S07.E26: FashionTap, brellaBox, My Fruity Faces, Brightwheel

[yeswedo]

A developer incites a battle between two of the billionaire Sharks, as they fight to invest in his early education software platform. A fashion blogger hopes to win over the Sharks with her fashion networking mobile app; a pair of entrepreneurs introduce a convenient way for people to access umbrellas on a rainy day; and two business partners have designed a way for kids to enjoy eating healthier. Also, an update on Keen Home, a line of home enhancement products that Robert Herjavec invested in during season 6.

[starri]

Big Brother is watching your children.

[leighdear]

Kevin just gets more and more obnoxious every week.  I have to mute my TV every time he opens his mouth.  He's like a child, desperate for attention and for people to think he's amusing.  He's not, so he needs to shut his pie-hole and let the grownups do business.  

[bilgistic]

That "fashion blogger's" heavy eyeglass frames paired with her thick bangs looked insane. I couldn't see her eyes. The bodice on the dress was ill-fitting and the color was all kinds of wrong for her skintone. I guess I can call myself a fashion blogger now.

I do hope she sells the technology to Facebook and/or Instagram, because clicking on something you like to be able to buy it makes complete sense, even if I understood none of the revenue stream whateverthehell.

I didn't think the umbrella box was a bad idea. I've had two umbrellas over the last 20 years, and one of them I got from my workplace's lost-and-found box. The other is somewhere in the bowels of my car, and it was probably less than $10. I don't understand people having such a hard time taking care of umbrellas.

I have zero things to say about the stupidity of stickers on food for children.

Edited April 30, 2016 by bilgistic

[Auntie Anxiety]

I am not a fan of the hovering parent app for numerous reasons, the biggest one being that parents need to learn about boundaries and stop obsessively helicoptering their kids.  Also I am not quite comfortable with my hypothetical kid's picture on so many other phones and computers without having complete control over it.

The fashion blogger's dress was sort of awful, wasn't it?  Is mustard/baby poop yellow a new trend that I am unaware of? And I was so distracted by the bow in front that unevenly covered her chest.  I think the idea is a good one but too easily replicated by bigger and better websites.

Daymond cracked me up with his comments and gestures when Mark and Cowboy Chris were at each other's throats.  

[bilgistic]

I found myself thinking the same things, @Auntie Anxiety, about the daycare app. Granted, I'm an old person. I guess Generation Y and Millennial parents will be all over it, but kids don't need to be seen online by random people.

"According to a 2010 study by Internet security firm AVG, 81% of children around the world have an online presence before the age of two. In the United States, that figure jumps to 92%." http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/article-revealing-too-much-about-kids-online.html

[Chippings]

I second that emotion.  And my initial reaction was that it meant the day-care and pre-school staff were spending huge amounts of their day with their phones in their hands, snapping photos and mailing them off to the parents --  Isn't it generally felt these days that in dealing with other people, particularly wee children, we need to get our darn phones out of our hands and deal person to person?   That just offended the heck out of me.  I was surprised the Sharks were so enthusiastic about getting behind it. 

When my kids were in day care, I trusted the people at the place, and paid attention to the actual job I was doing at my actual job.  I think my employers appreciated that.  Didn't think this was a super idea at all.  But hey, this isn't my decade, obviously.  :-/

[anonymiss]

I hated that toddler surveillance app--another vanity app for the overprivileged. He's very lucky Mark was incited into another pissing contest. 

I also 100% agree that the "fashion blogger" had no style. Completely generic hipster outfit and look. Well, no wonder she created an app to allow you to wear exactly what others are wearing. No personal style? No problem!

Edited April 30, 2016 by anonymiss

[starri]

I guess I understand why a parent would want to see pictures of his/her child engaged in the many enrichment activities that daycare can provide.  I am less clear on why this would be helpful to teachers to log the number of children who went down for nap time.  Even though I know that the results would be terrible for the economy, I'm eagerly looking forward to the day the Web 2.0 bubble finally bursts.  Mostly because that would take Chris Sacca down about three pegs.

I'm really amazed that children throughout history didn't die of malnutrition without the ability to put an edible sticker on their fruit.  Michelle Obama can relax, our childhood obesity epidemic has been solved.

This may just be my snobby urban-dweller talking, but I actually thought Umbrella Redbox was a good idea.  I can think of some drawbacks--like in some hypothetical world where I work in the Financial District--where I'd rent one outside the office and deposit it in a receptacle outside the subway station, but that doesn't cover me getting off the subway and heading to my apartment.  Also, just like Citi Bike, they'd aim for the tourist areas first and then slowly metastasize to the wealthy areas and then maybe, maybe become available for us filthy proles.  But it's a true pain to get stuck in the rain and have no umbrella but the cheap one from the bodega that lasts about 45 seconds.

FashionTap.  Oh, boy.  I found Amy Roiland's blog, and she really thinks she's the second coming of Coco Chanel.  Lots of floppy hats.  For a trend-setter, she doesn't seem to know that we're not doing the Bettie Page bangs anymore because we have the ombre now.  Really, the only thing left to say is buzzword buzzword buzzword influencers buzzword incentivizing buzzword I Invested in Instagram buzzword buzzword.

[BusyOctober]

Oh where to begin with this week's pitches...

Can someone tell me what the Zoey Deschannel wanna be does for work?  I must have missed it because all I could hear was bloggerbloggerblogger every time she opened her mouth.  I think her idea is one that the bigger tech companies will have soon.  I hate that Googles McInsta-Uber was right about that, but she is a very tiny hippy guppy in an ocean of full of hipster fish with a lot more resources to make the "tap & buy" thing a reality.

 

I am baffled by the edible sticker thing.   I was distracted during their very sad pitch, so I probably missed if this was brought up....I buy the stupid sticker and rub it on melon slices or pieces of broccoli to entice my picky eater to eat it?  What's preventing the kid from just peeling off the sticker, eating that and tossing the "healthy" part of the snack? And even though it's next to impossible, I try very hard to avoid products with characters on them (Disney Princesses, Sponge Bob, Elmo, etc). Parents can get their kids to eat/sleep/dress without cartoons emblazoned all over stuff.  And am I the only one who thought "acid tabs" when these guys showed the sticker sheets?

 

If the current and future generations of parents feel they need to witness and/or share every waking moment of their special snowflake's day, then the market will continue to support devices like the toddler surveillance app.  I like the idea of getting an update on what my kid did all day in preschool, but my daycare center provided that. We got a daily sheet of what activities they did, child's behavior and what she ate when I picked her up.  We also got a weekly newsletter emailed to let us know about the lesson plans and upcoming events.  

 

Meh to the umbrella idea.  I'm sure I'd appreciate it if I were caught un-umbrelled, but I don't know enough about business plans to know if it's viable.

[ae2]

9 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I do hope she sells the technology to Facebook and/or Instagram, because clicking on something you like to be able to buy it makes complete sense, even if I understood none of the revenue stream whateverthehell.

I don't think she had any significant technology to sell. The only reason someone would buy her would be for her employees, her brand, or her community. 6000 people is barely a blemish on Instagram's radar.

Boy was I happy when Chris Sacca explained to her that getting brand names on board isn't something that just magically happens because you're a fashion blogger. Unfortunately I don't think that message made it through her ridiculous glasses into her head.

I guess the daycare app is doing better than I would have expected, because they are signing on schools left and right. But seriously, what teacher has time to snap pictures and log updates on every damn child all day every day?

Oh, you're crying because you scraped your knee? Let me take a picture and log that so your parents know what happened, then we'll get you cleaned up. Oooh, I have a Facebook message!

Put the phone down and take care of my kid.

More importantly, whose phone is doing all this logging? Does the school buy dedicated phones for this?

Or does each teacher have the app on their phone, and they walk out of the door in the evening with tons of photos and every detail about my child's life?

[Primetimer]

A misbegotten app aimed at preschoolers causes Philip Michaels to finally drop his thin veneer of civility.

View the full article

[Latverian Diplomat]

9 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I didn't think the umbrella box was a bad idea. I've had two umbrellas over the last 20 years, and one of them I got from my workplace's lost-and-found box. The other is somewhere in the bowels of my car, and it was probably less than $10. I don't understand people having such a hard time taking care of umbrellas.

I think it's just that people don't have an umbrella with them when they want one. That's why in some places, like various parts of Manhattan, when it rains, the umbrella sales people appear. There's a whole bit on Seinfeld about who "invented the twirl" that's about this.

I'm just not sure there are enough places like Manhattan that there's a big market for this. You need a critical mass of pedestrians willing to pay for a convenience. And as the "twirl" illustrates, you have to get people's attention to even make them aware of the option. A passive vending machine will go unnoticed, I think.

I'm pretty sure the people at Chris Sacca's preschool wish he would just pick up his kids and STFU about how they are "doing it wrong".

[KerleyQ]

I rewound the fruit sticker guys just to laugh some more.  It was just so very, very bad.  All the exasperation and face palming from the Sharks, and, my favorite part was the guys essentially saying "oh, yeah, our supply of product?  Is branded with characters we no longer have a license to sell."  The Sharks mostly got that one right (I'll only quibble with their contention that the idea was solid) - these two figured they just needed to keep throwing money at the idea until it finally magically became a thing.  Either that or they hoped that they could use the investment they were looking for to pay off their debt and then they'd be all "I don't know what happened, but we just can't get anyone to order any product, sorry," and walk away.  But, yeah, they just really, desperately wanted some free cash with no real idea about how to turn that cash into profit.  

[Dave in Chicago]

What a gross episode. Someone comes in with a harmless umbrella rental plan, and gets shouted out of the room and called evil. Then the ACTUAL worst idea shows up – that child care app. This is someone who unironically refers to early education as an “industry” and has designed something that school administration buys to appease helicopter parents while creating additional tasks and busywork for teachers who likely have no say in the matter, all while reducing childcare to a series of data checkpoints. Really alarming, so of course it spars a bidding war. Ugh.

[Trepie]

The 12 hour return time for the umbrella box seems ridiculous to me until you reach a point where the boxes are in a shit ton of locations.  24 hours would make more sense.

I can see it on university campuses, where you have people who are walking a lot, not wanting to carry an umbrella just in case, and are walking around the same areas multiple times a day.   Or hotels, for travelers who don't have an umbrella. 

[marny]

I truly don't understand why a kid would be more likely to eat a piece of fruit just because it has a sticker on it.  I would think that would make him want to eat it less, as he would rather keep the sticker to stick on his shirt or something.

[designing1]

32 minutes ago, Trepie said:

The 12 hour return time for the umbrella box seems ridiculous to me until you reach a point where the boxes are in a shit ton of locations.  24 hours would make more sense.

I can see it on university campuses, where you have people who are walking a lot, not wanting to carry an umbrella just in case, and are walking around the same areas multiple times a day.   Or hotels, for travelers who don't have an umbrella. 

I think most of their locations were universities, where it might actually make sense. I couldn't help wonder how the price escalated once you passed the initial 12 hour allowance and there was no box in sight. Imagine leaving your office on a Friday night and needing an umbrella. Even if the boxes were nearly ubiquitous, umbrellas are a thing easily forgotten or lost. They'd probably make a killing in the "returned after 12 hours" and "never returned" departments. 

The fruit stickers were a ridiculous concept. I think most kids would recognize a piece of fruit they have no interest in and just eat or try to save the sticker. 

Quote

That "fashion blogger's" heavy eyeglass frames paired with her thick bangs looked insane. I couldn't see her eyes. The bodice on the dress was ill-fitting and the color was all kinds of wrong for her skintone. I guess I can call myself a fashion blogger now.

If she, a walking cartoon character, can be a fashion blogger, there's room in the field for all of us. Black anklet socks with bedazzled wedgie Mary Janes is not a look I will be adopting.

The helicopter app guys? All I can say is it's a miracle any of us Baby Boomers have made it to the advanced age we have, given that our parents dropped us off at school in the morning and picked us up later in the day, without updates on the half-hour. Who's actually tending to and interacting with the kids while all this photography and updating is happening? I always feel bad for kids when I see them out with their parents, who are glued to their phones while the kids tag along, bored and neglected. Now they'll get similar treatment at school/daycare. Lovely.

Edited April 30, 2016 by designing1

[Auntie Anxiety]

Quote

The helicopter app guys? All I can say is it's a miracle any of us Baby Boomers have made it to the advanced age we have, given that our parents dropped us off at school in the morning and picked us up later in the day, without updates on the half-hour. Who's actually tending to and interacting with the kids while all this photography and updating is happening? I always feel bad for kids when I see them out with their parents, who are glued to their phones while the kids tag along, bored and neglected. Now they'll get similar treatment at school/daycare. Lovely.

Why stop at preschool?  Let's get every teacher in every school at every grade to have this app so the parent(s) can feel like they are going to school WITH their child(ren)?  Yes, I'm prehistoric!  I actually thought my job as a parent was to raise my kids to be independent.  I didn't want to be their best friend.  I didn't want to know about every second of their lives because it just isn't healthy emotionally.  My advice to my now grown kids wrt parenting is that when your child wants to talk to you, you shut off the tv, you put down your phone and you actually listen.  Drastic, huh? If you ask your child what happened in school today and the kid replies, "Nothing" or "I don't know," perhaps it's time to figure out how to ask your progeny a question that will elicit an actual response and learn how to ask a follow-up question.  Welp, maybe that takes too much time and effort for the modern parent who is too involved in his/her own life and every second away from a device is a second "wasted."

Guess this app is targeting the same group of parents who want to weigh their baby pre- and post- diaper change, to make sure the baby made a big enough dump because no one has been able to raise kids correctly before this scale came into being.  It's called common sense.

[Mountainair]

I actually didn't think the umbrella thing was a bad idea. I don't carry an umbrella though I do keep a cheap one in the car just in case. I've never had a scenario where I wouldn't prefer to run through the rain to my destination than fiddle with an umbrella though. What do you do with the wet umbrella afterward? I dunno. I prefer to haul ass to my destination and get a little wet. For some people though I can see the umbrella idea being useful.

I also thought the idea behind the fashion app was a good one. Being able to click directly on the product and purchase it would be cool but I'm poor and not trendy so the product is not exactly in my wheel house.

The two products aimed at children irritated me. I don't need stickers to make my kids eat healthy. I make them eat healthy. It's simple. You don't leave the table until you eat your food. Done. 

I hate the app thing. I have a kindergartener and there is no such app in my kids school however in a friends public school district they use something like this. The teacher can update the progress of the student on the app and if they are "on task" during the day or not and at what times. The parent can see this and then have a discussion about the child's behavior at home. I prefer the teacher focus on teaching rather than updating apps during the school day. I'd also prefer the teacher to call/write/email when there is an issue regarding my child, which is what my kid and his teacher do. I'm 31 and love social media just as much as the next person but when it comes to my kids and their education I am decidedly old school.

Edited April 30, 2016 by Mountainair

[scootypuffjr]

3 hours ago, PreviouslyTV said:

A misbegotten app aimed at preschoolers causes Philip Michaels to finally drop his thin veneer of civility.

View the full article

Let's try posting for the first time after the upgrade and see how it goes.  I was pretty disgusted by this episode but LOVED the recap, so I wasn't sure how to vote overall.  I ended up voting negatively on the show, but didn't there used to be a "thank you for the recap" vote available?  What happened to that?  The recappers do such a great job, and I hope they know their efforts are appreciated.

Ding dang auto-correct...

Edited April 30, 2016 by scootypuffjr

[designing1]

20 minutes ago, Mountainair said:

What do you do with the wet umbrella afterward? I dunno. I prefer to haul ass to my destination and get a little wet. For some people though I can see the umbrella idea being useful.

If I'm running from a building to a nearby car and the rain isn't too heavy I'd just get wet, too. In a walking city like NY, or across campus, especially in a downpour with or without wind, quality umbrellas are a must. What do you do with it afterward is always the problem; you generally end up kinda wet anyway from the umbrella itself. In NYC some office buildings put out stands with thin plastic bags you can take to hold your wet umbrella. What mostly happens is people walk into their office building, drip all over the nice, shiny, marble floors, someone slips and falls, and all the lawyers rejoice.

[Auntie Anxiety]

The umbrella duo didn't explain how the boxes get refilled or monitored (aside from the obvious computer link) or simply serviced.  So you have to hire someone to fix a damaged box, refill it if it is empty, do something in case the umbrella gets jammed, thus more money being spent to take care of these machines.  When I saw the box initially, my first thought was that it would be vandalized within an hour or two of appearing.

[bilgistic]

I, too, wondered about what happens if a box is empty. I guess on a college campus, some poor kids can be paid $8/hour to keep it filled. Other than that, maybe folks who are driving around waiting on their next Uber fare (take a drink!) can fill up the nearest box.

[Bunnyhop]

An old acquaintance of mine had a son invented a mold to form fruits and vegetables as they grow.  Basically, you put the blossom end of, say, a small melon into a plastic form in the shape of a skull and voila! It would grow into that shape.  He developed his idea and had it made, marketed it and so forth, but I don't think he ever quit his day job.  I was surprised to see that these molds are still available on the internet.  Way cooler than a sticker.

[KaveDweller]

I didn't think the umbrella thing was a bad idea, but they would have to have a ton of locations off the bat for it to work. It would suck to rent the umbrella, go to your destination, and then have to search all over for a spot to return the thing. I feel like sometimes the sharks ar clues about how regular people spend money. Saying they just buy a cheap umbrella very time it rains and then throwing it outbound so completely wasteful to me. Sure it's cheap, but $5 a few times a month starts to add up.

 

i know someone who works at a preschool and they had issues where teachers were checking their personal phones all day while watching the kids. If you give them a reason to be on their phones, they'll probably  also be tempted to check their email/Twitter/etc. I also feel like there would be privacy issues about putting kids pictures online.

 

the fashion blogger annoyed me when she was talking about how it's annoying to see something on Instagram and then go to another site to buy something. It's just a few extra clicks, how lazy can you be?

[shksabelle]

Kevin asked the bllllllllllllloggggggggggger how she feeds herself.  She mentioned a "Chairman".  Is that what they call a Sugar Daddy these days?

[starri]

3 hours ago, designing1 said:

For whatever strange reason, my post is trapped like this.

Her brother is a voice actor (most notably on Adventure Time) and a producer.  I suspect he's the one paying her rent.

Edited April 30, 2016 by starri
Strange strangeness in the formatting.

[augmentedfourth]

Everyone pretty much covered how I feel about the umbrella box. I definitely don't think it was the worst pitch ever*, but while on the surface it seemed like a decent idea, the more digging you do, the more flaws you uncovered. As I watched the show, I couldn't imagine standing there, typing in my email address (?!) in the rain. And I think there would have to be a TON of them around to actually be convenient, which isn't going to make money for them any time soon.

 

Later on I thought, how are they tracking the returns? If I remember correctly, each high-quality umbrella they handed out was identical - I assume there's some sort of serial number or other identifying marker, but is the return process automated, or is it some poor guy manually checking them in? I can see a big issue with people disputing charges if they claim they returned an umbrella within the time frame, but it never registered in the system. Another reason they're not going to make any money off of this.

 

*Mr. Fourth and I joked last night that you can tell the order in which they filmed pitches, because if Kevin really thought the umbrella box was the worst pitch ever to appear on Shark Tank, just wait until he sees the food stickers. Or the fake phone from a couple weeks ago.

[Missy Vixen]

I worked in an upscale day care in my 20's. We charted each child's day by hand on a form that went home daily with that child. Perhaps the developer should have paid some attention to day care employee/children class ratios before he created so many entries per day, for instance. The paperwork used to take me well over an hour each day for my eight-child class. I know the developer/helicopter parent in question thinks he really did something here, but he's just made exponentially more work for every day care employee or nanny across the US. I realize this may be a highly unpopular opinion: If the father in question is so concerned about hearing every facet of his daughter's day, STAY THE HELL HOME and RAISE HER HIMSELF.

This app (as others have said) is a nightmare of micro-management. It's also creating some pretty significant problems if a day care employee's phone is stolen, hacked or the school's network is hacked. It sounds like a great idea, but the stuff that could go wrong is not insignificant.

We have wondered more than a few times what happened between some of the Sharks after the cameras went off for the day. Chris Sacco needs to go back to Uber/Instagram/Google and whatever the hell he does the rest of the time; he's obnoxious. Mr. Wonderful will say anything to get camera time.

[Auntie Anxiety]

At the end of it Bright Wheel, it looks like Mark was hanging around at the presenter's location waiting for a handshake from Cowboy Chris.  Mark got snubbed and it was pretty humiliating.  Unlike many folks here, I like Mark Cuban and think that he has a lot of good business points when he is speaking to the presenters/inventors.  Sacco seems to take himself much too seriously and for that reason, I'm out.

[stillhere1900]

19 hours ago, bilgistic said:

That "fashion blogger's" heavy eyeglass frames paired with her thick bangs looked insane. I couldn't see her eyes. The bodice on the dress was ill-fitting and the color was all kinds of wrong for her skintone. I guess I can call myself a fashion blogger now.

I do hope she sells the technology to Facebook and/or Instagram, because clicking on something you like to be able to buy it makes complete sense, even if I understood none of the revenue stream whateverthehell.

I didn't think the umbrella box was a bad idea. I've had two umbrellas over the last 20 years, and one of them I got from my workplace's lost-and-found box. The other is somewhere in the bowels of my car, and it was probably less than $10. I don't understand people having such a hard time taking care of umbrellas.

I have zero things to say about the stupidity of stickers on food for children.

 

Umbrella Box:  I wanted one of the Sharks to ask what happens if someone gets an umbrella from the box and it's damaged?  What it the umbrella you just took out of the box was returned by the last renter jacked up ? Who's going to maintain the umbrellas?

Edited April 30, 2016 by stillhere1900

[stillhere1900]

Food Stickers: Nothing will stop kids from pulling off the stickers from the foods they don't want to eat

[AmandaPanda]

As an elementary school teacher, that helicopter parent app sounds like the worst thing in the world. The last thing I need is another way to have to document everything a student has done. I barely have time to write up a discipline report when one of my students has thrown a chair across the room. Now I'm going to have to update an app to let someone know that Johnny didn't eat all his lunch today? For the love. Also, there's already a program kind of similar to what I think the developer might have created. It's called Classroom Dojo, but it's a positive behavior incentive for students. The teacher creates a profile for each student and can give out "Dojo Points" to each student for on-task behavior or take away points for poor behavior. It's interactive and quick, which is great for the actual classroom. Plus, parents can log on to the class's Dojo profile and see where their child gained points or why they got points taken away.

[mtlchick]

The only thing that struck me is "Robert's hair in the Keen follow up is...interesting?" (He does seems happier with his engagement so there's that.)

The fashion "blogger" app wasn't a bad idea. It's just a lot of work and has a "been there, done that" feel. There are some sites like Worn On TV that do their best to track down clothing from TV shows already.  And I don't really follow fashion blogs. Most of them are a brownstone in Brooklyn away from being  a full out hipster. 

[Mountainair]

53 minutes ago, AmandaPanda said:

As an elementary school teacher, that helicopter parent app sounds like the worst thing in the world. The last thing I need is another way to have to document everything a student has done. I barely have time to write up a discipline report when one of my students has thrown a chair across the room. Now I'm going to have to update an app to let someone know that Johnny didn't eat all his lunch today? For the love. Also, there's already a program kind of similar to what I think the developer might have created. It's called Classroom Dojo, but it's a positive behavior incentive for students. The teacher creates a profile for each student and can give out "Dojo Points" to each student for on-task behavior or take away points for poor behavior. It's interactive and quick, which is great for the actual classroom. Plus, parents can log on to the class's Dojo profile and see where their child gained points or why they got points taken away.

That's what I was talking about earlier. Dojo points. My friend was online talking about her daughters Dojo points and I thought she was referring to some sort of Karate thing but it turns out it was a school behavior thing. I still don't like it.

[theatremouse]

5 hours ago, Missy Vixen said:

I worked in an upscale day care in my 20's. We charted each child's day by hand on a form that went home daily with that child. Perhaps the developer should have paid some attention to day care employee/children class ratios before he created so many entries per day, for instance. The paperwork used to take me well over an hour each day for my eight-child class.

I'm not saying I think it was a good idea, but in part of his pitch at least he did indicate the app was for things that were already being done on paper. So I imagine if someone owns a small daycare and buys it for themselves to use, regardless of how many fiddley bells and whistles it has, if it does make that paperwork-that-would've-been-done-anyway take less time (which seemed to be part of the claim) one might buy it and use it for that and ignore the other features. The helicopterishness is there, and appeals probably to nanny scenario he mentioned, and probably, frankly, because it sounds splashy in marketing, not necessarily because it's useful. But that doesn't mean aspects of the thing aren't handy.

[NikSac]

Wow, I think that episode was full of the lamest ideas yet presented.

Fashion blogger thing wasn't a terrible idea but it seems like much larger companies are already probably thiiiiis close to having something like that. And if they weren't before I bet they're looking into it now.

Umbrella box... eh. I live where it doesn't rain that much and you usually pretty much know to expect it so I thought it was kind of pointless, but I guess in areas that get frequent unexpected downpours it could be worthwhile. It still had a lot of problems already mentioned though.

Fruit stickers were terrible! I can't believe they even made it on the show. Maybe it was comedic value. Also if I understood them correctly about what the stickers were made of the kid couldn't even peel them back off the fruit and at least enjoy them as stickers. All I got out of that pitch was (some) parents need to learn how to do a better job with getting their kids to eat fruits and veggies.

I was surprised the one I thought was the worst got two sharks. That kiddie surveillance system seemed really obnoxious for the kids, the employees at the center/school, and the employers of the parents. Like people don't spend enough time screwing around on their phones already. The one thing I did really like about it though is I thought it might result in a whole new job market - paying someone to follow the kids around taking pictures and filling out everything on that app.

[zxy556575]

Don't some/a lot of preschools these days have live webcams that parents can dip into if they feel they're missing out on something? Or maybe that trend has been squelched due to privacy concerns.
 

Quote

If the father in question is so concerned about hearing every facet of his daughter's day, STAY THE HELL HOME and RAISE HER HIMSELF.

Right on!

Edited May 1, 2016 by lordonia

[seacliffsal]

Maybe the way the umbrella people really thought they would make money is through non-return of the umbrellas.  They said that people who did not return their umbrellas would be charged $40.  With a lack of boxes available and convenient, I could see people just not bothering.  However, the credit card companies would probably get involved as people would claim they were mischarged/overcharged.  I agree with others that maintenance and other issues would cost far more than the $1.50 rental fees would bring in.  As always, it's so interesting to see that everyone thinks their idea is great and worth a million or more.

The same thing with the food sticker guys.  Yes, you have an idea.  No, it's not worth what you think it is.  And the blogger.  And so many other people.

As for the surveillance guy-I think it's a horrible idea.  Can you imagine the emails that the school would then have to respond to?  "Thanks for sending the photo of Suzy, but how did her dress get dirty?  Why was her hair messy? and on and on."  Right now there are a lot of schools using this program, but didn't he say that it's free for them to use at this point?  I think the tech guys were interested because they think technology makes everything better and easier....The other problem would be keeping records of all of the communications as there could be issues down the road.  Phones are disruptive to whatever is going on, and I wouldn't like an employee to be so involved with the phone that they are missing what students/children are doing.  An accident just takes a second.  I also think it sets a level of expectations-i.e. I haven't heard from you for 20 minutes-what is going on with Suzy.  I wonder how all of those other 'parenting' apps are doing?  The weigh baby before and after eating, and all the other ones I can't think of right mow.

[marketdoctor]

The fashion app was described by Bill Gates in "The Road Ahead"...in 1995, when Google was not a thing yet. Well played, Mr. Gates (no sarcasm, he called it.). He described it for TV, because smartphones were barely a thing then.

The umbrella box could work in cities that get a lot of rain and a lot of tourists, like Orlando. I could see it working at a theme park if you could make the umbrellas ride-friendly. You could keep inventory discreetly nearby and have an app that tells you which boxes are getting empty.
It's still a niche market, but it's not beyond redemption.

I would want the child care app to send a weekly report to social services. Checking once a week? Normal. Checking on a kid with peanut allergies once a day? I get that. Checking hourly? Privacy cuts both ways...

[basiltherat]

This whole episode was so sad!

Betty Boop -- Harry Caray wants his glasses back!

Hipster parents, phones are not gods.  If you want to know how your child is doing, TAKE YOUR FACE OUT OF YOUR PHONE!  And take your Hipster God, Chris Sacca-sh!!t with you in your Uber and your Instagram.

Umbrella boxers -- what happens if the box is vandalized (and of course it will be).  What happen to the credit card info?  Dollar Store has cheap-ass umbrellas that you can toss if they get damaged.

And, finally, get off my lawn!!

[Missy Vixen]

3 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

As for the surveillance guy-I think it's a horrible idea.  Can you imagine the emails that the school would then have to respond to?  "Thanks for sending the photo of Suzy, but how did her dress get dirty?  Why was her hair messy? and on and on."  Right now there are a lot of schools using this program, but didn't he say that it's free for them to use at this point?  I think the tech guys were interested because they think technology makes everything better and easier....The other problem would be keeping records of all of the communications as there could be issues down the road. 

This is exactly what will happen and worse: "How come Susie's daughter got more updates today than mine did? Does the teacher like Susie's daughter more than she likes mine? I'm worried about the standard of care." There will be parents who will complain about a staff member with a phone in his or her hand "all day long" despite the fact those parents are demanding updates every twenty minutes. And insert "dress is dirty, hair is messy, how did he or she fall down and scrape her knee, why didn't you let us know BM consistency (I wish I was kidding), why hasn't our precious learned her colors yet -- Susie's daughter knows them" bla bla bla. This will turn into a competition thing between parents in a minute and will create nothing but grief for employees.

Been there, done that, got the summons when one of the parents of a kid in my former class decided to sue the other parent over food allergies. I wish I was kidding. In the meantime, how did anyone raise children before smart phones and webcams?

[Jamoche]

The last company I worked for put boxes out with umbrellas to be used between office buildings and the garages, but inevitably all the boxes would be empty where you were and full at your destination.

[NikSac]

11 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

As for the surveillance guy-I think it's a horrible idea.  Can you imagine the emails that the school would then have to respond to?  "Thanks for sending the photo of Suzy, but how did her dress get dirty?  Why was her hair messy? and on and on."  Right now there are a lot of schools using this program, but didn't he say that it's free for them to use at this point?  I think the tech guys were interested because they think technology makes everything better and easier....The other problem would be keeping records of all of the communications as there could be issues down the road.  Phones are disruptive to whatever is going on, and I wouldn't like an employee to be so involved with the phone that they are missing what students/children are doing.  An accident just takes a second.  I also think it sets a level of expectations-i.e. I haven't heard from you for 20 minutes-what is going on with Suzy.

All I can picture is the reply at some point having to be "Oh sorry, we were tending to Johnny who just fell and broke his arm while we were getting you a new picture and update on Suzy."  Unless they had a staff person 100% dedicated to monitoring the whole app, sending pics, email replies, etc. I just don't think it would work at all.

[UsernameFatigue]

I am continually amazed at pitchers who have no sales and value their product at ridiculous numbers. It seems to get worse every season.

I don't get the daycare app whatsoever. One would presume that if a daycare worker is filling out a paper form at the end of the day to hand to a parent regarding a child's activities someone else is watching the kids while this task is completed. Who is watching the children when the worker is busy taking pictures and sending multiple texts/pics to numerous parents per day? If I had my kid in a daycare that provided this service I would be a little concerned. And how this saves the daycare worker time is beyond me.  And as others have noted many daycares had webcams so that a parent can log in throughout the day to see what Johnny/Janie is doing. My niece did this with her first (mind you this is 6 years ago) - she would log in on her breaks. I don't know if she even bothered with a daycare that had that option with the second one. But it certainly didn't take up any of the daycare worker's time,with the same result. And the parent didn't have a 'gut wrenching' day not knowing what their little human was doing. Barf.

The fashion app woman had terrible fashion sense. And ya, no wonder she didn't want to give up so much equity as she only owned, what was it, 33 percent? Hubby and I laughed that she gave the guy who invested 90,000 about a third of the company but wanted $100,000 from a shark for 10%. And with pretty much no sales and no idea that her app would take off. Where do they find these people?

[woodscommaelle]

On May 1, 2016 at 7:21 PM, AmandaPanda said:

Now I'm going to have to update an app to let someone know that Johnny didn't eat all his lunch today? For the love. 

Well, maybe if you gave all your students 'food stickers' you wouldn't have that problem :)

[needschocolate]

I imagine that two guys were selecting a video a a Red Box, and when they went to leave the store it started to rain.  One turned to the other and said "You know what the world needs?  A Red Box for umbrellas!" Like others have said, the idea has potential, but there needs to be a lot of them.  I step out of a store and it is pouring outside.  I put in my email address and cell phone number, swipe my credit card, and get an umbrella.  I walk the 8 blocks to my apartment.  Now what?  I have a wet umbrella that I have to bring back withing 12 hours - take a 16 block walk what there is a break in the storm or pay extra. I believe they said the one order they had was for one umbrella box at a university - I can't see having just one box at a location will get there business off the ground. 

I was lucky enough to have a job where I was able to be home with my children most of the time when they were babies. I knew what they were doing and was able to take pictures to remember things by.  I now take care of my grandsons 1-2 days a week, and I try to take an occasional picture.  When they are napping, I will send a text and/or pictures to their parents, who look at them on their breaks.  Therefore, I didn't see much wrong with the app, other than it was unnecessary, since they could already send this info via text.  Then, I read these posts and saw the light.  There are probably lots of parents like my daughter and her husband, who like to get a picture or a story, but don't get annoyed (or worse) if there it no "update," but there are also a lot of parents who would be hounding the day care workers for information to the point where their child would be receiving substandard care, since the worker was always on the phone. 

I have no clue how sticking sticker on a piece of fruit will make a kid eat it. I think it is far more likely that a kid who would normally eat a slice of apple, will now eat less of the slice, because they will eat around the sticker to "save" it.  It reminded me of a video I saw recently where a mom arranged the kid's meals so it looked like a happy face and the kid was in tears refusing to eat the meal because it was "too cute to eat."

I pick my clothes by what feels good and what is clean, so I am not a good judge of what is fashionable.  Therefore, I was happy (and a bit surprised) to see I wasn't the only one who thought the fashion bloggers dress didn't fit right.

[Ottis]

Quote

Kevin just gets more and more obnoxious every week. 

I like it, just as I like Mark when he is harsh. They are stating their opinions, bluntly, and they rarely seem to be wrong. Kevin clearly is maintaining his ironic "Mr Wonderful" brand. You can see the sly smile on his face when he says something particularly insulting. 

And honestly, some of these pitches deserve it.

[Eolivet]

On 5/1/2016 at 2:50 PM, Missy Vixen said:

This is exactly what will happen and worse: "How come Susie's daughter got more updates today than mine did? Does the teacher like Susie's daughter more than she likes mine?

My oldest in elementary school has Class Dojo and while the teacher doesn't use it for points, she does take a lot of photos. At first, it was nice to see, but I did find myself sort of creeping back into middle school mode like "Hey, why aren't you taking more pictures of my kid? Why isn't my kid in that big group photo you just took?"

And then when I asked my kid about it, he said the photos actually make him uncomfortable -- because there will be big groups he can't get into for a photo, and then he feels upset and left out. He also got this weird look on his face when I mentioned seeing the photos and what he was studying, like he had no idea he was being "watched" like that. It was at that point I stopped looking at the photos. My mother put three kids through college, all without once seeing a single real-time update of our days.

I finally realized what this app -- and Brightwheel -- reminded me of: My sister-in-law's doggie daycare kept a camera with a live feed of the dog pen, so she could check in on her dog and make sure he was OK. That's essentially what these apps are. So, good luck to Mark and "Uber! Uber! Uber!" Chris on their new purchase: doggie daycare cameras for parents.