S16.E15: History by Mail; Future Circus; Cow Pots; Paper Tacos

[CrazyInAlabama]

New, 4/4/2025

Sharks-Mark, Barbara, Kevin, Lori, Daniel

History by Mail-A piece of history delivered.  Seeking $250,000 for 10%.  Ari’s company sends you artifact replicas by mail.  Subscription service that ships a package a month to your home.  Replicas of historic documents.    Each Shark has a typical shipment.   Ari was a Senate intern, and toured the Library of Congress and their fantastic exhibits, and it made him want to share that with others. They have 3 million in sales in three years, $1.075 in 2024.   They do digital scans of documents to send out, according to your interests.   The company is profitable.   Money is used for scaling, they just to gift sales, and want to expand to museums, corporate buys, and wants a mentor to scale. Mark is out, he says Ari is doing just fine.   Kevin offers $250,000 for 20%, and use social media to get more customers. Barbara and Daniel offer $250,000 for %. Barbara says hire a social media service.  Lori is out. 

Deal with Barbara and Daniel for $250,000,  for 20%.  

 Future Circus-a virtual theme park experience. Seeking $500,000 for5 %. Brent pitches a futuristic game with virtual reality in your choice of locations.   He says vacant retail is a good possibility.   (His father Nolan founded Atari and Chuck E. Cheese). Mark and Daniel have a virtual fireball throwing battle, Mark won.    They have a local entertainment director, each center has food and beverages, and various parts of the location with different themes.     He had a 50,000 sq ft circus in central L.A., and they did well.   It would be a good place for dying malls, and vacant retail locations.   Single location could do $1.2 to $2 million per year, they only have software so far.    Previous business went bankrupt in Covid.  Daniel is out, but says he’s too early.  Barbara is out.   Mark is out.   Kevin is out, he needs a higher percentage. Lori is out.

No Deal.

 Cow Pots-eco-friendly plantable pots. Seeking $200,000 for 10%. Amanda’s company turns cow pies into plant pots.    You put the plant in the pot, you plant the pot, and it biodegrades faster than other biodegradable pots.   It replaces peat pots.   There are 16 different sizes and styles of pots.   Sell to landscapers, and 75% to consumers.    She has inquiries from other countries to do the same procedure.  $3.5 milion lifetime sales, and are profitable.    Her father owns 98%, she owns 2%.  Same technology could be used for wine bottle carriers, drink carriers and a million other packaging.      Daniel is out.  Mark is out.  Lori is out.   Barbara is out.   Kevin offers $200,000 for 25%.

22 1/2% for $200,000 with Kevin. I think he'll be a great partner for her, and for the industry. 

Paper Tacos-a culturally unique greeting card. Seeking $120,000 for 10%.   Jesus sells cultural tradition greeting cards.  They focus on the Latino community for now.   Sales are retail and wholesale 90%, consumer 10%.   Barbara says no one buys or sends greeting cards, and Kevin says a $6 to $7 billion annually in sales for greeting cards.    Margins are fantastic.  Sales 2024 $152,000 with $188,000 total by the end of the year.   Hispanic market is 21% of U.S. sales.    He needs money and help with marketing.  Daniel proposes something different, Daniel proposes partnering with Kevin, who is out.   Daniel says 35% for 120,000.   Barbara says she's out, don't get a partner, and Mark goes out for the same reasons.    Lori is out.  

Deal with Mark $120,000 for 25%. 

 

Update-Storage Scholars deal with Mark Cuban, storage for college students between semesters.  $50 million in lifetime sales.   Another Google Gemini ad.

 

Edited Saturday at 01:33 PM by CrazyInAlabama

[Tango64]

I liked the virtual circus guy, but when he said the average sale was $10 food and $20 experience at a dollar a minute that sounded like people come, have a burger and don’t find the attraction much fun. Twenty minutes on something like that isn’t much if you’re really enjoying it. 
Perhaps it’s because of another problem I saw: Are you just showing up to a mostly empty parking lot at a derelict mall and nothing looks fun if you don’t have the goggles on? It would be hard to get into a fun mood like that. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

Good point.  My local indoor mall was booming, and is now mostly empty.   I only go there during daylight, park right by the store I need to go to, and get out of there as quickly as I can.    There is no way that a setup for virtual reality and food/beverage service would be viable, since tenants are charged a huge amount for rent.  

[DrSpaceman73]

I would try the vr thing as a consumer but not as an investor.  Crazy amount of money for nothing so far but tech. 

I think he said $50 on average spent $10 food and $40 ,on games. 

It's a rebuilt arcade basically with vr

 

[Cotypubby]

He said the vr thing was $1 per minute and most people paid $30; $10 for food and $20 for the games. 20 minutes sounds really quick. I don’t know why I’d even want to buy food if I’m just there for 20 mins. He didn’t really have any plan for the business, just that it was going to be great and so cool but no actual details of how that will happen.

The greeting card designs were really cute.