S05.E26: Bow Ties, Cocoa Beans, Supplements

[yeswedo]

 

An 11-year-old who handcrafts bow ties; a hot beverage made from roasted cocoa beans; nutritional supplements; a 5K obstacle course race.

 

[A Boston Gal]

The supplement guy was a great example of how people can view the exact same thing in completely different ways. The men saw it as a dangerous scam, or at the very least, preying on students, who for their own sake, must take better care of themselves. Barbara, whose husband has a condition that would seem to benefit from this (assuming it works), immediately saw a possibility to 1) make money & 2) help people like her husband.

 

I'm sure we all know (or have experienced it in ourselves or our family) a person with a condition that just defies treatment and confounds doctors. When this is the case, any new development or option is at least worth a try.

 

Personally speaking, I'm torn between siding with the guys' repulsion and Barbara's hopefulness.

 

Oh, and the Rugged Race (or whatever) men were being too cute by half in separating their businesses. They're lucky they got a deal at all; personally, I just wanted to slap them. Imagine being partners with them? You'd never know if they were being 100% truthful. Feh.

Edited April 26, 2014 by A Boston Gal

[Dots And Stripes]

 

The supplement guy was a great example of how people can view the exact same thing in completely different ways. The men saw it as a dangerous scam, or at the very least, preying on students, who for their own sake, must take better care of themselves. Barbara, whose husband has a condition that would seem to benefit from this (assuming it works), immediately saw a possibility to 1) make money & 2) help people like her husband.

I'm siding with the guys here. Mark was spot on when he said this guy would have been different if he had come in asking for money for testing. As it is, he's marketing to gullible college students without really knowing how effective (or dangerous) his product is. People re-ordering could just be experiencing the placebo effect. That's one very expensive placebo. I don't think this guy was looking for a natural alternative to Adderall so much as he was looking to corner some of the market of recreational Adderall users in college. So disappointed in Barbara here.

 

That warning label was also not standard and should have sent up some red flags. First, warning label should be somewhat specific, otherwise they're not really doing any work warning consumers. Second, companies have to balance the desire to protect themselves with the need to not scare people away from the product. Either a) that very broad warning label was necessary because this guy hadn't tested anything or b) this guy didn't know what he was doing so he just over warned thinking he's protected no matter what. Either way, it's not a good strategy IMO.

 

I love Daymond for helping out Moe without taking any of his company. I seem to recall him doing something similar with the Spatty creator, and apparently he's kept good on his word with her. It's very generous for Daymond to voluntarily mentor kids like that, especially since we hear all the time how valuable time is to the Sharks.

[Kromm]

The supplement guy was a great example of how people can view the exact same thing in completely different ways. The men saw it as a dangerous scam, or at the very least, preying on students, who for their own sake, must take better care of themselves. Barbara, whose husband has a condition that would seem to benefit from this (assuming it works), immediately saw a possibility to 1) make money & 2) help people like her husband.

 

I'm sure we all know (or have experienced it in ourselves or our family) a person with a condition that just defies treatment and confounds doctors. When this is the case, any new development or option is at least worth a try.

 

Personally speaking, I'm torn between siding with the guys' repulsion and Barbara's hopefulness.

 

I don't think it had anything to do with a gender gap though, but frankly just a huge example of bad judgement on Barbara's part (not that she won't likely back out during the due diligence stage--I'm pretty certain she will).

 

At worst, supplements like that are dangerous. At BEST they do nothing provable, and nothing proprietary.  It was a garbage product and a garbage deal.

I love Daymond for helping out Moe without taking any of his company. I seem to recall him doing something similar with the Spatty creator, and apparently he's kept good on his word with her. It's very generous for Daymond to voluntarily mentor kids like that, especially since we hear all the time how valuable time is to the Sharks.

Daymond helping out the kid for free may have had just as much with knowing cameras were recording the whole thing as anything.

[A Boston Gal]

Yeah, you all are right re: supplements. I don't think Barbara was being greedy though; I think she really saw this as a possibility.

 

[me5671]

I'm siding with the guys here. Mark was spot on when he said this guy would have been different if he had come in asking for money for testing. As it is, he's marketing to gullible college students without really knowing how effective (or dangerous) his product is. People re-ordering could just be experiencing the placebo effect. That's one very expensive placebo. I don't think this guy was looking for a natural alternative to Adderall so much as he was looking to corner some of the market of recreational Adderall users in college. So disappointed in Barbara here.

 

I'm with the other 4 sharks here too and I'm a little disappointed in Barbara for making this deal.  This guy was clearly selling snake oil with this product.  He hadn't done any testing on the product and had no proof that it actually works.  I think Barbara was taken here and I hope the deal falls through in the due diligence phase.  Barbara is, however, still my personal favorite of the sharks.  It seemed to me that, due to her personal life and experiences, she may have a blind spot for this type of product and her motivation in investing was due to that rather than greed.  

 

I'm surprised that the bow tie kid didn't get a deal, but I think it's best for him in the long run that he didn't.  The business was too small for the sharks to be invested in.  He was only looking for $50k for 20% right?  That's only a $250k valuation.  He's doing fine on his own right now and without an investor he keeps 100% of the profits.  An investor would only take away from those profits.  SO glad the kid didn't take Mr. Wonderful's offer, as that wouldn't have benefited anyone other than Mr. Wonderful himself.

 

Has anyone tried that Crio product?  Is it really that bad?  I've never seen the sharks try a food product and hate it that much!  They don't always like the product when it comes to food, but they are usually at least polite in expressing their distaste for it.  That was tough to watch.  I'm not a coffee drinker so I'm sure I wouldn't like that product either, but I felt bad for those guys when 4 of the 5 sharks tried the product and were disgusted by it.  Yikes!

[sadiegirl]

I was confused by Mark and those two bull running dudes.  Robert offers a deal, Mark tells him he's overvaluing the company and then makes the exact same offer.  That didn't sit well with me. If you think Robert is overvaluing, why would you make the same offer?  Anyway, I did not like those guys.  The fact that you are using profit from one company to support another one is something you'd want to disclose, in my opinion.  Woulnd't want to do business with those guys.  Not that they care.  I was never their target audience.

[MrMattyMatt]

The Crio drink has a gimmick now, I wonder how many people will at least buy one to see how bad it tastes from this show.  The money they were asking was insane.

[LittleIggy]

I would expect those bull running guys would have to pay a high insurance premium.

[portia7]

I just watched the re-run of Mo. Gawd, what a delightful kid. He's probably gonna be on Project Runway in a few yrs. Nice to see Mr Fubu help him. That speaks well of his character.