S15.E15

[EtheltoTillie]

Airing February 23, 2024. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

Sharks-Mark, Daymond, Kevin, Lori, Robert

Psyonic Bionic Hand -a bionic prosthetic device. $1 million for 2%.  The company does bionic limbs for   Ability Hand, rechargeable, bionic, sensing like a real hand.   Used for prosthetics, and robotics too.   Sgt Anderson tells that this is the best prothesis he's ever used.    The entrepreneur is a doctor, and a bunch of other advanced degrees.   Dept. of Defense is giving them a $2.4 million grant.  Half of their sales are from social media, covered by Medicare too. $15,500 to sell, $1,800 to make.  The company needs to build it's production capacity dramatically. The prostheticist make the limb portion, and the hand is from the company.   

The robotics investors weren't interesting in human health care.  Mark is out.  Robert is out. Kevin doesn't want 2% equity, but 10%.   Daymond and Lori want to offer $ 1 million for 6% non-diluted shares.    Seller counters at $ million at 2% shares, and 1 % each of advisory shares.  2% equity, 2% advisory, for Lori and Daymond $1 million. Kevin $1 million 10% non-diluted.    

Lori and Daymond offer $1 million for 5%, 1% each non-dilute, 1% advisory.  Kevin, Lori and Daymond offer  2 1/2% each, so 7 1/2 % total at $1 million.

Deal made with Kevin, Lori, and Daymond 2% each, $1 million.  I love this deal so much.   I know someone that this prosthetic will be life changing for.    I hope they can ramp up production, this is such a useful device for people who use prosthetics. 

Dogue Dog Food -artisanal desserts for dogs. $100,000 for %. (sorry I missed the % they wanted).  It looks like the finest pastries, but it's pet dessert.  Achilles their Mastiff comes on stage.  Patries, cakes, Bon Apetit cafe offers an array of pastries on Sundays. And pre-packaged pet food.     They have one brick and mortar store in San Francisco.

Daymond tastes it, and the look on his face is so funny.   Pre-packaged, 75% margins.  Their pastries and desserts sell at 90% margins.   Meals are frozen. Lori says not scaleable and is out. Mark is out.    Kevin says shipping is the issue, and he's out.   Daymond says focus on direct to consumer.  Robert is out.  (My view, there's already several home delivery pet meals, too much competition.)

No Deal. 

Cup-A-Bug!- Insect catcher,  a bug-catching device that doesn't kill the creatures.  $50,000 for 10%.  A bug catcher on a pole, put the bug catcher over the bug, pull the trigger, the lid closes, and bug is trapped to take it out.    Poor seller keeps losing his place, I can sympathize with his stage fright.   Good margins.  not huge sales.  Sales are all online.    He's a serial inventor.  He also has other related products, and created the bug launcher / catapault for the Sharks.   Mark says $50k for 20%, Daymond says $60k for 30%.   $75,000 for 20% from Mark.   

Mark makes the deal for $75,000 for 20%.    

Coldest-  -insulated water bottles designed to keep drinks cold for up to 36 hours.   $600,000   for 2%. They have Coldest Pillow, Coldest Dog bed, and Coldest Dog bowl.   Bottle has three insulated lids, all 100% leak proof.    First sale was thousands of water bottles, and they sold out.  They started on Amazon. Then, they branched out to other coldest products in 2017.   $2.5 million 2018, 2020 $9 million, 2023 in sales, but lost $400,000 in spite of huge sales.  Average margin is over 75%.  They have too many SKUs.  Lori is out. Mark says they advertise too much for their sales, and he's out.  Robert is out. Daymond says inventory is too big, and he's out.   

Kevin says 7% equity, $600,000 royalty $2.25 until he gets $3 million back, at that point the royalty goes away.  I think they should make the deal with Kevin, he can get them under control, trim the inventory, eliminate the huge number of products, colors, styles, etc. and make them more successful.    He also is very experienced with marketing, and inventory issues, so he would have been a great partner for them. 

No Deal.   I think the sellers made a mistake.   

Update: Crispy Cones, deal with Barbara.   Barbara helped them with franchising, and their doing very well, with self-serve kiosks, so no one has to wait in line.   Seven months since Shark Tank they have $2 million in sales.  

Iconic moment:  Baby Toon, 7 year old inventor who invented Baby Toon.   Lori invested with her, and is her mentor.

The warning from the Sharks about scam ads runs again. 

Edited February 24 by CrazyInAlabama

[Tango64]

So the dog food people got attention with the fancy dessert items but the woman said their prepackaged meals “look like slop.” She actually said that. 

(Quiet aside to that woman: Those glasses don’t work for you.)

[CrazyInAlabama]

I thought the same thing about the glasses, apparently it's a trend.   At the eyeglass shop, I'm known as 'not trendy". So, I only know that the lady's glasses were a trend because I was looking at frames to get ready for my next eye appointment, and lots of frames looked like that.   

I couldn't believe it when the woman said the food looks like slop.   The Fresh Pet, and Farmer's Dog stuff doesn't look like slop.    They also didn't discuss selling through dog boutiques and bakeries either. Their primary competitors sell that way, and through home sales, and are very successful.  So, they were focused on direct to consumer, with frozen products. 

 The shipping will cost more than the dog food.   So they need to stay local, and partner with a delivery service that delivers frozen food to homes. 

Edited February 24 by CrazyInAlabama

[BusyOctober]

I know people love their pets and spend crazy amounts on them, but designer, couture doggie “pastry” is just stupid. And to come into the Tank with one boutique retail location in one of the most expensive metroplitan areas, and have no business plan for how to scale an un-scalable business is just bananas. The dog’s teeny chefs hat was more stylish than the owner’s glasses.

Good for the bug catcher guy for getting a deal.  I’d never buy the bug catcher thing though.  I am not ever getting close enough to trap any bugs.

[EtheltoTillie]

36 minutes ago, BusyOctober said:

I know people love their pets and spend crazy amounts on them, but designer, couture doggie “pastry” is just stupid. 

Beyond stupid. The dog doesn’t notice the beautiful decorative icing. It gobbles the item in one second. That dog sure had a lot of slobber!

Also stupid:  when the dog came out, Lori said “I wasn’t expecting that.”  The giant product sign said Dogue and they were talking about weird meats.   It was exactly what I expected. 

Edited February 24 by EtheltoTillie

[tired and hungry]

Dogue pitchers were some of the most pretentious people I have seen on the show. They had no idea what they wanted to do with the business and how they were going to scale. Were they just expecting to get a deal and let the sharks do all the work for them? As someone else pointed out, dogs don't care if the food looks like fancy pastries or like a michelin star dish. They will eat anything you put in front of them. The dog in the little chef hat was the cutest thing in that pitch!

Cup-A-Bug guy seemed very genuine and sweet. One thing I don't get is that sometimes the sharks say they don't like to invest in Inventors because the inventors are constantly focusing of inventing the next product and don't give enough time and effort to their current product. But then they get excited when an inventor like this shows up and immediately invest coz they always want to know their next big invention? Make it make sense 

Coldest guys shrill high pitched voices were hurting my ears. After the pitch, the first thing I did was roll my eyes while thinking "Oh great! another Water Bottle company". How many water bottles do you need? (I'm not in the US but even I'm tired of hearing about Stanley cups and its other thousand XYZ dupes) Why are they people so obsessed with water bottles? It seems crazy to me that they were making so much money with such ugly designs. Consumerism at its finest I guess.

[bilgistic]

I'll sit over here at my table for one because I was so grossed out by that dog drooling so much that its owners needed a towel to mop it up. Granted, I'm a cat lady.

Mark said something about not understanding how healthcare investors weren't interested in the prosthetic hand since it would help people. I laughed and told my boyfriend, "That's because healthcare investors care only about money!" This is America, dammit!

[Quickbeam]

Dog food people just creeped me out. I loved the mastiff though. 
 

I used to negotiate contracts for prosthetic limbs for accident patients. The average durable medical arm with that type of functionality was running 150K. And we paid it. So if this guy can bring a functioning prosthetic arm to market for 15K, the world will be his. 

The gentleman wearing the arm seemed to also have some brain damage. I hope he was there of his own volition or in on the potential for profit. He seemed vulnerable. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

The biggest issue is the amount of hands (they just produce the hand, and it hooks into the arm prosthesis at the wrist) the company can produce in a year.   They need a manufacturer that can produce thousands of hands a year. 

[CrazyTrain]

12 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I'll sit over here at my table for one because I was so grossed out by that dog drooling so much that its owners needed a towel to mop it up. Granted, I'm a cat lady.

You are not alone. She used her hand to wipe the dog's drool, and I almost threw up.

 

What happened to the episode titles in the topics?

[eel2178]

22 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Beyond stupid. The dog doesn’t notice the beautiful decorative icing. It gobbles the item in one second. That dog sure had a lot of slobber!

The dog also appeared to have a huge sugar crash after eating it. He had practically melted on stage to look like a throw rug. I suppose it's possible he was given a sedative to prevent getting too hyper on camera; however, from the edit we got, it really looked as though he was in the throes of a hypoglycemic episode after viciously devouring his treat.

After the fail with doggy peanut butter a few weeks ago, I'm not sure why the producers thought this should get any air time.

[eel2178]

23 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

Good for the bug catcher guy for getting a deal.  I’d never buy the bug catcher thing though.  I am not ever getting close enough to trap any bugs.

I wasn't sure how you were supposed to have it handily available when you see the bug. After it runs across your floor or up the wall or wherever, you run and get the thing and you're supposed to expect the bug to still be exactly where you last saw it? Cockroaches won't do that. Maybe you sit quietly with it across your lap like a broken shotgun while you await the return of your prey?

The stationary bugs are easy enough to catch live without his device with just a paper or plastic cup and a piece of paper or thin cardboard.

Besides, I don't think I'm going to deprive the cat of the opportunity to play Ninja Bug Hunter. He'd probably already have it squished by the time I got back with the equipment anyway.

A question that didn't get asked: can you catch more than one before you've emptied it?

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, CrazyTrain said:

What happened to the episode titles in the topics?

I don’t think there is a dedicated mod starting episode threads so it’s up to individual posters to title the threads they start. But if you flag a thread the mod may be able to rename it appropriately. 

[EtheltoTillie]

3 hours ago, CrazyTrain said:

You are not alone. She used her hand to wipe the dog's drool, and I almost threw up.

 

What happened to the episode titles in the topics?

I posted the episode but I didn’t have any info on the products to add to the title at the time.   They don’t give that in the episode description from the TV system.   Now I do not have ability to edit the title I posted. Maybe only a mod can do that. 

[DrSpaceman73]

The bionic hand I thought was amazing but the shark people aren't going to offer anything to its growth.  It's about medical device sales it completely different than retail and what they know. Plus if they can't make more than 500 a year doesn't matter how great it is they aren't becoming a billion dollar company 

The dog drooling was grossing me out. Plus I didn't get there strategy. You sell high priced goods wirh a great return vs cost so you can get people to buy a lower return product in an industry with a ton of competitors. Just sell the fancy treats. 

I like the bug guy. Seemed smart and dedicated.  Mark basically I think bought him as an employee to make stuff for him  but still a good gig for him. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

10 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I posted the episode but I didn’t have any info on the products to add to the title at the time.   They don’t give that in the episode description from the TV system.   Now I do not have ability to edit the title I posted. Maybe only a mod can do that. 

I get the pitch titles from one of the Shark Tank Product site.  The Sharks for that week are listed on Wikipedia for Season 15.  However, the individual segment titles aren't available until Fridays, and the same with the Shark Tank Products website with the individual titles.    

Titan TV has the general description of the product, but no official title, and list the Sharks with the entire group of six.  So, no individual item titles.   Sometimes I can get the name of the product from the previews but that's very iffy for me, I have no recording capability so it's only what I can catch.    

[Shrek]

22 hours ago, Quickbeam said:

I used to negotiate contracts for prosthetic limbs for accident patients. The average durable medical arm with that type of functionality was running 150K. And we paid it. So if this guy can bring a functioning prosthetic arm to market for 15K, the world will be his. 

 

I think the sharks are hoping that it will be sold to a medical device company who will pay a lot of money to either bury it or 10x the selling price & the will make their money back & some that way. 

I would like to think that they are buying into it for altruistic reasons rather than what I said above but they're sharks & all they see is $ signs. I was surprised Mark didn't swoop back in but he knows how hard it is to take on the established players in the medical field & is already involved with his drug pricing so knows how hard it is to compete. 

[KaveDweller]

On 2/24/2024 at 6:30 AM, tired and hungry said:

But then they get excited when an inventor like this shows up and immediately invest coz they always want to know their next big invention? Make it make sense 

With the bug guy, I think Mark just liked him and decided to throw some money at him on the chance it will turn into something big. $75K is nothing to Mark Cuban so he can sometimes just do that.

Other times, they don't like the person enough to invest, or think it is a bad company, but still want to turn them down nicely. So then they come up with phrases like "You're a product, not a company" or "You're just too early in the process" etc.

[ChristmasJones]

I love the Cup-A-Bug device! I am probably going to order one. I absolutely detest bugs and spiders, so this would be awesome.  There is a particular type of bug that comes inside in the spring/summer, and this would be perfect to catch it as they usually land on the walls.  

[SoMuchTV]

This is my cup-a-bug.  It would be nice to have the bug at a little more arm’s length, but not sure it would be worth $40 to me!

 

 

[CrazyTrain]

Thank you all for the replies, and thank you all who start these threads! I wasn't sure if it was a new thing with the new mod stuff going on. 

 

[bilgistic]

A flip-flop is my cup-a-bug, but it's not so much a "cup-a-bug" as a "smash-a-bug".

[SoMuchTV]

2 hours ago, bilgistic said:

A flip-flop is my cup-a-bug, but it's not so much a "cup-a-bug" as a "smash-a-bug".

I don't "cup" some bugs so much out of compassion, but out of a need to avoid cleaning cockroach guts off my floor and my shoe.

[eel2178]

3 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

I don't "cup" some bugs so much out of compassion, but out of a need to avoid cleaning cockroach guts off my floor and my shoe.

According to the radio program I listen to, indoor bugs don't know how to survive as outdoor bugs so trying to set them free outside really doesn't do them any favors. Squishing to put them out of their misery immediately instead of going through the trauma of the great outdoors may be considered more humane by some (or the rationalization for squishing them instead of using the catch & release method).