S02.E15: Beyond The Tank Episode 215

[yeswedo]

Quote

Worried about a planned business model change to honeymoon crowdfunding site, Honeyfund, Kevin arranges a meeting with Arianna Huffington for a possible partnership; Lori checks in on Cordaroy's; the creators of Pork Barrel BBQ's new product.

[ClareWalks]

The Honeyfund thing was repulsive. Their sister company, Plumfund, is a joke. "Why isn't it profitable?" Because GoFundMe and Kickstarter beat you to it? Also everyone hates crowdfunding.

[starri]

My husband and I never really took a honeymoon, nor did we have any kind of registry, and we're taking one six years late and because we've got some other events next year.  Every bit of breeding in me is telling me not to get within 500 feet of a crowdfunding platform, but I would be lying if I said I haven't thought about it.

I have a very complicated opinion of Arianna Huffington, but watching her with Honeyfund, I think she'd be interesting as a Guest Shark.  Certainly, she couldn't be worse than Chris Sacca or Nick Woodman.

I wanted to punch those barbecue guys in their piggy faces way back in Season 1, and I'm happy to report my feeling hasn't abated.  While Daymond is my favorite Shark, Barbara is a reasonably close second, and while I'd hate for her to lose...

[bilgistic]

"Beyond the Tank" is scraping the bottom of the...fish tank...at this point for these stories. This episode was pretty snoozeworthy.

[Amarsir]

The only thing worse than the Honeyfund business model is those laughably bad Powerpoint slides they had. "Here's a big circle." [Reaction shots of unnamed people nodding.] "Now there's an X through that circle, and then here's a bigger circle." [Reaction shots of different people nodding.]

These Beyond the Tanks have done a good job raising my opinion of Lori. Not the first season so much, but her last few appearances have all featured competent advice and direction.

[BusyOctober]

Crowdfunding is repugnant to me.  I know these things have probably helped some people in desperate situations like unexpected loss of a job or medical bills, but I see it being used (abused) by people with overgrown entitlement glands. 

 I was recently invited to a fundraising event for a co-worker "Sandy".  She had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and her sister organized the event to help raise money for "treatments" including things like doctors, rides to chemo and wigs.  I didn't quite understand why she would need money for the medical stuff since the company we worked for had very good benefits, and both she and her husband made good livings, but I paid &50 for my ticket.  We were told $40 of the ticket would go into a Go Fund Me account and the rest covered the venue.  Once at the party, there were other "opportunities" to help like buying raffle tickets and a silent auction. Again we were told via signs showing the Go Fund Me page that the money we gave would be put into the account.  Toward the end of the night, my co-worker's sister took center stage and announced over the 6 weeks the page had been active plus what was raised that night totaled $13,457! The crowd cheered! There were tears of joy! The sister continued to say if we could all just "dig a little deeper" we could hit the $15k goal that night.  I saw some people take out check books and buy more raffle tickets.  In another 20 minutes, they hit the goal. Yippee!  Tear stained sister takes stage again to announce, "We did it!  Thanks to your generosity, Sandy, her husband, John (sister's hubby) & I will be able to go to Hawaii to recuperate after Sandy finishes chemo!" You could hear the jaws snapping open, chins hitting the floor & eyes popping out of sockets.  I don't know if I was more disgusted by the money grubbing or by the complete lack of embarrassment these people felt after fleecing family, friends and co-workers.

[starri]

Well, that's kind of repulsive.  I assume the family have fewer friends should legitimate needs arrive in the future.

While I think Honeyfund is kind of tacky, because I think straight-up asking for cash gifts is tacky, at least a wedding is an event where gift-giving is expected.  I mentioned this in another thread, but I saw something a few months ago where a young couple was trying to fund a trip to fornicate (that was how they phrased it) in all 50 states.  I can't imagine asking for something like that.

I have less of a problem with Kickstarter, because at least there's a tangible product on the other side.  Unfortunately, Kickstarter also has more than a few bad actors.

[Showthyme]

BusyOctober....Wow! I suspect that many of these crowdfunding events have a hidden agenda. It is disgusting when people take advantage of the compassion and generosity of others. I am surprised Sandy made it out of the building without injury.

It is interesting to see how the Sharks respond to similar situations differently. Mr. Wonderful and Mark Cuban would not have advised the Pork Barrel people to add the jerky products until he got his investment back fearing that the original product would be diluted. Barbara seems like more is more and bring it on. Lori brings a lot of value after the sale but it was interesting to hear her admit that QVC pays slow (like most department stores).

Beyond the Tank is heavy scripted. It is a real turnoff. The upside is that it reminds me of products featured on earlier shows.