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S06.E16: Victoria's Kitchen, Green Box, Tycoon Real Estate, PhoneSoap


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Transplanted Parisians offer the Sharks a taste of their grandmother's almond-water recipe; a NYC city duo look for an investment in their eco-friendly pizza box; a San Francisco entrepreneur claims to have come up with a "game changer in real-estate investing"; and cousins from Utah pitch their idea for sanitizing germ-ridden cell phones. Also: an update on GrooveBook, which Kevin O'Leary invested in during Season 5.
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Did the pizza box people talk about savings of paper plates?  I know some takeout places will provide napkins and plates for free with the pizza especially if you are ordering for a party.  I'd think the extra cost of the box might be offset by the cost of the plates.

 

Tycoon guy is probably a former timeshare salesman.

 

Thought they were all nicer than usual to Almond water couple.  I was interested until the sugar content.  Glad they don't use artificial sweeteners.

 

I didn't mind the phone charger cleaner.  And if it's at home, charge & clean overnight.  $30 didn't seem outrageous to me.

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I enjoyed the episode enormously. Entertaining and suspenseful and most of the people presenting were appealing, plus some of the ideas looked very good to me.

 

I think I need to try the coconut almond water. Doesn't sound like too much sugar to me if I don't chug a whole bottle.
 

I really liked Greenbox, too. It looks like it will benefit the customer as well as the environment, and I'd definitely pay a few cents more for my pizza to use the Greenbox.  Kevin seemed actually warm towards them when they took his deal.

 

The phone sanitizer/charger was ok - not something I'd run out and buy, but I can see its appeal. Interesting argument between Lori and Mark - I agree that Lori offered the better deal, but I think Mark was sincere. Loved Lori coming to terms if they said yes immediately - and before she completely finished the sentence, or at least took a breath, they were all "We accept!"

 

Also loved the update on the photobook company. Nice couple, and 14.5 million, even after Kevin and the tax man take their shares, will be life changing.

 

Agree with everyone who thought Mr. Tycoon was kind of slimy. Let's put him in the sanitizer/charger!

 

Line of the night: Mark, after being told the deal he's offering is 'foolish': "I'm often foolish. But it makes me a lot of money"

 

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New to Shark Tank and really enjoying it.

 

Mark Cuban was so against and even disgusted with the Tycoon guy that I wonder if Mark know someone who lost a lot of money with a similar investment group.

 

I'd really like to try the Almond water - and I'd like to try it without sugar. It sounds like it'd be good without sugar. If a sweetener is needed why not another one?  agave? brown rice syrup?

 

The pizza Greenbox is a really good idea. Work places never have enough plates when pizza is ordered for employees. And the regular boxes are a pain to get into the waste brackets. An employer would prefer ordering from a place that uses those boxes rather then from another place.

 

The phone sanitizer will be really popular in homes.  No one really cleans with a wipe much. But just popping the phone into that box while watching TV?  Easy peazy.

 

Now I'm curious as to what non-QVC sales team Lori has and for what products. Mark was really adamant that she doesn't have any. Lori just said she had them, not where they are or what they sell. The Sharks usually are quick to specify their accomplishments, assets, etc.

 

Looking forward the next episode.

 

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Loved the Greenbox, and the couple. Cracked up at the multiple restarts - and loved that the sharks helped put them at ease.  The Spousal Unit and I were all about the Greenbox - the two issues they brought up are exactly ours with a side-by-side fridge. Box won't fit in, and then we have to smush it up try and fit in a trashcan/bag. Kevin's argument that the "green" box he pitched before was a no-go:  he wasn't comparing apples to apples in our view. This one serves, and then folds (so cool!) into a self-contained unit. We agreed that we'd pay an additional nickel for the box. (We usually order from whoever has the best coupon for the week, but we also love supporting Shark Tank products!)

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I'd really like to try the Almond water - and I'd like to try it without sugar. It sounds like it'd be good without sugar. If a sweetener is needed why not another one?  agave? brown rice syrup?

 

Is it just a California thing, or did this make it to stores already? They've had variations of Almond Water, Coconut Water, and mixes of the two for at least a couple of years where I live (also sometimes mixed with Soy Milk).

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Now I'm curious as to what non-QVC sales team Lori has and for what products. Mark was really adamant that she doesn't have any. Lori just said she had them, not where they are or what they sell. The Sharks usually are quick to specify their accomplishments, assets, etc.

She gets a lot of products into Bed, Bath & Beyond, and Target. I expect to see that product put in there as well as on QVC. I don't use my phone in the bathroom, but I would like something to sanitize it.

I was waiting for Mark to *cough*Ponzi*cough* when that real estate guy was making his pitch. It sounded a lot like some of the things I've watched on American Greed.

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I enjoyed the episode and laughed at Mark when he had such a reactiin to the Tycoon guy.

I actually would possibly buy the phone thing, as I never really thought about all the germs lurking on my phone.

I have been a subscriber to Groovebook since it first aired. It's a good way to get some fairly decebt quality prints, though the paper is a bit flimsy. The deal with Shutterfly seems yo be working out some of those kinks.

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My electric toothbrush came with a combo charger/UV sanitizer. I use the little portable charger instead, because it takes up less space on my bathroom counter. And because bacteria have had four billion years to figure out how to constantly get all over everything, and I guess I've decided to be OK with that.

But, if that bothers a person, and they have to charge their phone anyway, I could see it being an appealing product.

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I actually would possibly buy the phone thing, as I never really thought about all the germs lurking on my phone.

It's not really anything you need to freak out about.  I see the utility in a healthcare setting, because you need more sterility when you're working with hospitalized patients, with the shift to electronic records-keeping, there's a place for that, especially if, as Mark said, they can speed up the time.

 

"I saw it on Dr. Oz" is not really an investment strategy I would follow, but I'm not going to tell Lori how to spend her money.

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It's funny I watched this today online, because last night I was paying for my tacos at the taco truck in town. The guy uses his cell phone to run credit cards so you sign on his screen. I'm not even close to a germophobe, but standing in line watching all these people rub their hands all over the same screen....just suddenly kind of icked me out.

And I know the recap said this isn't really a problem, but everytime I pick up a pizza and try to wrestle it out the door and into my car just by balancing it on the palm of my hand, I think there MUST be a better way! Especially if I'm carrying drinks or anything else. Put a handle on the damn thing.  But I agree that eating off the ripped up lid is stupid.  Wouldn't that be all greasy anyway?

Edited by Pjxf99
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The grease is the best thing about a pizza!  Agree on the unwieldiness of the old school pizza boxes, and I would so love to have a self-folding leftover box.

 

Mr. Tycoon was properly called out by Mark, and should have been called out even quicker by Barbara.  That sort of scheme is what gave us the economic crash a mere handful of years ago!   Its sort of like the schemes they had some years ago to sell one square inch of a peanut farm or whatever was the latest trend.  And time-shares.  And Mr. Ponzi's scheme.  Any anyone who has even bought the Eiffel Tower and the Brooklyn Bridge!

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The Green Box folks have been all over social media for years now. It's about time they made it to Shark Tank.

 

In 2007 a very similar product called "Pizza Box 2000" appeared on Dragons Den in Canada. They used a rectangular fold for leftovers not a wedge one, but still close enough that I suspect lawyers must have been involved for both sides if we're talking "utility patent".  In addition to Kevin O'Leary one of the Dragons present was Jim Treliving, founder of Boston Pizza. He said no for exactly the reason Kevin related here: You have to spend a lot of money to tell people your box does that and then hope they care so much that they specifically switch their order to you from a competitor.  If it's just a thing that your regular customers think is a nice bonus then it doesn't pay for itself.

 

So I'm skeptical that Dominos or anyone will sign on with Green Box.  I can see a smart entrepreneur of a local pizzeria maybe trying the boxes out and then using fliers to target local office buildings.  But I think a lot of people have strong enough opinions about Dominos, Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, etc that even if they knew the box folded it wouldn't change their mind when ordering.

 

YouTube link for the curious: http://youtu.be/HxvbB-j1l6A?t=24m36s

Edited by Amarsir
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Really! She lost me with that statement.

Me too! Didn't she also say that about the squatty potty? Or maybe I'm misremembering and it was the pitchers who name-dropped Dr. Oz? Either way, the Sharks seemed to take that as a real endorsement of the product.

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Me too! Didn't she also say that about the squatty potty? Or maybe I'm misremembering and it was the pitchers who name-dropped Dr. Oz? Either way, the Sharks seemed to take that as a real endorsement of the product.

That was Lori.

 

Even thinking back to Tycoon guy makes me want to take a shower.

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On Greenbox, if they are targeting public companies they can tie the boxes into corporate social responsibility. Then it's not a consumer play that they have to communicate to the public but an investor play. Some investors factor that in to decisions. 

 

I base my decision on where I buy pizza on taste. If it doesn't taste good it doesn't matter if it's in a eco-friendly box. I would love to have a box that was easier to dispose of though as it's annoying to have to cut them up. In my town pizza boxes can't go in the recycling bin. 

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I'd love to see a pizza delivered on a round cardboard piece, the size of the pizza, inside some type of biodegradable baggie thing. If it's got a foil-type lining, it will keep the pizza hotter than a box will. But that idea is probably too expensive or they'd be doing it already.

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I'm going to buck the trend and make a water that tastes like . . . water!  I'll make millions, billions -- oh, you mean it's free when you turn on the faucet?  Curses, foiled again!  Back to the drawing board . . .

 

Then again, who ever thought such a fortune would be made on bottled water?  I still primarily drink tap water but I'm consistently amazed how many people won't even touch tap water. I've actually had people change their mind on a glass of water if they came to my house and I didn't have bottled (seriously??). We have good tap water too. So I guess why not try dumping coconut juice and almonds into it... you never know.

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I'd love to see a pizza delivered on a round cardboard piece, the size of the pizza, inside some type of biodegradable baggie thing. If it's got a foil-type lining, it will keep the pizza hotter than a box will. But that idea is probably too expensive or they'd be doing it already.

Do you have Papa Murphy's?  It's sold raw, on a cardboard disc, covered in plastic wrap.  I think a cooked pizza bagged up would get steamed and soggy.  

 

I think the major pizza players need stackable, too.  I also wonder if part of the problem with Green Box is it takes longer to fold it into a box.  That's going to matter.  

 

I personally have no problem with pizza boxes.  I eat off real plates and wrap leftovers in foil, or slide the box in my french door frig.  And when it's gone I walk it out to my giant trash bin outside.  

 

So Mark's idea about asking hospital visitors to sanitize their phones...  Does he envision also asking them to wash their hands?  Because that's where the germs come from.  I really don't think there's an epidemic of people in hospitals getting e coli from their visitors phones or something.  If there is, it'd be a lot cheaper to hand them a Clorox wipe.  Plus hospitals seem to invariably ask people not to use their phones on the premises.   

 

Tycoon-- Mr. Wonderful is right that anyone can invest small $ in real estate using exchange-traded REITs and have full liquidity, unlike Tycoon's scheme that sounded more like some kind of time share.  Plus most average Americans are already over-invested in real estate, given they usually own homes.  And Robert is wrong that if you have 10 years, R.E. is a sure thing.  

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I really don't think there's an epidemic of people in hospitals getting e coli from their visitors phones or something.

Cell phones don't work in a lot of hospitals. And I got e-coli after having surgery....along with 5 other people who had surgery the same day. Hospitals are germy places, period.

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So Mark's idea about asking hospital visitors to sanitize their phones...  Does he envision also asking them to wash their hands?  Because that's where the germs come from.  I really don't think there's an epidemic of people in hospitals getting e coli from their visitors phones or something.  If there is, it'd be a lot cheaper to hand them a Clorox wipe.  Plus hospitals seem to invariably ask people not to use their phones on the premises.   

Infection control is a really big deal in hospitals.  Even the cleanest hospital in the world can get an outbreak, and a lot of medicine is being done on tablets these days.  Makes sense to me.

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Say what you will about Mark (and he can get on my nerves) but if he thinks someone is out to scam the little guy, he'll say so.  He doesn't try to be polite, just calls the person out.  I appreciate that, because some of these people do seem to be just snake oil salesmen.  That real estate investment was basically throwing your money at someone with no history of making good investments and hoping you get a return.  Quite risky.

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Dr. Oz may be a joke in terms of medical cred these days, but not in terms of sales. The same women who are thrilled to dress like a piece of poo and crawl through a giant colon on national TV rush to pick up whatever random food, herb, supplement or gadget he suggests. Ask a tech at any retail pharmacy or a clerk at a natural food store what Dr. Oz recommended yesterday and they'll know- not because they saw it, but because women have already come in asking for it that day. He may be the modern equivalent of a snake oil salesman, but a mention on his show is going to produce a big bump in sales.

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I actually really like Mark Cuban and always have. He's someone who made a huge amount of money at a young age and decided that he would do things he wanted and obtain things that made him happy, and did so.

 

He wanted to own a basketball team, so he bought the Dallas Mavericks. And say what you will about his management style and relations with the NBA as a whole, he has committed himself personally to do all he can to build and support the team.

 

His track record on "Shark Tank" shows that he makes deals on items that he personally likes - though not without a sharp eye towards the entrepeneur's ability and experience.

 

He was delightful on "Dancing With the Stars". He had just the right attitude.

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I have been a subscriber to Groovebook since it first aired. It's a good way to get some fairly decebt quality prints, though the paper is a bit flimsy. The deal with Shutterfly seems yo be working out some of those kinks.

Really, how so? I also have been subscribed since it aired, and while it's definitely worth it for the price, it's been pretty glitchy with bad customer service snd I didn't notice any improvement when they were bought by shutterfly.

Edited by LeGrandElephant
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I don't get the phone cleaner, at all. As soon as you touch it to pull it out of the cleaner, it's covered with "germs" again. For me it's a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist. Plus you get into a Möbius strip sort of dilemma of how do you clean the outside of the cleaner that will be constantly touched by germy hands, that open the cleaner, that house the phone.......

You go out into the world, you are going to be surrounded 100% of the time by other people's germs and filth. Wash your hands, don't touch your face or lick your phone, and you'll probably live to see another day.

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Once you start sanitizing phones, don't you have to sanitize everything else on you? Whatever doesn't regularly go through the laundry: your watch, belt, purse, etc. I feel like I've seen a similar study that leather purses are super dirty. Tablets for doctors in hospitals dealing with people with compromised immune systems is different (and they do sanitize their hands and stuff as well), but the average person is exposed to a ton of bacteria no matter what and that's ok.

I liked the pizza box idea. I imagine local hipster pizza places would be all over it, but I can see why chains like Dominos wouldn't be. Sounded like they are already making money so someone must be using it, but I'd never heard of it.

The almond water seemed stupid to me, but I also didn't understand why sugar was a deal breaker for whole foods. It's not liked they dont sell sugar. They sell plenty of sweet drinks, like Izze, and cookies and stuff.

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I use Groovebook to send photos to my grandmother. It's really amazing value at $3 including shipping for a totally cute book of 100 photos. That keeps me using it despite the glitches: sometimes the app just doesn't work right, sometimes certain photos won't upload, sometimes the books don't show up (and they always take a couple weeks at bulk mail), and when I email customer service they often send back a canned response that shows they didn't really read or understand my email and declare the thread closed even though my problem has not been solved.

I noticed in the news when they were bought by shutterfly and hoped for a major app update, but it hasn't happened. Besides just generslly being glitchy with the functionality it does have, the app is missing more functions it should have. It makes it hard to choose photos - you can't draw from just one album instead of your whole csmera roll and you can't preview photos in the app, so if you for exsmole took the same scene in portrait and landscape mode you can't distinguish between them with the square thumbnails. There's no easy way to send one set of photos to one grandmother and one to the other. The subscription model is kind of a pain - I'd rather just order them for $3 when I'm ready, but I have to wait til the end of the month. They print the date and location of the photo on the edge but they don't show you that ahead of time (what if you didn't wnat someone to know where and when a photo was taken?), and I wish I could put captions there instead.

I still like the books and the price enough to recommend it, but I wish they'd make the app more stable and with more functionality.

Edited by LeGrandElephant
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Yes, but last time I checked they were much more expensive, all told with shipping. Usually 4x6 prints are reasonably cheap but then you pay $6 for shipping or something like that. Groovebook is just a really good deal at $3 for 100 photos, including shipping, in a cute little album, and they get such a low price by being able to mail in bulk mail, so you can't complain about shipping speed - that's how you're getting that price. They are perforated so they can tear out and put them on the fridge if they want. The paper is thinner than normal photo paper but still good quality for the price range and definitely good enough to put in a 4x6 frame or put on the fridge (though you could get better fine art prints, of course, for more money elsewhere). 

 

I take a lot of photos. I ordered a couple groovebooks for me at first and didn't really know what to do with them because I'm all digital these days, but they are ideal for sending my photos to my older relatives who don't use the internet or who just prefer physical pictures still. So now I order them to be sent directly to my grandparents. They have to go out once a month, and I do easily take 100 photos a month but not necessarily 100 good, nonreptitive photos, so what I do is I rotate between the three older relatives I want to send photos to, and that way each of them gets an album every three months. I take screenshots so I can remember what photos I sent them last time (the app has a way to keep track of that but it doesn't work consistently, plus of course my system of sending the same photos to different people messes it up anyway). I imagine that if its still around someday when I have a baby I'll be using it to send piles of baby pictures to the grandparents. 

 

Sometimes certain photos just will not upload, and I end up having to take screenshots of those photos which then can be uploaded. Stupid to still have to be doing that workaround months after I emailed them about it, but it does work. (I do this on my iPad - not sure if the quality of a screenshot varies on the iPhone and makes for a worse print, but at least on my iPad it produces a good enough file for a 4x6 print. Another option is to open the photo in another art app and export it again, to get a new file.)

Edited by LeGrandElephant
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I've always liked Mark too (he might be my overall favorite) and enjoyed when he was openly disgusted with the Tycoon crook. I didn't so much care for his mocking of the young couple in an exaggerated French accent, though. I think I would have appreciated it if they did something to irk me but they were just really hoping for a deal.

Edited by anonymiss
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You go out into the world, you are going to be surrounded 100% of the time by other people's germs and filth. Wash your hands, don't touch your face or lick your phone, and you'll probably live to see another day.

 

We need the continual small exposure in order to build up immunity anyway, right? I take a Clorox wipe to my phone, laptop, mouse, and remote control every so often, but that's as much for the grime as anything.

 

The Mythbusters tackled the toothbrushes-in-the-bathroom-are-contaminated-with-fecal-matter question:

 

They stocked ... a bathroom with 24 toothbrushes, two of which they brushed with each morning. The others they simply rinsed every day for a month. As experimental controls, the MythBusters kept two new toothbrushes under a plastic container in another room far away from the lavatory. At the end of the month-long trial, all the toothbrushes were speckled with microscopic fecal matter, including the two that had never seen the inside of a bathroom. The confirmed myth proved that there's indeed fecal matter on toothbrushes — and also everywhere else.

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I don't use a cell phone, so maybe I'm unclear as to how a cell phone that you and only you use can get germs onto other people?  People don't let the cell phone out of their hands even when they go to the bathroom, so the fecal matter they are getting are from the toilet seats and not from the phone.  Plus people use too much antibacterial cleaners and don't build up a natural immunity.  I'm obviously not a customer.

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It's actually probably not from the toilet seats. It's either from their own hands, because most people don't actually wash their hands properly, or from being aerosolized when people flush.

I was intrigued by the phone sanitizer because, well, I have OCD, but it was interesting the way it was edited he said people buy a charger and a case for $30 so why not, but their product is currently on amazon for $55. So apparently, if it is a niche market, it's one people are willing to pay a premium for. Or it was just akward editing and he didn't mean to imply their product cost $30, just saying people are willing to shell out extra dough?

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I wasn't paying close attention, but I thought the water people said that their parents were best friends and that they grew up together.  I would think that marrying someone you grew up with would be like marrying your sibling - he/she would be one of those people you wouldn't even consider falling in love with, because you wouldn't think of them "that way."  Maybe they were apart for a number of years (he came to the US at 17) then fell in love? Or maybe I heard wrong.  Anyway, I was more intrigued by their back story than by their water.  

 

A few thoughts on the pizza box people - 

 

I would pay 5 cents more for a pizza that came in the Green Box, but only if it was a good pizza.  I base my pizza buying on taste, not what sort of box it comes in.  

 

In my neck of the woods, we are supposed to put our pizza boxes in the compost bin the garbage company picks up each week.  I don't see how their box was any better for the environment (I don't know how much of a typical pizza box is made from recycled materials, so maybe that is the difference?).

 

Barbara gets hung up on the silliest things sometimes - her reason for not going with the pizza box people was because the box didn't explain how to use it or what makes it special.  I am pretty sure that when a pizza chain decides to use the Green Box, they will have their name, and anything else the want, printed on the box.  

 

As for the rest of the entrepreneurs, I seem to agree with everyone else - Tycoon guy was slimy (who would invest in real estate based on a picture on a website?), I would try the water if it wasn't 100 calories a bottle (tap water is my drink of choice), and the phone soap could be important in some locations or to some people, but if it were really necessary, wouldn't all of us be sick all of the time now?  

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Say what you will about Mark (and he can get on my nerves) but if he thinks someone is out to scam the little guy, he'll say so.  He doesn't try to be polite, just calls the person out.  I appreciate that, because some of these people do seem to be just snake oil salesmen.  That real estate investment was basically throwing your money at someone with no history of making good investments and hoping you get a return.  Quite risky.

And, let's not forget, he was the one who publicly shamed ABC and the show's producers into dropping the "2% of all future sales" charge/payola/ransom to all of the presenters just for the honor of being on the show.  Mark will always be a hero to me for taking that stand, no matter how testy he can be at times. 

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It's not really anything you need to freak out about.  I see the utility in a healthcare setting, because you need more sterility when you're working with hospitalized patients, with the shift to electronic records-keeping, there's a place for that, especially if, as Mark said, they can speed up the time.

 

 

 

I thought that was smart of Mark. I mean you go with Lori and sell the thing on QVC then it becomes a gadget people buy that sells for 19.95. You go with Mark's plan and it becomes a piece of specialized hospital equipment that sells for $100 if not more.

 

The almond water seemed stupid to me, but I also didn't understand why sugar was a deal breaker for whole foods. It's not liked they dont sell sugar. They sell plenty of sweet drinks, like Izze, and cookies and stuff.

I didn't get the sugar deal either. The sharks seemed kind of confused that since it was made from almonds it was some kind of health food product. But really it was just a new kind of soft drink, so why not evaluate it on those grounds?

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Lori just posted this, for anyone interested in seeing how Phone Soap does tonight:

In the hallway outside the studio @qvc prepping 4 my 2HR show on right after ‪#‎SharkTank‬ TONIGHT! So catch shark tank @9pmET @qvc @10pmET. Launching the @phonesoap SharkTank product that sanitizes & charges your phone at the same

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