's idea to make small bags to water plants wasn't terrible because she suggested it for people who were going away for a week or two. Lots of people bought those Aqua Globes. 

If anyone is thinking about a green burial, before paying thousands more for less services, I suggest you check your local Jewish funeral home. Traditional burials are already 'green'. 

Didn't they just tell us Bombas earned the most money of a company from the show?

[bilgistic]

On 10/6/2023 at 11:54 PM, 30 Helens said:

Environmental burials:  I’ve long held that big glossy caskets are both an environmental detriment and a waste of money, and and most funeral homes manipulate the guilt of the survivors to pay more than they should. Anyone who wants to spend money on me, do it while I’m alive. I’ve told my husband numerous times that when I go, he just needs to grab the nearest cardboard box, stuff me inside, and dig a hole. So I liked the idea of this company, even though they didn’t make the best case for themselves. I’d still let them turn me into a vegetable patch, though.

I've told my boyfriend he can just toss my body off the side of the highway. I'll be dead; what'll I care? He's not on board with the idea.😂

But seriously, I've always heard that cremation is far more ecologically sound than traditional burial. I would ideally like a green burial.

Edited October 8, 2023 by bilgistic

[eel2178]

14 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

If anyone is thinking about a green burial, before paying thousands more for less services, I suggest you check your local Jewish funeral home. Traditional burials are already 'green'. 

However, you are still taking up ground space which they seemed to be objecting to not quite as much as cremation.

Why not come up with a way to make cremation more fuel efficient? Maybe a solar or wind powered furnace that can reach high enough temperatures?

[Tango64]

I kept thinking you'd need a whole lot of Stormbags to accomplish anything worthwhile, way more than 20 or 25. And at Cuban's clueless $20 suggestion, you're investing a lot.

Plus, their demo wall of Stormbags behind them wouldn't hold back water. There were huge gaps between the bags because they were flat and didn't sag into each other. Maybe they were just fake bags for the presentation, but it still bugged me if you're trying to tell me they hold back flood waters.